What’s the Difference Between a Remake and a Reboot?

Webster’s Dictionary defines a reboot as “the act or an occasion of beginning (one thing) anew or making a contemporary begin.” Which is definitely not all that useful for the needs of determining how a reboot is totally different from a remake. What the hell, Webster’s? You’re speculated to outline this stuff for us!

It feels just like the phrases remake and reboot are used nearly interchangeably today, relying on which of the 2 is extra in favor at any given second. “Oh, did a high-profile remake simply bomb on the field workplace? Nicely, my new film is definitely not a remake. It’s a reboot!” or “No, see, folks don’t like reboots. What I’m directing is a remake!” And so forth.

So what the heck is a reboot and the way the heck is it totally different from a remake? Take 2024’s  starring Jake Gyllenhaal within the position initially performed by Patrick Swayze. If we wish to get technical about it, is it a remake or a reboot?

READ MORE: Highway Home: The Craziest Moments within the Unique Movie

What Is a Remake?

A remake is a brand new movie (or TV present, or no matter different medium you‘re speaking about) of an outdated movie (or TV present, and so on.) If somebody (let’s name this particular person “Jack Moron”) took Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz’s script for Citizen Kane and reshot it with a brand new solid — Colin Farrell as Charles Foster Kane, Anne Hathaway as Susan Alexander, Logan Paul as Jed Leland, and so forth — the outcome could be a remake. (The outcome would even be a Corridor of Fame dangerous concept. However what else do you count on from a man named Jack Moron?)

Now on this hypothetical (and catastrophically misguided) instance, we haven’t modified something concerning the unique movie past the solid. Remakes like that do exist; Gus Van Sant remade Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho web page for web page, line for line, scene for scene, with solely the tiniest beauty variations.

However altering nothing a few film’s script is fairly uncommon. Most remakes replace their premise to a fashionable setting. Take, for instance, the 2005 model of The Longest Yard starring Adam Sandler. It’s the identical important idea — a disgraced NFL professional leads a bunch of convicts in a soccer recreation towards their jail guards — but it surely’s been shifted from the mid-Seventies to the mid-2000s.

The solid is totally different (though unique star Burt Reynolds reveals up in a special supporting position); the setting, the story, and even a number of the character names are equivalent. Thus, a remake.

Okay, Then What Is a Reboot?

Issues get extra sophisticated if you end up making a brand new model of one thing that exists past a single movie. In a long-running franchise, a remake isn’t only a remake; it’s much more widespread that the movie in query wipes away years and even many years of continuity to start out over contemporary. That’s when a remake turns into a reboot.

Take into account the Friday the thirteenth collection. The unique slasher saga spanned 11 movies over greater than twenty years. Then, in 2009, producers began over with a brand new Friday the thirteenth. It wasn’t an easy retread of the unique. Within the first Friday the thirteenth from 1980 Jason Voorhees was the MacGuffin, not the killer. (Uh, spoiler alert?) The assassin within the first movie was Jason’s mom, Mrs. Voorhees.

The replace in 2009 mixed parts from a number of totally different Friday the thirteenth films to determine a brand new storyline; Jason’s mother seems within the opening, then a grownup Jason goes on a killing spree many years later in the remainder of the film. So Friday the thirteenth (2009) is a reboot, not a remake.

And so is On line casino Royale (2006), which reset the continuity of the James Bond franchise at sq. one, introducing a brand new 007 initially of his profession. The important thing moments within the lifetime of the outdated James Bond — just like the dying of his spouse in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service — had been wiped away, together with all of Bond’s different prior exploits, conferences with Blofeld, battles with SPECTRE, and so forth. Thus, a reboot.

Is It Doable to Remake a Movie With A number of Sequels?

We’ve already pinpointed the principle distinction between a remake and a reboot: A remake is a brand new model of 1 movie, whereas a reboot is a brand new model of a multipart movie collection. You possibly can’t reboot one thing that’s solely had one film within the first place. It will be technically incorrect, for instance, to name the Frank Oz Little Store of Horrors a reboot, as a result of there was just one prior Little Store of Horrors by Roger Corman to start with.

That raises an attention-grabbing query: Is the reverse doable? Are you able to make a remake a movie that’s a part of a long-running collection that’s not a reboot? Or does the truth that a film is a brand new model of a movie that began a long-running collection mechanically make it a reboot?

Let’s use the 2014 RoboCop as our take a look at case. The unique RoboCop from 1987 impressed two direct big-screen sequels, together with comedian books, video video games, a live-action TV collection, and two animated collection. The sheer amount of secondary stuff in its wake completely qualifies it for reboot standing.

However is RoboCop (2014) a reboot? Technically, I suppose it’s, because it ignores the entire secondary stuff and returns to the essential premise of a murdered cop who’s Frankensteined right into a robotic avenger. However the movie can be shut sufficient to the 1987 movie by way of plot, setting, type, and tone, that in a world the place RoboCop 2 and 3 didn’t exist, you’d completely name it a remake with out a second thought. If a reboot can be a remake, RoboCop is each. In my private opinion, whether or not you name RoboCop a remake or a reboot you’re proper.

You’ll even be proper whether or not you referred to as Peter Jackson’s King Kong a reboot or a remake. 1933’s King Kong bought a number of sequels via the years, together with Son of Kong and King Kong vs. Godzilla. There was a previous remake with its personal sequel, King Kong Lives. If a reboot is “a brand new model of a multipart movie collection,” then Jackson’s King Kong is unquestionably a reboot.

However Jackson’s King Kong can be one of the crucial slavishly devoted remakes in historical past. It’s bought all the identical important characters, all the identical places, the identical actual story, the identical ending, even the identical timeframe. (Jackson selected to not replace the story, and set his movie in 1933.) It appears ludicrous to not name Jackson’s King Kong a remake on a technicality.

That brings us again to the 2024 Highway Home. It’s bought to be a remake, proper? Ah ah ah — not so quick. There is a Highway Home sequel; 2006’s Highway Home 2, that includes Jonathon Schaech because the son of Patrick Swayze’s character from the primary film.

Highway Home (2024) ignores the occasions of Highway Home 2. (Stunning, I do know.) So is it a reboot? Technically, I assume it may be.

However like RoboCop, I feel it’s secure to name this a remake. It options the identical primary premise — man who hates sporting shirts cleans up seedy bar — and the identical title character (Dalton, the person who hates shirts and loves ripping out dude’s throats). Even when there was a little-seen direct-to-video sequel to deal with right here, If that’s not a remake, nothing’s a remake.