Series Finale

11 Great Things About David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween’ trilogy

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Note: This post spoils the stories of the 2018 film Halloween and its two sequels: Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. It also contains videos depicting fictional gore and violence that is not safe for work. It also contains a clip of a fictional character killing themselves.

It’s spooky season once more, and you know what that means: horror movies, slasher villains, and buckets of blood and gore. We’ve gotten a lot of horror franchises over the years, but only the classics endure, and the granddaddy of them is the Halloween franchise. While quite tame by today’s standards, the original was groundbreaking when it was release back in 1978, introducing the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers to silver screens everywhere, and beginning one of horror’s longest-running franchises.

Two years ago, David Gordon Green’s sequel trilogy – which acted as a direct followup to the original 1978 film – came to an end with Halloween Ends. Although the trilogy has gotten a mixed reception from fans, I think that, despite some narrative inconsistances, there’s a lot to like about the films. Here are eleven of my favorites:

11. Michael Meyers, Child Killer

While horror films can get away with a lot that other genres can’t, killing children is one of the things normally frowned upon. But Halloween, Kills, and Ends has no problem with Michael killing children.

While Michael was never even remotely a good guy, having him kill children in painful ways (I don’t even want to know what happened to the poor kid who wore that blood-drenched skull mask) shows viewers that he’s one killer who doesn’t mess around and is willing to kill anyone he comes across. Yet, even then he spares an infant in the first film, and we never find out why, further cementing that he’s a force of evil that doesn’t bother to explain itself to his victims.

10. Laurie and Michael’s Reunion

Throughout the first film of the sequel trilogy, we get to see how Laurie prepared herself for an inevitable rematch with Michael, and what follows isn’t so much a fight, but a one-man siege:

What I like about this even though Laurie has been preparing for this fight for years, she still can’t kill Michael with guns or brute force, and has to resort to trickery and help from her daughter and granddaughter, and even then it’s still not enough to kill Michael (who, at this point, is 61 years old).

One little thing that makes this scene even better is the moment when Laurie calls out for Ray: you can almost hear Michael thinking, “Wait a minute… I know that voice.” And then, turning his head, he sees Laurie through the door, recognizes the girl who got away so long ago, and decides to finish what he started back in ‘78.

9. Old Man Michael

One of my favorite things about the Halloween sequel trilogy is that the films acknowledge Michael’s age. Instead of trying to make him an eternally youthful man, Michael has aged to the point where he could collect social security checks and get senior discounts at the grocery store. By acknowledging that the bogeyman is getting old, it makes Michael’s kills all the more unique because we rarely get to see a senior-citizen slasher villain in stories, much less one who has three movies to play around in.

8. The Innocent Inmate’s Suicide

Though the trilogy is focused on horror and kills, it’s most emotional moment is when one of Michael’s fellow inmates from the asylum realizes that an enraged mob – who believes that he’s Michael – is going to tear him limb-from-limb. They can’t be stopped, they can’t be reasoned with, and the man – who is harmless and terrified – decides that the only thing he can do is jump to his death rather than face an even worse death at their hands.

Afterwords, the shock from all those present drives home how they’ve realized that their fear, paranoia, and desire to kill Michael have turned them into monsters on par with Michael himself.

7. Michael vs the Mob

The climax of ‘Kills’ sees Michael’s bloodiest, goriest, and highest body count in any of his films when he’s attacked by dozens of Haddonfield’s citizens.

He’s shot, clubbed, hit, beaten to the ground and seemingly defeated; it’d be a perfect ending to the series to have ordinary people unite and take Michael down for good… and then he lashes out, gets right back up, and kills everyone in the crowd.

Though the trilogy flip-flops on if Michael is supernatural or just a man, this scene proves that while Michael may look human, he is anything but.

6. Michael’s Evil Infecting Haddonfield

Though Michael is and always will be the face of the Halloween franchise, an idea that’s been brought up again and again is that evil always changes shape, and that killing Michael will mean that someone will eventually take his place. However, there’s another aspect of this that is subtly implied throughout the trilogy: that the evil within Michael corrupts everyone around it. When Michael returns to Haddonfield, the people there start to become paranoid and act violently to try and stop him, only succeeding in killing innocents and themselves, until Corey is seduced and corrupted in Ends, almost becoming Michael’s successor.

