Daisy Ridley Should Be The Next Indiana Jones

While everyone’s attention is firmly on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the next Star Wars movie, a new Indiana Jones movie is supposedly only two years away. Re-watching The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is still pretty painful, and it’s hard to finish it and want more Indiana Jones. But with how well Harrison Ford did at closing out Han Solo’s story line in The Force Awakens, I’m actually excited for him to give Indiana Jones a proper goodbye. Here’s four things I would do if I were in charge of making it happen:

PASS THE BATON TO DAISY RIDLEY

While adding aliens to the Indiana Jones universe is probably the main reason everyone wants to forget about the fourth movie, there is also the misguided attempt to pass the franchise to Shia LaBeouf, who’s character was revealed to in fact be Indiana’s son, Henry Jones the third. Given that LaBeouf is at this point more interested in performance art than acting, and how hard he would be to work with, he won’t be in the next one.

So everyone has rightly assumed that the franchise will introduce a new character in the fifth film, one who will actually carry future movies without Harrison Ford. Obvious names like Bradley Cooper and Chris Pratt have been thrown around, but I think the clear choice should be Daisy Ridley.

The Indiana Jones franchise relies a lot on old-timey humor, charming gags that only work because Ford is so fun to watch. When you look at the difference between how Harrison Ford acts as Indiana Jones vs Han Solo, the main thing is that Indiana Jones has much more physicality and humor. Han Solo isn’t even the main character of Star Wars, and yet he probably has twice as many lines as Indiana Jones, because so often Ford can say more with just a look when he’s playing Jones. His eyes go wide as he looks offscreen, and we know that whatever problem he thought he just solved has actually gotten worse.

Daisy Ridley is the same way in The Force Awakens. When you picture Rey, you probably picture her wide-eyed but resilient, a combination of being in constant awe but also up to the challenge. She is constantly finding out new things about herself and the world around her, and Ridley does such a good job conveying what that feels like. The audience cheers when the light saber flies into her hands for the final battle with Kylo Ren, because she has made us root for her. And she doesn’t even have to say a one liner there, she conveys everything with a look.  She would really be perfect for this role.

There is also the reunion of her and Harrison Ford, who worked so well together in TFA. Their chemistry is fantastic, and this would also continue the fun tradition of having the two franchises be connected by their lead. It just works!

And if you’re wondering if she’s interested in this type of thing, she almost signed on to play Lara Croft.

As for what the movie should actually be about, I have some thoughts on that too:

OPEN WITH SENDING INDY TO VIETNAM

The fourth movie took place in 1957, twenty years after the third one. By the time the fifth one comes out, it will be another ten years, and should be the mid to late sixties in Indiana Jones’ timeline. The obvious event of the sixties that Spielberg will be unable to ignore is the Vietnam War. While I don’t think the whole movie should take place there, this would be a great jumping off point for the adventure.

Let’s say that Daisy Ridley’s character is a war photographer embedded in Vietnam, who detests war and is really looking to make a name for herself by capturing photos of lost civilizations. She thinks she has found the location of a major clue, and recruits Indiana Jones to help her. Along the adventure, she realizes her true calling as an adventuring archaeologist.

In order to recover the artifact or tablet that is a clue for our main adventure, he and Ridley have to hitch a ride with American soldiers, and make their through the jungle during  the war. This would make for some great set pieces and Indiana Jones-style comedy of them being caught in the middle of a firefight. There are also amazing temples in Vietnam, and it would make for some awesome cinematography.

THEY FIND THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS

The fifth movie needs to go out with a bang, so the artifact or quest of this movie needs to be truly legendary. There are some interesting Vietnamese legends, but they aren’t famous enough to headline this movie. Atlantis would be perfect for this.

You may be thinking that this sounds familiar, and you’re right. LucasArts made a video game that sent Jones in search of Atlantis in the early 90s, but the plot for that one took some strange turns (having a super-soldier machine hidden in Atlantis) and since it was set in the late 30s, again involved the Nazis. So we would need to start from scratch in terms of the plot.

