15 Movie Sequels Where This Time It Really Is Personal

In the first Die Hard, Hans Gruber and his merry band of mercenaries take Nakatomi Plaza to rob it of highly valuable bearer bonds. Thanks to Detective John McClane, Gruber ends the movie as a splat on the pavement. While McClane had another adventure in a sequel, the third film in the franchise revisits the Gruber family in an interesting way.

In Die Hard with a Vengeance, Detective McClane is back in his familiar turf, New York City, where a bomber is terrorizing the town. McClane gets wrapped up in the investigation because the perpetrator is none other than Simon Peter-Gruber, Hans Gruber's brother. He's back, he's targeting McClane, and it's all out of vengeance over the events of the first film.

While that's how it plays out from the beginning, it turns out the bombings and the puzzles left for McClane were primarily distractions. By turning the NYPD's attention away from his real goal, Gruber was able to set up the score of the century by robbing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Did Simon enjoy messing with McClane out of vengeance? Sure - but that was more an “icing on the cake" situation.

There's plenty of patriotism throughout the Rocky franchise, and it all comes to a head in Rocky IV. The film features a fight between Ivan Drago, the top boxer from the USSR, and Apollo Creed, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World. The two fight, and it's America vs. the Soviet Union in a one-on-one match that ends with Creed's shocking death.

From this point forward, everything that happens in the movie is personal – for Rocky. After defeating Clubber Lang in the previous film, he was all set to retire from the sport, but after Drago kills Creed, he insists on taking him on in the ring himself. Rocky trains harder than he's ever trained (while Drago shoots up a ton of steroids), and they meet in the ring.

It's easily the most brutal fight in Rocky's life, and he throws everything he's got at Drago. The two fight – Drago for recognition of his skill and Rocky for revenge over his friend. They fight through to the 15th round, bloodied and beaten, and in the end, Rocky stands victorious. He gives an impassioned speech about the differences between the two Cold Warriors, but he notes that everybody can change, showing that he'd grown beyond his quest for vengeance and found a way to move on.

There are a couple of personal issues in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that make it an excellent revenge flick. The first is the Sovereign, who are so angry about Rocket stealing their batteries that they employ their entire military against them. This comes around at the end of the film when the Sovereign's forces invade the villainous Ego (Kurt Russell) in an attempt to kill the Guardians.

The real personal angle revolves around Peter after he learns that Ego - who up to that point in the film had become something of a genuine father figure - was responsible for killing his mother. He callously says he hated putting cancer in her brain… and without a moment's hesitation, Peter pulls out his blasters and shoots Ego to smithereens. Of course, this doesn't result in his death, but it does begin a sequence of events that ends with Peter attacking Ego as Pac-Man.

For Peter, Ego's killing of his mother is probably the most personal thing he has ever experienced. When his mother died, he was captured by Yondu and taken from Earth. He spent the rest of his life avoiding his homeworld because it was where his mother passed. When he learned Ego was not just his father but his mother's killer, nothing could stop his desire to destroy Ego once and for all.

You can't find a better revenge flick in sci-fi than Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The first feature film in the franchise was a dud, and a sequel almost didn't see the light of day. Fortunately, the movie succeeded by dipping into the original series, plucking out Khan Noonien Singh from the 24th episode of the first season, “Space Seed.”

Fast-forward 18 years later, and Khan is discovered on a planet believed to be Ceti Alpha VI. Instead, it's Ceti Alpha V, which is effectively a dead planet, where Kirk dumped Khan and his people decades earlier. Khan takes the USS Reliant and takes on his nemesis. Khan is effectively Captain Ahab charging after his White Whale (Admiral Kirk), and he puts his all into snuffing him out from the stars.

Khan quotes Moby Dick in the film, and several allusions and references are made to Melville's classic novel. Regardless, Khan gets himself and his crew killed in his desperate attempt to eliminate Kirk. In the end, he succeeds in taking out Mr. Spock (not that he ever learns of this) and dies without achieving his vengeance.

The Bourne Supremacy begins two years after The Bourne Identity, which ends with Jason Bourne being left to continue his life with Marie. They've settled down in India; Jason is still struggling to recover his memories, but for the most part, they're perfectly happy. The goverenment is no longer barking up their tree, and they have a new life to live… that is, until the CIA comes after him once more, resulting in Marie's death.

This transforms Jason's mission from self-reflection to all-out aggression and revenge. After all, they came at him two years after the events of the first film and killed his girl; now he takes the fight to them. He goes about breaking into the CIA's offices and tearing through the organization until he learns he was meant to be framed for the deaths of some CIA officers, which is why an assassin was on his tail.

Bourne ultimately uncovers incriminating evidence that takes down a significant player in the CIA; he has a conversation with an agent who tells him his real name. In the end, Bourne moves on from the events of the film, but he now has a new mission: to uncover everything he can about his past so he can learn who he truly is: Jason Bourne or David Webb?

Deadpool 2 opens with the death of Wade Wilson's girlfriend, Vanessa. He spends some time trying to off himself, but when this proves impossible, Colossus brings him in to try and bring him out of his funk. Wade eventually agrees to join the X-Men and helps save Russell Collins from a “Mutant Re-education Center.”

Cable comes into the fray - from the future - intent on killing Russel;, and it's all about revenge for him. In his timeline, Russell kills his family, so he's traveled back in time to prevent that from happening. This puts Cable in direct opposition to Deadpool, who wants to protect the young mutant. Ultimately, they wind up teaming up to try and save Russell from his fate.

The film ends with Deadpool taking vengeance upon myriad other people. He kills Ryan Reynolds before he can star in Green Lantern. He kills the messed-up version of himself from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He saves Vanessa, of course. And finally he ends the movie thinking about going back in time to kill an infant Adolf Hitler.