Now Showing: Gears of War 2

 

Gears of War 2

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/War

Director: Zack Snyder

Writer: Mark Newton

Based on the video game series

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Edgar Ramirez, Glen Powell, Terry Crews, Lili Simmons, Uli Latukefu, Burn Gorman, Ray Porter, Ryan Hurst, Ted Levine, Nora Arnezeder, Martha Higareda, Bryan Brown

Plot: Six months after killing a Locust stronghold with the Lightmass Bomb, Marcus Fenix (Joel Edgerton) and Dominic Santiago (Edgar Ramirez) are providing protection for Anya Stroud (Lili Simmons) as she searches Jacinto Medical Center for a missing soldier. They eventually find the dead body of the missing soldier. The hospital is suddenly attacked by a group of Locust forces. They join up with Tai Kaliso (Uli Latukefu), a Gear corporal in charge of the hospital's security. Tai fought with Marcus and Dom during the Pendulum Wars and is happy to see them. Together the three, defend the building from the group Locust Drones, moving throughout the entire hospital killing every single one.

Chairman Richard Prescott (Burn Gorman) gives a speech to the Gears stationed in Jacinto, telling them their sources indicate that the Locust Horde leadership survived the Lightmass Bomb and are now seemingly stronger than ever with some sort of weapon that can sink entire cities. He announces that humanity has one last option left to defeat the Locusts - a full-scale attack on the Horde in the Hollow, the vast underground tunnel network that is home to the Locusts. To accomplish this, COG forces are going to have to escort massive trucks called Assault Derricks toward a Locust occupied mountain town called Landown and drill down into the Hollow. Tai has requested a transfer to Marcus' unit for the mission.

Before shipping off for the next mission, Dom says goodbye to his wife Maria (Martha Higareda). She has become used to being a military wife over the years and doesn’t show Dom too much emotion as she knows he needs to focus on the mission at hand for the time being. Meanwhile, Marcus says goodbye to Anya. He asks her if she wants to go on a date with him when he gets back. She tells him to worry about getting back first and then they'll talk about it.

Marcus, Dom and Tai are assigned to Assault Derrick Rig 314, which is driven by Dizzy Wallin (Ryan Hurst). On the drive to Landown, Locust forces attack the convoy of Assault Derricks. Marcus, Dom and Tai open fire as Dizzy drives into Landown, parking in the town cemetery. Dizzy begins drilling into the ground while the soldiers defend the Derrick. Marcus and Dom descend into the Hollow in a Grindlift capsule. Back up on the surface, Rig 314 is attacked by Skorge (Ray Porter), leader of the Kantus Locust race. Dizzy opens fire at Skorge, but Tai steps in and tells Dizzy to escape. Dizzy doesn’t want to flee and continues helping Tai attack Skorge, but Tai pulls rank on Dizzy and orders him to get back to command. Dizzy begrudgingly follows the order. Now by himself, Tai attacks the 7-foot-tall Skorge single-handedly. Skorge quickly gains the upper hand. Tai soon runs out of ammo and tries to fight Skorge off with a chainsaw, but Skorge overpowers him. Tai is ready for Skorge to kill him, but Skorge instead takes him prisoner.

Underground, Marcus and Dom move through the Hollow, meeting up with other groups of COG soldiers. They travel deeper through the tunnels until they see for themselves how the Locusts are sinking cities - a Riftworm, a massive 10-mile-long worm-like creature. They witness in terror as the gargantuan creature sinks the entire city of Ilima before their very eyes, creating a giant sinkhole in the Earth. The soldiers quickly make their way through the sunken remains of Ilima. They look for survivors, finding Augustus Cole (Terry Crews) among the wreckage. He tells them that he is looking for Damon Baird, who has gone missing in the chaos after his Grindlift went off-course. Marcus, Dom and Cole move through the city until they find Baird's Grindlift jammed shut with Damon Baird (Glen Powell) inside. Marcus saws open the Grindlift allowing Baird to escape. He tells them that he witnessed some Locusts dragging COG soldiers off to be tortured.

Marcus, Dom, Damon and Cole all continue moving through the Hollow when they come across a Torture Barge - a mobile prison utilized by the Locust horde. Inside, they find Tai, who has been severely beaten and tortured. Marcus rushes to his side and frees him from his bounds. Marcus gives Tai a shotgun to fight with so they can continue their mission. Tai grabs the shotgun, and blows his own brains out with it. The group are horrified, especially his old comrade Marcus. Marcus, holding back tears, takes Tai's COG tags and leaves the Barge.

