Total Film's 50 Sequels That Were Radically Differ

The Original: John Carpenter's genre-defining slasher flick. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her babysitter friends are stalked on Halloween by escaped mental patient Michael Myers.

The Radically Different Sequel: A standalone oddity in which the owner of an evil novelties company plots to kill children on Halloween by using booby-trapped scary masks…

Biggest Change: The plot's completely different with no Michael Myers in sight.

Carpenter and producer Debra Hill envisioned the Halloween franchise becoming an anthology series that told a different story with every sequel. When Halloween III flopped, that idea was abandoned.

The Original: A taut, spooky space flick from director Ridley Scott. A group of space truckers happen upon a deadly alien that tears its way through the ship - and their bodies.

The Radically Different Sequel: A gun-blazing war flick ("This time it's war" yelled the tagline) as survivor Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) takes a no-prisoners approach to killing an entire army of xenomorphs.

Biggest Change: Aside from the genre flip, there's not one but hundreds of slathering aliens, and they've been given something of a design tweak. Plus Ripley's got shorter hair now.

The Original: Joe Dante's eighties monster flick starring Zach Galligan as the kid who's given a mogwai for Christmas, which spawns a legion of naughty gremlins.

The Radically Different Sequel: Tongue-in-cheek chuckler that relocates the action to Manhattan, where Zach Galligan's office block is overrun with gremlins.

Biggest Change: Whereas the first film had a wickedly dark sense of humour, the sequel's post-modern and nudge-winky in a far broader sense, frequently breaking the fourth wall.

The Original: Eighties cult flick directed by John Carl Buechler (The Dungeonmaster). A San Francisco high rise comes under attack from a troll who's looking for a mystical ring. (Hate it when that happens.)

The Radically Different Sequel: Cult flick widely considered one of the worst films ever made. A family attempt to evade a gang of vegetarian goblins who want to turn them into plants so they can be eaten…

Biggest Change: There isn't a single troll in Troll 2, which sort of confuses things. Also, the acting's taken a serious downswing…

The Original: Tim Burton's Batman, which made comic book movies cool again and starred Michael Keaton as the Bat. He goes up against Jack Nicholson's manic Joker.

The Radically Different Sequel: Fourth entry in the franchise and contender for the title of Campest Movie Ever. This Joel Schumacher flick stars George Clooney as the Bat and pits him against Arnie's Mr Freeze and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy.

Biggest Change: How about EVERYTHING? Batman & Robin has about as much in common with the first Batman as a toothbrush does with a tyrannosaurus rex.

The Original: Lean and mean black-and-white classic Night Of The Living Dead. A group of people hole up in a farmhouse which is besieged by legions of ravenous undead.

The Radically Different Sequel: Mass hysteria has gripped the world as the zombie plague recruits yet more innocent victims. Meanwhile, a group of survivors hide out in a mall.

Biggest Change: Romero's second film is big, big, BIG.

Escalating the scale of the franchise, it's a zombie-infested action flick that also adds Technicolor to the mix (y'know, to really make that pumping blood pop on screen).

The Original: House Of 1000 Corpses, a zombie flick directed, naturally, by Rob Zombie. Two couples fall prey to the savage Firefly family on Halloween.

The Radically Different Sequel: The bloodthirsty Firefly family are back, this time going up against a Texas sheriff and his army of state troopers.

Biggest Change: The baddies from the first film are now the anti-heroes of the sequel, which is all kinds of topsy-turvy and weird.

Just who are we supposed to root for, eh?

The Original: Hard and fast sci-fi that plays around with ideas of fate and the future. The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to 1984 from the future in order to destroy the mother of the saviour of mankind.

The Radically Different Sequel: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has transformed into a formidable warrior. The T-800 is the good guy. And the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) is hunting John Connor (Edward Furlong).

Biggest Change: This time around, Arnie's the good guy. The scope of Cameron's sequel is also infinitely larger, with more action set-pieces, a longer running time and meatier themes to chew on.

The Original: Friday The 13th, one of the first summer-camp-set slasher films. A young Kevin Bacon stars as hack-fodder for a psycho killer who's butchering teens at Camp Crystal Lake.