Michael may be a remorseless killer, but he is also a tumor that infects, corrupts, and destroys everyone around him. He’s a prime example of how evil can create a cycle of fear, death, and revenge that is almost impossible to stop.

5. Michael’s Supernatural Abilities

There’s been many theories on why Michael is so durable and hard to kill, and while Ends says that he’s just a man, I don’t think that’s true: Michael takes damage throughout the trilogy that would kill a man half his age and demonstrates endurance, durability, and strength beyond anything any normal person could endure: name any other man in his 60’s who can beat someone to death with their fists, he can crush a man’s head into pulp by smashing it with his boot, take a firehose of water to the chest without flinching, and hit someone with a baseball bat so hard that the bat itself is broken into two.

I’m of the theory that while Michael himself is human, the evil he contains makes him so much stronger and durable than any man could ever be, and while that power fades with age, it’s still always there, always driving him on, always giving him what he needs to continue his killing spree.

4. Michael vs the Firefighters

Michael gets into a lot of fights throughout the trilogy, but in terms of sheer ‘cool’ factor, this is my favorite:

Not only does this fight have a fantastic setting (taking place in front of a burning house), it demonstrates just how inhumanly strong Michael as as he takes down nine firemen who are armed with axes, firehoses, and even saws. But this fight is also a moment of awesome for the firefighters themselves: the moment they see Michael step outside, they instantly know who he is, but they don’t panic, run, or call for backup: instead, they stand their ground and fight. And while they all die, at least they go down fighting.

Fun fact: The house burning down during the scene? That was done for real, which meant that the filmmakers had about an hour to finish filming before the house collapsed. Thankfully, they did!

3. The Final Confrontation Between Laurie and Michael

The first sequel had a fight to the death between Laurie and Michael, but in my opinion, the final battle between the two in Ends is so much more gripping: Michael – now worn down from years of untreated injuries – comes to Laurie’s house and realizes she’s nearby. Laurie – who has given up on being a highly-trained survivalist – has no time to prepare as Michael comes for her, ending in a final, no-holds-barred beatdown between the two.

While the fight isn’t flashy or filled with fancy choreography, I love its atmosphere: this fight really feels like a final confrontation over 40 years in the making, both in-universe and out. Predator and Prey – both of whom are past their physical prime – fight to the death with nothing to lose and throw everything they have at each other, all backed with a near-apocalyptic soundtrack that makes things so much more intense. This is the last time Laurie and Michael will ever fight, and they give it their all. Many a fan has decried how Michael should have been able to kill her easily, but having Michael be old, worn out, and worn down from all the injuries he’s accumulated makes things more evenly matched between the two, and makes Laurie’s final victory all the more satisfying.

2. Michael is Killed For Good

There’s a saying in the world of comics: no one ever stays dead (except Uncle Ben), and the same can be said for slasher franchises: no matter how many times a villain is supposedly killed off for real, box office profits ensure he or she will always come back, no matter how convoluted the explanation may be. But while Michael will return for the inevitable reboot of the Halloween franchise, this timeline ends him in the most concrete way possible: by throwing his body into an industrial shredder and tearing him into bloody pulp.

There’s no way, NONE, that Michael can come back from this, and there’s one aspect of this scene that makes it so satisfying beyond seeing an evil man finally getting his just deserts: Throughout the series, Michael always comes back from every injury he takes. Whether it’s immediately, in a minute, a few hours, or even years, he always comes back, and I believe that Michael did not actually die in the fight with Laurie. Instead, he was so weakened from the loss of blood and his accumulated injuries that he couldn’t move, and while the evil possessing him was working to try and heal his body, the process couldn’t be completed when he was thrown into the shredder. Thus, Michael Myers truly died when the shredder tore him apart, and he felt all the pain that came with it: a far more just and deserved ending after all the lives Michael took, the fear he spread, and the suffering he inflicted on so many.

