Jumper (2008) and Setting Up Sequels in First Films

Studio filmmaking has become the norm for the movie business. Movies put out by the major studios have always been the biggest market share. However, they’ve been slowly and steadily pushing everything else out of the limelight. There might still be some independent films released that find some modicum of success, but most of them get buried beneath the newest big-budget superhero flick, or cheaply made, high-profit-margin horror flick that a major studio releases. Most people don’t complain. Most people enjoy the big budget action flicks because they love going to the theater to see the spectacle on the big screen.

The studio heads know that audiences will visit theaters in droves to see what the Avengers or the Justice League get up to in their newest adventure. The studio heads are always looking into the future to see what will give them the best chance of success. Usually, that comes in the form of sequels. If a movie finds an audience and the audience spends an inordinate amount of money to see the movie, the studio will obviously greenlight a sequel. It’s easy money. People liked the first one, so they’re willing to give a second flick a chance. Sometimes, though, studios get arrogant. They are so sure that their big movie will succeed that they greenlight a sequel early. They greenlight it too early. They greenlight it so early that the idea of a sequel is placed into the original film, setting up something that might happen in a future installment. Yet, those future installments may never happen.

Take this week’s flick, for example. Jumper came out in 2008 and served as the starting point for a major studio franchise that never grew beyond one film. David Rice (Max Thieriot) was a teenager with a terrible life. He had a crush on Millie (AnnaSophia Robb), a girl at school, which never went beyond the crush stage. His father (Michael Rooker) was a semi-abusive drunk. David was bullied at school, and almost died when he fell through some ice on a quick-moving river. It all turned around when he discovered he had the ability to jump to other places. It was kind of like teleporting, but using a self-made wormhole, called a jump scar. A few years later, an adult David (Hayden Christensen) got a second chance at love with Millie (Rachel Bilson), while teaming up with Griffin (Jamie Bell), another jumper, to stop Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) from killing all living jumpers.

The storyline of Jumper was fairly easy to follow. David learned that he had a superpower, exploited it, and tried not to get killed by people who thought the power was an abomination. Sprinkled throughout were hints to his familial past. His mother (Diane Lane) left when he was five years old. That abandonment was partially responsible for David’s father being an alcoholic. Partway through Jumper, David was apprehended in Rome for trespassing in The Coliseum and being near a dead body. His mother appeared while he was in custody to tell him to escape. He confronted her at the end of the film, only to discover she was part of the same agency as Roland, and it was her job to hunt people like David.

This was the set-up to a Jumper sequel that never happened. It positioned the pieces for a further conflict where David would have to evade his mother’s pursuit. He was going on the run from his own family. Where he could simply escape his father’s abuse by jumping into a new life in New York, his mother was coming back into his life. She had the resources to remain in his life even when neither of them wanted it. While Roland was a villain who pursued jumpers in the name of God, David’s mother would bring family conflict to the table. Their conflict would raise the stakes for a sequel, bringing more emotion into the chase.

We all know now that the sequel never happened. It likely never will. Though the final moments of Jumper included David’s mom telling him that she would give him a head start, nobody ever saw what happened when that head start was over. Would she find him? How would he escape family? Where would he go and how would he fend off her advances. It left questions that would be answered in a sequel. Jumper was supposed to start a franchise. But it didn’t. Everything just sputtered out and the movie was put in the past. People moved on. Nobody was interested in the continuing story of David Rice.

The same sort of thing could be said about Abduction, a Taylor Lautner flick that was clearly supposed to kick off a second successful franchise for the teen star. The movie was quite similar to Jumper, though the action was the result of espionage instead of superpowers. The main character was on the run from spies, assassins, and government agents who wanted to use him as leverage. There was a list of the names of double agents and his biological father was a superspy who knew where the list was. The people on the list wanted to use the main character as a means to get the list.

In a similar fashion, the movie was about the chase. The main character travelled from one location to another, avoiding capture from authorities trying to kill or kidnap him. But it was the family connection that really brought it together. He lived a normal life with a mom and a dad who loved him. One night, some assassins showed up and he learned they were not his real parents. They were handlers meant to watch over him as he grew up. His real father was a super spy and that’s why he was in the situation. That was why he was fleeing people who wanted to harm him. He dug into his father’s past and slowly dove deeper into the espionage world.

