CARNOSAUR 2 (1994)
Notes: NewHorizons. 1 hour 23 minutes. “Back for another bite”;”Extinction is a thing of the past.”
Jack Reed: John Savage
Major Tom McQuade: Cliff DeYoung
Monk Brody: Rick Dean
Jesse Turner: Ryan Thomas Johnson
Sarah Rawlins: Arabella Holzbog
Ben: Don Stroud
Ed Moses: Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.
Joanne Galloway: Neith Hunter.
Executive Producer: Roger Corman
Produced: Mike Elliott
Directed: Louis Morneau
Screenplay: Michael Palmer
Special Effects: John Beucher and MagicalMedia Industry
Miniature Effects: Anthony Doublin
Music: Ed Tomney.
Summary: During opening credits we see sterile landscape intercut withviolent hatchings and glass breaking. In a subterranean systemcheck at a classified military compound a worker is killed. Anotherworker, in contact with a gumchewer foregrounded by an iguana,investigates and discovers his nephew Jesse and Jesse’s friendstealing dynamite. Upstairs at the mess hall, Zeb complains aboutcoyotes, goes out back, and is killed. Jesse witnesses everyoneelse in the place get thrown around and killed.
A group of technicians–Jack Reed, sleazy Monk,Moses, and a woman Rawlins–are called on to investigate the powershortage in the secret mining facility. Their eyepatched bossannounces that Major Tom McQuade is in charge. When Joanne Gallowaycopters them in, they find only a catatonic Jesse and some blood. McQuade is edgy about sublevels D and E, and after they finda large tooth, the boss is snatched and dragged away. Moses isthen mauled and the others run to the copter, but a dinosaur hasgotten into it and causes Galloway to take off wildly and crash. McQuade fesses up partially: a biotech firm was messing withDNA and brought back dinos, but the military thought they “got’em all,” except for a nest that they put on ice thinkingit wouldn’t hatch. Jack announces: “We can’t just lie downand be chow for some prehistoric iguana” [vegetarians]. Jesse gets hacking and remembers the dynamite so Jack and Monkgo, but get locked into a storage room electronically by McQuade:they disobeyed his orders. They break out, get attacked by McQuade,and get attacked by a dinosaur, which Jack shoots. Monk says”Shit!” a lot.
McQuade reveals more: this Yucca mountain siteis a repository for high-level nuclear waste and contains warheads:”nukes and dinosaurs . . . holy shit.” Dinosaurs musthave damaged the containment units. Jesse says if they crashthe system, an evacuation squad will come for them. The crashsucceeds but the dinosaurs move through the dynamite set for protection. They make the elevator in the nick of time, but Rawlins is snatchedthrough the roof. We see (inappropriately, since we never witnessedanything unseen by other characters before) her arm get rippedoff and her guts chewed out.
The rest blow up another dinosaur. In explosions,Monk gets trapped under some bars. McQuade stays with him a fewmoments, but dinosaurs come and McQuade sets off explosives suicidallywhen they attack the two. In the explosion, Reed falls over arailing and land hurt several levels below. Jesse hears thatthe evacuation team has arrived and goes for help. When it’sclear the evac dudes don’t intend to go inside, Jesse runs backfor Jack, whose ribs are broken. They witness an enormous T-Rexstomping along. They run to the chopper, the kid goes back againfor a remote! The Rex breaks out and Jesse battles it with aforklift, opening a pit and ramming the dinosaur backwards intoit, saying, “Eat this, Barney.” He gets to the chopper,they fly away, the nuclear explosion is blinding, and Jack idioticallyis dead wrong when he says, “It’s gonna be okay.”
Commentary: This is a lighthearted romp compared to the first Carnosaurfilm. What happened to the fact the the world had contracteda feverish virus which made women give birth to weredinos? Infact, except for the ubiquitous radiation and a nuclear explosionto “make Hiroshima look like a campfire,” this filmoperates like a D&D adventure (Dungeons and Dinosaurs).