I'm already looking forward to "It's OK for Stories to END 2" The next one needs to be more nihilistic, but also have lots of Marvel style humour and have a suitably open end.

“There’s a fine line between being truly timeless and running yourself ragged trying to become timeless, old friend.”- a paraphrase of Optimus Prime, 1984

I remember finishing the Back to the Future trilogy for the first time as kid. The train smashed through the screen and up it came, "THE END". I cried because I knew it was finished and my journey with Marty and Doc was done. I loved it and went about watching those three stories over and over again to relive the adventure. There have been supplemental materials over they years, the animated show, the ride, comics, but a part four would only ever cheapen the experience of that trilogy and how wonderful it is. Here's hoping BTTF never joins the ranks of Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters. For a movie that was only ever meant to be a one and done, I'm so glad we have the sequels and they knew when to quit.

Years ago I would have loved to have sequels to The Goonies, The Monster Squad, The Secret of NIMH (a real one), The Last Starfighter or Buckaroo Banzai......now I realize idiots run the asylum. Leave the classics and cult classics alone.

This might be one of the most important video essays on KZfaq.

Michael, I think this is your best (easily my favourite) social commentary video ever...and I'm not being hyperbolic. I mean it. Great job.

Oh, god yes. Hollywood's obsession with never letting stuff go is at its worst in the late 2010s-early 2020s. If you don't have anything else to say, don't bother.

Brilliant as ever, Michael. I couldn't agree more with "The End" being more satisfying. There is a direct connection between Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Avengers: Endgame. The signatures of the actors on screen at the end of both films were a clear message to the audience that this was the end.

Possibly the finest entry yet on such an original and enlightening channel. This should have been published in the New York Times. Thank You.

I'm glad someone finally came out and said it, and said it well. Great job!

"Full blown emotional deficiency," I laughed hard at that.

I was thinking as soon as I started the video, “ I think it’s because we fear death” and yep you mentioned it. Couldn’t agree more. Even these movie stars are wanting to quit and move on with their lives and we won’t let them. So studios need to recast parts and we complain about it.

Not a day goes by where I don't miss a time when there were only 3 star wars films. The franchise has become so stretched out and fatigued that it's truly heart breaking. I only continue to watch out of morbid curiosity to see how an ip can be so badly and unnecessarily mistreated by so many people, so many times.

One of my favorite things as a kid was going to the theater and looking at the coming attraction posters. They were better than trailers sometimes.

Well said Michael. I realized almost a year ago that “these aren’t for you”, was becoming fact as things were changed to bring in new people or our children as you succinctly put it, “to enjoy our thing”. I also think this attempt to hold onto them makes us like them less. So, I walked away. I continue to enjoy what I liked but have let go and have walked completely away from what there is today. It has made my entertainment more enjoyable and I cherish it more because it is limited again. Another brilliant video.

This is very smart and something adults really need to come to terms with. It's something I've been expressing for years, usually to the anger many of my friends and fan groups who continue to demand more sequels and then scratch their heads in confusion as to why they're disappointed when they get them. We've infantilized ourselves for cheap entertainment and the results have bled into every aspect of our lives wherein we can no longer engage reality in an effective manner.

I'm an adult, a part of Gen X and I don't like all the remakes/reboots/spin-offs, what have you. I feel no embarrassment in my love of the original products, childish they may be nowadays.

Great job Michael, thoroughly enjoyed this piece 👍🏻

It’s about money, not stories. Stories end, but greed never ends.

Also, I love that you included a clip from Michael Wood's Beowulf documentary!

Great video Michael. I have two young boys and I always planned on handing down my MOTU and GI Joe's from my youth. More so they had more to play with. Instead it sometimes feels like they are retreading my childhood with the same franchises being the focus in the media. As much as they like MOTU Origins, Transformers, GI Joe Classified I often take a step back to ensure they are choosing something they want.

Even in pro-wrestling, this has often been the case. Sure, there´s a time limit in that wrestlers eventually get so old they have to stop performing in the ring, but that can take decades, while the wrestlers get worse and worse as performers. A lot of what hindered that line of entertainment was having the same old tired headliners main-eventing long past their primes, coming out of retirement several times, repeating storylines and trying to recreate the same matches and feuds long after it got old, not allowing new superstars to be made, who could have fresh storylines.

Very well though out and argued. Stories are supposed to have a beginning, middle and end. An example I have given before of how actors and directors of Hollywood do not always know how to end a story is how Harrison Ford wanted to kill off Han Solo. He said Han's story was over and he wanted to end the character. But Han's story was integral in Leia's story. She was the person who had selflessly devoted herself to the rebellion and now she was discovering she loved this scoundrel who was, at first, only interested in himself. At the end of the first act of RotJ, Han's story was finished. he had grown to become someone who would let his prized possession, the Millennium Falcon, be used by someone else as he selflessly did his part to fight against the Empire. But Leia had still not fully accepted her love for Han until she answered him with, "I know." When they ended up together, her story was finished. Lucas wanted to have a more somber ending with Han dead, Leia on her own trying to rebuild the Republic and Luke gone to re-establish the Jedi. It would have been an ending that would have left many fans soured on the whole franchise. The ending we got was an ending where hope paid off and completed everyone's story with a satisfactory ending. Your entire examination clearly shows, that in the case of Star Wars, how the sequels threw the original trilogy all out the window and gave us a mess with NO satisfactory ending at all while at the same time making the original trilogy all for nothing with the Emperor surviving, Han and Leia separated, Luke Disgruntled with the Jedi... Oops sorry, Spoilers.

I grew up with Harry Potter, now I know that it was far past your generation but it was my childhood. Every kid was excited to see the end of the seven book eight movie series. And when our beloved characters stood together at a train station waving their children goodbye, that was it, and we were happy. Now however things are far different with a 5 movie prequel series answering questions that were good because they never had answers. I never needed to know how Harry Potter's kid was doing at school. So I have to agree with you, all stories need to end.

Excellent video. Sometimes the truth can be harsh and difficult to swallow. And now the question remains: Will our generation (kids from the 80's) have the courage to stop recreating and watching "old stuff" and finally understand there is a big world of new ideas (movies, books, comic books) waiting to be presented for our kids?

Terminator movies are truly the most egregious examples of unneeded sequels. I TRULY believe Shaq is to blame for telling media he would love to be in a Terminator movie in the 90's and then a bunch of people kept asking for it.

About 20 years ago I remember an online debate about whether or not there should be a sequel to "Ferris Beuller's Day Off." My opinion then stands now: It works perfectly as a stand-alone film.

If I could like this video 10 times I would (but I will just let my original "like" stand alone and avoid the unnecessary sequels). Great video!

"Zombie Franchises." I'm stealing that. The power of Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (a subtitle that clearly refers to death and endings, as you know) is that it is a goodbye to the original crew and a definitive END.... Which is why I absolutely loathe Star Trek Generations. Kirk's story was OVER. But... Nope, gotta bring him back. Because money. And let's not even talk about what they are doing to Picard's character in that new series. Trek is most definitely the biggest Zombie Franchise out there. And you are 100% right about Doctor Who. Capaldi should have been the end... Because what followed cheapened the series as a whole.

Wow so on point. This is pretty funny as I was actually just debating with somone this week if The Thing (1982) should have a sequel. It was insane to me that somone would need more then the conclusion we got for that story. I also see what your saying about our generation having a real aversion to growing old and dying when in reality it's what happens to everyone. I actually kinda fear the day they say we've conqured death but that's just me.

BRAVO 👍🏾 👍🏾👍🏾 I really wish you would do more videos like this. Your insight to these topics are much needed. These video essays are why I watch your channel. Keep them coming…. Er oh wait that’s the topic of the video 😂

Stories,like all things; must all end eventually. It's only natural. I feel like Return of The Jedi was the perfect end to "The Skywalker Saga" and don't get me wrong,I don't mind and even enjoy some of the extended universe stuff like books,comics and video games but I feel like the story of the Skywalker family should've ended there.

Michael, this video could lead to so many important discussions and really profound implications. Thank you.

Great video. Of my two favorite movies, one is lost in sequel hell (Jurassic Park) and one is blissfully complete (hopefully); that being Gladiator. Really great insight, and a great presentation.

Love this video. One of your best. Really makes you sit back and reflect.

