“But it never happened”: Michael Caine once resolved the iconic cliffhanger of ‘The Italian Job’
By the time The Italian Job was released in June 1969, Michael Caine was already familiar with sequels, even if he was never given the chance to reprise the role of expert thief Charlie Croker, no matter how much he wanted to.
He’d already played Harry Palmer three times by that point after headlining The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, and Billion Dollar Brain, and in the decades to come, he’d lend his talents to a number of sequels regardless of whether he appeared in the original or not.
The two-time Academy Award winner infamously missed his maiden Oscar victory thanks to the fourth entry in the Jaws franchise, while he was a constant of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy as Alfred Pennyworth and sleepwalked his way through heist caper Now You See Me and its follow-up.
Caine made one of the biggest mistakes of his career boarding Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, but he fared much better when he signed up for another pre-existing property. He also brought his entire career full circle by playing the father of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers in the third instalment, Goldmember.
The Italian Job may have gotten a remake in 2003, but Caine wished that the open-ended conclusion of the first film had been picked up. As it stands, “Hang on a minute, lads, I’ve got a great idea” is one of the most iconic lines of his entire career and has sparked plenty of debate and discussion over what comes next, but the actor had his own suggestion.
“We start the engine, and as the petrol runs out, they all jump off,” Caine explained to GQ of how the entirely hypothetical Italian Job 2 would have picked up from exactly where its predecessor left off. “But when the coach goes over, the Corsican mafia is waiting to collect the gold. And the next chase was to be after them right through the Riviera.”
Despite recouping its production budget three times over at the box office, those profit margins weren’t substantial enough for Paramount to decree a sequel was something that needed to be made, which left The Italian Job‘s leading man carrying a tinge of regret.
“But it never happened,” he lamented. “The Americans made the movie, and while it didn’t lose any money, it didn’t make any either.” If anything, the movie is much better off with the ending it got, which became an integral part of its lasting appeal. The Italian Job remains one of the most slick and stylish crime thrillers of its era, and ending on such a massive unanswered question is reflective of its anarchic spirit.
It both begins and ends on an unforgettable note, so maybe it was for the best Caine never got to see his sequel plans come to fruition.
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