God knows Hollywood loves making unnecessary sequels to movies that become surprise hits. It doesn’t matter if there’s nothing to go on, if the actual story has no loose ends left, or even if the star of the first film declines the offer to reprise the role. Thankfully, however, there are actors, directors, and producers sensible enough not to bring back something that they don’t feel strongly about. This is the case of Netflix’s 2024 holiday actioner, “Carry-On,” for now.
Heavily inspired by Bruce Willis’ memorable “Die Hard 2,” the Netflix release “Carry-On” was the kind of modernized homage that captured the vibe of what makes action flicks thrilling and fun. A high-concept plot filled with suspense, Jaume Collet-Serra’s film follows Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), a TSA officer at the LAX airport, who’s gunning for a promotion after his dream job of becoming a police officer falls through. And because he and his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson), are expecting their first child. Naturally, Kopek’s timing to prove himself couldn’t be worse since he picked the very day when a mercenary called the Traveler (Jason Bateman) is about to blackmail his way into getting a suitcase with a lethal nerve agent onto one of the planes — via the “assistance” of Kopek — otherwise he kills Nora and whomever he needs to get the job done.
Despite some illogical plot points and hard-to-believe moments, “Carry-On” was a gripping and highly enjoyable little action flick that quickly found its audience on Netflix (becoming the movie that garnered more views during its first week on the streaming service than any other film last year). Thus, getting a sequel would hardly be a surprise, but Egerton shared some very specific conditions that would have to be met for him to consider returning as Kopek.
Nobody needs another contrived sequel
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter last month, Egerton elaborated on how much he enjoyed working with director Collett-Serra and that he’s eager to collaborate with him in the future. But whatever the two cook up together next most likely won’t be a sequel to “Carry-On.” As to why, Egerton reasonably explained:
“”Carry-On 2″ is really hard. It’s a celebration of Christmas and a celebration of people who work at Christmas. It then needs to have this huge plot that needs to be foiled and maybe the earwig component. All of that is quite hard to achieve in a sequel without it feeling contrived and to the point of defying credulity. So I have not heard anything, but who knows, stranger things have happened.”
Although he doesn’t necessarily rule out a follow-up with him being involved, it’s rather refreshing to see that the Welsh actor is well aware of the pitfalls and obstacles that a potential sequel could face, story-wise and otherwise. Kudos to him, I say, for not wanting to continue a previously successful project that would have little to no ground to stand on. Not that he needs it, anyway. His critically-acclaimed thriller “She Rides Shotgun” only recently opened in theaters, while his Apple TV+ series “Smoke” (which was created by Dennis Lehane, whom he previously worked with on the extremely disturbing “Black Bird”) just barely finished its run.