The Radically Different Sequel: Killer Jason Voorhees is captured and frozen when the US Government fails to find a way to destroy him. Jason wakes up in the year 2455 and soon starts hacking apart annoying future teens.

Biggest Change: It's Friday The 13th In Space! Until now, the franchise has barely strayed away from Camp Crystal Lake (aside from a later entry disastrously set in Manhattan) and Jason X wants to shake things up.

It also buried the franchise.

The Original: Jungle-set action horror. When Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his special forces team head into Central America to take down deadly guerrillas, they encounter an alien predator that's far, far deadlier.

The Radically Different Sequel: Set 10 years after the first film, this slick sequel dumps Dutch in favour of Lieutenant Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover), whose investigations into LA drug cartels leads to a confrontation with the Predator.

Biggest Change: If the first film was an action horror, the second's more of a police procedural that also happens to feature an alien.

The Original: Classic noir The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, who gets caught up in a plot to uncover the mythical statue of the title.

The Radically Different Sequel: A comedy caper following Sam's son, imaginatively named Sam Jr (George Segal), who picks up his father's old Maltese Falcon case when Sam Snr passes away (off screen).

Biggest Change: Though Falcon had its fair share of character-driven comedy, The Black Bird is totally different in feel and tone - it's a broad comedy with none of the class of its noir predecessor.

The Original: Black-and-white classic from Alfred Hitchcock. The proprietor of the Bates Motel, Norman (Anthony Perkins), turns out to be a crazy loon who kills people while dressed as his dead mother.

The Radically Different Sequel: Much-belated (Technicolor) follow-up. Norman has spent years in a mental institution. When he's released, it's considered a good idea to let him return to the house that turned him crazy in the first place…

Biggest Change: This time, Norman is the trouble hero of the piece. We're invited to root for him and hope that he's finally turned over a new leaf. But has he?

The Original: Cult eighties horror Child's Play. When voodoo killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) is mortally wounded, he transfers his soul into a Good Guy doll that is given to six-year-old Andy (Alex Vincent) as a birthday present.

The Radically Different Sequel: Fourth entry in the franchise and the first to not use the Child's Play title. Chucky returns with a little help from his ex-girlfriend Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), who gets dollified herself. Then? Road trip with Katherine Heigl…

Biggest Change: There are two talking dolls, and they're constantly bickering. The tone of the film is also even more humorous than previous instalments, which is actually a good thing.

The Original: Based on the book by William Peter Blatty. An exorcist is called in when young Regan (Linda Blair) starts showing signs of possession. Is she crazy or does she have the devil in her?

The Radically Different Sequel: Four years after the first film, Regan's 16 and a patient at a psychiatric ward. But has the demon really gone, or is it simply resting?

Biggest Change: The spooky, portentous mood of the first film is completely gone for a hippy-trippy sequel that frequently slips into all-out ridiculousness.

Case in point: Blair tap-dancing and developing weird psychic powers. And don't even get us started on the locusts…

The Original: The Evil Dead was a micro-budget, woods-set horror in which demons come out of the woodwork, while Evil Dead 2 was a pseudo-remake-sequel which injected more humour (and gore) into proceedings.

The Radically Different Sequel: The third entry in the franchise whisks hero Ash (Bruce Campbell) off to 1300AD where he's low on gas (tricky when your sole weapon is a chainsaw) and the deadites are still on the loose.

Biggest Change: The humour's even more manic than ever and at times AOD feels like a delirious nightmare of increasingly wacky events.

The Original: Loving adaptation of Dick King-Smith's novel about a pig (Babe) who grows up thinking he's a sheepdog. Laugh you may, but he turns out to be pretty good at herding…

The Radically Different Sequel: A totally bonkers road movie in which Babe heads to the big city in order to help save Farmer Hoggett's farm from bankruptcy.

Biggest Change: The first movie was a cute fable about never accepting your limits. The second film's a veritable zoo gone wild with crazy animals all over the place and a strangely acerbic sense of humour.

