# Movies that are actually two movies in one **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525 "2018-04-16T17:46:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/61 "2018-04-19T11:27:30Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > It’s its own sequel. At the end you hit play. Lather, rinse, repeat. > > Didn’t say it was going to be a different sequel. Well, that’s pretty much the problem, isn’t it? If the title is at all accurate, you’ll never reach that end. You might as well take the “play” button off. You never get a chance to repeat. ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/62 "2018-04-19T13:24:00Z")
_The Black Stallion_. The first half is about a boy and a horse alone on an island, following a shipwreck. The second half becomes a more conventional story about preparing for and running The Big Race. The whole movie is delightful but the scenes on the island are amazing. I can think of a lot of movies (e.g., _The French Lieutenant’s Woman_) that include parallel stories but that is a different sort of thing, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/63 "2018-04-19T13:48:04Z")
“Swiss Family Robinson” 1960 film has a family shipwrecked on a tropical island. The first half has them exploring the island and building a home. The second half has them defending the home against a pirate attack. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/64 "2018-04-20T04:02:38Z")
“Icarus”, which won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary, is definitely two movies rolled into one. More specifically, it appears to have started out in one not particularly interesting direction, and then veers off in another, which keeps getting curiouser and curiouser all the time. I’ll finish watching it later this evening. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/65 "2018-04-20T07:15:06Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > It does for me. I haven’t seen all the films mentioned upthread, but I’d say Mulholland Drive is the best example of two films in one. Many plots will take a story into new surroundings (e.g.: starts with action, ends up in courtroom) and the vast majority of them will show a transformation of the story itself and/or of the characters. Mulholland Drive is the only film that I’m aware of right now that juxtaposes the two very different stories that it contains. Actually, metaphorically speaking, “superimposes” might be a better word, because it’s not just that the beginning and end are noticeably different, but rather that, if you want to understand the story, you have to use the clues in one part to draw conclusions about the weirdness in the other part. There’s no linear development to be considered in reverse by your mind’s eye (walk back through the story), but rather, you have to simultaneously consider two opposing realities, not unlike the ordeal of Naomi Watts’ character. Another Lynch movie, _Lost Highway_, is also two films superimposed into one like that, although the superimposition and the weirdness are handled a little differently. ---
**Author:** ![leschulz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@leschulz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leschulz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/66 "2018-04-20T17:11:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not only that, it had a sequel. How can a Never-Ending Story have a sequel? Isn’t that like “To Infinity … and Beyond!” ? Sort of like “Final Destination 2”. I always thought that was one of the funniest movie titles I ever saw! ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/67 "2018-04-20T17:11:31Z")
Dances With Wolves. Though the first movie is VERY short. About ten minutes, it’s a fantastic gritty portrayal of the Civil War, that I would have loved to see expanded. ---
**Author:** ![leschulz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@leschulz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leschulz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/68 "2018-04-20T17:13:07Z")
I’d go with Adaptation - it’s an adaptation of “The Orchid Thief” and a completely different movie about writer’s block, brotherly competitiveness, etc. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/69 "2018-04-22T00:06:16Z")
_ **The Good, The Bad and the Ugly** _ has a movie within a movie when the three protagonists are caught in the middle of a Civil War battle before returning to their quest for the buried gold. _ **Right Now, Wrong Then** _ by Korean director Hong Sang Soo contains two versions of a chance encounter and possible affair between a married director (Jung Jae Young) visiting a town for a film festival and a single ex-model turned painter (Kim Min Hee). Art imitates life as director Hong (who is still married) began an affair with actress Kim during the making of this film. Hong claims that this and his subsequent films aren’t based on his life, but there are strong elements of it in this and his other most recent films. In _ **On The Beach At Night Alone** _, an actress (Kim Min Hee) contemplates her affair with a married director and waits for him to follow her when she moves to Germany. _ **The Day After** _ has Kim Min Hee playing a newly hired assistant who is falsely accused by his boss’ wife of having an affair with him. The truth being that he really did have a fling with his former assistant. I haven’t seen his three latest films yet, _ **Yourself and Yours, Claire’s Camera** _ and _ **Grass** _, but since actress Kim is the lead in _ **Claire’s Camera** _ and _ **Grass** _, it’s highly likely there are autobiographical elements in them. I highly suspect there will also be elements of his (and Kim’s) life in there too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/70 "2018-04-22T00:21:49Z")
_ **Goldfinger** _. Bond’s assignment is only to figure out Auric’s smuggling operation. He’s already accomplished this when he stumbles onto Operation Grand Slam. Unfortunately, he screws up by triggering an alarm and gets Tilly killed, along with being captured himself. That’s when the real story starts. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/71 "2018-04-22T01:14:50Z")
We had a thread several years ago titled [Stories with a REALLY major mid-story shift in tone, format, or genre?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=645666) where the OP also gave _Full Metal Jacket_ as an example. I’ll copy my own example from that thread: Kind of obscure, but the Brazilian film _The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava)_ shifts from a quirky character-driven romantic comedy to a much darker heist flick. I didn’t have time to watch the DVD all the way through at once, and with the stopping point I chose it wound up being almost like I watched two different movies that happened to have the same characters. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/72 "2018-04-22T17:47:31Z")
This isn’t quite the same thing, but I’ve always thought that _The Phantom Menace_ had a great podracing movie buried in it, and the rest of the story was very separate. ---
**Author:** ![WombatHarness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@WombatHarness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WombatHarness)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/73 "2018-04-23T01:54:51Z")
Does Zach Snyder’s much-maligned _Sucker Punch_ count? It appears to be three movies in one. [ol] [li]Evil stepfather conspires to have his willful stepdaughter lobotomized so he can steal her inheritance.[/li][li]Naive dancer is held captive in a brothel, where she’s forced to strip for clients while the house pimp plots to sell her virginity to the highest bidder.[/li][li]Gun-toting hottie leads a squad of scantily clad superheroines across time and space to battle zombies, androids, orcs and dragons with automatic weapons and combat mecha.[/li][/ol] Any one of these stories might (_might_) have made a decent film, but shoehorning them into a single film did not. It’s not an anthology, and the same actors appear in multiple stories allegedly as the same character in each plot, but the relationship between the plots is tenuous (apparently the mental patient fantasizes she’s being held captive in a brothel to escape the stress of psychiatric exams [???], but as the dancer escapes the oppression of being forced to strip by fantasizing she’s a superhero). And Plot #2 suddenly becomes a musical. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/74 "2018-04-23T18:57:07Z")
[Night on Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_on_Earth) is five movies in one. No connecting thread among the sequences, except that each is the interaction between a cab driver and hir passenger/s. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/75 "2018-04-24T09:04:37Z")
Oh yeah, Night on Earth is a good one. I liked the clocks rewinding to the top of the hour in between the segments to emphasize that they were all happening simultaneously, from sunset in LA to midnight in Paris to dawn in Helsinki. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/76 "2018-04-24T09:43:55Z")
**The Fountain** was basically three interspliced films, all starring Hugh Jackman. All three were absolutely beautiful, well-acted, and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525/77 "2018-04-24T20:29:09Z")
[Babel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_(film)) managed to hold my attention for 2 out of the 3 stories it interwove. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-are-actually-two-movies-in-one/812525.md?page=3)