This list was originally published on June 7, 2024. It has been updated to include new movies including Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
There’s something really comforting about a movie trilogy, the idea that there’s a natural beginning, middle, and end to an epic story that you can rewatch in just an afternoon. The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and The Godfather all thrive on this formula, but for many franchises — including two of the ones we just mentioned — three movies was never going to be enough.
For some franchises, tacking a fourth film onto a trilogy is the final card that topples the whole house, but for others, it’s the beginning of a new era, a jump-start that reminds us all why we loved these movies in the first place. So, as summer franchises keep adding more part fours to their sagas, we’re looking back at the best fourth films (including prequels, legacy sequels, and more) in movie franchise history.
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Godzilla had fought other monsters before, and Mothra had already appeared in her own self-titled feature film in 1961, but none of that precedent held Mothra vs. Godzilla back. The first of many, many movies in which Japan’s Toho Co. set its various homegrown kaiju on a collision, Mothra vs. Godzilla retains an epic scope that makes it a stunner even 60 years and countless sequels later. Perhaps more than any other film on this list, it catapulted its characters into a new, larger world, and there was no looking back.
Thunderball (1965)
Goldfinger may have set the standard for what makes a good James Bond film, but its successor, Thunderball, is the film that blew every other Bond of its era out of the water. The fourth film in the long-running Eon Productions Bond series, the film pits Sean Connery’s 007 against everything we’ve come to expect from these movies. He faces international supercriminals, hijacked nuclear weapons, sexy ladies with rocket launchers mounted to their motorcycles, killer sharks, harpoon guns, and even a guy in pretty convincing drag, and Connery looks great doing it all. Throw in some especially over-the-top explosions, a jetpack, and a killer title song belted out by Tom Jones, and Thunderball proved Bond was unstoppable.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Honestly, more horror franchises should name sequels “The Final Chapter” and then just keep right on trucking with sequels, because it worked out really well for Jason Voorhees and his victims. Starring Corey Feldman as a strange child with an unlikely connection to Jason, the fourth Friday film pulls off the astonishing trick of truly feeling like a final chapter in a never ending saga, right down to Jason’s gruesome death scene. It’s a movie that absolutely goes for broke in a landscape where more slasher sequels were inevitable, and even with seven more Jason movies piled on top of it, it hasn’t lost that power.
Rocky IV (1985)
You know we absolutely could not do this list without mentioning the time Sylvester Stallone defeated Communism with the power of Punching. There are those who see Rocky IV as a camp classic full of arch villain and hero moments, and there are those who see it as a masterpiece of 1980s filmmaking that wields pop culture archetypes to craft a contemporary fable about perseverance and righteousness. And honestly, why not both? This is a movie so bombastic, so crammed with every possible story device from training montages to revenge journeys, that it’s able to contain multitudes and still have space left over for a friendly robot encounter.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Whales! Time travel! Nuclear wessels! In a franchise that’s followed just about every sci-fi plot device under the sun at some point, The Voyage Home still feels like the biggest conceptual swing in any Star Trek movie. It’s a film that’s trying very hard to deliver a certain ecological message while also pushing a fish-out-of-water comedy through every corner of 1980s San Francisco and serving an ensemble cast who may or may not have been sick of the grind at this point. Against all odds, just like the mission at its core, it all works out. And even if it didn’t, you’ve got Shatner yelling “Double dumbass on you!”
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Some horror fans will tell you that the Halloween franchise is just bad sequel after bad sequel up until H20. Those people are wrong. The first Michael Myers story told outside the confines of that one horrific night in 1978, Halloween 4 follows the slasher as he wakes up from an explosion-induced coma and goes after his niece Jamie (Danielle Harris), while mad Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) resumes his endless pursuit. That’s a pretty straightforward echo of the original Halloween, but then Halloween 4 just plain goes for it with everything else, from expanding the already twisted lore of the Strode/Myers family to giving us Pleasence in full You’re all doomed mad doctor mode. This is a movie in which the Haddonfield locals assemble a posse and fight Michael on the back of a moving truck and a movie in which Michael stabs a man with a shotgun. If you don’t think that’s cool, you’re not having enough fun with your slashers.
Bride of Chucky (1998)
Some franchises use Part Four as a chance to play the hits. Others use it for a full-on rebrand, and in that latter category, Bride of Chucky remains the belle of the ball. Creator Don Mancini’s unabashed, fierce effort to take his murderous doll into full-on black comedy territory, the film thrives on the chemistry between Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif, and Mancini’s wicked sense of humor ensures that there’s no going back. This is not just a new direction, but an absolute glow-up, and Chucky is still thriving today because of it.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
OK, so technically, chronologically this is Part 1 of a nine-part saga, but because it was the fourth in release order, and because it can’t work its full magic without our knowledge of the previous three films, we’re counting it. Yes, the plot starts here, but who cares? It’s the fourth Star Wars movie. The Phantom Menace turns 25 this year, and it’s clear that time has been very kind to it. Admittedly we’re looking back with a certain nostalgia for those days in the late 90s when Star Wars truly exploded as a cultural force again, but that’s not the only trick this film pulls. For all its unevenness, this is a movie that deepens and widens the entire Star Wars sandbox in ways the franchise has never looked back from. There’s a gleeful sense that George Lucas is playing with every toy he can get his hands on here, and while he’s sometimes hammering at those toys until they break, the fun he’s having is absolutely infectious, even after a quarter-century.
Scream 4 (2011)
Haters be damned, Scream 4 still rules. The final film in the franchise to be directed by Wes Craven and (so far) written by Kevin Williamson can certainly feel forced at times, like an unnecessary coda tacked on to the end of an aging trilogy. But the more time passes, the more this film feels positively prescient in its skewering of reboots, endless sequels, and devotees looking to capitalize on a franchise’s staying power at all costs. That the film is essentially part of the very problem it’s mocking only makes the humor more wicked. Throw in some all-time great Wes Craven kill scenes — including an opening sequence for the ages — and a wonderfully arch performance from Emma Roberts, and you’ve got a Part Four that’s not just worthwhile, but flat-out vital.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
It’s not that the Mission: Impossible movies were small before this Part Four. After all, Brian De Palma gave us that awesome wire setpiece in the first film, John Woo poured all of his action bombast into the second, and J.J. Abrams gave everything an Alias edge in the third. But with Ghost Protocol, something shifted, and it wasn’t just a question of budgets. Something in Tom Cruise, who serves as producer and star of these films, seemed to hit a higher gear around the time of this film, something that dared him to scale the world’s tallest building, and more, in an effort to drop as many theatergoing jaws as possible. If you’re looking for Part Fours that launch new eras of franchises, this is an all-timer.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Like Ghost Protocol, Fury Road is the beginning of a new era for Mad Max, marking the first film in George Miller’s apocalyptic saga in 30 years. But to simply call Fury Road “a new era” is a disservice to the film’s impact. That this film is the fourth part in a storied action franchise which helped Miller become one of the most respected directors of his era is almost beside the point. It’s not continuity Miller’s after here, it’s mythmaking. It’s action cinema on a gargantuan scale, and it’s all done so well that Fury Road now stands as not just a great Part Four in a franchise, but arguably the best Part Four in any franchise ever.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
The spring of 2019 was all about Avengers: Endgame. The world seemed to change its orbit around this film until it revolved solely to allow everyone to see what would become of the Avengers in their final battle with Thanos. The hype was off the charts, and somehow the final product managed to live up to it, delivering a bombastic, overstuffed ride for the ages that left audiences cheering and fans poring over its every detail. It remains the high water mark of the MCU in terms of sheer cultural saturation, and on a pure gut level, Captain America picking up Mjolnir still gives us chills.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
If ever there was a franchise that absolutely, under no circumstances needed a fourth installment, it was Toy Story. The original trilogy ended on such a high note with the sublime and moving Toy Story 3 that attempting to stack something else on top of it felt like a cash grab at best and a profanity at worst. Then…Toy Story 4 actually worked? I’m not here to argue that it’s better than Toy Story 3, but this unlikely saga of Woody finding a new purpose after years of being a shadow parent figure to children still managed to wring emotion, fun, and even new ideas out of a lingering animated franchise. Plus, it gave us Forky and his unforgettable battle cry for weary, terminally online souls everywhere: “I’m Trash!”
Candyman (2021)
Yes, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman is the fourth part in a franchise, even if you don’t remember any of the previous sequels. Unlike a lot of other Part Fours in slasher movie history, though, this film is not content to pick up with another set of victims falling prey to the same old lore. Instead, the film reinvigorates everything about the Candyman legend, building on Tony Todd’s mythic performance to create something new that also never loses touch with the chilling saga that came before. It’s one of the best horror films of the 2020s so far, and it’ll make you afraid of saying certain words into bathroom mirrors all over again.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
Time will tell whether or not Chapter 4 is the swan song of the main John Wick series (there are still spinoffs on the way), but if this is the end, it’s a hell of a way to go. In a franchise that had to keep finding ways to top itself with action setpieces, Chapter 4 went for broke with just about every fight scene, and that’s after the third film gave us a full-on siege in a hotel. This one’s got everything. Donnie Yen as a blind swordsman, Hiroyuki Sanada stealing the movie for a few minutes, Scott Adkins somehow making a fat suit look (mostly) cool, and of course, Keanu Reeves doing Strong and Silent like he’s never done it before. You wouldn’t think John Wick falling down stairs for 20 minutes would be badass, but this movie makes it badass.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
Ride or Die is the second Bad Boys movie in the past five years, and both come nearly two decades after the series seemingly ended with Bad Boys II. You’d think that might be at least one movie too many to try to keep the legacy alive, but arguably even more than its predecessor, Bad Boys for Life, the fourth film in the franchise feels like a worthy latter-day sequel. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith retain their unstoppable chemistry, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah keep the action at a kinetic frenzy, and the inherently over-the-top nature of the story keeps us hooked. It’s the Bad Boys staring down both their own mortality and what justice really means in a world that’s twisted around them, and that’s exactly what you want from a buddy cop movie this far removed from the original.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
It might seem a long shot after both a three-decade wait and the disappointment of Beverly Hills Cop III back in the ’90s, but Axel F brings the fun back to one of Eddie Murphy’s star-making roles. By playing Axel at a time when the detective is both still addicted to being an action hero and trying to repair his relationship with his daughter (Taylour Pagie), Murphy feels like the most charismatic and watchable version of himself in a film that brings the familiar and the new together in some very compelling ways. Throw in all the cameos you’d want and expect (hello, Bronson Pinchot!) and it’s a blast.
