Species II
Encyclopedia
Species II 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
.
, and collects soil samples. Back on board, the temperature on the ship thaws out frozen DNA in the soil samples, which then attempts to infect the astronauts. The mission safely returns to earth to universal cheering. Only Dr. Cromwell, a scientist and now an inmate in an asylum, reacts to their return with violent fits.
After their return, the three astronauts are examined and quarantined to preventing them from engaging in sexual intercourse for 10 days. However, one of the astronauts - Patrick Ross - immediately disregards the advice and sleeps with two women that night (Nancy La Scala and Raquel Gardner). During intercourse with the second woman, slimy tentacles emerge from his body. The woman notices him transforming into an alien when she somehow, touches his tentacles while rubbing her hands all over his body. Both women undergo an accelerated pregnancy in which their stomachs split open like a flower and half-alien children emerge, killing them in the process. Patrick hides the rapidly growing alien children inside a remote shed and, the next day, tries to confide in his father, an ambitious U.S. Senator, who ignores his problems.
Under military supervision, 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. 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, Dr. Orinsky is working on the astronauts' blood samples and urgently tries to contact Cromwell, his former colleague. Afterwards, Patrick's blood sample falls to the floor and seeps into the wall. When Orinsky examines the strange puddle, an arm bursts out of the wall and disembowels Orinsky. The arm is then revealed to be that of Patrick, who has somehow snuck into the lab. 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.
With the quarantine about to expire, Press and Laura begin searching for the astronauts. They find astronaut Anne Sampas, who is also infected with alien DNA. Unfortunately, by the time they locate her, she has just had unprotected intercourse with her human husband and has become impregnated with another alien offspring. The tube-like creature emerges from Anne's womb and latches onto the husband's face, presumably suffocating him and feeding on his organs. Press and Laura then break into the bedroom and discover the alien. They shoot the creature and then gas it to death as it retracts back into Anne's body. Anne and her husband also die in the process. Dennis Gamble is located and taken by government agents. Analysis of his blood reveals that he was not infected. Later on, he joins Press and Laura in their mission.
After spending the night with his fiancée (Sarah Wynter
), Patrick wakes to find her mutilated body and another alien child. Horrified, he shoots himself along with the last trace of the human psyche within him. His head immediately regenerates and he displays immediate thoughts of reproduction. Patrick begins impregnating more women, mostly prostitutes, burying them next to his shed where he is accumulating a large virulent brood of alien children.
At the lab, the scientists activate Eve's alien DNA to telepathically track Patrick. Eve traces Patrick, who is about to rape another woman. However, Patrick also locates Eve and, in order to get closer to her, gives himself up to Press and Dennis. As he enters the lab, Eve shows signs of being in heat. Patrick tries to enter her isolation cell but is chased off by Laura, Dennis and Press.
Informed of his son's condition, Ross refuses to be of help and instead meets Patrick at the shed. The two tearfully reconcile but Patrick's alien nature kills his father. Patrick then helps his alien children to cocoon, awaiting their rebirth as adults. Meanwhile, Laura finds out that Dennis has resisted infection due to his carrying a genetic flaw, and 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 start to mate and transform into their alien forms, but are interrupted by Press. Alien-Patrick fights off Press and Dennis and also overpowers Alien-Eve (who attacked him at Laura's request), penetrating and killing her in the process. Press stabs Alien-Patrick in the back with a pitchfork
coated with Dennis' blood, causing Alien-Patrick to eventually disintegrate.
The military finally arrives and escorts Press, Laura and the injured Dennis. Eve's lifeless human body is loaded into the back of an ambulance. As the vehicle departs, Eve's womb begins to swell, indicating an imminent birth, as one of Patrick's children, who had not yet cocooned, looks on.
(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 the males of the alien species. Their appearance is similar to the xenomorph
s of the Alien
films; both were designed with input from H. R. Giger
.
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. 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." 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".
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."
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.
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.
Species (film)
Species is a 1995 science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, and Natasha Henstridge...
. It stars Natasha Henstridge
Natasha Henstridge
Natasha T. Henstridge is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable on-screen roles include Species, The Whole Nine Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for...
, Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
and Marg Helgenberger
Marg Helgenberger
Mary Marg Helgenberger is an American film and television actress known for her roles as Catherine Willows in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and as K.C...
, all of whom reprise their roles from the first film. It also features actor James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
as "Senator Judson Ross". The next film of the Species series was the direct-to-video Species III
Species III
Species III is a 2004 science fiction film. Directed by Brad Turner, it is the third installment of the Species series and stars Robert Knepper, Sunny Mabrey, Robin Dunne, Amelia Cooke, and John Paul Pitoc...
.
Plot
Roughly two years after the events of Species, an American space mission lands on MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, and collects soil samples. Back on board, the temperature on the ship thaws out frozen DNA in the soil samples, which then attempts to infect the astronauts. The mission safely returns to earth to universal cheering. Only Dr. Cromwell, a scientist and now an inmate in an asylum, reacts to their return with violent fits.
After their return, the three astronauts are examined and quarantined to preventing them from engaging in sexual intercourse for 10 days. However, one of the astronauts - Patrick Ross - immediately disregards the advice and sleeps with two women that night (Nancy La Scala and Raquel Gardner). During intercourse with the second woman, slimy tentacles emerge from his body. The woman notices him transforming into an alien when she somehow, touches his tentacles while rubbing her hands all over his body. Both women undergo an accelerated pregnancy in which their stomachs split open like a flower and half-alien children emerge, killing them in the process. Patrick hides the rapidly growing alien children inside a remote shed and, the next day, tries to confide in his father, an ambitious U.S. Senator, who ignores his problems.
Under military supervision, 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. 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, Dr. Orinsky is working on the astronauts' blood samples and urgently tries to contact Cromwell, his former colleague. Afterwards, Patrick's blood sample falls to the floor and seeps into the wall. When Orinsky examines the strange puddle, an arm bursts out of the wall and disembowels Orinsky. The arm is then revealed to be that of Patrick, who has somehow snuck into the lab. 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.
With the quarantine about to expire, Press and Laura begin searching for the astronauts. They find astronaut Anne Sampas, who is also infected with alien DNA. Unfortunately, by the time they locate her, she has just had unprotected intercourse with her human husband and has become impregnated with another alien offspring. The tube-like creature emerges from Anne's womb and latches onto the husband's face, presumably suffocating him and feeding on his organs. Press and Laura then break into the bedroom and discover the alien. They shoot the creature and then gas it to death as it retracts back into Anne's body. Anne and her husband also die in the process. Dennis Gamble is located and taken by government agents. Analysis of his blood reveals that he was not infected. Later on, he joins Press and Laura in their mission.
After spending the night with his fiancée (Sarah Wynter
Sarah Wynter
Sarah Wynter is an Australian actress, most widely known for her roles on American television – such as Kate Warner on the television drama 24 and as Beth on Windfall.-Personal life:...
), Patrick wakes to find her mutilated body and another alien child. Horrified, he shoots himself along with the last trace of the human psyche within him. His head immediately regenerates and he displays immediate thoughts of reproduction. Patrick begins impregnating more women, mostly prostitutes, burying them next to his shed where he is accumulating a large virulent brood of alien children.
At the lab, the scientists activate Eve's alien DNA to telepathically track Patrick. Eve traces Patrick, who is about to rape another woman. However, Patrick also locates Eve and, in order to get closer to her, gives himself up to Press and Dennis. As he enters the lab, Eve shows signs of being in heat. Patrick tries to enter her isolation cell but is chased off by Laura, Dennis and Press.
Informed of his son's condition, Ross refuses to be of help and instead meets Patrick at the shed. The two tearfully reconcile but Patrick's alien nature kills his father. Patrick then helps his alien children to cocoon, awaiting their rebirth as adults. Meanwhile, Laura finds out that Dennis has resisted infection due to his carrying a genetic flaw, and 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 start to mate and transform into their alien forms, but are interrupted by Press. Alien-Patrick fights off Press and Dennis and also overpowers Alien-Eve (who attacked him at Laura's request), penetrating and killing her in the process. Press stabs Alien-Patrick in the back with a pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
coated with Dennis' blood, causing Alien-Patrick to eventually disintegrate.
The military finally arrives and escorts Press, Laura and the injured Dennis. Eve's lifeless human body is loaded into the back of an ambulance. As the vehicle departs, Eve's womb begins to swell, indicating an imminent birth, as one of Patrick's children, who had not yet cocooned, looks on.
Cast
- Natasha HenstridgeNatasha HenstridgeNatasha T. Henstridge is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable on-screen roles include Species, The Whole Nine Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for...
as Eve - Michael MadsenMichael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
as Press Lennox - Marg HelgenbergerMarg HelgenbergerMary Marg Helgenberger is an American film and television actress known for her roles as Catherine Willows in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and as K.C...
as Dr. Laura Baker - James CromwellJames CromwellJames Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
as U.S. Senator Judson Ross - Mykelti WilliamsonMykelti WilliamsonMichael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
as Dennis Gamble - Richard BelzerRichard BelzerRichard Jay Belzer is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, which he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest...
as U.S. President - Justin LazardJustin LazardJustin Lazard is an American actor, producer, director, and model.-Early life:Lazard was born in New York, but was raised in Connecticut. His father, Sidney Lazard, is a former foreign correspondent, and his mother, Julie , is a photographer. In 1974, the family relocated to Paris where his father...
as Patrick Ross
- Sarah WynterSarah WynterSarah Wynter is an Australian actress, most widely known for her roles on American television – such as Kate Warner on the television drama 24 and as Beth on Windfall.-Personal life:...
as Melissa - George DzundzaGeorge DzundzaGeorge Dzundza is an American television and film actor.-Personal life:Dzundza was born in Rosenheim, Germany, to a Ukrainian father and Polish mother who were forced into factory labour by the Nazis. He spent the first few years of his life in displaced persons camps with his parents and one...
as Col. Carter Burgess Jr. - Myriam Cyr as Anne Sampas
- Peter BoylePeter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
as Dr. Herman Cromwell - Nancy La Scala as Debutante sister Marcy
- Raquel Gardner as Debutante sister Lucy
- 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 CloudLarge Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a nearby irregular galaxy, and is a satellite of the Milky Way. At a distance of slightly less than 50 kiloparsecs , the LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way, with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy lying closer to the center...
(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 the males of the alien species. Their appearance is similar to the xenomorph
Xenomorph (Alien)
The Alien is a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species that is the primary antagonist of the Alien film series. The species made its debut in the 1979 film Alien, and reappeared in its sequels Aliens , Alien 3 , and Alien Resurrection , two crossovers Alien vs...
s of the Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
films; both were designed with input from H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger
Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien.-Early life:...
.
Reception
The film finished at number four on its debut weekend, and was a box office flop. It received notably worse reviews than its predecessor, currently holding a 10% approval rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 30 reviews (3 positive, 27 negative). Dwayne E. Leslie from Box Office Magazine
Boxoffice (magazine)
Boxoffice is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by Boxoffice Media LP. It started in 1920 as The Reel Journal, taking its current name in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals.Boxoffice is the...
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. Joe Leydon
Joe Leydon
Joseph Patrick Michael "Joe" Leydon is an American film critic and historian. A critic and correspondent for Variety and a contributing writer for MovieMaker Magazine, he is the author of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See and a contributing critic for Leonard Maltin's Movie...
from Variety magazine
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
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." James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
described the film as awful but added "there's enough blood, gore, simulated sex, and bare flesh to prevent it from ever becoming boring".
In a 2004 interview, co-star Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
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."
In the DVD commentary director Peter Medak
Peter Medak
Peter Medak is a Hungarian-born film director of British and American films.-Early life:He was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family, but in 1956 fled his native country for England due to the Hungarian Revolution...
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 NavarroYvonne Navarro
Yvonne Navarro is an American author who has published over twenty books. Of those twenty, the titles AfterAge, deadrush, Final Impact, Red Shadows, DeadTimes, That's Not My Name and Mirror Me were solo novels, or fiction created solely by her...
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.