Usually Atlantis is depicted as being somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, but there is basis for believing that it could actually be near Indonesia, which would work with our opening in Vietnam. It also makes for a  great opportunity to pit Indiana against some local cannibal tribe guarding the island with the underground entrance to the lost city.

As for the design of Atlantis itself, we would want to avoid having to overuse CGI and keep the look of Indiana Jones alive with practical sets. There should definitely be some underwater action, perhaps involving a submarine and 60s era diving equipment, but the city itself should be somehow magically contained in a trapped air pocket or with a curse or something, so that we can have them explore it without being underwater. The climax would obviously involve the city flooding as they escape.

As for the reasons for searching for Atlantis (beyond its cultural significance) there would need to be an artifact related to Poseidon which will grant some immense power.

MAKE THE VILLAIN ANOTHER ARCHAEOLOGIST

The lost city would be reason enough for Indiana to go on one last adventure, but there of course needs to be a villain that he must also stop. Since we are at this point in the 60s, we can’t use Nazis. And Kingdom of the Crystal Skull used Russians, so it feels like you need something new. You could have a secret group of the Vietcong in search of Atlantis, but I don’t actually think you need an entire army as the enemy. The Temple of Doom has many flaws, but it does prove that you don’t need a crazed dictator’s obsession with the occult driving your plot. I think it’s compelling enough to have the bad guy just be another archaeologist.

One of the mainstays of the Indiana Jones movies is the enemy archaeologist who has been hired by the Nazis, a personal nemesis of Jones who values money and power over the preservation and study of history. They are often used as a reflection of what he could become, if his obsession with history consumed him. Belloch was the best example of this in Raiders, and there hasn’t really been a good one since (Walter Donovan hired Indy to go find the Grail in Last Crusade, but he was just a collector who didn’t respect history).

Casting this rival archaeologist would be important, and I think you need to actually introduce this character as more of a rival of Daisy, rather than Harrison. So lets have them be younger, maybe someone like Tom Hardy, or Ridley’s other Star Wars co-star, Oscar Isaac.

I think that’s a pretty good start. Even if Atlantis isn’t the plot they go with, I really hope they cast Ridley. What do you guys think? Would Daisy make a great Indy? Thanks for reading!

SEQUEL REWRITE: SPEED 2

Here at FGFC, we think there is nothing more disappointing than being excited for a movie sequel and then realizing it’s terrible. And there are a lot of really, really bad movie sequels out there. Shameless cash grabs that lazily rehash the same beats of the first movie, without seeming to understand why people loved the original in the first place. Sequel Rewrite aims to right these wrongs by thinking about how easily things could have been so much better. 

Speed 2 – Cruise Control is widely regarded as one of the worst sequels of all time (it has only a 3% on Rotten Tomatoes). It was doomed from the beginning. Keanu Reeves passed on the movie altogether, and Sandra Bullock only did it so that she could make Hope Floats. It completely abandons everything that made the first movie work, and even forgets to feature a fast moving vehicle. THE TITLE IS SPEED, PEOPLE.

But it didn’t have to be this way! Here are 4 simple changes that could have made all the difference.

1. KEEP KEANU REEVES, OR DON’T MAKE THE MOVIE!

This first one is really a no-brainer, and I’m surprised I have to say it. Keanu Reeves HAS to be in this. Besides the bus needing to stay above 50, the chemistry between him and Sandra Bullock is the MAIN reason people liked the first movie. If you can’t get the script to a good enough place, or aren’t willing to pay him enough money, DON’T make this movie. You are already sealing its fate with the likes of Predator 2.

2. SWAP OUT THE CRUISE SHIP FOR A TRAIN, AND MAKE ITS SPEED ACTUALLY MATTER

The only reason Speed 2 takes place on a boat is because director Jan De Bont had recurring nightmares about a shipwreck (not joking). And, as many critics pointed out when the movie was released, it is very hard to convey that a cruise ship is moving at dangerous speeds while on the open water. Not to mention that for most of the movie, the speed of the boat doesn’t even matter! This has to change.

