Unnecessary Sequel: Point Break: Indo

POINT BREAK came out in the early nineties, and really feels of the time.  It doesn’t have the overwhelming excess of the major action films of the early and mid-eighties, and fits more in the vein of the late eighties action movies like DIE HARD which bring a more grounded feel to the characters.  Schlub of a cop in John McClane who’s the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.  And you have Johnny Utah, a rookie FBI agent with a bad knee that has to learn how to surf to catch bank robbers.  And while they’re armed with shotguns and stuff, these bad guys aren’t exactly the efficient and professional gang of pseudo-terrorists that Hans assembled in DIE HARD.  DIE HARD spawned a fair number of sequels that averaged out to be decent.

POINT BREAK on the other hand, didn’t really get that much going in terms of a sequel until somewhat recently.  And like a number of films with name recognition, there was talk of a sequel simply based on that name.  Kinda like WILD THINGS.  The sequel to POINT BREAK got so far as to have a cast, but evidently the movie died at some point.  It’s not a total loss since it seems like it was much more a franchise sequel where the name is the thing than an actual continuation of the story and the characters.  You get lucky if you can grab some of the actors in the first one to add a couple of points on the bottom line but it isn’t about them.  LOST BOYS comes to mind.

The proposed plot was largely a retread of the first film, only with pirates instead of bank robbers, and a pro-surfer and military special ops guy instead of a former college football player and FBI guy.  It was set to be set in Indo(nesia), which is as good a place as any to set it.  In this day and age, you can do a lot with a little.  UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION was the DTV fourth (or second depending on how you define it) sequel in a franchise of diminishing returns and was pretty darn god; even roping in both stars of the original.

Sadly, that would be impossible for a POINT BREAK sequel, because of character death (Angelo Pappas) and actor death (Patrick Swayze).  The thing is, it really is rather unnecessary since it’s very much the story about a newbie taking down a gang of bank robbers.  And since all the bank robbers are gone, it isn’t like there’s some compelling reason for Johnny Utah to come back to bust another bunch of surfer robbers.  Even if they are sea pirates.  The M.O. just isn’t so complicated as to need Johnny’s expertise on surfing.  UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION is at least a continuation of the story and universe that were set up in the first movie.

Still, if there had to be a sequel, I’d rather see it about Johnny Utah than some other dude.  If I wanted that, I’d just watch THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS again.  And brother, I do that a lot already.  The ending of POINT BREAK certainly sets up a place to go with Johnny as to make things different while also being related to the original and I would propose that a sequel should take off from there.

I imagine that they could make use of the two decades between and have Johnny be some burned-out beach bum, living in Indonesia and surfing.  Keanu’s aged pretty well, and if this is what he looks like now:

I imagine that he could do burnt-out beach bum, but still have it when it’s needed.

Anyway, he’s doing his surfing thing, trying to chase those tiny moments of complete freedom and happiness he had in Malibu’s depths, not to mention Lori Petty’s.  Enter a group of college kids on summer break that want to explore the exotic environment of Indonesia while also getting some surfing in.  Johnny Utah doesn’t want to deal with that crap anymore, but starts to soften when one of the girls is a total free spirit and kinda pixie-ish like Tyler Ann Endicott was.  She softens his heart, but not his pants (hey yo).  Eventually he has to get back into FBI Agent mode when a loosely affiliated with Al-Qaeda but really in it for the money gang of desperados takes the group of vacationing frat boys and coeds to hold them for ransom.

Obviously, the only man that could stop them is Johnny Utah once again part of the human world and not some washed up beach rat.  Surfing and gunplay and Keanu punching people would ensue of course.

I’m okay with the name POINT BREAK: INDO, but I would also accept JOHNNY UTAH as the title.  Or POINT BREAK: PEARL OF THE COBRA.  Naw, maybe just UTAH.

You gotta go down.  It’s gotta be that way.