The sequel was set up near the end when the main character came into near contact with his father outside a baseball stadium. This time, it wasn’t so much about the story threads that were being tugged on. The story of Abduction was pretty open and closed. The pursuit was over. The main character had a new home and he began a new romantic relationship. Everything was cut and dry. It was over. The only reason this movie is even being mentioned as a movie that set up a sequel that never happened is the casting of the main character’s father. He was played by Dermot Mulroney. That’s a pretty big name to have for someone that only comes in for a scene to play a character that was referenced throughout the film, but also not a big enough name to be a cameo people would be talking about long after they saw the movie. He was on the level of someone cast for a franchise, whose role would expand later on. It never would, though, because there was no sequel to Abduction.

One last movie that should be brought up in this discussion of franchise starters that never started a franchise is Super Mario Bros. This was a clear attempt at a franchise starter by a studio. They took something with name recognition, this time a popular series of video games, and tried to bring that popularity to the big screen. The problem was that the movie wasn’t good. It was a tonal mess caused by the clear disagreements between filmmakers, studios, and video game company about what the movie should be. There were some major liberties taken in the adaptation which led to the movie being almost nothing like the video games, except in names and references. The world was changed. The origins of characters were changed. Nearly everything was changed. And the audience never showed up.

The story of Super Mario Bros. was a little odd. Two plumber brothers were transplanted from their New York life into an alternate universe called Dinohattan. They had to navigate their way through a strange world where dinosaurs evolved into humans. All the while, a princess that one brother was in love with tried to get rid of the dictator who usurped her father some years earlier. It was your basic two brothers go to a new world and one is in love with a dethroned princess story.

Obviously, they got rid of the dino dictator by the end of the movie. The two brothers went back to their Brooklyn life. Nearly a month after they returned to their world, the princess showed up again. This was where a sequel was set up. She was dressed up like an action hero and asked for their help in whatever was going on. They grabbed their tool belts, she smiled, and the movie cut to credits. The brothers and the princess were heading out for another adventure that would play out in another film. That other film was never made. The disastrous reception of Super Mario Bros. kind of ruled out any chance of a follow-up. There might be a new adaptation of the video game series at some point, but there will never be a sequel to the 1993 bomb.

When it comes to studio filmmaking, franchises are one of the biggest cash cows out there. The popularity of one film can lead to continued popularity in a sequel and beyond. Look at the movies released at any given time and there are bound to be multiple sequels and reboots. Recognizable intellectual property sells. Studios should learn, however, not to hype up sequels before the first film has been released. Placing hints to sequels within a film can backfire and look tacky if said film doesn’t find success. It can lead to moments such as those in Jumper, Abduction, and Super Mario Bros. that clearly plant seeds for a sequel that never happens. It makes the studio look too cocky for their own good.

In a studio system that has become all about profit over artistry, franchises have become a staple in people’s movie diets. They’re pushed in many ways. People talk about potential sequels. Actors sign on for multiple movies at the outset. It’s just an expected thing at this point. The less successful big budget flicks don’t get sequels, though. Even when they set up a potential sequel within the first film, it doesn’t always happen. If the first film doesn’t make any money, the franchise will stop. That’s the way the business works. For better or worse. For good or bad.

I’m going to get a few notes in here before we close out the week:

• Jumper was suggested by @deaddropfredd.
• Super Mario Bros. (week 248) and Abduction (week 433) were brought up in this post.
• Jumper saw the third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance of Christian Pikes, who was in Air Buddies (week 270) and Snow Buddies (week 270).
• Michael Rooker was in The Marine 2 (week 30) and Jumper.
• Hayden Christiansen returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Jumper after previously being featured in Outcast (week 163).
• Brad Borbridge was in Jumper. He was also in Gooby (week 166).
• Jamie Bell played Griffin in Jumper and Ben Grimm in Fant4stic (week 172).
• Kristen Stewart made a small appearance near the end of Jumper. She was previously seen in American Ultra (week 261).
• Samuel L. Jackson was in Jumper. He did voice work for Star Wars: The Clone Wars (week 377).
• Finally, Ryan Grantham had roles in both Santa Buddies (week 420) and Jumper.
• Have you seen Jumper? What did you think of it? How do you feel about movies that spend time setting up sequels? Are there any sequels that were set up in movies that you wish happened but never did? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.
• Twitter and the comments are good places to find me and leave suggestions about what to watch in future Sunday “Bad” Movies weeks. This week was a suggestion!
• Don’t forget to check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram to keep the bad movie fun going all week long.
• It’s time to talk about next week’s movie. There’s a pretty big movie coming out soon. It’s a sequel to a movie people didn’t like so much. The reaction to the trailers for this movie has been positive. Yeah, I’m talking about The Suicide Squad. I could watch the first film, Suicide Squad, for next week’s post. I decided against that, though. I would rather go in a full Sunday “Bad” Movies direction and check out a rip-off of that original movie. I’ll be checking out The Asylum’s mockbuster version, Sinister Squad. I hope you’ll come on the journey with me next week. See you then!

Spice World (1997) and a Special Kind of Product Placement

Movies and television have a history of being used to promote products. Advertising has gone hand-in-hand with each form of media for as long as I can remember. It doesn’t matter what you are watching. If there is something on television that captures your attention, corporations will find some way to advertise something else to you. Networks place chyrons for their other shows at the bottom of the screen. Commercial breaks hype up the next big consumer item. And then there is the product placement. Oh, the product placement.

Product placement is a large piece of the advertising market. Thanks to streaming services becoming a much bigger share of the entertainment industry, there’s less chance of people watching standard network or cable television where commercial breaks are a thing. Corporations adapted. Their form of adaptation was a way that had already been an essential part of television and movies. They paid studios and filmmakers to feature their products in their work. Sometimes it was more obvious than others, like entire scenes or stories of Community, Chuck, and Hawaii Five-0 being devoted to Subway. Other times, it was subtler with someone just happening to be typing away on a Macbook. Either way, they were getting their product in front of viewers’ eyes.

The more interesting case, and what brings us into this week’s post, is when an entire movie is used to promote something else. The people involved in the movie, and the story they are bringing to life, are simply used to promote something else that will be coming out or is currently out for people to get a hold of. It could be seen as a branching out of a product, but it is works both ways. A product leading to a movie might be the ultimate goal. The movie will still promote that product, though, making it the ultimate product placement.

Spice World was one of those movies. The 1997 comedy followed Mel B, Mel C, Victoria, Emma, and Geri as they travelled from one place to another, performing music. Their manager, Clifford (Richard E. Grant), tried to set up a movie deal with a film producer (George Wendt) and writer (Mark McKinney). Meanwhile, newspaper head Kevin McMaxford (Barry Humphries) sets Brad (Jason Flemyng) and Damien (Richard O’Brien) out to take down the Spice Girls for better headlines.

This was the heyday of The Spice Girls. Their first album had been released in 1996, with their follow-up being released a year later, in 1997. That follow-up was directly linked to Spice World, with the final title being Spiceworld. The songs were written during filming and integrated into the movie. It became the unofficial soundtrack. Thus, it could be said that the movie was made to promote new music from The Spice Girls, or that the second album was to promote the movie. Either way, there was some cross-promotion and product placement going on.

The other way that Spice World was made for product placement was to promote The Spice Girls, themselves. The personas that the singers took on when they hit the stage got extra time to shine in the movie. Audiences got to familiarize themselves with The Spice Girls beyond listening to their music and seeing interviews. They got to go on an adventure with the decade-defining girl group. The movie promoted them by showing how Mel B fit the Scary Spice persona, how Mel C was sporty, how Emma was the baby of the group, how posh Victoria really was, and what it meant for Geri to be Ginger Spice beyond the red hair. It was an advertisement for the band to help their fans connect better with them. It worked, too. Their second album became a huge success.

