Species II
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| Species II | |
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| Directed by | Peter Medak |
| Produced by | Dennis Feldman, Frank Mancuso Jr. |
| Written by | Chris Brancato, Dennis Feldman |
| Starring | Natasha Henstridge, Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | April 10, 1998 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Species |
| Followed by | Species III |
| IMDb profile | |
Species II (a.k.a Species 2: Offspring and Species 2: Origins) is a 1998 sequel to the 1995 film Species. It stars Natasha Henstridge, Michael Madsen, and Marg Helgenberger, who reprise their roles.
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[edit] Plot summary
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The movie begins roughly two years after the events of Species with the landing of the first successful manned mission on Mars. When the mission's three astronauts ready their ship for the return journey, the original alien life form, contained within a Martian rock sample, escapes and takes over their bodies. Though one of the astronauts, Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), carries the sickle cell gene that prevents the alien's assimilation, the others, Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) and Anne Sampas (Myriam Cyr), are speedily infected by the alien DNA on the journey back to Earth.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, a new version of the original life form Sil, named Eve (Natasha Henstridge), has been created. Engineered to be more docile than her predecessor, she is part of another attempt to understand the alien life form.
Ross, the son of U.S. Senator Judson Ross (played by James Cromwell), returns to Earth where a function is being held in his honor. Here he meets a mysterious woman referred to as the Debutante. After giving a speech he goes to a hotel room to find her waiting, joined by her sister. Ross then has unprotected sex with the first woman, then her sister. Both women go through several months of pregnancy within seconds and neither woman survives. Patrick buries the mutilated bodies of the dead women and hides his children inside his old childhood shed.
Meanwhile, Dr. Orinsky, who took the astronauts' blood samples, is looking up Patrick's blood under a microscope. Just after he finds alien DNA inside his blood, the bottle with Patrick's blood inside rolls off the table and shatters. The puddle of blood then flows forward and seeps into the wall and proceeds to mutate into an arm of tentacles that bursts from the wall and disembowels Orinsky. As he is dying, he grabs his cell phone and calls Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) and tells her that his old apprentice was right about the possibility of alien infection. After Orinsky dies, his wounds are examined and alien DNA is found. However, the DNA does not match that of Eve's.
The government then summons Press Lennox (Michael Madsen), now the owner of a private security firm. After meeting with Dr. Orinsky's old apprentice, Lennox and Baker begin searching for any astronauts that might have been infected. They search first for Patrick, but he is not home, as he is with his girlfriend Melissa at his hunting lodge, so they set out to search for Anne Sampas, the female astronaut.
As they are driving to the Sampas residence, Anne and her husband Harry are having sex in bed. By the time Laura and Press get there, Anne instantly becomes pregnant and screams to her husband to call for help. Just as he is about to call, Anne suddenly gives birth to her alien offspring, which kills her husband. This horrifies Anne even more just before Press comes in and kills the creature. Anne continues to scream as the creature retracts back into her stomach until Laura gasses both the creature and Anne to death.
After they perform an autopsy on Anne, they find that her DNA does not match the one in Orinsky's wounds. The team then captures Dennis Gamble, but after a thorough blood test finds out that he was not infected due to his sickle trait. Dennis does not have sickle cell anemia himself but he does carry the genes that cause sickle cell anemia making him inadequate for the alien DNA. The team then focuses on Patrick Ross.
Patrick goes to a local club where he offers a large amount of cash to a stripper, who reacts favorably to him. After having sex with her he also kills and buries her.
The next morning, Patrick wakes up in bed to Melissa's mutilated body, and yet another alien child. He washes all the blood off himself, then gets into his air force uniform, grabs one of his hunting rifles, and goes out onto the backyard deck to commit suicide. Dennis arrives just as Patrick sticks the barrel of the gun into his mouth and shoots his head off. Seconds later, his entire head grows back. Even his memory has been retained. He then realizes his new alien instincts and sets out to create more offspring. Dennis informs Press about Patrick's whereabouts. They soon arrive at a motel where they discover the mutilated body of a prostitute he had impregnated. Patrick impregnates even more women and generates a large family within days. Baker eventually suggests activating Eve's alien DNA in an attempt to track Patrick. She detects him at a supermarket, trying to rape a woman inside a van, but when he senses Eve, he lets the woman go. Patrick then wants to mate with Eve.
Though the scientists attempt to use Eve as bait in an effort to terminate him, events turn sour when she breaks free from the captivity of the lab because she can no longer control her sexual desire. Eventually, Eve does get to Patrick. The two start to have sex first in human form, but then change into their alien forms. The scientists get there in time, kill the children, and convince her to attack Patrick. Patrick then kills Eve by what appears to be an alien form of fellatio in which Patrick who is now an uncontrollable alien, splits his head into two separate heads which then proceed to bite Eve's arms, then he uses a tentacle coated with spines to cut Eve's throat which kills her.Press then stabs Patrick in the back with a pitchfork that has its tips coated with Dennis' blood. This causes Patrick to severely weaken and disintegrate.
