Species II

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Species II
Directed by Peter Medak
Produced by Dennis Feldman
Frank Mancuso Jr.
Written by Chris Brancato
Dennis Feldman
Starring Natasha Henstridge
Michael Madsen
Marg Helgenberger
James Cromwell
Mykelti Williamson
George Dzundza
Justin Lazard
Music by Edward Shearmur
Cinematography Matthew F. Leonetti
Distributed by MGM
Release dates
  • April 10, 1998 (1998-04-10)
Running time 98 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $35,000,000
Box office $19,221,939 (domestic) [1]

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, all of whom reprise their roles from the first film. It also features actor James Cromwell as "Senator Judson Ross". The next film of the Species series was the direct-to-video Species III.

Plot

Roughly two years after the events of Species, an American space mission lands on Mars, and collects soil samples. Back on board, the temperature on the ship thaws the frozen alien DNA within one of the soil samples, which then attempts to infect the astronauts, causing a seven-minute time gap in radio contact between Earth and the shuttle. The mission is still considered a success and the crew safely returns to Earth, greeted by fans and cheers. Only Dr. Cromwell, a former scientist and now an inmate in an asylum, reacts to their return with violent fits.

Under military supervision, a team of scientists, led by Dr. Laura Baker, have created a more-docile clone of Sil, named Eve, in an effort to understand the alien life form and prepare for defense, should it ever arrive on Earth in the future.

After their return, the three astronauts are examined and quarantined to prevent them from engaging in copulation/sexual activity for ten days. However, after an honor party for the astronauts, one of them, Patrick Ross, who was absent from the party for some time as he was making out with a woman referred to as the Debutante, immediately disregards the quarantine and has sex with two women in a hotel suite later that night. The Debutante, after having sex with Patrick, undergoes an accelerated pregnancy in which her stomach expands outward with Patrick's child, splits open like a flower and the hybrid child emerges from her womb, leaving her screaming and then killing her while Patrick continues having sex with her sister, sprouting tentacles during the session. Later that night, Patrick hides the rapidly-growing hybrid child along with another hybrid child conceived with the Debutante's sister in a remote shed.

An isolated Eve, undergoing tests in the lab, shows signs of great, physiological excitement every time Patrick has sex with women.

At the space center, while Dr. Orinsky tries to contact Dr. Cromwell about the astronauts' blood samples, Patrick sneaks into the lab and disembowls him so that no one finds out that he is carrying alien DNA (although, in one alternate video version, Patrick's blood takes on a life of its own: breaking free of its glass container; flowing into one of the walls; and, then, forming the radula-like tentacle that kills Orinsky). Analysis of the corpse reveals the presence of alien DNA, similar to, yet distinct from, Eve's. Baker is reunited with Press Lennox to contain the threat. The two contact Cromwell, who explains that Mars was rendered uninhabitable by an alien species, and that he was institutionalized to silence his opposition to the Mars mission. It is revealed that he had conducted research on a Martian meteorite that had been found, discovering fossilized remains that weren't native to Mars, and tried to urge the American government to reconsider their mission to Mars on the grounds that alien DNA still remained on the planet, and that if any human were to violate the planet would result in biological contamination.

After informing the military of their discovery, Press and Laura begin their search on Anne, Dennis and Patrick after discovering the ten-day quarantine they were under had expired. They attempt to find Patrick first, but he is nowhere to be found, so they go after Anne Sampas, who was also infected with alien DNA during the return trip home. Unfortunately, by the time they are able to locate her, she has already had unprotected intercourse with her husband and has become impregnated with alien offspring, which emerges from her womb shortly after. Press and Laura manage to kill the newborn creature, but not before it kills both Anne and her husband.

Government agents are able to locate Dennis Gamble and analyze his blood, revealing that he was not infected and is allowed to go home, though is asked if he knows where to find Patrick. He answers that he doesn't know where Patrick is, but is asked to inform them of where he is or where he might be found should he ever see him. Dennis decides to go find Patrick to find out what is going on.

After spending the night with his fiancée, away from everyone else, Patrick awakes to the next day to find that her body is mutilated and another alien child was born to him through her. Horrified at what he has done, he washes up, dresses in his military uniform, and shoots himself with a rifle, possibly killing or even disabling the part of his human psyche. Dennis, who arrives at his location, sees what he had done, unable to stop him. Due to the alien DNA, his head immediately regenerates and he is reborn with the alien half in control. As Dennis witnesses this, he becomes scared and runs off to tell Press and Laura; he then joins Press and Laura in their mission. Patrick, with the alien half in control, begins to impregnate as many women as he can (mostly prostitutes and strippers), killing them in the process, and burying (possibly) them next to his shed where he accumulates a large, virulent brood of alien children of various ages.

At the lab, the scientists, unable to locate Patrick on their own, activate Eve's dormant alien DNA in order to telepathically track Patrick, but results in making her more alien than human, increasing her strength, anger and mating drive. After being found at a grocery store by Press and Dennis, Patrick becomes aware of Eve and, in order to get closer to her, gives himself up to Press and Dennis; this occurs after almost raping a woman he meets in the store. As they return to the lab, Eve shows signs of being in heat and libido towards Patrick. Patrick tries to enter her isolation cell, but is chased off by Laura, Dennis and Press.

