TL;DR – While it does not hit as hard as the first Nobody, Home Alone in an amusement park, when you can kill those after you, is a solid hook.

Post-Credit Scene – There are photos in the credits.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Nobody 2 Introduction –

Back in 2021, we saw a genre being born, where we discovered that if you wanted to ace the John Wick action style and transport it into different franchises, then you got the people who made John Wick to do it. Thus, Nobody smashed its way through many competitors and solidified Derek Kolstad and 87North Productions as one of the kings of modern action films. Now, the question is whether that can strike lightning twice with an old, grumpy man trying to live his life.

So, to set the scene, ever since the events in the first film, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) has had to keep working for the Barber (Colin Salmon) to pay off his debt. While he is working to help his family, it takes him away from them most of the time, as shown in the carefully crafted montage at the start of the film. Things are getting to the breaking point with the family when Hutch decides that he needs to have a vacation, to reconnect with his family, and to take them to somewhere that is special to him, Plummerville. Nostalgia might have been doing a lot of the heavy work. Still, the family make the most of the odd amusement park and tourist town, until a confrontation in an arcade sees someone hit Hutch’s daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath). It does not matter if his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), wants him to de-escalate, or if he is being a bad role model for his son Brady (Gage Munroe); you don’t hit one of his children. I sure hope this guy is not connected to corrupt cops (Colin Hanks), a corrupt mayor (John Ortiz), and a ruthless smuggler (Sharon Stone), because things could escalate quickly if that were the case.

Plot Analysis

One of the weaker aspects is the story, because you can feel it never quite landing anything more than the thin veneer, taking us from one action scene to another. A lot of the film is just wallowing in fears of the characters, who might not know they are on a runaway train of danger. This can work, and it does mostly here, but it doesn’t lead to a lot of character growth. Bonding over shared experiences can get you a lot of the way there, but it was missing the thematic underpinning to take us all the way. Which means that some of the themes the film is exploring, for example, Brady taking too much after Hutch, are resolved by the end of the film, but you are left wondering what they were trying to say. Also, from the second the first domino falls in the town, you can see precisely where this Rube Goldberg Machine of violence is going to end, and that does take some of the wind out of the sails.

Characters

While the story does not quite have the substance it needs, and the themes are a bit murky, it makes up for that with characters that are a delight to watch. I have wanted to see Colin Hanks get his teeth into a villain for such a long time, and he does not disappoint as the slightly idiotic town sheriff. Christopher Lloyd is always a joy, even though they only have him in the film for a small amount of time. Look, the man is in his 80s; it’s understandable. Of course, we must mention Sharon Stone, who is having an absolute ball as the main antagonist. She is chewing every bit of scenery, twirling all the moustaches, and stealing all the scenes. Bob Odenkirk is still the core of the film, and I am not sure it could work without him there. Oh, shout out to Paisley Cadorath for being consistently positive throughout the film, and it’s just nice to see Daniel Bernhardt because you know some wild action scene featuring him is incoming.

Action

On that note, given this is an action film to its very core, how are Nobody 2’s action scenes? Well, the film had a lot to live up to, given that the first film won the battle of best fight on a bus, narrowly edging out Shang-Chi for the award. I would say that most of the fight scenes do live up to that promise. Nobody 2 is the kind of film where everyone stops so we can have a katana fight for some reason, and it is as good as it sounds. 87North Productions clearly has some of the best stunt people working in the business today, and it shows in every punch, kick, and exploding gas bottle. For me, the favourite action scene comes towards the start, where we get a fantastic beatdown happening in an elevator. Here, all the actors, stunt team, cinematography and editing all combine together to give you that impact in every beat. While some of the smaller action scenes don’t quite get there, the film does end in one of the most bombastic ways it could.

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend Nobody 2? Yes, we would. While I am not sure it hit the same heights as the first film, and to be fair, few sequels do. I did find it to be a solid action film, with fights that made you exclaim in the cinema, and with characters that were fun to watch. Have you seen Nobody 2? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.If you liked Nobody 2, we would recommend to you Bullet Train because it has the same focus on characters and action.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Nobody 2
Directed by – Timo Tjahjanto
Story by – Derek Kolstad
Screenplay by – Derek Kolstad & Aaron Rabin with Bob Odenkirk & Umair Aleem
Based on – Nobody by Derek Kolstad
Music by – Dominic Lewis
Cinematography by – Callan Green
Edited by – Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Production/Distribution Companies – 87North Productions, Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment & Universal Pictures.
Starring – Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Sharon Stone, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, RZA, Christopher Lloyd,  Colin Salmon, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath, Daniel Bernhardt &  Lucius Hoyos  
Rating  – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R