Swamp Thing 2
Genre: Superhero / Supernatural / Action
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Keira Knightley, Ian McShane, Matt Jones, Michael Berryman, Lucy Griffiths, Steve Railback, Dale Dickey
Plot: Chester Williams (Steve Railback) is fishing deep in the swamps near Houma, Louisiana. He catches something on his reel, but the creature on the other end of the fishing line is too strong and pulls him into the water. Chester soon realizes that he has hooked an alligator. The gator comes swimming at him and opens its jaws to chomp down on Chester, but the Swamp Thing (Alexander Skarsgard) emerges from the water and blocks the creature’s bite. The alligator swims away. Swamp Thing tells Chester to respect the swamps more if he wants to survive next time. Chester nods his head and leaves the swamp.
Abby Arcane (Keira Knightley) rides a motorcycle down a Louisiana backroad. Unbeknownst to her, birds are dropping from the sky as she passes, littering the roadway with dead birds. She eventually makes her way to a small motel along a swamp outside of Houma. She checks in with the manager, Ms. Channar (Dale Dickey), making sure that nobody has come around looking for her or gone into her room. Channar assures Abby that she is in the clear. Abby thanks her before going to her room. Once in her room, Abby turns on the TV, seeing a local news report about small animals falling victim to an unknown plague. She goes to sleep. She dreams that she is in the waters of a swamp up to her neck. She sees Alec Holland (Alexander Skarsgard) calling her over to him. When she gets closer to him, his body is ripped apart by branches and vines. His body is then pulled under the surface of the water against his will. Abby tries to pull him up, but all she can get her hands on is weeds and mud. Holland then reemerges, but he has turned into the Swamp Thing. Abby wakes up covered in sweat. She turns on a fan in her room to cool down. She stares out the window of her room, out into the nearby swamps, with a sense of unease.
FBI Agent Matt Cable (Matt Jones) sits in his cubicle reading about the plague in Louisiana. He rushes into his boss’ office and asks for permission to investigate what is happening down in Louisiana. His boss rejects his request. Cable then announces that he is going to use some vacation time then and investigate it himself. He flies down to Houma and checks into the same motel run by Ms. Channar. He begins tacking up pictures and newspaper articles about various recent strange happenings in the swamps around Houma, including the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Alec Holland and the destruction at AA Sciences that led to the deaths of Anton Arcane and General Avery Sunderland.
In the Houma Cemetery, a hand reaches up from under the dirt at Anton Arcane’s gravesite. Eventually the body digs its way out of the earth. It is burnt and deteriorated, but it is definitely still Anton Arcane (Ian McShane). He holds his arms out, sucking the life out of every living thing around him. Grass, trees and other plants wither and die, all restoring life to Arcane. As Arcane walks, the ground begins to turn as more hands reach out of the dirt. The rotten corpses that have been reanimated begin following Arcane, who walks toward the groundskeeper's shack. Arcane knocks on the door. When the groundskeeper answers, Arcane puts a skeletal hand on him, sucking the life out of him until he is nothing but a pile of bones. Arcane watches throughout the cemetery as that which was living has died and that which was dead has been reanimated.
Abby goes out to the swamp on a small boat and calls out, but Swamp Thing doesn’t answer or come out of hiding. Eventually Abby gives up and goes back to the dock. Swamp Thing’s head rises out of the water just enough to watch as Abby leaves. Swamp Thing walks out of the water. He sheds a tear, which immediately blooms into an orchid when it hits the ground. A hand reaches down and picks the flower and holds it out in front of Swamp Thing. The creature turns around to find the Phantom Stranger (Michael Berryman) behind him. Swamp Thing demands to know where he came from and what he wants in the swamps. Phantom Stranger tells Swamp Thing that he came to talk to him about his purpose. Swamp Thing sits down on an overturned log, allowing the Stranger to speak. The Phantom Stranger explains that every major plague and pestilence in history has all been caused by “The Rot”, and that it would have long ago destroyed all life on Earth long ago if not for certain guardians of “The Green” like the Swamp Thing keeping its power at bay. Swamp Thing tries to explain that he was once a normal man and only became what he is today by a freak accident. The Phantom Stranger disagrees, insisting that Holland was always meant to be what he is. Swamp Thing turns away from the Phantom Stranger, and when he turns back the Phantom Stranger has vanished.
