Sequel Goes Foreign

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A trend in movie sequels that pops up frequently. The first one is good enough to warrant a sequel and in either the second or third installment the action takes place in a foreign country.

This is because going foreign may be an easy way to spice up what could otherwise become a stale cast of characters and plotline with a drastically different location and culture. This provides a suitable setting for the usual 'everything must be bigger and fancier' form of Sequelitis.

Depending upon why the characters are in a foreign country, this may turn out to functionally be a longer Vacation Episode and/or a Busman's Holiday if the characters end up doing the same thing abroad that they would do at home.

Examples of Sequel Goes Foreign include:

Anime and Manga

  • The third Digimon movie involves some of the Japanese Digidestined meeting Willis in the U.S.
  • In the K-On! movie, the gang goes to England.

Film

  • The Rescuers Down Under, set in Australia (natch).
  • Rugrats in Paris
  • In the 1970s animated Spider-Man movie Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge (the third in a series), Spider-Man goes to Japan.
  • Cars 2 takes McQueen, Mater and their friends out of Radiator Springs and across the globe, with stops in Tokyo, Paris, Italy and London.
  • Gidget Goes Hawaiian may well be the Trope Namer; at the time it was released Hawaii had only been a state for two years and was still very foreign and exotic in the eyes of mainstream America.
  • Ace Ventura 2 takes place in Africa.
  • The sequel to Agent Cody Banks was set squarely in London.
  • Austin Powers In Goldmember is set in Japan.
  • The Bad News Bears Go To Japan.
  • Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason: London, Thailand, Australia
  • The Dark Knight has an extensive sequence in Hong Kong, which is further than Batman goes during Batman Begins, excluding the prologue.
  • Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
  • Dirty Dancing 2 takes place in Cuba.
  • The 1975 softcore film Emmanuelle 2 begins with the lead character taking a boat trip to Hong Kong, where she stays as an expat for the rest of the film.
  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
    • And again with Fast Five, which takes place in Brazil.
  • The Hangover Part II, which takes place in Thailand and includes the characters lampshading the fact that the same circumstances happened in a foreign country.
  • The Karate Kid, Part Two is set in Okinawa, Japan.
  • French-Canadian film Les Boys 2 is set in a Hockey Tournament in France.
  • French film Les Visiteurs had a sequel Les Visiteurs II, followed by a US Foreign Remake, Just Visiting. The remake was released in France as a semi-sequel, Les Visiteurs en Amerique.
  • The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set in China.
  • National Lampoon's European Vacation.
  • Ocean's Twelve went to Europe, justified by the title gang being too high profile to work in the USA without raising alarms (Not that it stopped them in Ocean's Thirteen).
    • By the time the third movie rolled around, most of the gang had settled down and those that still worked had gone straight.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens in Singapore
  • Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.
  • Rambo: The first film is set in the Northwestern United States. In the sequels, he's doing his battles in Asia.
  • Rush Hour: Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong cop Fish Out of Water in LA. Rush Hour 2 is set in Hong Kong - now his partner is the one out of water. Rush Hour 3 takes place in Paris, where they're both out.
  • Sex and the City 2.
  • Shanghai Knights, the sequel to Shanghai Noon, is set in London.
  • Tremors 2 takes place in Mexico.
  • Speed 2 Cruise Control takes place in the Caribbean.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 ups the ante by taking place in ancient Japan. Of course they are ninjas.
  • In Three Ninjas Kick Back, the three ninjas and their grandfather go to Japan. (Of course they are ninjas and Japanese.)
  • The Toxic Avenger 2 takes place in Japan.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • The second Cheetah Girls Made for TV Movie takes place in Barcelona, while the third takes place in India.
  • As part of the third series of Goodness Gracious Me, the cast recorded a "Back Where They Came From" special filmed in India.
  • Joe Millionaire season 2 went to Italy and cast female contestants from Europe, because everyone in the US would be Genre Savvy enough after the first one that they couldn't pull the same trick again.

Video Games


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