Michael really nails it here, but guys... I'm so excited for "Lightyear". 😬😬

This is a complex issue, and you did about the best job that anyone could with distilling its many dimensions into a 28-minute video. I only differ in the amount of sympathy I have for our cohort, which is to say only a slight bit more. The conditioning we experienced as kids was profound, and (due in part to Reagen-era deregulation) omnipresent. He-Man and GIJoe weren't just in our toy box or on Saturday morning TV, they were fully integrated into just about every meaningful event of our childhood. The day we first met our eventual best friend in the school cafeteria, He-Man was posed heroically on our lunch box; the last time we had a sleepover at our grandparent's house before they moved away, GIJoe was on our pajamas and on our sleeping bag; the best birthday we can remember ever having as a kid, TMNT imagery was on the balloons and the paper plates and maybe even the birthday cake itself. Meaningful events during crucial developmental windows in childhood, all indelibly stamped with the IPs we loved and were constantly exposed to. I can't dismiss this as having significant weight in explaining some of the differences experienced by previous generations. Like I said, it's a complex set of phenomena, and it may be impossible to disentangle our cohort's concept of self from the experience of many of these IPs, precisely because of how integrated they are with that which is sacred: memory and the past. And, if I were to put my cynic's hat on for a moment, this is something that the likes of Disney (who have spent a lot of time and money monopolizing the sole ownership of these IPs) understand very well and have no reservations about exploiting. But that's a whole other thread. Again, great job with this video. Hopefully it will give viewers some food for thought, maybe even help to reframe how they interact with culture and how they think about themselves. Kudos.

Another problem I see from the youth of today is that our parents/elders would pass on their movies, comics, books, and stories to us; now the youth of today refuse to expect or watch anything old (examples I don't watch black & white movies, I don't want to read a movie or the now current annoying word problematic). I have gotten lucky in some situations for example after The Shape of Water came out I had tons of people wanting to borrow The Creature from the Black Lagoon from me (since that was one of the key inspirations of Del Toro's movie). It is now a chore for me to share the likes of the Universal Monsters, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Hitchcock films, and so on due to pure ignorance. I 100% get what Michael is saying about the kids of the 80's and 90's but a lot of it is also the stupidity of the society in general.

Such an articulate, insightful, and well-crafted video essay. Keep up the good work!

Love your content, man. Stumbled across your channel when I was researching a recent purchase and have been binging ever since. Voice comes off smart and authoritative. Ideas are clear, concise, well researched and articulated. And the wit is gold. Wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment here: All good things must/should come to an end.

Great video. Nailed what I’ve been trying to explain to a bunch of friends for ages! From now on I’ll just send them this link…

I always loved the idea of The Terminator franchise ending with Kyle Reese stepping into the time machine so that the story would become the eternal snake eating its own tale....and unending circle, you can watch forever. But the kept doing time travel stories....even in the tv show.

Thoughtful, insightful, and WISE. This was an amazing episode!

Excellent analysis! One of your best videos yet.

I like a lot of sequels to a lot of great movies (in my opinion). But, your points are 100% valid and I love your insights! What a great and well thought out video! Thanks for all that you do RB!

My explanation is as simple as this, and it's ironically a Batman reference: entertainment executives are a superstitious and cowardly lot. If you greenlight a pre-existing property with a pre-existing fan base and it flops, you can say to the CEO or the shareholders "hey, look at all the research that this material had a built-in audience, don't fire me, I had the right idea, the people under me didn't execute." Yes, the general audience goes to the reboots and deboots and preboots but, ultimately, it's because it was marketed so hard to them, not because that's all they wanted. They would go to see new stuff if it was offered and pushed. But it's safer for executives so it doesn't happen. They would rather keep their jobs and fail at their jobs than risk striking out in pursuit of a home run with a new property. And their tail wags our dog as consumers. There are other lesser factors, of course, but I think this is the heart of the matter.

Yet another well presented and concise video essay Michael. Keep up the great work!

I think movie houses are afraid of “endings” because they are so afraid to take a chance on a new ip.

I’ve only made it halfway through this video and I feel it might already be The Best RetroBlasting Video You Guys Have Ever Made. Excellent topic, excellent narration, excellent writing, excellent examples, excellent editing. Thank you for publicly saying what some of us have felt needed to be said for a long time. Sadly, it will likely fall on deaf ears for the creators/studios who need to hear it.

Very good Observation. 👍

One of the things I really love about Retroblasting, is the honesty and the logic of videos like this!

Great piece, Michael! Very well done!

Star wars worldbuilding is perfect to explored new places and event outside the main story. Espiode 1-6 was a self contain story. The story ended at Return of the jedi but left entire galaxy to explore both past and future.

23:52 - That is awesome! I just enjoyed pausing that just to read those book titles! I had to throw that in just so you'd know some of us enjoy the detail of your videos.