1. A Hopeful Ending

One reason I generally avoid horror films and franchises is the constant trope of downer endings where evil wins and nothing good comes from all the sacrifices, struggles, and suffering of the protagonists. Thankfully, Ends avoids this with a bittersweet, but hopeful ending:

After so many decades, Laurie finally kills Michael and frees both herself and Haddonfield from his reign of terror. While she cannot get back all the years and loved ones she’s lost, Laurie can now heal and create a new life for herself, complete with a new relationship with officer Hawkins. And best of all, in the final shots of the film, there’s no sound of Michael breathing. His mask remains, but the man – and the evil he carried – is truly gone, and it’s a great way to end the original Halloween timeline.

Revisiting The Syphon Filter Series: Part 3

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The year is 2001, and the Playstation era is coming to an end. The next generation of video game consoles are coming out with games that take advantage of new hardware to deliver unparalleled graphics and experiences. It was easy to assume that the Syphon Filter story would jump ship and continue on the Playstation 2, but Sony, to the surprise and delight of people like me who couldn’t afford a shiny new console, released Syphon Filter 3 on the original Playstation instead, bring Gabe Logan’s story to an end. (While leaving things open for further sequels, which would eventually come along a few years later.)

Syphon Filter 3 is something of an odd duck in the original trilogy: the story consists of Gabe, Lian, Lawrence Mujari, and others testifying in Congress about their involvement with the Agency and the Syphon Filter virus, meaning that half the missions are flashbacks, with the other half mainly treading water until the finale. Coupled with only a few new additions to the franchise (a few new weapons, slightly better graphics, and the addition of mini-games), and it’s easy to see why many fans see Syphon Filter 3 as a mission-pack sequel. I agree with that assessment, but that doesn’t make Syphon Filter 3 a bad game, though I do think it’s the weakest of the trilogy; most of the present-day missions feel like padding that doesn’t advance the story (such as everything that takes place in Ireland), and I would have preferred to have a longer climax instead of just two levels. But the game does have the most variety of the series when it comes to locations and playable characters, and it continues the series’ trademark of unique action sequences. Best of all, though the story is left open for further sequels, the main storyline of the Agency and the virus itself is wrapped up well enough that the saga could have ended here. And for people like me who aren’t fans of what came after, this is indeed the preferred ending. (Mara’s submarine in the post-credit scene? It developed a leak and imploded, so the virus is still lost on the ocean floor.)

Let’s take a look at Syphon Filter 3’s levels and see how well they stand the test of time. And as with the previous two articles, this list will spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t played the game yet.

19. Aztec Ruins

It’s only fitting that the last game in the PS1 trilogy goes back to where everything started and explores Gabe and Lian’s mission to Costa Rica that we saw in the opening cutscene of the first game. While SF3 lets us discover that Gabe got to do lots of cool stuff, we also learn that poor Lian was stuck running around the labyrinthine levels of some Aztec ruins to rescue lots of scientists, destroy virus samples, destroy computers, retrieve artifacts, warn Gabe about mines, file her taxes, and do a book report on War and Peace. Okay, maybe not the last two, but like the Agency Bio-Labs of SF2, and the abandoned cathedral of SF1, this is a huge level, but nowhere near as fun, and twice as long, and it’s surprisingly easy to miss some of the things you need to find or destroy, leading to lots of tedious backtracking. It also has a whopping 26 checkpoints, the highest of any level in the series!

Best story moment: Meeting Dr. Elsa Weissinger for the first time, story-wise, the same woman who will infect and experiment on Lian and so many others in future games.

18. Waterfront

Despite their importance when it comes to receiving and shipping goods responsible for the functioning of modern society, I’ve never found docks to be interesting places for action sequences, and the Waterfront level is no exception. Aside from the ever-solid gameplay, there’s nothing really memorable here.

Best story element: Gabe and his new partner Maggie Powers learning that the IRA has the virus and is trying to escape so they can unleash it upon Europe, giving the player a very good reason to go after them.