Colonel Victor Hoffman (Ted Levine) makes radio contact with the group, informing them that they have a last minute mission update. They are needed to go into the New Hope Research Facility, which fell into the sinkhole, because there may be information there as to the location of the Locust stronghold, codenamed Nexus, and the location of the Locust Queen. They will then have to move to Nexus and activate a beacon there to signal the location to the COG forces to drill down to for an all-out assault. The group blows open the heavily armored door of the facility. Despite the destruction of Ilima, the facility's security system is still fully operational. Damon is able to hack into the system in order to disable it. The group ventures into the inner labs, discovering that the facility had kept test subjects called Sires, which were Locust and Human crossbreeds. Damon hacks into the computer system to discover that there is a back entrance to the Locust stronghold, Nexus, at Mount Kadar. They decide to follow the tunnels in that direction.

The group makes its way to Nexus by crossing a massive underwater lake. Just as they think they will make it across the lake without being noticed, a massive fish-like creature emerges from the water and attacks them. Marcus throws a batch of grenades down the creature's throat, blowing it up into a heap of blood and meat. The group continues on their way toward a structure they theorize to be the Locust Queen's palace.

Back in Jacinto, Anya is scouring through old files when she finds several videos recorded by Dr. Adam Fenix (Bryan Brown) - Marcus' father - proposing a plan to stop the Locust horde. Adam suggests that if they were to sink Jacinto, it would flood the Hollow with seawater, which would destroy the Locust once and for all. She tries to contact Marcus and his team, but the signal is not strong enough to reach them in Nexus. Anya begins working on boosting the radio signal in order to contact them.

Marcus and his team manage to sneak into the palace where they are confronted by Myrrah the Locust Queen (Nora Arnezeder). She is amused by their intrusion and explains that she has already sent an army to attack Jacinto in anticipation of their attack on Nexus to distract the COG army on the surface. She then orders Skorge to attack them. Myrrah goes to escape. Marcus orders Cole and Damon to go after her, leaving himself and Dom to battle Skorge. They manage to get the upper hand on Skorge, but he manages to escape on a Hydra - a large, flying creature. Marcus and Dom both manage to grab onto the tendrils of the creature, hitching a ride up to the surface. Cole and Damon chase after the Queen, but she loses them by riding on a flying Reaver creature.

Anya takes her findings to Chairman Prescott and Col. Hoffman. He reveals that knew all about Adam Fenix’s idea, but hasn’t mentioned it as Jacinto was humanity’s last, best hope and that was a classified last resort plan. Out a window, they see Skorge flying on the Hydra. Prescott decides to order an evacuation of Jacinto. Hoffman suggests that they could use a Lightmass Bomb in a cavern underneath the city for maximum impact. Prescott announces the immediate evacuation order to the entire city. He says that it was not an easy decision to make and that many may be lost, but that it is the only course of action given the information they presently have.

Skorge is still not aware that Marcus and Dom have hitched a ride on the Hydra. Marcus and Dom set some explosives on the creature and jump off before it explodes, killing Skorge with it. Marcus and Dom rendezvous with Cole and Baird at COG command in Jacinto where they learn about the evacuation of the city. Hoffman tasks Marcus and his team to deliver the bomb that will sink the city.

Damon pilots a King Raven helicopter with Marcus, Dom and Cole that is carrying the Lightmass Bomb that they need to drop down a tunnel. Once the bomb is in place, Marcus presses the big red button. They watch from above as the bomb’s massive explosion takes the entire city of Jacinto down into the Earth and beneath sea level. Seawater then begins to flood the sinkhole and the Locust tunnels around it. Marcus radios command, informing them that the mission is complete as Damon turns the King Raven around to head toward the evacuation point. Dom tries to call his wife to make sure she’s okay, but he is unable to contact her. He quickly begins to think the worst - that she didn’t make it out of Jacinto and they just killed her.

When the group makes it to the evacuation point, Dom is the first one out of the Raven. He begins to frantically search the camp for Maria. He runs into Anya and asks if she has seen or heard from his wife. Anya breaks the news to Dom that Maria’s evacuation group never made it to any of the evacuation ships. Dom breaks down crying. He pulls out a gun and is about to kill himself until Marcus, Damon and Cole all jump on him to wrestle the weapon away from him. Myrrah, the Locust Queen, has survived the destruction of Nexus. She has a small group of loyal soldiers left by her side. She assures them that they will rebuild as she cannot allow the destruction of Nexus to go without retribution.

Post-Credits:

Anya picks up a faint transmission from Adam Fenix. He asks if anyone is out there and chastises them for flooding the Hollow as it has now created an even greater threat for humanity. The transmission cuts out before Anya can respond.