The elevator pitch of the first movie, that a bus has to go faster than 50 mph or it blows up, has to be continued here. Without the rule of a vehicle of some kind needing to go a certain speed, I would argue that it isn’t even a Speed movie. Speed 2 didn’t do this, and the results are more of a half-baked copy of Under Siege. To solve this, we move the action onto a train that has to go dangerously fast or else it blows up.

By switching the action from a boat to a train, we can keep everything that made the first movie great, and up the stakes by having all the risks associated with a runaway train. Having to keep a train going at a certain speed gives you a lot of action sequences: kids playing near the tracks, a stalled car blocking the tracks, Keanu and Sandra frantically disconnecting train cars before a sharp turn so the train doesn’t derail, and all of the redirecting of other trains so they don’t have a head-on collision.

3. MAKE THE VILLAIN WANT REVENGE

When you start to make action sequels, the plausibility of your hero continuing to get caught in these crazy adventures gets harder and harder for the audience to buy. One of the smartest things the third Die Hard movie did is realize that you can’t just keep having John McClane have bad luck. Jeremy Irons’ character is specifically gunning for him because he wants revenge for his brother, and it works really well.

(side note: I would actually argue that Die Hard With a Vengeance and Speed 2: Cruise Control should flip franchises. Speed 2 feels much more like a Die Hard movie, our hero is in the wrong place at the wrong time, the cruise ship is a contained environment with hostages where our hero must find and stop the bad guy. And Die Hard with a Vengeance is more like Speed. Bruce Willis is constantly on the phone with the bad guy, at the whim of a mad man, having to do insane tasks all over the city or else bombs go off, while his police partners scramble to figure out how to help. The only thing really keeping Speed 2 from being a full on Under Siege rip off is that Willem Defoe doesn’t have any henchman to beat up).

All of this is to say, to justify Speed getting a sequel, I think you need the bad guy to have a personal vendetta against Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock for saving the day in the first movie. Either have him be the son of Dennis Hopper’s character, or a former partner or protégé of his on the bomb squad, or even a disgraced cop who just agrees with Hopper’s ideals. He picks the train knowing that Sandra Bullock will be on it, and then Keanu Reeves has to get on board and they work together.

4. ADD A TWIST ENDING THAT ONE OF THE PASSENGERS IS ACTUALLY A SECOND VILLAIN

To help keep this movie from being too much of a copy of the first Speed, a nice twist ending would work really well. One of the staples of Speed is the everyday passengers that are caught in the middle of this, and how they provide comic relief and help Keanu when he needs it. It would be a great reveal that one of the passengers that we’ve trusted this whole time is actually the bad guy who is behind the whole thing.

But since this would mean never actually showing the bad guy when he calls Keanu throughout the movie, this idea would probably work best if there’s two bad guys. One who we see throughout the movie, every time they talk on the phone, and the other secret bad guy who is seemingly just one of the passengers. Keanu and Sandra would think that they have beat the bad guy, only to have a gun pulled on them by the real “conductor”. Just picture if the nervous woman who Sandra has had to comfort this whole movie ended up being the daughter of Dennis Hopper, out for revenge.

Having two bad guys also lets Sandra get in on the action in the finale, instead of just being a hostage that Keanu has to save again. They can both be fighting one of the bad guys, and the audience would love to see Sandra kick some ass.

And that’s it. A few simple changes that would have drastically changed the movie for the better, giving one of the best action movies of the 90s the sequel it deserves. What do you guys think? Would you rather see this version of Speed 2? Thanks for reading!

to hear a more in-depth rewrite, check out Kevin’s podcast SEQUEL REWRITE

THE LAST JEDI TRAILER BREAKDOWN!

The teaser trailer for Episode VIII dropped today, and I thought I’d switch things up a bit and do a trailer breakdown. Hope you enjoy! (obviously watch the trailer before you read the rest of this)

:12 Our first shot of Rey, she appears to be where we last saw her, on that rocky island where Luke was. She looks pretty blown away, like she just had some crazy Force vision

:21-:38 We start to hear Luke’s speech to Rey as voice over, as he instructs her to “Breathe…just breathe.” We see some sweeping shots of the island and Rey after training. The overhead shot moving across the island is one of a few in this trailer that look different than what you’re used to seeing in a Star Wars movie.