Later, after murdering his father, Senator Judson Ross, Patrick helps his hybrid children to cocoon, awaiting their rebirth/reawakening as adults so that they can mate with humans, hoping to eventually destroy mankind. Meanwhile, Laura finds out that Dennis had resisted infection from the alien DNA due to his carrying genetic flaw, and makes plans to infect the alien species with Dennis' DNA, as the species lacks immunity to human genetic diseases.

As the team prepares, Eve breaks free from the lab to find Patrick. The team tails her, finds the shed and kills Patrick's brood. Eve and Patrick finally encounter each other, undress and amorously perform a mating ritual in which they quickly transform into their alien forms, but are interrupted by Press, who tries to get Eve to get away from Patrick. Patrick fights off Press and Dennis and later overpowers Eve (who had attacked him at Laura's request after she begged her, appealing to her human half). He then, seemingly, kills her by forcing his penis down her throat, choking her to death. Press stabs Patrick in the back with a pitchfork coated with Dennis' blood, causing Patrick to die and disintegrate.

The military finally arrives and escorts Press, Laura and the injured Dennis away. Eve's lifeless body is loaded into the back of an ambulance. As the vehicle departs, a cat lands on Eve and causes her womb to swell rapidly, indicating an imminent birth after being impregnated by Patrick, as one of Patrick's children, who hadn't yet cocooned, looks on. The last thing heard is Eve's screaming as her womb bursts.

Cast

  • Sarah Wynter as Melissa
  • George Dzundza as Col. Carter Burgess Jr.
  • Myriam Cyr as Anne Sampas
  • Peter Boyle as Dr. Herman Cromwell
  • Nancy La Scala as Debutante sister Marcy
  • Raquel Gardner as Debutante sister Lucy
  • Kim Adams as Darlene
  • Nicholas Vota as Child in Ambulence/Patrick Ross' Child

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 is described in the film as being 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. Since Patrick's alien form was quadrupedal (as opposed to bipedal, like Eve's form), bigger, and more 'brutish' in appearance than hers, it is assumed that this must be the common appearance of most of, if not all of, the males of the alien species. Their appearance is also similar to the xenomorphs of the Alien films; both were designed with input from H. R. Giger.

Release

Box Office

On April 10th 1998 in 2510 theatres, the film finished at $7.2 million, ranking number four on its opening weekend. Domestically, the film grossed $19.6 million. It earning less than $15.4 million back from its $35 million budget, making the film a box office flop. [2]

Reception

The film received notably worse reviews than its predecessor, currently holding a 10% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews (3 positive, 27 negative). Dwayne E. Leslie from Box Office Magazine gave the film 1 out of 5 stars calling it "a sequel that doesn't measure up", also heavily criticizing the film's predictable and open ending.[3] Joe Leydon from Variety magazine called the film "a half-baked rehash". He praised the special effects and technical aspects of the film but added "that's not nearly enough to camouflage the inherent crumminess."[4] James Berardinelli described the film as awful but added "there's enough blood, gore, simulated sex, and bare flesh to prevent it from ever becoming boring".[5]

In a 2004 interview, co-star Michael Madsen expressed his opinion on this film saying "Species II was a crock of shit. There are a number I'm not very proud of. The movie studios can't mind that much, as they haven't contacted me to tell me off about it. I'm honest - if I've made a bad movie, I want my fans to know what they're letting themselves in for."[6]

In the DVD commentary director Peter Medak highly praised the films' special effects. He expressed his opinion that 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 story.

Novelization

As with the first film, Yvonne Navarro wrote a novelization based on the original screenplay which gives plot and character details not seen in the film. For example the book tells how due to little knowledge of the outside world, Eve actually doesn't know if Superman is a real life personality or not. It is also hinted that she was able to learn a degree of martial arts by watching old action movies.

In the film, Eve is shot by soldiers, but after being briefly incapacitated her body regenerates and she continues to escape. Soldiers continue to shoot at her, but Eve manages to run past them; why she is unharmed is left unexplained. The book explains that her skin adapts (in a way similar to how her body adapts to the gas test earlier in the film), becoming bulletproof.

Other details in the book that do not appear in the film include an earlier escape attempt by Eve and Patrick discovering new senses in a restaurant with his fiancé. In the novel, the debutante is a young sexy brown-eyed blonde whereas in the film, she is an older woman who is brunette.

See also

References

  1. "Species II (1998)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-10-30. 
  2. "City of Angels' Takes Wing in Heavenly Opening Weekend". The Los Angeles Times. 13 April 1998. Retrieved 2010-12-29. 
  3. Species II review Boxoffice.com
  4. Species II review Variety.com
  5. Species II review Reelviews.net
  6. Tim Inghman (18 June 2004). "Michael Madsen review". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2010. 

External links

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