10 Spiritual Sequels To Great Films

Sequels are nothing new in Hollywood. If a movie is a hit, it’s only a matter of time before people start talking about where the story goes next. Studios even try to force franchises out of movies that audiences didn’t seem to like in the first place. However, some sequels are less obvious than others.

A “spiritual sequel” is a movie that is not directly related to a previous film but seems to share a lot of elements with it. While Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy or Sergio Leone’s Dollar’s Trilogy are excluded for being established trilogies, the connection among these spiritual sequels is more hidden. Whether it is through concept or the people involved, these movies carry on the story in a new way.

10 You’ve Got Mail (1998) / Sleepless In Seattle (1993)

From rom-com genius Nora Ephron, Sleepless in Seattle stars Tom Hanks as a widower who appears on a late-night radio show and Meg Ryan as a woman on the other side of the country who hears it and falls for him. It was a charming love story with two perfectly matched leads.

Several years later, Ephron brought back the dynamic duo of Hanks and Ryan for You’ve Got Mail. Once again, these two play people who fall in love without (knowingly) meeting as they carry on a courtship over email.

9 Black Sheep (1996) / Tommy Boy (1995)

Chris Farley and David Spade had already proven their chemistry on Saturday Night Live, but Tommy Boy allowed them to show it off on the big screen. Farley stars as a lovable loser who inherits his dad’s company and must go on a cross-country sales trip with a tightly wound colleague (Spade).

The hilarious pairing was brought back together just one year later in Black Sheep. The dynamic of the relationship was very similar, with Farley playing the screw-up brother of a presidential hopeful and Spade as the campaign worker assigned to keep him under control.

8 Enemy Of The State (1998) / The Conversation (1974)

From Tony Scott, Enemy of the State is an underrated paranoid thriller starring Will Smith as a man who becomes a target of a covert government surveillance team. As his life is torn apart, he gets help from a mysterious man (Gene Hackman) with knowledge of the surveillance world.

Many people, including the filmmakers, have drawn comparisons to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. That film starred Hackman as a surveillance expert who becomes paranoid that he is being bugged. It’s interesting to think of Enemy of the State as where Hackman’s character ended up.

7 Made (2001) / Swingers (1996)

Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau have collaborated on a variety of projects together, including Swingers, the film that gave them their big break. They play struggling actors living in Hollywood and trying to meet women.

Favreau wrote Swingers and returned to pen Made, which feels like the mafia version of the same story. Once again, Favreau and Vaughn play small fish who think they are a bigger deal than they actually are. There is also a similar dynamic with Vaughn as the loudmouth and Favreau as the reserved one.

6 The Seven-Ups (1973) / The French Connection (1971)

The ’70s were known for gritty cop dramas with The French Connection being one of the most famous. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider play New York detectives who are actually based on real New York detectives, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso.

The Seven-Ups is a lesser-known crime film from this era directed by Philip D’Antoni, who produced The French Connection. Scheider gets the lead role this time as another cop character based on Grosso. Like The French Connection, The Seven-Ups is a gritty and grounded cop drama with a thrilling car chase set-piece.

5 Carlito’s Way (1993) / Scarface (1983)

Al Pacino gave one of his most famous performances in the over-the-top and violent crime film Scarface. Director Brian De Palma created a crime epic about Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant who becomes one of the most powerful drug lords in Miami.

De Palma reteamed with Pacino for another crime epic with Carlito’s Way. The film almost mirrors Scarface’s story about a rise to power in the opposite way as Pacino’s criminal has is on a journey to leave the outlaw life behind him.

4 Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) / Dazed And Confused (1993)

Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused has gone on to become one of the most beloved cult films of all time. The movie follows a group of high schoolers and merely allows the audience to hang out with them as they party during the last day of school in the 1970s.

Two decades later, Linklater jumped to the 1980s and college for Everybody Wants Some!!. Like his previous films, this is just a hangout movie as a group of college baseball players have some fun in the days leading up to classes starting.

3 The Green Mile (1999) / The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Adaptations of Stephen King’s works are everywhere these days, but many still consider The Shawshank Redemption to be the best — even one of the best films of all time. It follows the lives of prisoners looking for hope inside the walls of a corrupt prison.

Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption, took on another King story with The Green Mile. This too is a story of redemption inside a prison where inmates are held before being executed.

2 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) / Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Will Ferrell became a superstar with the hilarious off-the-wall comedy Anchorman. He teamed with Adam McKay for this story of an arrogant news anchor in the 1970s who has to deal with no longer being number one anymore.

Ferrell and McKay next tackled the world of NASCAR racing, albeit with a very similar story. Ferrell plays Rocky Bobby, the top racer who is knocked from his pedestal and has to climb his way back to the top again while learning some humility.

1 Casino (1995) / Goodfellas (1990)

Among Martin Scorsese’s incredible filmography, Goodfellas stands out as one of the very best. The film is based on a true story and is a detailed account of Henry Hill and his involvement with the mob lifestyle.

Two of its stars, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, played gangsters once again for Scorsese in another true story. Casino looked at the fall of organized crime in Las Vegas featuring a similar in-depth and stylish look as well as very similar narration used throughout.

About The Author

Colin McCormick
(2037 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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