The Original: Ridiculously clever time travel flick. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is transported back to 1955 where he attempts to keep history in tact while finding a way back to the future.

The Radically Different Sequel: Marty finds himself in the year 1885. Out of gas, and tormented by Mad Dog (Thomas F. Wilson), getting back to the future is going to be even more difficult than ever. Yee-haw!

Biggest Change: While we still get twisty time conundrums and meet distant relatives, this is very much a Western - something the franchise hadn't done previously. And, some might argue, shouldn't have done at all.

(But not us, we love it.)

The Original: A playful genre mash of historical epic and present day fantasy. Christopher Lambert is an immortal swordsman who searches for the elusive 'Prize'. Think Wheel Of Fortune with swords.

The Radically Different Sequel: The Highlander (Lambert) attempts to save the earth by installing an ozone shield. Or something. This is a confused mess and even Lambert doesn't seem to know what's going on.

Biggest Change: The total lapse in logic is the biggie here.

The Highlander is, for some reason, now living in the future and able to resurrect his mentor (Sean Connery) despite the fact that he was UTTERLY and TOTALLY destroyed last time. Fnnnnrrr.

The Original: The action movie to end all eighties action movies. Cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) takes on Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his band of terrorists when they take an LA high rise hostage.

The Radically Different Sequel: Fifth (and, some would say, worst) entry in the series. McClane heads to Moscow to track down his wayward son (Jai Courtney). Naturally, he ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again.

Biggest Change: McClane leaves America for Russia. What was he thinking?!

The Original: First Blood, a post-Vietnam action flick that takes a searing look at PTSD as John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is harassed and then hunted by local coppers.

The Radically Different Sequel: Rambo heads back to Vietnam to release American prisoners of war and goes up against corrupt politician Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier).

Biggest Change: Aside from Stallone's newly-humongous frame? Well, the franchise is no longer about one man's personal trauma, but blowing up as many people as possible. Plus guns. Lots and lots of guns.

The Original: Conan The Barbarian, which introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger as the muscular loincloth-lover. He seeks revenge against snake cult leader Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) for the death of his parents.

The Radically Different Sequel: A family-friendly fantasy. Conan is tasked with transporting Princess Jehnna (Olivia d'Abo) to a fortress where a mystical crystal has been hidden.

Biggest Change: Where the first Conan was an adult fantasy that didn't skimp on the gore, the sequel's as family-friendly as they come. Which is just odd if you ask us.

The Original: Unexpected smash hit of 2011 and the second film from Welsh director Gareth Evans. Iko Uwais is Rama, a rookie sent in to storm a high rise that's been commandeered by a crime lord. Soon, body parts fly.

The Radically Different Sequel: Picking up where the first film left off, Rama is this time recruited to infiltrate a Jakarta crime syndicate while also attempting to protect his family from corrupt cops.

Biggest Change: Naturally, the action's even more ambitious and breathtaking, but the decision to open up the franchise's landscape is the biggest change.

The Original: Dream-weaving slasher flick following the children of Elm Street, among them Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), who are haunted by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the murderer whom their parents killed.

The Radically Different Sequel: Released 11 years after the original A Nightmare On Elm Street, Craven returns to close the franchise with New Nightmare, which is set in the 'real world' and stars Langenkamp as herself.

Biggest Change: Ahead of his work on Scream, this was Craven doing post-modern horror and brilliantly blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

The Original: Pitch Black, an Alien-esque sci-fi horror set on a remote alien planet where scary criminal Riddick (Vin Diesel) is the only one with the skills to survive the planet's deadly alien populace.

The Radically Different Sequel: A big, bloated epic that attempts to turn Riddick's (yes) chronicles, into a massive sci-fi franchise. This time, Riddick goes up against an evil Necromonger and helps out Judi Dench.

Biggest Change: Riddick was always an anti-hero, but Chronicles takes it to another level, watering him down in order to put him at the centre of a franchise. It doesn't work.

The Original: A phenomenon as much as a movie as directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick convince everybody that the Blair Witch is real for a black-and-white scarefest.

