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In many sequel names, particularly in schlock horror, the title, or sub-title, describes some kind of return, revenge, reaction, counter-force, backlash, etc. that usually implies it's a direct consequence of one of the previous installments. The movie's tagline might even be something like "And this time, It's Personal."
Also expect "Son of _____" and "Bride of _____".
Compare There's No B in Movie. Subtrope of Stock Subtitle.
Examples of Revenge of the Sequel include:
Anime[]
- The second season of Jubei-chan "The Counterattack of Siberian Yagyuu."
- Mewtwo Strikes Back is an odd example, since it's the subtitle of Pokémon the First Movie. The sequel is called Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns.
- Digimon Adventure 02: Revenge of Diaboromon. The original Japanese title was Diaboromon Strikes Back. The "02" in Digimon 02 refers to it taking place in 2002, though. (At the time it was written, 2002 was Twenty Minutes Into the Future.)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
- The Movie Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: The Last Blitz of Zeon.
Comic Books[]
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and its sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again
- The second Hack Slash trade paperback is titled "The Revenge of the Return".
- Ambush Bug's second series was Son of Ambush Bug
- Lobo's second series was Lobo's Back. The third was Lobo's Back's Back.
- In X-Men: The End, Jubilee is a movie producer — and one of the posters in her office is for Lord of the Flies 2: Piggy's Revenge
Film[]
- The Universal Horror films of the '30s and '40s may have been the Trope Codifier:
- Frankenstein was followed by Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Ghost of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, etc.
- Dracula was followed by Draculas Daughter, Son of Dracula, and House of Dracula.
- The Mummy was followed by The Mummys Hand (actually a reboot rather than a direct sequel), which itself was followed by The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, and The Mummy's Curse.
- The Invisible Man was followed by The Invisible Man Returns and The Invisible Woman.
- Creature from the Black Lagoon was followed by Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us.
- Three out of six Star Wars movies:
- Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Has become so well known that nearly any movie, book, or other title with the words "strike back" in it that came after 1980 is 99% likely to be referencing this.
- Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Which was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi in both posters and even the teaser trailer before Lucas changed the title a few weeks before the premier (as Jedi do not seek Revenge).
- Episode III: Revenge of the Sith...which was itself a reference to the original title of Episode VI.
- Die Hard With a Vengeance
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which is of course a direct reference to Star Wars.
- Complete with Mark Hamill (applause).
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
- Halloween H2O was originally going to be Halloween 7: The Revenge of Laurie Strode.
- Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman
- Return of the Living Dead (a sort-of sequel to Night of the Living Dead) and its four sequels.
- Not to mention the actual George Romero sequels: Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead.
- Jaws the Revenge
- The Return of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (the sequel to the Bay film).
- Justified title, as the Fallen is an actual character in the movie, seeking revenge for things that happened millenia before the first movie took place. Also a subtle play on events from the first movie.
- Revenge of The Pink Panther, The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, Son of the Pink Panther.
- Porky's Revenge
- The Return of Jafar
- Superman Returns
- Batman Returns
- Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge
- X Men the Last Stand
- Godzilla Raids Again
- Godzilla's Revenge.
- The Return of Godzilla, also known as Godzilla 1985.
- The second Mechagodzilla movie, known in America as Terror of Mechagodzilla, has a Japanese title that translates to Mechagodzilla's Counterattack.
- Star Trek II was nearly named The Vengeance of Khan, but the third Star Wars movie was known at the time as Revenge of the Jedi, so they switched to calling it The Wrath of Khan.
- The Mummy Returns
- Hammer Horror were never content with a Numbered Sequel. Why settle for 'Dracula III' when you can have Dracula Has Risen From The Grave! instead?
- Psycho Cop Returns
- The Return of Swamp Thing
- Return of Sabata
- Zebraman 2: Vengeful Zebra City
- Son of Kong, sequel to the original King Kong.
- Dr Phibes Rises Again, sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
- The fourth and fifth Childs Play films are entitled Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky.
- Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator
- Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) is a follow-up to the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls.
Literature[]
- CJ Cherryh's novel The Kif Strike Back. Cherryh was shocked that her publisher took her joking suggestion seriously.
- It's worth noting that Return of the King is not an example of this trope because: 1) it's not a trilogy but the third volume of a single story, 2) the titular return is something that's been hundreds (?) of years in the making, and not a direct follow-up to the two previous installments.
- Return of the Shadow was a rejected title for The Fellowship of the Ring, and eventually turned up as the title of the sixth volume in The History of Middle-Earth, Christopher Tolkien's Making Of dodecalogy.
- The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
- Stationery Voyagers follows up "The Rage of Cybomec" with "The Return of Cybomec." More subtly, the episodes revolving around Marlack's cowboy origins are titled "Rodeo" and "Roundup." There's also an episode titled "Broken" followed by "All Falls Apart." Preceding them is one in a prior season titled "All That Remains."