Here’s another point: Why don’t you use what you loved as inspiration and influence to create *new* stories? A lot of people in the indie comic/webcomic department are coming to realize this. I hang out at a discord group of indie comic creators called The Outlaw Dive who talk about doing this. Hell, George Lucas used Flash Gordon and Pulps, things of his childhood to make Star Wars and Indiana Jones I’ve been more excited for Kamen America by the small company Iconic Comics, than what the almighty Disney Corporation hocks up

You've said it all, so no need to add to it, but 100% agree. The corporate mentality has seeped into the fandom, itself, to the point where I see people constantly using words like "content" and "IP" to describe their favorite movies, which is just nauseating to see. Perhaps I'm spoiled, having grown up in the 80's with so many "one-off" great films that were just allowed to be great on their own. The *ONLY* example I can give of a totally successful modern sequel to a classic film that's been made recently is the "Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" series, which was almost miraculously wonderful; I still don't think the work that was put into that has received the credit it deserved.

Dead. Solid. Perfect. Michael you have crystalized my thoughts exactly.

I’m sure others can come up with their own good examples…..but for me, an 80 year old Indiana Jones, in Part 5, is the ultimate embodiment of this video’s message.

Thank you Michael. I agree Companies forcing out more sequels and reboots that ring hollow is getting old. They've already scraped the bottom of the barrel, and are now threatening us with more continuations and reimaginings of anything that might have had even the slightest buzz from the 80s and 90s. They're bringing back Quatum Leap, and Fraiser. I loved these shows, but I don't need more. I want new stories. That's why Invincible, Vox Machina, and Squid Games interested me. New approaches, fresh ideas, characters I never saw before.

What a great video. I enjoyed this very much!

I know this may be an odd take, but "our fathers and grandfather's" were drafted into war. Even without a draft however ( I realize there were wars in the 90s and 2000s, just no draft since the end of Vietnam). Our fathers and grandfather's were expected to grow up. Many vintage comic book and toy collections were discarded. Even for myself, while I stopped " playing with toys" when I turned 12 and entered the 7th grade, I still watched cartoons, and then after highschool I stopped caring what my peers thought, and immediately started collecting again. I don't mind that stories end. I'm quite ok with it. Endgame was my end to the MCU. I haven't watched anything from phase 4,and I'm ok with it.

The best video about entertainment, in the history of the Internet.

Excellent video Micheal been thinking this for a while, very well said👍🏻

Didn't want this to video to end. Part 2 when?! (Well done, Michael.) < 3

Love these style videos. Very on point.

*Sequelitis is due to IP Squatting and wealth concentration. Makers/owners of hit properties have decided it's safer to build on an existing franchise and cater to an existing fanbase, by making a sequel or a reboot, than to take the risk of making something new that could be entirely passed over and ignored.* 🧐

Once again… brilliant writing, editing and articulating a topic that has for a long time needed to be discussed! #WellDone 🥃

Yet another FANTASTIC video!

Great Video as always. I very much enjoy your content, please continue good sir...

I think pretty much my entire generation needs to see this.

Great video expose, my dude. Like Don Henley wrote in his sublime 80's tome The Boys of Summer where he summerized The Boomers with one single poignant lyric: 'Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac...' *SPOILER: his generation sold out* I think you just perfectly articulated ours. The reason Generation X was coined generation x was because we were this unquantifiable variable going into the new world order of the then upcoming future. Now that once open road of possibility and unlimited promise ahead is a well-ridden beaten path wasteland of squandered potential left behind eating dust in the rear view mirror.

Well said, Michael. I totally agree with you .

Yeah, thanks. One of the things I hate is that everything gets a sequel or reboot these days, honestly it is exhausting keeping up with stories that never end. My favorite films and TV shows are ones that have an ending and I don't need sequels to. MASH doesn't need a sequel, Joker Doesn't need a sequel, The Adventures of Robin Hood doesn't need a sequel, Hill Street Blues doesn't need to continue, Star Wars reached its end point with Return of the Jedi, Babylon 5 ended on the perfect note and we don't need more adventures. We don't need a sequel or reboot to everything. Some stories just end and that is what makes them so good, their endings. One of the reasons I love the Nolan Batman trilogy is that it does end, it tells a story and then it ends. Imagine that. Thank you for bringing up Death Wish, it is one of the best examples of what you are talking about. When I say the first Death Wish is one of my favorite films of the 70s people look at me funny because they don't understand how good that film was because the sequels ruined the concept. It the first Death Wish he doesn't even get the guys who murdered his wife and he nearly loses his soul just going after random thugs but at the same time it shows that living in fear is no way to live either. It is complex and powerful but most people will not give the original a chance because the sequels were so bad.

