You can probably name a bunch of great sequels off the top of your head right now – but how many of those are threequels? By that point in a franchise, the concept can become stale and the characters tired. We all know that there are countless examples of bad threequels capping trilogies that were up to that point highly-regarded: The Godfather Part III, Terminator: Rise of the Machines, Spider-Man 3, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, X-Men: The Last Stand, the list goes on and on.
Not all movie threequels are so disappointing, however. Occasionally, a movie series’ third outing makes a great film in its own right. Star Trek Beyond – if we’re to think of 2009’s Star Trek as the beginning of a new series – is one such improbably solid second sequel to prove the curse of the threequel doesn’t extend to all franchises. It’s not alone, either; Beyond follows a group of other surprisingly great movies to buck the bad threequel trend, and here are ten threequels that turned out surprisingly well.