With rumors swirling about the next installment of the 21 Jump Street franchise, Patrick weighs in on how it could work.
21 Jump Street
(the film, not the TV series) creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller have been quoted
as saying that the next Jump Street film, presumably 23 Jump Street, will make all of the absurdly awesome films teased
by 22 Jump Street’s credit sequence totally
canon. Given the series’ obvious
tongue-in-cheek pokes at sequels and filmmaking in general, this is some pretty
great news for fans of the hilarious satire that made the first two so
enjoyable. So then, how in the heck is
this thing going to work? Here’s a few
ideas:
That Men in Black/Jump Street Crossover is
Actually Happening
Rumors swarmed the ‘net earlier
this year with reports that a Men in
Black + Jump Street crossover was
in the works. Given both series’
particular blend of action and comedy, the pairing didn’t seem too absurd,
despite their divergent genres (although both definitely fall square within the
“buddy cop” realm…). That being said,
why would Schmidt and Jenko of Jump
Street be tapped to deal with aliens?
Perhaps all of those dozens of Jump
Street sequels were created by alien clones of the pair? Maybe the films were such an embarrassment
that Schmidt and Jenko (or perhaps their real-life actors instead?) seek out
the Men in Black to neuralize the whole planet into thinking the movies never
existed? Maybe something completely
different, but the involvement of a Sci-Fi element certainly creates scenarios
where all of these films could exist.
23 Jump Street – Film School
An idea already suggested by
several other commenters, one type of school not suggested by the 22 Jump Street credit sequence is film
school. Perhaps the other 22 versions of
the film are actually created by Schmidt and Jenko during their tenure at film
school? Films within films? The rest of the movie probably wouldn’t even
matter if we could get a half-hour montage sequence of all of these ridiculous
premises. Arguably this version wouldn’t
make the credit films “canon” as suggested by Phil Lord, but still makes a lot
of sense, and would fit the series sense of humor.
45 Jump Street – Back to Basics
The Jump Street films are, despite their source material and
juvenility, extremely funny and well-crafted movies. Hill and Tatum have great chemistry and the
gags are often bordering on brilliant.
Maybe Lord and Miller feel like they’ve painted themselves into the
corner creatively by making 22 and
the credit-sequence films so over-the-top – what better way to have an excuse
to get back to basics than referencing more than ten other ridiculous
operations ranging from Russia to outer space?
Maybe Schmidt and Jenko are finally “getting too old for this s#!t” and
decide to just do some good old fashioned police work – does the franchise need to keep the undercover student
gimmick to work? I’m not so certain.
In any case, let’s hope we get at least a little bit of Seth
Rogen as Schmidt, imaginary contract dispute gags are gold.
-Patrick B. McDonald