My high school years found me seriously considering film school. Why? Because I was totally caught up with my favorite movies. I never wanted to make more of those stories. I was inspired to make stories - and heroes - of my own. Obviously, that didn't happen for me, and I'm kind of glad it did because studios and financiers are only interested in "Moneyballing" the process. I would never have survived how things work today. And it is true...the films that inspired me so much back in high school (at least, a large number of them) are devalued. They're diluted and start becoming colorless and flavorless.

Great essay Michael

Really great video!

Some of these stories and franchises need to end. As a lifelong Star Wars, I've come to despise a lot of the new stuff coming out now-not because it's different from the original, but because it's just overload. I was under the impression that the Book of Boba Fett was only a limited series, but now folks are already clamoring for a second season-and the episodes we got weren't the best anyway. This video was SPOT ON. Thanks for sharing this.

So well put; as always Michael, thanks! A Beautifully written and edited (loved the use of Big Fat Quiz & Would I lie as retorts;) ) -Video essay on modern pop culture. Not once resorting to 'everything new is awful' but instead inviting us to ask why we need eternal continuation ... Found the addiction and tolerance comparison to ring very true, -we're never going to recreate that high from 1982 for example - or any other year. Perhaps by voting with our feet/money, we could issue in a new era of creativity in Hollywood/Media? -& let our children have their own classics... who knows? Excellent work though :)

This is pretty profound video essay. I’m especially impressed with Michael’s command of both funny and illustrative video clips. I’m wondering where the clips of Julian Glover as storyteller came from. I’ve seen clips from a documentary series in which Glover delivers excerpts from Beowulf, but I haven’t seen the footage used in this video before.

What really drove this home for me, was the last episode of The Mandalorian. It is better for what we love to die with dignity and when we have consistently positive memories of it, than for a corpse to continually be resurrected, re-animated, and defiled, over and over again.

Toy story 4 is a great example of this

You mentioned the finite number of the doctor regenerations. I think it is accurate. After that number, the doctor was gone. Anything since will be a shadow.

Once again, Michael - you've nailed it.

That video was simply brilliant.

Life is special because it's brief. Movies and stories are the same.

Great video Retroblasting! A lot of good points to think about. Also, I had no idea there were that many Terminator sequels. 🤯

This is why I didn't watched any MCU stuff (aside from Spider-Man) after Avengers: Endgame, I might be the only one who thought that it ended the MCU perfectly and like a full course meal, I was so content and happy that I never really bother to watch Wandavision, Loki etc despite hearing good things about it.

Brilliant work sir! 💯

You’ve put this thing that’s been bothering me for awhile into words I simply couldn’t come up with and I thank you. I’m glad you mentioned and showed Sneakers and Dark City. Two movies that probably WOULD’VE gone the franchise route(especially the former) if they’d been more successful. As it stands, they are forever(at this moment) kind of perfect, There is one example in which I desperately wants to know MORE and that probably predates a lot of us. After seeing 2001, I had so many questions and 2010 which wasn’t that popular helped satisfy that(still lots of questions, but I liked it).

"Titanic 2: The Captain Strikes Back"

I discussed this topic with a friend after we watched the original Predator. It would be great to see the mercenary team in another movie similar to The Expendables, being the best of the best, but that was not the point of those characters. They were created simply for us to be told how awesome they were in past missions then see them die against a stronger opponent. As much as I would LIKE to see them in more tales, you need to realise that their story was told. Their entire purpose for being was that first story.

I pray that this is the last Jurassic world movie, I haven't even watched anyone tear it apart on KZfaq. To know anything about anything that happens in that movie will be too painful, I don't even want to know how bad it is anymore.

wow michael, this is the slap in the face I never knew i needed. It was always there on the service... I need a week maybe 2 to find my way again... Food for though.

Wonderful video man

Excellent video. I concur wholeheartedly.

For me, Doctor Who ended with The Husbands of River Song. And Ghostbusters with Ghostbusters II. And Star Wars with Return of the Jedi. We need to stop pretending quality is going to be there always, specially when incapable people is behind most of productions, scripts or visuals (by the way, I liked Ghostbusters Afterlife, but I take it like a different movie from a different time).

Just FYI: King Solomon's Mine was part of an ongoing series of Allan Quartermain books, The Three Musketeers has a sequel (The Man in the Iron Mask), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes because he was tired of writing the same sorts of stories. This problem has been going on for HUNDREDS of years.

Wow. This was excellent.

Great video, Michael. Endings are so important to creating a compelling story. Now my first reaction after seeing something I actually enjoy is "I wonder how they're going to ruin this?" I SO wish Star Wars would have ended in 1983...

This is video of the Year for 2022 so far. 💯 Less is sometimes more.