Around the same time, there was another major case of a movie being made solely as product placement for something else that was popular. Like Spice World, there was some success in the product placement. It wasn’t quite the same level of success, though it lasted much longer. The product being advertised throughout the movie is still a major part of entertainment, where The Spice Girls kind of dissolved, for the most part, at the turn of the century. I’m talking about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a hit television show through the 1990s. It started in 1993, finding success in the after-school television market. Kids were eating the show up. It blended Japanese sentai series footage with original American footage. There were big fights between people in costumes. There were also some grounded stories about high school teens in California that doled out lessons to the kids watching the action unfold at home. You would get to see a monster explode into sparks, and that would be followed up with a scene about how important it was to be yourself and be a good friend.

Two seasons into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a film came out. It was set in an alternate continuity. That became obvious when the show returned for season three and covered some of the same ground within the story. The point of the movie wasn’t to continue the story of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The point of the movie seemed to be to tell a similar kind of monster-of-the-week story, but on a bigger scale. There was a bigger budget and more impressive effects.

The movie was a modest success at the box office, but critics panned it for essentially being a longer episode of the show. It didn’t feel any different than the show aside from being longer and having the budget for some computer animated effects and gadgets for the Power Rangers. The audience was there, though. The people who watched the show were there for the movie and would return to the show. People who were introduced to Power Rangers by the movie, who liked the movie, would check out the show. It was a win-win for Saban, the production company behind the property. The show was promotion for the movie and the movie was promotion for the show.

This form of product placement doesn’t happen quite as much as you might expect. There aren’t too many times when an entire movie is made for the purpose of promoting another product or person. Spice World managed to be a movie promoting The Spice Girls as a band. It was meant to help their fans better connect with the band members so that they would want to see and hear more from them. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was meant to showcase what the Power Rangers franchise was about, on a bigger scale. It had the upsized budget that only a film could get at the time. It brought people into the series while also giving fans of the series another way to see their favourite characters on screen. Both movies were product placement for their main characters, pulling from their past work and promoting their future work.

Product placement doesn’t usually go that far. It usually involves a simple flash of a product or a tie-in of the product into the story. Every once in a while, a story might be put on hold for a character to talk about a product in a very pitch-man type of way. The story isn’t usually tailor made for the product itself. It’s usually tailored to fit the product in. The product is placed into the story, hence the product placement moniker. In these two cases, the product was the story.

With the landscape of entertainment changing as the world becomes digitally focused, product placement has become a much more apparent thing. It was already happening throughout the 80s and 90s, but as commercials took a back seat during programming, product placement took its place to advertise the newest products. There have been some laughable instances of it. There have also been many more that you might not have immediately noticed. Some product placement is done well. Some is not. That’s like the quality of anything, really.

Now for some notes:

• I brought up Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (week 226) throughout this post.
• Bob Hoskins made a brief appearance in Spice World. He previously appeared in Son of the Mask (week 207) and Super Mario Bros. (week 248).
• George Wendt played the film producer in Spice World. He had roles in Sandy Wexler (week 231) and Santa Buddies (week 420).
• David Fahm and Craig Kelly both showed up in Wing Commander (week 394) and Spice World.
• Richard O’Brien played a crucial role in Spice World. He also popped up in Flash Gordon (week 81).
• Elvis Costello has had small parts in both Spice World and 200 Cigarettes (week 161).
• Alan Cumming was in Spice World and Son of the Mask (week 207).
• Finally, Spice World featured the great Richard E. Grant, who was also in Hudson Hawk (week 232).
• Have you seen Spice World? What did you think? Are there any other movies where the movie itself is product placement, rather than the product placement being a part of it? Maybe Batman & Robin (week 138), where everything had to be toyetic. Anyway, if you have thoughts about this post or the topics in it, drop them in the comments or find me on Twitter.
• Let me know what movies I should be checking out for Sunday “Bad” Movies by putting your suggestions in the comments or on my Twitter feed. I’ll find them and I might even include them in future posts.
• Make sure to check in with Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram.
• Now it’s time for a look forward to the next upcoming movie. It’s one that will make you jump. Not because it’s scary. It’s not a horror flick. Next week’s movie will be a little more science fiction. That’s because I’ll be checking out Jumper, the 2008 flick from Doug Liman. Do you want to hear my thoughts? Stay tuned for next week’s post. See you then.