:40 Luke continues with “now…reach out” and we get a shot of Rey’s hand and some pebbles starting to float around it in slow motion, another shot that isn’t what we’re used to. When Rian Johnson was brought on to direct this one, I definitely thought Disney saw his last film Looper as a pretty exciting test run for what he could do with the Force. All of the plot surrounding the little boy in Looper was essentially about someone who has Force powers. And even though this is only one shot, I think it’s safe to say The Last Jedi is going to be the most epic Star Wars movie in terms of capturing the power of the Force onscreen.

:46 Luke finishes, asking Rey “What do you see?” and then we start to cut to other stuff, and I’m guessing these shots aren’t actually what she will be visualizing.

:47 We see the back of Leia’s head, sporting yet another new hairdo. And she is staring at a map, either trying to find something or wondering how Luke and Rey are doing. Rey starts to talk now, saying that she sees “Light”

:51 And next we get a shot of a crushed helmet. At first I thought this was Vader’s, but you can clearly see metal lines above the eye hole signifying that this is Kylo Ren’s helmet, which is completely destroyed. We haven’t seen him wear it since he took it off in front of Han Solo, but I doubt there would be any of it left if it was destroyed on Starkiller Base. I’m guessing this is the result of Kylo’s anger issues that we’ve seen before. Either this is him hating what the helmet represents, and what it has “caused him to become,” or probably more likely that this is him no longer needing to hide behind the mask, or be in Vader’s shadow. That he is now fully embracing being one with the dark side. We then cut to black and then Rey says she also sees “Darkness”

1:01 And how we get a shot that appears to be in some sort of petrified cave, with a shaft of light beaming down onto some old papers or books. I think Luke (or somebody) whispers something here that echoes a little bit but I don’t know what it is. In The Force Awakens, Han Solo tells us that there were rumors that Luke went to go find the oldest Jedi Temple. If this is what the island is, then perhaps these books or whatever they are are the history of the Jedi, which is something the series hasn’t explored before this. Will be interesting to see what Luke has learned, and what he wants Rey to know. Although, if his attitude at the end of the trailer is any indication, I’m guessing he’s only teaching her so that the past doesn’t repeat itself.

1:03 Rey’s hand touches one of the books, which has some art on it that I’m not a big enough Star Wars nerd to know if it means anything. She then says that she sees “The Balance.”

1:07 Another epic shot of the island, only this time as we sweep around the rocks we see the silhouette of Rey training with Lukes lightsaber as Luke looks on. It seems like its hers to keep at this point. And then we go back to his voice over, and he says “So much bigger,” basically saying to Rey “You know nothing, Jon Snow”

1:16 And now the trailer kicks into full epic montage mode, as we see some new type of ships flying low across a dry planet, looking like they are about to attack something. One of them doesn’t seem to know how to fly as well as the others, which could mean Poe or Finn is secretly inside piloting it. It’s also worth noting that this doesn’t look like the standard issue Star Wars desert planet, since there’s no sand dunes. Given the red smoke or dust coming from them, I’m guessing these ships are some new bad guys, but not part of the First Order, probably related to whomever Benecio Del Toro is playing (who we know is in this movie, but haven’t seen or heard anything about except that he is playing a bad guy).

1:20 We see Finn is asleep in what is probably a medical pod, still healing from his wounds in the last movie. This might actually be something that Rey sees in her visions. If I had to guess, we will spend a good deal of time with just Luke and Rey before we check back in with all of the other characters. Rey will train, then sense that they are all in trouble, and (hopefully with Luke) go back to save them.

1:22 our first shot of BB-8 and Poe, they appear to be running towards his X-Wing while their base is under attack from something. But they don’t get to it in time, as the whole hanger is blown up. The trailer is cut in such a way where it seems like the new ships we just saw are responsible for this, but could also be the First Order.

