Sequel Goes Foreign

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.

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:

Comics

• Ghostbusters International saw the boys in grey leave New York City and travel to several European countries.

Film

• 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
• Cars 2 takes McQueen, Mater and their friends out of Radiator Springs and across the globe, with stops in Tokyo, Paris, Italy and London.
• The second Cheetah Girls Made for TV Movie takes place in Barcelona, while the third takes place in India.
• 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 third Digimon movie involves some of the Japanese Digidestined meeting Willis in the U.S.
• 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.
• As part of the third series of Goodness Gracious Me, the cast recorded a "Back Where They Came From" special filmed in India.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Love Bug and its first sequel, Herbie Rides Again take place in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo takes place in Paris, France with the climax in Monte Carlo while Herbie Goes Bananas takes place across several Latin American countries. The 1997 movie and Herbie: Fully Loaded returned to California, though not San Francisco.
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Inverted with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America: The First Avenger followed Cap across Europe as World War II raged but Winter Soldier never leaves the Washington D.C. area.
  • The Avengers had its climatic battle in New York City. Avengers: Age of Ultron is a globe trotting adventure (South Africa, South Korea, and Ruritania) and Avengers: Infinity War had its climax somewhere in Africa.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming takes place in New York. Spider-Man: Far From Home takes place across several European countries.
  • Deadpool & Wolverine goes as foreign as the MCU can get by not taking place in the MCU, being set largely in the Void and the X-Men Cinematic Universe.
• The first entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla, takes place on the West Coast of the United States. All subsequent entries take place in other countries.
• 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.
• The Rescuers Down Under, set in Australia (natch).
• Rugrats in Paris
• 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.
• Shenmue 2 takes place in Hong Kong.
• Speed 2 Cruise Control takes place in the Caribbean.
• In the 1970s animated Spider-Man movie Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge (the third in a series), Spider-Man goes to Japan.
• 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.
• Transformers:
  • The 2007 film took place entirely in America. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen moves the action to Egypt, Transformers: Dark of the Moon has an important sequel in Russia (even if the climax takes place in the city of Chicago), Transformers: Age of Extinction has its climax in China and a decent chunk of Transformers: The Last Knight takes place in England while the climax takes place on Cybertron.
  • Bumblebee never left California. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts moves the action to Peru.
• Tremors 2 takes place in Mexico.
• In K-On! the movie, the gang goes to England.

Literature

• Witches Abroad plays with this tradition and pertinent cliché.

Video Games

• Grand Theft Auto: London 1969.

Western Animation

• After two shows in a sleepy Californian town, the third entry in the Tales of Arcadia saga, Wizards, takes place largely in England.