I caught the end of Die Hard on TV over the weekend. I know, it’s too early for a Christmas movie. But it got me to thinking. In Die Hard and in the 2nd one McClane and Holly have a strained relationship which is made stronger by the adversity they go through. Apparently they didn’t face death enough because in between the 2nd and 3rd one they broke up again.
Also Indy and Marion’s relationship seems to be going great at the end of Raiders but we don’t see her again until Crystal Skull.
Any other examples? Bonus if you have information as to why (contract dispute, just wanted a new love interest).
The writer Anthony Trollope apparently had no qualms about suddenly killing off a love interest between books in his Barsetshire/Palliser series (e.g. Barchester Towers, Phineas Redux, The Duke’s Children).
It always bothered me how after spending the whole first movie fighting for her Elizabeth Shue dumps Ralph Macchio (off screen even!) about 10 mins into Karate Kid part 2.
There’s a reason these relationships were on the rocks. Survivor sex can’t last forever and the protagonist hasn’t addressed his problems. In fact being the big, dumb hero only seems to reinforce them.
As for examples, the first two Bourne films, the first two Austin Powers…
Uh, Austin Powers’ marriage broke up because he married… Um, is that a spoiler nowadays or not? Anyway, it had nothing to do with the subject of this thread and everything to do with PARODYING said subject. (I haven’t seen them, so I don’t know what supposedly happened with Felicity Shagwell, but TV Tropes has a theory.)
As for Die Hard, it should be pointed out that in #2, some pretty traumatic things happened that made him a lot more cynical by the time the third and fourth movies roll around. It’s not hard to believe that they negatively impacted his marriage.
Die Hard 3 bugged me too, especially as it was completely unnecessary - MacLane had no new love interest, and even if they couldn’t get Bonnie Bedelia to appear in the movie, it’s not as if the hero’s wife *has *to appear in a cop drama, especially one that takes place over the course of a single day. Just have another cop mention sarcastically, “Aren’t you glad that your wife was transferred back to New York?” at the beginning, and have MacLane say “Thank God my kids are on a class trip!” when they start talking about bombs in schools, and you’re done. No need for a divorce to leave a nasty taste in your mouth.
IIRC, an ABC-Family Channel original film, “The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold”—before anyone asks, as far as I remember, it was on a Christmas marathon, in between showings of the classic, quality special I was really waiting for, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, thankyouverymuch—the whole story being your standard romantic dramedy piece about bickering figure skating partners who end up tearfully falling in love by the finale. The movie itself is a rehash/sequel to an older movie, the female lead character actually being the daughter of the bickeringlovers from the first one.
Said daughter actually has a supporting role in the next sequel (basically the same story), too, played by the same actress…in which, in the first scene, she grousingly mentions offhand that her marriage “ended in damage.”
Poof. That’s it. Point of the first movie? Gone. Ouch.
Oh! But it looks like it gets better—checking on wikipedia for the cites for this post, it looks like there was a FOURTH movie in the series, this time starring the new heroine from the third! And apparently her love story failed between movies, too!
:eek: I mean, yeah, sure, it’s not like that’s unrealistic, but jeez…cold. Especially when romance was the point of the story.
Y’know, 007 is with a new Bond Girl for every movie (usually), but not only are those primarily action/adventure romps, but even Bond has been shown getting seriously broken up when a relationship dies (frequently literally).
Probably would have gone off to dance school or something. But seriously, why couldn’t they let him just win the girl at the end of Part 3?? I mean, they had to know it would be the last of the series (for Ralph, anyway); what was up with that horrible “Oh, that guy I was seeing is now back in the picture (literally, if you recall) and now I just want to be friends”. Let the guy win the tournament and get the girl, for God’s sake!
No, she was just played by a different person (ironically by Elisabeth Shue, who keeps cropping up in this thread).
(But yes, the writers weren’t sure what to do with her, since they hadn’t planned on doing a sequel necessarily, so they kind of brushed her character to the side for most of the movie…)
Ben Stiller’s character won over Carla Gugino’s character in Night at the Museum. But she had disappeared in the sequel. Instead they introduce a new character, played by Amy Adams, to be the love interest.
I think this illustrates the main point. Two people falling in love is generally seen as a more interesting story than two people who are already an established couple. So writers like to reset the relationship back to zero for the sequel so they can write a new love story.
In both books and movies, Tarzan and Jane are always portrayed as a happy couple, and Tarzan never shows any interest in any other woman.
That said, Jane disappeared for over a decade in the novels. She was in Tarzan and the Ant-Men (the 10th book, published in 1924), then was not seen again until Tarzan’s Quest (the 19th book, published in 1936).
She was also absent from many of the movies made in the 1950s and 1960s.
I’m eternally grateful that Mr. Miyagi didn’t end up doing commercials for Nissan, where he’d pop up and say “Dogs love trucks!” after some annoying dog checked out a pickup truck. Because that would be a pretty sad ending.
I was pretty disappointed the Arthur couldn’t stay in a relationship with Fenchurch. Damn destabilizing region of space. Why did we get the crap neighborhood of the universe.
The first two Bourne Films? You mean, where at the beginning of the second film they’re still happy and together until she’s assassinated by a bullet meant for him?
Marion seems a little…free-spirited to be tied down as the housewife to some boring archeology professor. Besides, we all know that Raiders was actually a Walter Mitty-esque fantasy of a milquetoast Professor Henry (self-named “Indiana”) Jones, hence why the “Ark”–one in yet another of valueless treasures Jones uncovers after going to some garage sale–is placed in a giant warehouse full of other crap that the University and Army don’t have any use for. Right?
You have your answer–Liz Shue had to dump Macchio in order to hook up with Michael J. Fox. Given who is still getting acting roles, can you blame her? Besides, Macchio wasn’t even the star of The Karate Kid; he was just some punk that showed up and did some ridiculous training montage culminating in a crane kick off a pier that via the same kind of black magic used in Big makes him suddenly superior to a student who has been training and conditioning in pursuit of his art for years. And what does he do when he gains this skill? Is he benevolent and merciful, sweeping his opponent out or winning by legal point-gaining moves? No, he crane kicks his opponent in the head and jumps joyfully while his opponent is crumpled to the floor, probably suffering a crippling cerebral hemorrhage. What a dick. He didn’t deserve Elizabeth Shue. Neither did Val Kilmer, but whatever.
And to the o.p., isn’t Speed and its craptastically lackadaisical sequel kind of the poster boy for this sort of thing?
Sorry…I thought the OP was asking for more inclusive examples…including the love interest getting offed at the beginning of the sequel to up the stakes.