A lot of movies suggest an obvious sequel, often in the final scene. Something like Back to the Future’s ending. Have there been any memorable setups that did NOT become sequels?
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I seem to remember that the end of the movie sort of promised a second installment.
The recent (2007?) The Golden Compass was pretty obviously meant to be the first of a trilogy. Though it’s not so much that the sequel didn’t pan out as it was all the fans of the books getting on their knees and saying, “Listen, God, I realize this is self-contradictory, but if you could smite everyone involved in this movie, except for Ian & Sam, we’d be really grateful. And smite Nicole Kidman twice!”
“Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins”. So optimistic!
An American Werewolf In London was set up perfectly for a sequel, (the English girlfriend pregnant with the wolf-child) but when it (the sequel) finally came out, it was almost completely unrelated to the original picture, as opposed to picking right up where the original left off…
Despite the fact that horror movies are about my least favorite film genre, I really loved AAWIL, but the sequel was beyond awful.
El Mariachi ended up with a sequel, of sorts, but it’s significantly different from what seemed to be foreshadowed. I’m not sure if that counts or not.
There’s a lot of doog films that end with scenes that foreshadow more, but I can’t recall specifically which ones it was. I -think- that Super Mario does, Big Trouble in Little China sorta does…hmm…
History of the World, Part I
See! A viking funeral! See! Hitler on ice!
I really wish he had made the sequel. Jews in Space would have been hilarious.
Not sure if this counts, but I had the impression that Young Sherlock Holmes was meant to have a sequel. (Was kinda disappointed that it didn’t, actually.)
Well, the classic film Raw Force: Invaders Of The Jade Tombs had the unexpected sequel setup of showing the words “The End”…soon to be changed to…wait for it…“The End?”
Yeah…you’d have to see the movie to understand why having “The End” was so funny. Really took some nerve to put that there.
Wasn’t Spielberg planning on doing three more sequels but dropped the idea after the most recent three movies did worse than expected?
Flash Gordon. It probably didn’t make enough money so they didn’t do a sequel but the setup for Mings survival was obious.
That was Spaceballs.
Do you mean Lucas and Star Wars? Because yeah, that’s a good one.
Lots of people were expecting a sequel to Planet of the Apes (the Marky Mark one, not the Heston one) based on the ending. Never happened.
Hammer films intended Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter to be the first film in a series. But it didn’t draw an audience (undeservedly - it’s not a bad movie) and no sequels were made.
I’ve mentioned before that this year’s Push is clearly supposed to be the first film in a presumed trilogy. Lots of plotlines were left open. But it didn’t do well so the sequels may never happen. (I believe it’s now being continued in a comic book series.)
Funny, they didn’t look Drewish!
Speaking of which, I’m still waiting for Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money.
Short Circuit. Yeah, there was a sequel, but I think it was also left pretty open-ended. There has been talk recently, however, that the franchise rights were bought by Dimension Films and that a reboot is/was under development.
I’m also not the only one who always thought The Goonies needed a sequel. There was all sorts of talk and speculation up until as recently as last year about Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg were keen on getting the original cast back together to reprise their motley crew roles as adults on a new treasure hunt adventure, but word is that Warner Brothers simply wasn’t going for it.
While I’m on a roll with 80’s classics, how about an oddball one? The Three Amigos! All three actors are still around. The idea of three old guys from the very different silent era of film in the 20’s and 30’s trying to compete in a new age of Hollywood westerns during the 50’s could be hysterical.
Lucas, Spielberg,whatever 
But yeah, that’s what I meant to say.
The mediocre American Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick ended with the promise of a sequel (an egg that the protagonists failed to destroy hatches ominously), but nothing ever came of it.