17. Dockyards

More of the same as the Waterfront level, save learning that the guy you’ve been sent to save is actually an IRA operative. Oh no! Thankfully, you manage to kill him before he escapes with the virus. Yay!

Best story element: Watching the SS Lorelli be sunk, taking the virus with it to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean and stopping anyone else from getting their hands on it, ensuring that all your efforts were successful. Plus, the bubble sound effects of the sinking crates is cartoonish and unintentionally funny.

16. Australian Outback

Lady power time! This modern-day mission has Lian tracking down Dr. Weissinger to kidnap her and gain more information about who’s truly behind the Syphon Filter virus, but ends up with her doing everything she can to save the local Aboriganies, who have become unwilling test subjects. Gameplay-wise, there’s nothing extraordinary here, but but I like how this is the first mission in the series where all the main characters are women (Lian, Weissinger, and Powers), which is a refreshing change of pace from the normally testosterone-filled spy genre.

Best story element: Lian changing her mission and refusing to give up on the test subjects, as she knows exactly what it’s like to be infected by the virus and wants to spare others from suffering as she did.

15. Pugari Goldmine

Lawrence Mujari gets his chance to shine with a flashback mission detailing his efforts to free trapped slaves from a mine in Africa… though there’s not too much to this level, aside from the satisfaction of freeing workers being held against their will.

Best story element: The protagonist infiltrating a facility to free people being held against their will.

14. Pugari Complex

A continuation of the previous mission, this one starts off with Lawrence getting to ride a mine cart out of a collapsing mine, a great way to start things off. Aside from that, though, this is another average level with no bad elements or standout moments.

Best story element: Finally learning the origin of the Syphon Filter virus: That it came from a mine in South Africa, rather than being something engineered in a lab.

13. Yuendumu Village

Continuing on the previous mission, this one has Lian sneaking into a remote village to save innocent Aborigines before they can be executed. The Syphon Filter series have few missions dedicated to saving innocent people, and this is one of the better ones, combining stealth with a moral imperative. Being able to eliminate the man responsible for it all is just icing on the cake.

Best story element: Elsa Weissinger deciding that if she’s going to be betrayed, she has no qualms about betraying her former employers, and gives Lian a data disk that will allow her and the others to finally unravel who is behind the entire Syphon Filter operation.

12. Underground Bunkers

Every Syphon Filter game features a level revolving around sneaking through darkened, underground passages without a map, and SF3’s contribution is the Underground Bunker, where Teresa has to escort her new survivalist friend, Dusty, and his pregnant mother to safety while being swarmed with rogue NSA agents. So not only do you have to get through a very dark and easy-to-die mine complex, but you have a dreaded escort mission as well. Still, the claustrophobia here is effective, and it’s satisfying to get Dusty and his mom to safety at the end.

Best story element: Having to escape rogue government agents with a pregnant woman who could give birth at any moment, making said escape all the more challenging.

11. Kabul, Afghanistan

The Afghanistan levels of Syphon Filter 3 are dark, moody, and atmospheric, and the first one sets the stage with Lian infiltrating the war-torn ruins of Kabul. The stage excels at feeling like a warzone that’s momentarily quiet, but the big draw here is learning how Gabe and Lian met for the first time, beginning a partnership and friendship that would last for decades… but you know what’s even cooler? Getting your hands on a gun that can shoot through walls!

Best story element: Saving an extraction helicopter from four goons with grenade launchers by shooting said goons with a gun that can shoot through walls.

10. Costa Rica Plantation

Years after we first saw it in the opening cutscene of SF1, we finally get to see exactly what happened when Gabe and Lian reached Rhomer’s plantation in Costa Rica. While the cutscene just revealed that poor Ellis was executed, and that Rhomer set everything on fire, we get to see what really happened, which includes Gabe gathering samples of the virus, freeing slaves, sabotaging helicopters, and avoiding land mines. What’s more impressive is that this is the trilogy’s first jungle level, and it’s pulled off well considering the technical limitations of the original Playstation.

Best story element: Seeing Gabe freeing slaves, and then gunning down the people who were keeping them against their will.

9. Militia compound

With the treasonous rogue agents exposed, Teresa has to try and save as many survivalists as she can from those determined to wipe them out. This is a standard level, but like it’s immediate predecessor, the atmosphere and music are top-notch, and it’s neat to meet Stevens – the mastermind of the Australian massacre – decades before that happened. While it’s tempting to kill him, alas, that would create a time paradox, which means the player has to let Stevens live, while knowing how he will meet his ultimate end decades later.

Best story element: Some of the survivalists remembering how Teresa helped them out and returning the favor by giving her a grenade launcher to help blow up those dastardly rogue agents.

8. Paradise Ridge

In a twist I didn’t see coming, it turns out that Teresa was only wounded by Jason Chance at the end of SF2, leaving her to pop up unexpectedly near the end of SF3‘s second act, allowing her to recount a mission where the raided a survivalist compound in the snow-covered mountains of Montana with the ATF and unknowingly helped rogue NSA agents who wanted to wipe out the survivalists. While my teenage brain had a hard time keeping track of all the factions shooting each other, the mission is a nice change of pace from Syphon Filter’s usual urban locations, and features survivalists depicted as innocents (albeit, ones who aren’t afraid to shoot first and ask questions later). The music’s pretty sweet, too.

Best story element: Portraying militia members as innocents in a combat situation. Not friendly and pure of heart, mind you, but still innocent.

7. S.S Loreli

Gabe’s been everywhere from Washington DC, Russia, the jungles of Costa Rica, and abandoned cathedrals in Europe, and now he finally gets to go on a ship that’s setting sail with large shipments of the Syphon Filter virus. This is a great level filled with plenty of running and gunning in an environment we haven’t seen before in the SF series.

Best story element: Seeing a particularly cheerful crewmember, making him stand out among his serious, gun-toting brethren.

6. Convoy

Chronicling one of Gabe’s earliest combat missions, this mission takes us back to a late 80’s Afghanistan, where Gabe teams up with Ellis (the guy shot by Mara in the opening cutscene of SF1) and Benton (the guy Gabe killed in the first museum level of SF1) to get a damaged truck full of weapons to safety, all while under attack by Afghan rebels and a road littered with landmines. The Syphon Filter series hasn’t done desert environments before, so going through a desert at night is a unique situation, and the moody music helps set the mood for an intense mission filled with plenty of gunfights.

Best story element: Working with Ellis and Benton, which gives two minor side characters a chance to take on a starring role, despite knowing how their lives will end in twenty years time.

5. The Beast

While Solid Snake may be video gaming’s secret agent who has the record for most unique boss fights, Gabe’s no slouch either, having taken on a helicopter, multiple adversaries in bullet-proof armor, and, thanks to this level, a tank! Unlike Solid Snake, though, Gabe has to be much more careful in how he engages this Soviet monstrosity, making it feel more like a horror level (the sound of the tank treads is downright chilling), as he has no health powerups and has to lure the tank into a trap rather then engage it in a one-on-one fight. While a short level, it’s one of the most intense in the series.

Best story element: Seeing Gabe – a lone infantryman – taking on a tank by himself and winning.

4. Senate Building

It isn’t until the last two missions that SF3 finally starts wrapping up the PS1’s story, and boy does it start with a bang, revealing that Gabe’s interrogator, Secretary of State Vince Hadden, is the man who has been in charge of the Syphon Filter project all along. But with him dead, Mara Aramov and her men have filled Congress with over twenty bombs, taken hostages, and intends to detonate a viral bomb in Washington DC. It’s one hell of a way to start the finale of the game, and the series as a whole, as Gabe rushes to stop the bombs and save hostages.

Best story element: Gabe having to save a famous landmark and seat of power for a government (Congress) before it’s destroyed.

3. Hotel Fukushima

Every Syphon Filter features a strong opening, and I think Syphon Filter 3 has the best one, featuring Gabe infiltrating a hotel in Tokyo during a nighttime rainstorm to assassinate a Chinese rebel leader who wants the virus for himself. What follows is a sneaky infiltration mission, a high-rise shootout, and then a fast-paced gunfight to escape the hotel and rescue an innocent hostage in the process. It’s a fantastic way to kick the game off and get players hyped for the rest of the game.