The plague continues to spread from creature to creature throughout the Houma area. It is no longer only affecting small creatures as bigger animals and humans have begun to get infected by a version presenting itself as a flesh eating virus. Linda Wise (Lucy Griffiths), Alec Holland’s lover before his transformation, is called in to go to Houma as a representative of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). As soon as she arrives in town, she reminds herself that she never wanted to return to this town after what happened to Holland. Cable’s FBI superiors send him over to Linda to assist her while he happens to be in town as well. After seeing that the plague is now affecting humans as well, Linda orders a full quarantine of the entire town of Houma. Roadblocks are set up to keep people from entering or leaving the town. Cable argues with Linda on her plan, insisting that more is going on than a simple virus, but she quotes government protocol to shut him up.
Anton Arcane walks from the cemetery, through Houma, infecting more people with the plague and killing more plantlife as he moves. Having sucked the life out of enough other living things, Arcane looks like his normal human self again. He is followed on his walk by an army of dead and decayed life forms that he has reanimated - rotted corpses and even roadkill now follows his command.
Matt Cable goes out to the Houma Cemetery, only to find that the graves throughout the entire cemetery are all empty and all the plant life in the vicinity are dead. Cable comments to himself that Houma, Louisiana is somehow stranger than the Bermuda Triangle - which is real, even if his FBI superiors refuse to acknowledge his research. He follows a path of decay into town. Cable begins to get nervous as the decay begins to look more recent.
Matt Cable returns to the motel and sees Abby Arcane out in the parking lot. He immediately recognizes her from his research as the daughter of deceased AA Sciences founder Anton Arcane. He begins to fire question after question in her direction before she even has a chance to respond. Once he finally pauses to take a breath, Abby asks him if he is in Houma to help or simply try to exploit the happenings for his own gain. Cable thinks about the question long and hard. He then invites her into his room to look at his wall of research. He then asks her if her father, Anton Arcane, was responsible for any of the strange happenings in Houma. Abby says that he was responsible for pretty much everything, even the disappearance of Alec Holland. She then explains to Cable that Holland had been developing a Bio-Restorative Formula to help grow plants in terrain and ecosystems once thought impossible to grow in. Holland wanted to help end hunger throughout the world by making it so that food could be grown even in harsh desert or frozen tundra, but her father saw far more insidious applications for Holland’s scientific work and had him killed for it. Cable, engrossed by Abby’s story, then asks what happened with the formula. Abby says that it burnt up in the swamps along with Holland himself. Cable says that is too bad, as it seems like someone like Holland is exactly what is needed in the world today. Abby tells Cable that he should come with her into the swamps to see something that may be of interest to him.
Linda Wise is at a small diner in Houma trying to explain the quarantine procedure to some of the townspeople. They don’t take kindly to the government trying to tell them what to do. Chester Williams is one of the customers in the establishment. Linda urges them all to go home and quarantine themselves inside or she will be forced to call the sheriff over to make them. Chester chimes in that he and the sheriff are poker buddies, so he doesn’t see that happening how she wants. Linda becomes frustrated and goes outside. Arcane and his Rot army continue down the road. Linda’s body suddenly becomes infected by the flesh eating plague. Arcane senses that Linda has some sort of connection to “The Green”. He commands her to go into the swamps to flush the Swamp Thing out into the open. The infected Linda does as Arcane commands and begins mindlessly marching into the swamps.
Swamp Thing contemplates what the Phantom Stranger told him about The Rot, but is unsure how he can do anything in his physical form. Abby Arcane and Matt Cable manage to find him in the swamps. Swamp Thing initially tries to hold still, thinking that Cable may just think he is a misshapen tree, but Abby calls out to him and tells him that Cable is on their side. Swamp Thing walks toward them. Cable is in awe. Abby introduces Cable to what remains of Alec Holland, also known as Swamp Thing. Cable asks Swamp Thing about the AA Sciences fire. Swamp Thing tells Cable that Anton Arcane wanted to control life and death, and got others to go along with it, but Anton Arcane should be dead now from the fire. Swamp Thing suddenly feels the sense of death encroaching on the swamp. He urges Abby and Cable to leave the swamps and evacuate the town as something bad is going to happen. Abby doesn’t want to leave him. Swamp Thing becomes angry to scare her off, with his eyes glowing red and sharp spikes emerging from his body.
