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Showdown origins

This Showdown preys on the days of future past: the great and powerful films that came after the main event—whether that event was also a film, television series, novel, comic or song—and took us back to the beginning while continuing the story*. Get your army of thieves together, open the ouija board, and start listing the ten best prequels, origin stories, sequels-with-flashbacks, and rises-to-power of infamous characters. If your choices don’t make the final destination, hey, better luck tomorrow and see you on the ride back. (*Reboots count only if they include otherwise unexplored origin stories.)

  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • Adaptation.
  • Shakespeare in Love
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • Grey Gardens
  • The Black Stallion
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • Akira
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Excalibur
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley
  • Paddington
  • Hamilton
  • The Godfather Part II
  • Superman
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Flash Gordon
  • Conan the Barbarian
  • Amadeus
  • Out of Africa
  • Dragnet
  • The Last Emperor
  • Good Morning, Vietnam
  • The Fugitive
  • Schindler's List
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • Batman Begins
  • The Last King of Scotland
  • Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
  • Iron Man
  • Black Panther
  • Cruella
  • Klaus
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  • Frosty the Snowman
  • Life of Brian
  • Young Guns
  • Primary Colors
  • Rudy
  • Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp