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#UnintendedTrilogy (#MoviesThatShouldBeATrilogy) that I’ve told friends about for a few years:

1974 The Conversation
1998 Enemy of the State
2004 I, Robot

Gene Hackman plays the same character in the first two, Will Smith in the latter two. Many have posted about EOTS being a sequel to TC, e.g.:
* https://screenrant.com/enemy-state-conversation-sequel-fan-theory-explained/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20211223220730/https://www.avclub.com/to-be-continued-sort-of-11-unofficial-sequels-1798273052/slides/2 (Internet Archive version because too many 3rd party scripts on avclub)
* https://twitter.com/treatshair/status/1468952964261896195
and it was quite obvious to anyone who saw Enemy of the State after seeing The Conversation.

The key to extending this to a trilogy is what happens to Will Smith’s character. In EOTS, his character evolves from having mild techno-optimism/naïveté towards a more critical outlook by the end. In I, Robot, his outlook has continued evolving into full-on techno-skepticism, and he has several encounters where others treat him as crazy or paranoid after he is attacked by robots. Plus there’s his line:

“Does believing you're the last sane man on the planet make you crazy? 'Cause if that's the case, maybe I am.”

Along the way he has also held onto non-networked, non-smart technologies like his old motorcycle, further underscoring his established techno-skepticism.

I’ll leave it at that for now, and may add more later to fill in the narrative & connections between Enemy of the State and I, Robot.

on (ttk.me t5GQ1) using BBEdit