Best story element: a shootout that takes place between two high rises where Gabe manages to take out the leaders of a terrorist organization.

2. C5 Galaxy

He’s been in cathedrals, burning subway stations, ships, underground labs, and runaway trains, and now Gabe heads to the skies in a C-5 Galaxy (which, for some reason, is depicted as a C-130 in cutscenes) in an attempt to stop Rhomer from escaping from his Costa Rica plantation. Essentially a boss fight level, this stage features a very clever way of having Gabe fight and defeat Rhomer while leaving him alive to be killed off for good at the end of SF1: bring back Chance’s body armor from the end of SF2 for Rhomer to wear, making it impossible for Gabe to kill him. While the level is short, being able to face off against Rhomer once again in a unique situation makes it a great one.

Best story element: Gabe being able to fight and defeat Rhomer once again inside a flying cargo plane, but in such a way that Rhomer survives to reappear in the original game.

1. DC Subway

One of my favorite sayings is that, while it’s good to begin well, it’s better to end well, and SF3 wraps up the PS1 trilogy by taking the player back to Washington DC, where the series first began. With her plan to destroy Congress foiled, Mara Aramov takes a subway train and plans to unleash the Syphon Filter virus in the Washington DC subway system, infecting and killing millions of innocent people. Only Gabe has a chance to stop her, and to do so he’ll have to fight his way through the subway as it races through the same tunnels where he and Mara first fought years ago, and the ensuing gunfights, hostage rescues, and final confrontation with Mara makes it a great way to end the series.

Best story element: Gabe climbing up onto the top of a speeding subway train and shooting Mara in the head with a gun that can shoot through metal.

And with that, that’s a wrap for the Playstation one trilogy. Tune in next time for an analysis of the best and least-enjoyable levels to see what story lessons the Syphon Filter series has to offer.

What we can learn from ‘The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time!’

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METADATA-START

45 weeks ago, we took a look at ‘Sharknado 5: Global Swarming’, and now, at long last, it’s time to take a look at the final film in the venerable series: ‘The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time!’

After five long years of sharknados taking out cites, going into space, becoming radioactive, and destroying the world, the series finally comes to an end with ‘The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time!’ which, having exhausted all other possibilities, sends the title monster back through time (the only other sensible option would have it going to the afterlife), with surfer-rurned-barternder-turned-sharknado killer Fin Shepard on a journey to stop the sharknados for good. Let’s journey along to see what valuable story lessons we can learn by watching sharks terrorize people throughout history.

Avoid abandoning a greater-scope villain after establishing them

In the previous film, ‘Global Swarming,’ we learned that the sharknados were not just a freak of nature, but were created by a malevolent shark god that Fin and friends (I never get tired of writing that) set out to stop. While they did stop the sharknados at the end of the fifth film (at the cost of every other human alive), it’s odd that the shark god isn’t mentioned in ‘It’s About Time’.

When we introduce a supernatural threat – or any threat so big that it effectively becomes the main antagonist for a franchise – it’s imperative not to have that threat dropped so quickly, especially when it’s a supernatural one. It’s logical to think that Fin would have to take out the shark god to prevent any further sharknados from being made, but its nowhere to be found. If our own greater-scope villains need to be dropped, a good reason needs to be established instead of never mentioning them again, hoping that audiences won’t notice. They will.

Establish solid rules for time travel, lest audiences get hopelessly confused

While traveling through time offers nearly endless possibilities for exciting storytelling, it can quickly become a mess of intersecting timelines, cause and effect, and how actions in the past affect the future (and that’s without getting into the grandfather paradox). ‘It’s About Time’ tries to make things simple by stating that everyone can only travel back in time once, but then it has Gil continuously going through different eras. When it comes to time travel, it’s best to make things as simple as possible. Better to have our audiences focus on the fun shenanigans going on, then wondering how such things are possible.

