It Takes Two turned out to be a surprise hit in 2021. Its combination of gorgeous visuals, balanced cooperative gameplay, and an engrossing story captivated audiences the world over. So, when it was announced that a movie adaptation was set to be made, fans’ interest was piqued.
What would an It Takes Two movie look like? Who would voice the protagonists? How would they incorporate the gameplay and visuals? Well, while we don’t have all the answers, it’s always fun to speculate and suggest a handful of ideas and things that these movies need in order to capture that same magic.
5 A More Focused Narrative
It Takes Two’s narrative is by far one of its strongest features. The relationship between its protagonists and their desperation in returning to their daughter helps to contextualize the engaging cooperative gameplay in a beautiful and meaningful way. So, you’re likely wondering why on earth we’d want it to be more focused for a movie adaptation?
Well, simply put, a movie version would likely be two hours or less in length, which compared to the 12 hours it takes to beat the original game is no time at all. To make It Takes Two’s narrative work in a more condensed period of time, you’d have to focus on the parts that work the best and skip out all of the wonderful fluff that fills out the remaining runtime.
Before you get up in arms over the fluff, trust us, we like it just as much as the next person. But it has to go. The long stretches of time when not much is said or the relationship between the characters isn’t developed needs to be scrapped.
The sequences with the squirrels, for example, are fun and cute, but they don’t serve much purpose beyond having more moments of the couple bonding. We want to see a squirrel getting punched on the big screen just as much as you do – or maybe we don’t, the jury’s still out on that one – but either way, the more fluff-filled moments, which give fun reasons for the player to actually play the game, need to be swapped for character-building moments. After all, the marriage plotline is ultimately more important than stopping a robot bee queen or whatever happened in that fever dream of a mission. Seriously, what was that all about?
4 More Trippy Visuals
One of the most exciting elements of It Takes Two are its incredibly trippy visuals. We’re talking dolls coming to life and ripping the ears of an elephant off, flying through morphing clocks, and that whole fighting a squirrel on a plane thing. You know, the standard 'make your daughter cry so you can become human again' stuff. The visuals in It Takes Two are beyond amazing and certainly elevate the player’s overall experience. So, it only makes sense that a movie adaption – you know, the medium in which visuals are arguably the most important aspect – retains these wonderfully bizarre visuals.
Of course, trying to replicate any of this imagery is far easier said than done. Fortunately, with the advancements in CGI and animation, there really isn’t a better time to make a film like It Takes Two. So long as the movie retains the same level of color and detail that the game has in droves, then it will likely be considered a visual masterpiece.
Sure, the film should also be able to improvise, especially if it’s adding in extra scenes to pad out the character development. While a strict adaptation would work and be fun, a looser interpretation with a lot of creativity from the director and director of photography is necessary to make this work. Fans won’t want to just see the images, story beats, and epic moments redone for the big screen. They’ll want a deeper exploration of certain ideas only a movie can offer them.
3 Interesting Interpretation Of The Gameplay
It goes without saying, but a movie is very much not a video game. Shocker, we know. However, all too often video game movies do their best to replicate gameplay through snazzy cinematography. It doesn’t work, please stop trying to do this.
The issue is that gameplay is very much a hands-on experience, and seeing it outside of that interactive realm feels strange. So, if an It Takes Two movie adaptation is going to replicate its gameplay, it should do so in interesting ways. Perhaps the best and easiest way of doing this is with a nod and a wink. For example, they could take any of the absolutely fantastic mini-games and have a montage of the protagonists bonding by playing them. You know, like in the game.
Another way is to simply incorporate the gameplay into the action. Instead of showing us an over-the-shoulder perspective of one character throwing a nail and the other swinging across it with a hammer, they should just have those characters do that seamlessly. They could also invent new and interesting ways of getting the characters from A to B. Instead of a hammer and nail, it could be quite literally any other duo of related items – it’s not our job to figure this out for you, Amazon.
Either way, they need to find creative means of incorporating the gameplay found in the game without it being too obvious or cliché. After all, the game managed to introduce numerous different genres without it seeming out of place.
2 A Cliffhanger Ending
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This is actually very likely to be the case, but if it’s not, then it should be. It Takes Two: The Movie should be split in two. It Takes Two and It Takes Two To Tango. The reason for this is that It Takes Two is an incredibly long game and trying to condense all of that down into one single movie is very likely to fail. There’s too much character development, action, and heartfelt moments to whizz through in a matter of hours. Frankly, it should be a TV show, but if they’re going to do a movie, then they need to do two.
Having two It Takes Two movies may be a gamble. After all, who knows if anyone will actually go see it? But considering the success of the Sonic The Hedgehog movies – literally, who saw that coming? -, it’s possible that people will be hankering for more after the first movie wraps. It’ll also just allow for more unique ideas and creativity to flow into the narrative, and not hold back the artistic direction of whichever director they hire to make it.
Directors need – to an extent – free rein over the movies they make. Just look at animated movies such as Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie and We’re The Millers. All of those movies illustrated perfectly that having a creative lead at the helm can transform your product from something mediocre into something truly special. So, end It Takes Two: The Movie with a cliffhanger and use the second film to further develop the characters. Or don’t, we’re not the billion-dollar company making a video game movie.
1 Have The Rock As Every Character, Or Maybe Don't
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So, the Rock. You know, the big guy who sings in Moana and beats people up in those movies about cars. He’s involved in the It Takes Two movie adaptation. Who would have thought? Well, his production company Seven Bucks Productions has, but you’d have to assume that he’ll have some role in it. Right?
Well, there are two options here. Either have him play literally every role or no roles. Preferably the latter, maybe. It’s not that the Rock is a bad actor – Moana proved he’s actually quite talented. It’s just that he’s the Rock. He’s in everything.
If you’re doing an animated version or even a CGI version, then why not cast the original voice actors? They were hired for the game for good reasons. If you’re doing a live-action version – wow those woolen puppets are going to be difficult to pull off -, then casting the Rock doesn’t make much sense anyway. Cody and May are supposed to be fairly average people and let’s be honest, the Rock isn’t average by any means. Have you seen his smoldering looks?
There has been some speculation about who could be cast, but at this point, it's up in the air. Let’s just hope if the Rock is in it, he’s playing the daughter. Because that would be a hoot and a half.
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