Whatever Happened to Loaded Weapon 2?
Back in the early to mid 90’s, National Lampoon made a movie called Loaded Weapon 1. Having the 1 in the title was more of a sly commentary on the overabundance of sequels than an indication that this particular film would have one, but I always held out a glimmer of hope that a Loaded Weapon 2 would someday come along.
Upon doing a hopeful Google check to confirm that a sequel hasn’t gone under my radar, I came across nothing, not even a fan made mock-up poster.
Now that I’m looking into it, Loaded Weapon 1 was released around the same time that another spoof movie with a sequel pun in the title and a Sheen brother came out: Hot Shots Part Deux.
“Hey bro, after this brat pack Western, let’s both star in unrelated spoofs of action films that also have titles referring to weaponry.”
Also around this time there was Naked Gun 2 and a half, and Naked Gun 33 and one third. (Yes, I don’t know how to type fractions.) The spoof films of this period really seemed to get off on making sequel gags.
The foreshadowing comment under O.J’s photo is ever so slightly chilling.
These weren’t the first films to play with numbers in their titles and make fun of the fad of overflowing sequels of course. In Back to the Future 2, there’s a fictional Jaws 19, and more recently 22 Jump Street had a post credits scene in which it showed glimpses of all the proposed sequels to come.
I’m guessing Max is his son.
One could draw tenuous parallels between non-existent sequels and concepts dealing with simulacrum, but it’s late while I’m writing this so I’m not going to try.
Anyway, back to the first of the up until now non existent Loaded Weapon series. I remember enjoying the movie in the cinema at the time, but I haven’t revisited it since so I have no idea if it stands the test of my ever changing sensibilities. By this stage it’s probably too late for a sequel. I can’t see the original cast members getting back on board, and judging by all the negative reviews it received at the time there’s probably no demand from audiences either.
Regardless of all this, it would still be a wonderfully bizarre thing if such a film actually did come together so far down the track. Belated sequels don’t usually go down well, especially ones with Los Angeles in the title:
Exhibits A & B.
But to have one to a film that definitively implied an upcoming sequel ironically, a film largely forgotten to the fog of time and relegated to the realm of obscure late night movies on TV, now that would be a thing of strange beauty.
One can only dream.
This is a “Nerd Voices” contributor piece from author Michael Casey.
Michael Casey has written a couple of books. You can check them out here.