- Many Goosebumps books: "Return of the Mummy", "Say Cheese and Die — Again!", "Return to HorrorLand", "Return to Ghost Camp", "Return to the Carnival of Horrors", "Return to Terror Tower", "Revenge of the Body Squeezers" and "Bride of the Living Dummy". The "Goosebumps HorrorLand" series includes several non-numbered sequels, starting with "Revenge of the Living Dummy". The nineteenth (and last announced) book in the series is "Return to Chiller House", which is the last installment in a seven-book storyline.
- Arthur Conan Doyle's first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories after bringing the character back to life was titled — what else? — The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Live Action TV[]
- The Quantum Leap episodes "Return of the Evil Leaper" and "Revenge of the Evil Leaper."
- Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? is kind of a variation on this.
- Several Mr. Bean episodes: "The Return of Mr. Bean", "The Curse of Mr. Bean", "Mr. Bean Rides Again", etc.
- From How I Met Your Mother comes "Slapgiving: Revenge of the Slap"
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Music[]
- The O.C. Supertones' second studio album was titled Supertones Strike Back, and their sixth was titled Revenge of the O.C. Supertones.
- Son of Schmilsson, Harry Nilsson's followup album to Nilsson Schmilsson.
- The Frank Zappa instrumental trilogy Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar Some More, and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar.
- The song title Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (predating the above trilogy) parodies this trope.
Parodies[]
- The Simpsons were once watching a trailer for Titanic 2: Revenge of the Titanic.
- "Rocky V plus Rocky II equals... Rocky VII: Adrian's Revenge!"
- How 2 Kill a Mockingbird: Return of the Revenge.
- Parodied by the Avatar: The Abridged Series guy.
- A Blackadder the Third episode has the title character making sacracstic reference to "Dictionary 2: Revenge of the Killer Dictionary".
- Mr. Show With Bob and David had a sketch called The Return of the Curse of the Creature's Ghost — a B-Movie parody which consisted largely of the characters arguing over what it was they were supposed to be afraid of.
- Meta3: The Revenge of the Curse of the Son of Meta's Revenge Rides Again: This Time, It's Personal.
- Peter Chimera's epic Troll Fic "Digimon 2: Return of Digimon". Oddly enough, it actually fits the trope, following on from the evil scintist's plot to destory the roads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H 8 In Fny Z 7 z I
- In Carpe Jugulum, the Old Count is writing a piece of "music" entitled Return of the Bride of the Revenge of the Son of Count Magpyr
From 20,000 Fathoms. - One episode of the Venture Brothers is "Return to the House of Mummies, part 2." There is no part 1.
- An episode of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo has the gang sucked into a horror movie called The Son of the Bride of the Ghost of Frankenstein.
- In Sinfest,
Video Games[]
- Burnout Revenge
- Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
- Batman: Vengeance
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge
- Return of Double Dragon, the Japanese version of Super Double Dragon.
- The Red Alert 2 expansion pack Yuri's Revenge.
- Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
- Metroid II: The Return of Samus
- MOTHER2: Gyiyg Strikes Back (known as Earthbound in the U.S.)
- Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land
- The mini-game Revenge of Meta Knight in Kirby Super Star was the titular knight's second appearance in the mainline Kirby series.
- Monkey Island 2 Le Chucks Revenge
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Snake's Revenge, the non-canonical NES sequel to the original Metal Gear. The title makes very little sense in context, since the plot is actually about Big Boss getting his revenge on Solid Snake for turning him into a cyborg. It becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater revealed that "Snake" was originally Big Boss' codename.
- Bonk's Revenge, but what he's getting revenge for is uncertain. If anything, the villain should be getting revenge on him.
- Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge
- Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge for the Game Boy. Like the Snake's Revenge example above, the game is actually about Dracula getting his revenge on Christopher.
- The PAL version of Super C is known as Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces.
- The arcade version of Super Contra bore the tagline Erian no Gyakushu in Japan, which literally means "The Alien's Counterattack" or "The Aliens Strikes Back".
- The two Shinobi sequels for the Genesis were called The Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers the second Game Boy game in the series.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Return of the Shredder, the Japanese version of TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist for the Genesis.
- Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge
- Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (the first Game Boy game in the series)
- Final Fight Revenge
- Golden Axe: Revenge of the Death Adder (the arcade sequel)
- The Legend of Kyrandia III: Malcolm's Revenge
- Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge
- Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
- Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge
- In Space Quest IV, one of the time travel dates is called Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II.
- Police Quest II: The Vengeance
- Shantae: Risky's Revenge
- Re-Volt: Revange of the RC.
- Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress. The Big Bad of part two is the ex-girlfriend of the Big Bad from part one.
- Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Western Animation[]
Real Life[]
- "Pojan koston paluu" is used quite a lot in Finnish. It literally means "The return of the revenge of the son".
- Similarly, in Spain "X 2: La Venganza" (X 2: The Revenge) is basically the Spanish equivalent of Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo.