It might be the magic number, but settling on the best threequel ever is proving to be a nightmare

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Making a worthy sequel to a classic movie is difficult, but you could also make an entirely well-founded argument that closing out a trilogy in suitably spectacular fashion might just be harder.

We’ve seen countless all-time greats succeeded by a worthy second installment, only for the rails to come off a little bit when it’s time to bring a three-film arc across the finish line. Of course, there are a number of phenomenal examples where that hasn’t been the case, but the people of Reddit are struggling to come to an agreement over which threequel can definitively be named as the greatest ever made.

As shocking as it is to find the internet disagreeing on something, the sheer volume of titles to be suggested as potential candidates underlines the scope on offer when it comes to tracking down and rounding out top-tier triptych. The debate is ignited by the originator willing to die on the hill of Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, but it isn’t long before the dissenters begin to emerge.

The top-voted reply at the time of writing succinctly suggests classic spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which is hard to argue with when it’s rightfully lauded as one of the finest flicks ever committed to celluloid. Looking beyond that, the likes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, War for the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Toy Story 3, Thor: Ragnarok, and even Ernest Saves Christmas all find themselves being lobbied for.

There’s even a remarkable groundswell of support behind A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, too, so it’s not as if every imaginable genre hasn’t got its backers.