1:25 now we see the Millenium Falcon wrecking some Tie Fighters. Remember that Rey flew the Falcon to go see Luke, so this confirms what we all already know, that at some point she will come back to kick some ass. Just wondering if Luke is also on board.

1:27 a quick shot of Rey sprinting at night with her lightsaber, it’s cut to look like she’s about to fight someone, but this could just be her training.

1:29 Our only shot of Kylo, no helmet, and we can’t see his whole face, but can still see some of the scars on it from his last fight with Rey. He’s pointing at someone with his lightsaber, and he doesn’t look happy. I’m guessing this is either showdown with Rey part II, or maybe him and Luke seeing each other. Luke’s voice over kicks in again, as he tells Rey “I only know one truth…”

1:30 A quick shot of Luke and R2D2 looking on at a burning village. Not sure where this is, might be some sort of flashback when Luke tells Rey about his Jedi Academy getting destroyed by Kylo. This shot also reminds me of the vision Rey had of Luke and R2D2 when she touched Luke’s lightsaber in The Force Awakens. She was having visions of her past, but also her future. So if we’re seeing this shot, it’s a good bet we’ll also see that scene from Force Awakens of her in the rain surrounded by dead bodies while Kylo and the Knights of Ren come towards her.

1:32 We see what looks like some First order troopers coming through a burning village, which may or may not be the same place Luke was just looking at. It also looks like they are being led by Captain Phasma, who kind of disappeared in the last movie but is supposed to still be in this one.

1:33 And it wouldn’t be Star Wars without some space battles, so we get to see a few glimpses of what looks like a massive battle over a green planet. Not enough of a geek to know which planet this might be.

1:36 Cut to black, and Luke gives his final lines of the trailer, finishing his sentence about knowing only one truth. “It’s time for the Jedi…”

1:40 “to end”. our only shot of Luke up close, and he’s still mostly in shadows. He’s leaving a cave, turning back to look at Rey, and we get a pretty good understanding of where he’s coming from now. It seems like he blames himself for whats happened with Kylo Ren, and will probably tell Rey she is his last apprentice. He’s obviously become very jaded, and it will be interesting to see if Rey’s infectious hope will cause him to reconsider this harsh stance.

1:45 And then we get the titles, and its worth noting that they are in red, while the Force Awakens was in yellow. The color change is telling us this movie is going to be much darker, just like The Empire Strikes Back was compared to A New Hope.

And that’s it! There wasn’t much revealed in this teaser, but it was still awesome to just see some footage. Can’t wait for the main trailer to drop, where we will actually see a bit more of what’s actually happening plotwise. Pumped! What did you guys think?

SEQUEL REWRITE: HOME ALONE 2

Here at FGFC, we think there is nothing more disappointing than being excited for a movie sequel and then realizing it’s terrible. And there are a lot of really, really bad movie sequels out there. Shameless cash grabs that lazily rehash the same beats of the first movie, without seeming to understand why people loved the original in the first place. Sequel Rewrite aims to right these wrongs by thinking about how easily things could have been so much better. 

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is an extremely lazy sequel, which is a huge bummer. The first Home Alone is an all-time classic, but the sequel is nothing more than a bad imitation. To remind you, Kevin McCallister’s family decides to travel to Florida for Christmas, and Kevin actually makes it to the airport with them this time. But he gets on the wrong plane and ends up in New York, where he stays at a fancy hotel, meets a homeless bird lady, and eventually runs into the Wet Bandits again. Besides being set in New York, it is essentially a carbon copy of the first movie, beat for beat. And the critics responded accordingly: while the first one had a surprisingly low 55% on Rotten tomatoes, the sequel has an abysmal 24%.

But it didn’t have to be this way!

Journey back with me to 1992 as I point out four simple plot changes that would have made Home Alone 2 a much more enjoyable movie, with better characters and set pieces. In short, the sequel that Kevin McCallister deserved.