When doing time travel, consider bringing back minor characters for big roles

One of the things that ‘It’s About Time’ does best is bringing back minor characters for bigger roles in the story, like Bryan and Skye. While they may have served as cannon fodder in their original appearances, or had a small role that didn’t affect the story all that much, we don’t expect much from them. They’re background characters, ones who don’t take the spotlight. Thus, when they come back as main characters, they become underdogs who have a chance to shine and help save the day. Even better is if they’re in a completely new time and location (like the prehistoric era), as not only do they have to contend with being in the spotlight, but now they also have to try and survive in an environment they’re not familiar with.

Consider having monsters and antagonists from the future battle people from the past

One of the most enjoyable aspects of time travel stories is seeing people and technologies from different eras interact with one another. How, for example, would a modern-day person fare in the Revolutionary War era? Or in Ancient Egypt? How do technologically disadvantaged people fight off opponents from a different era? ‘It’s About Time’ has medieval knights, Revolutionary War soldiers, and Cowboys fight off sharks, and those battles are easily the highlights of the movie.

The reason these fights are so interesting is that the people of the past are automatically the underdog and have to fight harder to win. Cowboys have the advantage of guns when fighting sharks, but revolutionary war soldiers only have muskets, while knights are stuck with swords and bows, which makes audiences wonder how on earth they’re going to win. An even cleverer version of this trope is to have the people of the past take advantage of futuristic tech: When sharknados attack Revolutionary America, the British use a sharknado to gain an advantage in their war, almost changing the course of history in their favor.

When writing historical characters in time travel stories, the more authentic they are, the funnier they are

Another draw of time travel stories is being able to use famous people throughout history and put them in exciting fights and teamups with monsters and people from other times in history. Part of this draw is seeing how someone from one era coping with another, and how they would react to, say, modern weapons and technology. However, for this trope to be most useful, it’s important to make historical characters as accurate as possible; much of the humor/awesome factor in their appearances is that they take things seriously. While comedic or light-hearted time travel stories can make famous people goofballs (Think ‘Bill and Ted’), it is possible to go too far: When Finn and his friends go to the Revolutionary War era, I was excited at the thought of seeing George Washington fighting a sharknado. Instead, we get a man who’s more interested in taking a nap and cracking jokes instead of fighting or taking the situation seriously.

Consider having someone alter history in a time travel story, even when they know it’ll hurt them

While ‘It’s About Time’ engages in all the standard time-travel tropes (meeting famous figures, having historical characters and groups fight monsters from other eras, etc.) and get into debates about changing the future to avert a personal catastrophe (Nova trying to save his grandfather), the film smartly changes things up by giving Finn an impossible choice: He has a chance to stop sharknados forever by traveling through time, but at the cost of losing his son, who will never be born, and even be erased from Finn’s memory.

So often, time travel stories are about changing the future for the better, or preserving it, but rarely do we see stories where travelers doing the right thing know they will suffer greatly, even if its for the greater good. By having our characters lose something important to them, whether it’s a loved one, a job, or a dream, and being willing to let them go to save so many others, we give them an unparalleled chance to shine and show how brave and heroic they can be.

If it fits the theme of a series, there’s nothing wrong with a happy ending

It’s a classic trope: The characters of a story manage to succeed in their fight. They achieve their goals, get what they want, and live happily ever after. It’s so overused that it’s a scenario that could easily turn into a parody, and many stories try to subvert it by using a darker, or more bittersweet ending where not everything is right or well. But there’s nothing wrong with a happy ending, especially if it’s well-earned, and the end of the Sharknado series has a very well-earned one indeed: Fin manages to restart history and create a timeline where sharknados don’t exist, saving all his friends and acquaintances, and even Gil, with the very last shot of the series has Al Roker declaring that it’s going to be a beautiful day with nothing unusual going on. It’s a satisfying conclusion that ties everything up, and gives everyone a happy ending without any tease or hint of further adventures, giving the characters – and us – closure.

And so, after a year, we finally finish our marathon of all the Sharknado films. Turn in next week, when we’ll do an analysis of the series as a whole.