[edit] Eve
Eve is the recreation of Sil from the first movie, played by Natasha Henstridge. Unlike her predecessor, Eve is portrayed as more human and driven by human emotions and motivations. This is because although she is still very much alien, her alien genes have been suppressed and she is medicated to keep this in maintenance. She is able to learn extremely fast, just like Sil. But without proper life experience, all of her learning stimuli come from reading newspapers and watching television. Her favorite program is The Dukes Of Hazzard and she is able to learn to drive competently by watching the show. In the Species II novelization, it is hinted that she was also able to learn a degree of martial arts by watching old action movies. She is also very observant of the scientists and security personnel around her, able to learn how to use security equipment such as card scanners and passkey cards. It is only after she undergoes treatment to increase her alien genes that she goes from being fearful of humans to looking down on them. In the novel, Eve's body is able to adapt to any threat; during the scene where she is repeatedly shot by soldiers, in the novel, that experience allows her skin to become literally bulletproof.
When we last see her dead body in Species III, a government agent orders the autopsy technician to burn her body, however we only see the scene cut away without seeing this event. In the directors commentary, he mentions that it was deliberately cut this way in case she was brought back for a future movie. Although the official canon is that she is dead, this revelation throws her fate into doubt.
[edit] The Species
The nature of the alien species is explored to a slightly greater extent in the second film. A professor claims that they originated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (called the Magellanic Galaxy), due to it apparently being the only other place carbon-based life forms have been discovered. It is also stipulated that they were a "cancerous" race that visited Mars millions of years ago and annihilated all life on its surface, (which was Earth-like at that time) before leaving a remnant of DNA in its soil. This DNA was intended to be picked up by other visitors so their species could continue to infect other planets in like manner. Since Patrick's alien form was quadrupedal (as opposed to bipedal, like Eve's form) and more 'brutish' in appearance than hers, it is assumed that this must be the common appearance of the males of the alien species. Their appearance is similar to the Xenomorphs of the Alien films; both were designed with input from H. R. Giger.
[edit] Trivia
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- Director Peter Medak wanted to make this mainly as a horror movie than a science fiction movie due to his background as a member of the original Hammer Horror crew[citation needed]. When he was offered the position of director, the first person he called was music composer Edward Shearmur who was unknown in Hollywood at the time. Peter liked his previous work and offered him to compose the soundtrack.
- There were scenes that were filmed but cut due to money and time. One of these was a scene where Patrick, played by Justin Lazard, proposes to Melissa, played by Sarah Wynter, in a restaurant as said by Peter Medak in his DVD audio commentary for this film. Also a tracking shot of Patrick sitting in a corner sobbing after seeing Melissa dead after impregnating her, causing her death. A hint of this scene appears in the theatrical trailer. Also in the trailer was more footage with Press about to attack the Patrick creature with a shovel, he also says "Half human, huh? My ass!" which was not in the final film.
- This was an early role for Sarah Wynter who went on to star in the Fox TV show 24.
- The scene with the death of Dr. Orinsky, played by Baxter Harris caused confusion at the time of release. Peter Medak tried to resolve this on the DVD commentary. The Patrick creature was behind the other side of the wall all through the scene when the blood sample trailed toward him. According to the novel, Patrick broke into the clinic to kill Orinsky from telling anyone about finding the outcome of his blood test. He hid in the next room and discovered his new DNA taking over, making him into the alien form. With the blood sample tracking across the floor after it was spilt, Patrick kills Orinsky through the other side, ripping out his organs and Patrick's blood returns up his leg and the camera reveals this to be him.
- The scene where Patrick makes love to Eve, in their alien form, was shot underwater as a reference from the first film which used the same technique.
- There was a scene that was shot but cut from the film which involved Patrick picking up a girl from a club and going back to her apartment. While they kiss on the bed, Patrick finds out she is a man. The "woman" tells him he is as good as "any other girl". Patrick gets angry and snaps "her" neck. This scene was replaced with the Motel sequence with the seedy manager in the wheelchair in the final film.
- In the novel, Press and Laura's chemistry is more in league with the first film and even results with them being together at the end of the story. In the film version, the romantic chemistry does not exist, with Press and Laura having lots of arguments.
[edit] Reception
Unlike its predecessor, Species II was a box office flop. Critics, who almost universally panned the movie, pointed to the thin storyline, poor acting and gratuitous violence. Peter Medak highly praised the films' special effects and use of horror in his DVD commentary. He also thought audiences had too much expectation as this was a very different sequel due to not continuing from the story with the alien-infected rat that survived the finale, which hinted at a sequel in the 1995 original. Medak also admitted being uncomfortable with the amount of nudity in the film but said it was for the purpose of the plot.
[edit] Novelization
Like the first film, there was also a novelization based on the original screenplay which gives plot and character details not seen in the film. Some reviews tell of how the book gets across the tragedy of Eve's life and gives in depth character details. Eve's body adapts against any form of physical attack; this includes gas and eventually bullets - after Eve is shot by soldiers, her skin adapts, becoming bulletproof. She also has little knowledge of the outside world, so little that she actually doesn't know if Superman is a real life personality or not. Other details and scenes also appear in the book, such as Eve's first escape attempt and Patrick discovering new senses in a restaurant with his fiancé.
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