Abby and Cable race through town honking a car horn and yelling for everyone to leave town immediately. Chester Williams hears the announcement and decides to listen to it. He loads all of his guns into his truck and drives toward the edge of town. Once they’ve gone through town all the way to the CDC checkpoint, Abby tells Cable that she can’t leave Holland or the Swamp Thing all alone and has to go back. She asks Cable to make sure that the people of Houma are allowed to leave before whatever is going to happen ends up happening. Abby then leaves. Cable goes to the checkpoint and flashes his FBI badge, telling the guards to let the people out of Houma. The guard says that he is under strict orders straight from the director of the CDC to not let anyone through the blockade. Chester arrives in his truck and begins honking his horn to tell the guard to let him through, but the guard still refuses. Chester tosses Cable one of his many shotguns. Chester and Cable hold the guards at gunpoint in order to allow the citizens of Houma to leave. Once everyone has left, Cable advises the guards to leave town as well. Abby makes it back to the motel. She goes into her room and grabs a gun hidden under the mattress before taking a small boat into the swamps.
The possessed Linda Wise makes it into the swamp where the Swamp Thing is ready for her. However, once he sees her face he is stunned into inaction. Linda’s presence allows The Rot to seep into the swamp, killing everything she is near. Swamp Thing is saddened to see that she has become a pawn in something that doesn’t really involve her. Linda, controlled by Arcane, tells Swamp Thing to give up and surrender to The Rot. Swamp Thing doesn’t know what to do. Abby then emerges and shoots Linda in the head with her gun. The gunshot to the head has no effect on Linda though. This makes the Swamp Thing realize that Linda is no longer in her body. He extends a sharp tendril from his arm and stabs Linda’s body through the chest with it. The Rot leaves Linda’s body. Linda returns to her human form as she dies. She looks into the eyes of the Swamp Thing and recognizes Alec Holland’s eyes before she dies. Swamp Thing looks over to Abby and asks if everyone made it out of town. Abby tells him that Matt Cable made it happen. Swamp Thing then tells Abby to leave the area as well. Abby refuses, stating that because everything that is happening is her father’s fault, she wants to make sure he doesn’t get what he wants.
Anton Arcane senses that Linda has been killed by The Green and calls upon all his reanimated minions. He calls upon all of his reanimated minions and has them combine around him into one large, mass of rotted flesh and protruding bones. The giant mass of The Rot begins marching toward the swamps. As The Rot draws closer to the Swamp Thing, life throughout the swamp begins dying, which adds to The Rot’s strength. As the creature gets even closer to Swamp Thing, Arcane’s Rot powers kill the plant life of the Swamp Thing, revealing Alec Holland’s body underneath. Holland, miraculously back to his normal human form, is startled by the transformation. Abby rushes to his side. The Phantom Stranger once again emerges, although only Holland can appear to see him. The Phantom Stranger tells Holland that he can return to his normal life as Alec Holland, but that if he does so, Anton Arcane and The Rot will win and life not just in Houma, but throughout the world, will all succumb to the power of the rot - or he can accept his destiny as the avatar of The Green - the very lifeforce of all plants in the universe in order to stop Arcane and The Rot. He must make a decision now though. Hollands looks at Abby for help making the decision. She tells him that she will still love him, even if he is nothing but a puddle of mud. Holland kisses Abby, knowing that it may be his last kiss in human form. Holland holds his arms out and allows The Green to take his body, once again becoming the Swamp Thing, but even bigger and more powerful than before. Swamp Thing has the entire force of the swamp attack Arcane. Snakes and alligators attack, biting away at The Rot. Trees and plants seemingly come to life, all converging on The Rot. Arcane grabs Swamp Thing and begins tossing him around like a ragdoll. While this is happening, Swamp Thing continues to control the swamp life around him, having it all attack Arcane. Using the various vines and branches of the trees in the swamp, the Swamp Thing begins ripping apart the various layers of Arcane’s giant form, until finally it is just Anton Arcane in his normal human form facing off against Swamp Thing. Anton Arcane is in disbelief. Abby fires her gun at her father, hitting him in the chest. Arcane is genuinely surprised when he notices the bullet hole in his chest. Vines from the trees grab Arcane's body and throw it at Swamp Thing, who impales Arcane's body with giant, sharp thorns. The Rot begins to evaporate.
Swamp Thing returns Arcane to his grave in the Houma Cemetery. As he walks through town, the power of The Green restores life to everything that The Rot killed. Back in the swamp, Abby asks Swamp Thing if he is okay with choosing to be the Swamp Thing rather than return to his human form. Swamp Thing tells Abby that when he was a normal human he always dreamed of having the ability to bring or create life where it was impossible and now that is something he can actually do in his new permanent form.
