The Fly II

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The Fly II
Directed by	Chris Walas
Produced by	Steven-Charles Jaffe
Written by	Characters: George Langelaan Screenplay: Mick Garris Jim Wheat Ken Wheat Frank Darabont
Starring	Eric Stoltz Daphne Zuniga John Getz Lee Richardson
Music by	Christopher Young
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	February 10th, 1989
Running time	105 min.
Language	English
Preceded by	The Fly (1986 film)
IMDb profile

The Fly II was a movie produced in 1989 starring Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga. It was directed by Chris Walas as a sequel to the 1986 movie The Fly. Stoltz's character in The Fly II was the son of Seth Brundle, the scientist-turned-Brundlefly, played by Jeff Goldblum in the 1986 remake. John Getz was the only actor from the first film to reprise his role.

The Fly II fared well in the box office compared with the first film, but it's widely regarded as inferior by many critics. Many believe that Wallas (who was special effects engineer for the first film) set out to exploit the success of the original by relying on excessive gore and violence at the expense of good storytelling. However, it is appreciated by many fans of the horror genre of films for its great visual impact, if nothing more. For his part, Walas has said that the film was designed to be much more of a traditional (albeit gory) monster movie than Cronenberg's film.

A seldom-referenced theme of the film is an allegory of the ruthless exploitation of animals to further scientific knowledge and the willingness of individuals to heartlessly deceive and manipulate others for their own gain.

Taglines:

Like father, like son.

A new generation of terror!

1 Plot Summary
2 Makeup/Creature Effects
3 Trivia
4 Quotes
5 External link
6 See also

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story begins several months after the first film, with the birth of Martin Brundle. Martin's birth is unique, as he is the offspring of Veronica Quaife and Seth Brundle/Brundlefly, the human-housefly hybrid from the first film. The birth is under the control of Seth Brundle's employer, Anton Bartok, owner of Bartok Industries (which financed Brundle's teleportation experiments in the first film). Veronica dies during childbirth, leaving Martin in the custody of Bartok, who plans to exploit his unique condition.

Martin's lifespan is quickly accelerated as a result of his mutant genes. He knows that he is aging faster than a normal human, but he doesn't know of his insect heritage. He matures into a fully adult human in just five years.

Bartok then offers Martin a position working on Seth Brundle's telepods. In the past five years, Bartok and his scientists have not made any progress in getting them to work. Bartok hopes Martin will be able to finish what his father started.

As he begins work on the telepods, Martin befriends Bartok employee Beth Logan. They grow closer together over time, and Martin eventually gets the telepods function correctly. However, Martin eventually learns the truth of his father's fate, his own biology, Bartok's motives, and of a possible cure to his condition. Unfortunately, the cure, which involves swapping out Martin's insect genes for healthy genes, requires the sacrifice of another human being, who will suffer a grotesque genetic fate as a result. Things begin to culminate when the signs of Martin's transformation begin. He and Beth flee, but his physical and emotional changes become too much for her to handle. Beth surrenders them both to Bartok in desperation.

However, Bartok is not completely prepared for the full brunt of "Martinfly". Martin emerges from a cocoon and ruthlessly stalks and kills those trying to subdue him, as well as taking revenge on his betrayers. Yet, a trace of Martin's former humanity remains. He forces Anton Bartok into a telepod, and gestures for Beth to activate the gene-swapping sequence. When the two are reintegrated in the receiving telepod, Martin returns to human form with 100% human genes, and, in the end, Anton Bartok suffers the ironic fate of becoming a freakish monster himself.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Makeup/Creature Effects

As with the first film, special makeup and creature effects were provided by Chris Walas, Inc. As opposed to Seth Brundle's diseased deterioration into "Brundlefly", in The Fly II, Martin's metamorphosis is much more of a natural evolution (as a result of the fact that Martin was already born with human-insect hybrid genes instead of being accidentally fused with a fly the way his father was).

Here is a breakdown of Martin Brundle's transformation into the creature dubbed "Martinfly" by the CWI crew (behind-the-scenes information is in italics).

STAGE 1 (on view in the scenes where Martin confronts Dr. Shepard and then attempts to telephone Beth Logan): Martin's face is slightly discolored, and he's looking haggard. Worse, a bizarre cavity in his left arm has appeared, and sticky, web-like threads are being excreted from it. Eric Stoltz's face was subtly discolored with makeup, and a gelatin makeup appliance was affixed to his left arm. The webbing coming out of Martin's arm was made from Halloween-style decorative spider-webbing.

STAGE 1-A (on view when Martin views the various Bartok surveillance tapes, and when he subsequently escapes from the Bartok complex): Martin is looking even more haggard, and the skin beneath his eyes is puffy. This is an accentuated version of the Stage 1 makeup, with gelatin eyebags added under Stoltz's eyes.

STAGE 2 (on view when Martin talks to Beth inside her houseboat, as well as in the deleted "Stopping for Food" scene which can be seen on the 2005 The Fly II: Collector's Edition DVD): Martin's bone structure has started to shift, and his face is rapidly becoming deformed. Gelatin appliances were added to Stoltz's face to give the impression that Martin's brow and cheekbones were becoming distorted.

STAGE 3 (on view when Martin and Beth visit Stathis Borans, as well as when they arrive at the motel): Martin's entire head is deformed, his hairline is receding, and his voice is deepening. Also, the stringy white webbing is being excreted from his face now. Gelatin makeup appliances were added to Stoltz's entire head, and his voice was artificially lowered in post-production.