The Radically Different Sequel: The Blair Witch goes Goth as a group of friends head to Maryland to research the witch for their book. After spending the night at the Parr house, they all wake up with no memory of the night before…

Biggest Change: The found footage aspect is all but abandoned in favour of a far more conventional approach to horror movie-making. Snore.

The Original: Comedy horror starring Kevin Bacon. He's part of a band of small-towners who are targeted by underground-dwelling monsters called graboids.

The Radically Different Sequel: A made-for-TV prequel set in 1889. The inhabitants of Rejection Valley attempt to fend off the graboids with limited fire power…

Biggest Change: Though it's technically a prequel, it's also completely different from the previous three Tremors flicks thanks to its 19th Century setting.

The Original: A knowing werewolf flick starring Dee Wallace as reporter Karen White, who's sent to an isolated retreat with her husband after a traumatic event. Problem is, the retreat is secretly home to a pack of werewolves…

The Radically Different Sequel: Karen's brother Ben (Reb Brown) discovers that his sister was a werewolf when he meets the mysterious Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee).

Biggest Change: Philippe Mora's sequel plays it straight, and the results are less than thrilling. What happened to the fun tongue-in-cheek vibe of the first film?

Also, the prosthetics are shocking.

Shock Treatment (1981)

The Original:Rocky Horror Picture Show aka one of the greatest musicals ever made. Tim Curry stars as Dr Frank N. Furter, a transvestite who plays host to young couple Brad and Janet when they get a flat tyre during a storm.

The Radically Different Sequel: A bizarre follow-up in which Brad and Janet's hometown has been transformed into a giant game show - and they're incarcerated as unwilling contestants.

Biggest Change: Though some of the same characters appear - notably Brad and Janet - they're played by different actors, so they might as well be totally different characters anyway.

The Original: A fun Gremlins bandwagon-hopper set in rural Kansas, where a farm is terrorised by invading aliens called Critters. It's not long before the bodies start piling up.

The Radically Different Sequel: The action's moved to space, where the franchise's unlikely hero Charlie (Don Keith Opper) attempts to eradicate the Critters once and for all.

Biggest Change: The setting is no longer Earth, but a space station for a film that clearly wants to be Alien (just check out the computer Angela), but is nowhere near as clever or atmospheric.

The Original: Horror flick following Irena (Simone Simon), a Serbian woman who believes that she's the descendant of a special breed of person who can transform into cats whenever they're, um, 'excited'.

The Radically Different Sequel: A psychological thriller with all the same characters but a totally different plot as six-year-old Amy makes an imaginary friend who turns out to be the ghost of Irena…

Biggest Change: There are no actual cat people in the film, other than the ghost of Irena…

The Original: George Miller's uber-cool road movie starring Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky. When his family are killed by evil future petrolheads, he sets out for revenge.

The Radically Different Sequel: When Max stumbles upon a small community that's been targeted by bandits for their gasoline, he agrees to help them fight back.

Biggest Change: The first film was more of a bleak post-apocalypse road movie, whereas the sequel puts the pedal to the metal to become one of the coolest action flicks ever made.

The Original: Mindless action flick in which police office Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) finds his loyalties to the force tested when he's seduced by the underground world of street racing.

The Radically Different Sequel: A heist movie on wheels as Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Brian are forced to work together to take down a heroin-importing crime lord.

Biggest Change: We still get racing cars and giant action set-pieces, but now the franchise has become more interested in heists than mere petrol-headed thrills - something the following sequels continued.

The Original: A terrifying religio-horror from director Richard Donner. American diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) adopts a young orphan, Damien, who turns out to be the spawn of Satan.

The Radically Different Sequel: We meet young Delia (Asia Vieira), who starts displaying strange powers when she's adopted by Gene (Michael Woods) and Karen York (Faye Grant).

Biggest Change: It totally breaks away (or near enough) from the original film (and its two sequels) for a standalone shocker in which - oh my - the devil child is now a GIRL. Whatever next?

The Original: Ridley Scott's Alien, in which Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the crew of the Nostromo find themselves trapped aboard their spacecraft with a killer xenomorph.

The Radically Different Sequel: Technically a sort of non-prequel, Scott's return to Alien franchise attempts to figure out the origins of the xenomorph, this time with Noomi Rapace as the lone female survivor.

Biggest Change: The xenomorph glimpsed at the tail-end of the film is totally different to what we're used to, as is the ginormous facehugger.

The Original: Technically, Casino Royale is a sort of prequel-sequel, but it follows Die Another Day, so we'll say that's the original - an increasingly-goofy Bond outing with Pierce Brosnan in the suit.

The Radically Different Sequel: Daniel Craig replaces Brosnan as 007, who's tasked with taking down a weapons dealer. Meanwhile, he falls for Vesper (Eva Green).

Biggest Change: You want a gritty Bond? You got it, as Martin Campbell takes a page out of Bourne's book for the most daring Bond to date.

The Original: Steven Spielberg blockbuster in which Amity Island is terrorised by a Great White Shark. Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) attempts to take the sea-dwelling monster down.

The Radically Different Sequel: Brody's wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary) discovers that the shark terrorising her family is related to the shark that her hubby killed in '75. Yup, it wants revenge…

Biggest Change: The shark, um, has a motive? It also has the uncanny ability to rise out of the water on its tail and roar at people.

The Original: Paul Verhoeven's breathtakingly violent sci-fi. When Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is killed by a street gang, he's transformed into the world's first robotic copper.

The Radically Different Sequel: RoboCop (Robert John Burke, replacing Weller) flies into action mode when his partner Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) is killed. Meanwhile, Detroit goes to hell.

Biggest Change: Aside from the recasting, RoboCop also replaces his hand with a ginormous assault rifle and goes up against robot ninjas. What happened to the gentle nuance of the original film, eh?

The Original: A young Jennifer Aniston (in her first ever movie role) battles a savage leprechaun (Warwick Davis) who's hunting for his precious pot of gold.

The Radically Different Sequel: The Leprechaun jets off into space and has his eye on a distant planet where he plans on becoming king. No, really…

Biggest Change: The space setting is obviously a bit of a shake-up for the series, but the plot's an absolute minefield of wilful stupidity - just check out the stupid 'Mittenspider' (a doctor who the Leprechaun injects with spider DNA).

The Original: A group of teens visit a waxwork museum when it rolls into town. They soon discover, though, that the exhibits might not be all that they seem…

The Radically Different Sequel: Having survived the waxwork museum, Mark (Zach Galligan) and Sarah (Monika Schnarre) discover a strange compass that allows its users to travel through time and space.

Biggest Change: Just about everything.

There are no waxworks in this sequel, the story instead revolving around a series of vignettes, with Galligan and Schnarre taking on different roles throughout. Just… weird.

The Original: Late eighties Disney flick Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is the inventor who accidentally shrinks his kids to the size of ants, then has to find them before they're gobbled up by, well, anything bigger than an ant.

The Radically Different Sequel: Wayne hasn't learnt his lesson, this time accidentally 'blowing up' his toddler so that he's 14 feet tall - and a tantrum-throwing menace to society.

Biggest Change: Well, it goes the complete opposite to the first film. Clever, eh?

If the first film was an ode to the creature features of the fifties, this first sequel is more akin to Attack Of The 50ft Woman.

The Original: Canadian horror film following sisters Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger Fitzgerald (Katharine Isabelle). When Ginger's attacked by a wolf, she starts going through some unusual changes…

The Radically Different Sequel: This third entry in the franchise takes place in the 1800s, where sisters Brigitte and Ginger (the ancestors of the first film's characters) get caught in a werewolf trap once more.

Biggest Change: Like Back To The Future Part III (keep reading), we find ourselves in a completely different time.

The Original: Disillusioned Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) is the focus of a documentary that seeks to expose all exorcists as frauds. Then he meets possessed girl Nell (Ashley Bell) and it all goes a bit wrong…

The Radically Different Sequel: Having been dispossessed, Nell attempts to make a new life for herself - but has she really escaped the demon that nearly killed her?

Biggest Change: Ed Gass-Donnelly's daft-titled sequel isn't a found footage film, which sets it apart from its predecessor. (But that's not necessarily a good thing.)