1. OPEN WITH  HARRY AND MARV BREAKING OUT OF JAIL

When we finally catch up with Harry and Marv again, they have already broken out of prison. This seems like a wasted opportunity to not have a great scene where we actually see how they got out. Picture the movie opening with them in a cell together, really sick of each other. Scratching the days into the wall, and swearing their revenge on Kevin McCallister if they ever see him again. And then the guards say lights out, and we see they have a crudely drawn map of how they plan to escape.

And what better way to do it than by having them use the homemade traps that they learned from Kevin McCallister? Think about how fun would it have been to see them escape while prison guards are falling over and getting hit in the face by cans of prison food (its also a good way to show that Harry and Marv are smarter now, and will be harder to take on this time).

2. ADD A THIRD MOVIE STAR TO THE WET BANDITS

Speaking of Harry and Marv, I’d like to give them some back up. Normally a sequel has the bad guys returning bigger and badder, so it’s a little strange that the Wet Bandits didn’t add a third member to their crew. This would have been a great role to give to a big time actor in the early 90s to make the movie an even bigger deal. This guy could be one of Harry’s crazy cousins, or another inmate that breaks out with them. I’m picturing Mel Gibson, who was still three years away from Braveheart and had just worked with Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 3. Having three bad guys ups the laughs, as they get into big arguments, and it means we get to see even more pain and suffering and more elaborate traps. This character could also have underestimated Kevin throughout the movie, and taken the brunt of the damage from the traps, while Harry and Marv have wised up to Kevin’s games.

3. GET RID OF THE OLD BIRD LADY AND ADD A LOVE INTEREST!

Here’s my biggest gripe. While some of the repetition in the opening scenes of the family being late for their flight makes for funny callbacks to the first movie, to have Kevin meet ANOTHER scary old person who ends up being nice and teaching him a lesson about family just feels really lazy. So I’m proposing you get rid of the old bird lady who used to play at Carnegie Hall (?!) and replace her with the one thing that would scare Kevin more: a girl!

The fact that we never got to see Kevin McCallister interact with a girl his age is a crime against humanity. Imagine the range of emotions we’d get to see Macaulay Culkin do. He’d be grossed out by her, but secretly have a crush. And seeing a girl who’s just as precocious as he is go toe to toe with him would have been perfect. I know what you’re thinking: it would take a pretty special young actress to be able to keep up with Culkin. And you’re right. But the perfect actress for this part was the right age at the time too. It’s Christina Ricci, who had just done the Addams Family the year before. This would have been amazing to see this two kids together.

Ricci’s character could have been a girl who ran away from home, and is surviving on the mean streets of New York on her own. Kevin would run into her after she tries to steal his Talk Boy, and then he would feel bad for her and let her stay in his fancy hotel room (think Pretty Woman but, uh, for kids). Then the two of them would work together to set the traps to take down the Wet Bandits, see some fun traps that require two people to operate them, and then we’d wrap things up with a celebratory kiss on the cheek.

And she would still serve to advance the plot and teach Kevin a lesson. He would see that running away from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, he’d learn that girls aren’t as terrible as he believed them to be, and we’d get a heartwarming ending when he’d convince Christina Ricci’s character to return home to her worried parents at the end of the movie.

4. AND FINALLY, MOVE THE CLIMAX TO THE TOY STORE

There are two great locations in this movie, the fancy  hotel where Kevin stays and Duncan’s toy store, the target for the Wet Bandit’s next robbery. But for some reason, the climax instead takes place in Kevin’s random relatives abandoned loft. This always felt like such a mistake to me. The abandoned building is a really boring set compared to the hotel and toy store, and is such a last minute location for us to end up at. If Kevin knows that the Wet Bandits are going to rob the toy store, why not just booby trap the toy store, and then we get a really fun ending with all of the traps incorporating toy trains and giant nutcrackers, etc. And let’s have Tim Curry, the hotel manager who disappears from the third act, show up to help the kids at the end and redeem himself.

And there you have it. What did you think? Do you wish you could see this version? Or are you related to the bird lady and you want to fight me? Let me know and thanks for reading!

to hear a more in-depth rewrite, check out Kevin’s podcast SEQUEL REWRITE