STAGE 4 (on view inside the motel, and when Bartok arrives to retrieve Martin): Martin (his voice now even deeper) has begun to instinctively pull the webbing out of his own body and wrap it around himself. As it hardens, the webbing begins to form a cocoon. At this point, Martin's legs have been enveloped by said cocoon. Now that Martin is no longer wearing clothes, a hideous assortment of lumps and bumps can be seen on his discolored body, his face and head are even more distorted, and his teeth and ears are receding. Some of his fingers are webbed together with flaps of skin, and claws are growing on his knuckles. Martin removes his human right eye in this stage to reveal an orange insect eye behind it.The most complex makeup, this stage took some 12 hours to apply to Eric Stoltz, and he was required to remain immobile on the motel couch (with his legs inside the partial cocoon) all that time, as well as during the additional hours of filming that immediately followed. Body makeup and gelatin bumps were added to Stoltz's arms and torso, in addition to the makeup appliances covering his face and head.

Soon, Martin is fully enveloped by the cocoon (which begins as slightly transparent, with the next stage becoming opaque and iridescent). The scene featuring Bartok talking to the cocooned Martin involved a Martin rod puppet--transformed from the waist-down--being operated inside a transparent cocoon that was filled with water.

After a brief gestation period, the final "Martinfly" creature is revealed when it bursts out of the cocoon and goes on a rampage around the Bartok complex. The iridescent creature has four arms (each of which features two large, clawed digits), two reverse-jointed legs, and its body is covered with insect hairs. Martinfly is also tall and slender, with a segmented torso. Its head has piercing, orange insect eyes (with pupils), distorted nostrils, and two flexible mandibles with sharp teeth covering a mouth full of still more teeth. The interior of the creature's mouth contains a pseudo-proboscis, which can spray corrosive enzymes at high velocity. Unlike the pathetic Brundlefly from the first film, Martinfly is very strong, very fast, and very deadly. The final Martinfly creature was created as a series of cable-controlled and rod-operated puppets.

[edit] Trivia

Amongst the deleted scenes for this film on the special edition DVD remains one of the film's humorous lost gems. While Martin and Beth are on their way to visit Stathis Borans, they stop to get some fast food. While Beth is inside getting refreshments, a car full of young baseball players pulls up next to him. Seeing the deformed Martin, they begin to taunt him. Martin proceeds to violently vomit digestive fluid towards the car, dissolving one of the windows. Beth quickly gets in the car and drives away. The coach in charge of the children, returning from the establishment to find his car window partly digested, shouts, "What the hell have you idiots done now?" before throwing down a tray of food and soda and hurling his hat at the children.

The other deleted scene available on the DVD is an unused epilogue (which director Walas strongly lobbied against), which features Beth and Martin sitting by Beth's houseboat. Beth asks Martin how he feels, and he replies, "Better. Much better.".

The first videotape of Seth Brundle is actually part of a deleted scene from the first film (with Geena Davis' dialogue redubbed by Saffron Henderson, who played Veronica Quaife at the beginning of the sequel).

The film received a certain amount of backlash regarding the horribly mutated dog, in particular, the scene where Martin mercifully euthanizes the dog, which is hideously deformed and kept in a large observation room. Many viewers were disturbed by the dog's appearance and sad fate.

Geena Davis was asked to return to play Veronica Quaife, but she said she couldn't cope with another birth scene like the one in the previous film.

Daphne Zuniga was suggested by executive producer Mel Brooks to play the part of Beth Logan after working with her on Spaceballs [1987].

[edit] Quotes

(Meeting with Stathis Borans, now a bitter, crippled recluse)
Martin Brundle: "I saw you on a videotape. You were there the night my father died; he was working on a cure."
Stathis Borans: "That's why you dragged yourself all the way out here? To find out about a cure?"
Martin Brundle: "You're my only hope."
Stathis Borans: "Ah. Oh, kid, the last thing I am, is anybody's hope. You really don't want to hear about this."
Martin Brundle: "I have to know."
Stathis Borans: "Brundle stole my girl, your mother. Got her pregnant. Caused her death. Dissolved my hand and my foot with fly vomit! I had no love for the man. He bugged me! As for the 'cure' he was working on: he dragged your mother kicking and screaming into that telepod, that they might be fused together in one beautiful body. So your mother blew his brains out with a shotgun. There's your 'cure'. Go away."
Beth Logan: "You bastard! Where's your compassion?"
Stathis Borans: (chuckles) I had to give it up; it cost me an arm and a leg!"
Martin Brundle: "It cost you more than that."

Beth Logan: "You can't walk ... and you're getting worse ..."
Martin Brundle: "I'm getting ...better!"

(From a videotaped interview with Seth Brundle, actually a deleted scene from The Fly)
Veronica Quaife (on videotape): "We've just seen the first teleportation of a human being. Dr. Seth Brundle, how did it feel going through?"

Seth Brundle (on videotape): "It felt like a...a stutter!"

Veronica Quaife (on videotape): "A what?"

Seth Brundle (on videotape): "A stutter. A hiccup. A slight dislocation of my physical life. Not unpleasant, just a little interruption of rhythm. At first I thought it didn't work. I thought I was in the same telepod I started out in."

Veronica Quaife (on videotape): "And now how do you feel?"

Seth Brundle (on videotape): "I should feel exactly the same as before, but ... I don't! I feel very ... energized, very coordinated. I feel as though I work better, physically, you know? Everything seems to just...work better than it ever did before."

Veronica Quaife (on videotape):"Why should that be?"

Seth Brundle (on videotape): "I dunno ... It's possible that the teleporter somehow ... improved me. Theoretically, it might have seen where things could be improved, and it did it. I told it to be creative, and ... maybe it has been."