The Original: Classic sixties Western based on Japanese flick Seven Samurai. Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn star as gunmen hired to protect a village from murderous bandits.

The Radically Different Sequel: Marshal Chris Adams (Lee Van Cleef, replacing Brynner) takes on a gang of Mexican bandits after his friend is killed.

Biggest Change: The original cast has been completely replaced by this point, meaning this is a Magnificent Seven movie by name alone.

The Original: An ambitious sci-fi that looks pretty dated now but remains weirdly loveable. Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is the computer programmer who gets sucked into a computer where a whole new world awaits…

The Radically Different Sequel: Flynn's son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) attempts to track his missing father down and finds himself in The Grid, competing for the right to be alive…

Biggest Change: Though the basic premise is pretty much the same, the execution is massively different - the CGI in Legacy is gobsmacking and director Joseph Kosinski lends the film a sci-punk feel with the banging electro score and costume design.

The Original: Cult classic directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Bullied young thing Bastian (Barret Oliver) reads a strange book that draws him into its fantastical adventures.

The Radically Different Sequel: A shoddy, cheap-as-hell, made-for-TV threequel that recasts Bastian (Jason James Richter) as the creatures of Fantasia bust their way into our world.

Biggest Change: Rock Biter! What the hell happened to Rock Biter?!

Targeting a kiddie market in a way that the first film never pandered to, this is shockingly watered-down stuff on a shoestring budget.

Unlike the first one, this story really does feel neverending...

The Original: Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman play two goons who mistakenly believe that they're responsible for the death of their boss - Bernie (Terry Kiser) - and pretend he's still alive in order to evade a hitman.

The Radically Different Sequel: A bizarre voodoo-imbued follow-up in which a voodoo curse reanimates Bernie's corpse so that it walks to the place where treasure has been buried.

Biggest Change: The introduction of voodoo to the plot - who the hell smoked up that idea?

The Original: A Stephen King short story is stretched to snapping point by director Brett Leonard. King later sued the filmmakers for using the title, stating it "bore no meaningful resemblance" to his original story…

The Radically Different Sequel: Jobe is resurrected by a crazy megalomaniac who wants him to create a super computer chip (bless) that will link up all of the world's computers. Eeeeeeevil.

Biggest Change: For some reason, though the film's set five years after the first one, the 'present day' of LM2 is in some weird kind of future Earth with flying cars and dystopian cities. WTF?

The Original:Donnie Darko, the time-twisty paranoid thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the doomed Donnie, who suffers visions of his own demise.

The Radically Different Sequel: Donnie's sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) comes to the fore seven years after the first film. She goes on a road trip with a buddy and starts having strangely prophetic visions.

Biggest Change: Donnie's nowhere in sight (well, he's dead) and writer Nathan Atkins does a surface-level reading of the first film in an attempt to create a series of spin-offs.

It fails magnificently - it looks, feels and sounds cheap.

The Original: A unique blend of Spielbergian family drama and Hooper-an horror as Tobe Hooper unleashes vengeful spirits on the Freeling family.

The Radically Different Sequel: The Freelings are all but forgotten as this sequel transports tiny blonde moppet Carol-Anne (Heather O'Rourke) to stay with her aunt in a spooky high rise.

Biggest Change: Ignoring the obvious (it's, er, crap and not at all scary), the setting's a total shake-up and the family members feel like an after-thought instead of the heart of the film.

The Original: The first three Indiana Jones films - starting with Raiders Of The Lost Ark - followed Indy (Harrison Ford) as he attempted to stop evil Nazis (and, briefly, voodoo priests) from destroying the world.

The Radically Different Sequel: Much-belated and much-maligned, the fourth Indy flick picks up in 1957, where Indy takes on Soviet baddies who are attempting to locate the mysterious crystal skulls.

Biggest Change: While the era switch makes sense considering Harrison Ford was considerably older when he made the fourth film, there's also a switch in genre.

Crystal Skull is more of a period sci-fi, while its predecessors were all period action capers inspired by pre-war serials. Also, it was pants.