Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / Zoolander 2

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zoolander2.png

Zoolander 2 is the 2016 sequel to Zoolander. It was directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay alongside John Hamburg, Nicholas Stoller and Justin Theroux, and released on February 12, 2016.

Years after foiling Jacobim Mugatu's (Will Ferrell) plot to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Derek Zoolander (Stiller) is called back into action. With the help of Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson), he is the only one who can foil Mugatu's new plan to kill the world's most beautiful people.

The film also stars Penélope Cruz as Valentina Valencia, Kristen Wiig as Alexanya Atoz and Fred Armisen as VIP.


This film provides examples of:

  • 11th-Hour Superpower: At the end of the film, Derek regains Magnum, Hansel and Sting work together to create Synchronicity, and Derek Jr. harnesses El Nino, and all of them team up to use their beauty-powered telekinesis to take down Mugatu with the nuke.
  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Atoz. Along with her accent she's almost incomprehensible.
  • Actor Allusion:
  • Advertised Extra: Atoz, who features prominently in the poster and promotional materials, but has little screentime and gets replaced by Mugatu as the Big Bad once he escapes from prison.
  • Ambiguous Gender: All, the current most popular model in the world, has decided to get rid of binary gender altogether and speaks only in the third person, using "All" as every pronoun. Other people talking about "All" use the word "hermself", too. As Zoolander and Hansel have been out of the business and away from society altogether for quite a long time this leads to massive confusion on their parts.
  • Ancient Order of Protectors: Rock stars. They are separated from models by the genes of talent and intelligence but this means they are an impure bloodline. Instead they exist to protect The Chosen One — the pure descendant of Steve — from any that would do him harm. This includes such heavyweights as Sting, Madonna, and... Justin Bieber.
  • Badass Bookworm: Derek Jr. prides himself on being smart. He is also the Chosen One and unlocks El Nino, the most powerful look in the world.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness:
    • Parodied:
      Hansel: [dead serious] She's hot. I trust her.
    • Parodied the other direction as well. Hansel and Derek are both convinced that Derek Jr. can't possibly be a good person due to being mildly overweight.
  • Call-Back: And lots of 'em.
    • Hansel cheating on an orgy with another orgy (that includes Susan Sarandon) plays out similarly to the one with him, Derek, and Matilda in the first one.
    • When Sting shows up, he gets a quick subtitle and a bit of his music plays, just like David Bowie in the first film.
    • Mugatu once again breaks down at everyone's stupidity at the end. This time over the fashion world believing in the legend of Adam, Eve, and Steve.
    • Derek once again has a happy car ride to "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" that ends horribly, this time with a car crash.
    • "Hansel, he's still hot right now."
    • Derek, Hansel and Derek Jr are described as redefining what it means to be "really really ridiculously good looking".
  • The Cameo: Again, and lots of 'em.
  • Cat Fight: Parodied with Katinka and Valentina. Their "fight" in the finale was highly sexualized, specifically drawn attention to by Mugatu as "sexy fighting".
  • Celebrity Casualty: Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Lenny Kravitz, Demi Lovato, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Usher all are shot to death by assassins.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Valentina's past as a swimsuit model allows her to swim at extremely high speeds.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In the first scene we see him, Hansel is in an extremely flexible yoga pose. This comes in handy later when he has to hide on a helicopter, beneath a car, and climb on a wall to follow Mugatu.
  • The Conspiracy: Steve, the most beautiful man to exist, lived in the garden with Adam and Eve. It is said that if one ate the heart of Steve's descendant you would be granted eternal life and eternal beauty. The fashion designers of the world bought into the legend while Mugatu uses it to trick everyone. As it turns out, Mugatu may have been right.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Subverted when Hansel has to jump across some platforms surrounded by lava to help Derek. His feet begin to burn up. This doesn't keep them from having the bright idea of jumping in for a hot lava bath once everything is said and done. Somehow, this completely heals and rejuvenates them.
  • D-Cup Distress: Valentina wanted to become a fashion model after being a swimsuit model but her breasts were too big for the runway.
  • Death by Cameo: Justin Bieber in the opening.
  • Death Glare: Sting's take on the Magnum look is the only one that actually looks threatening.
  • Demoted to Extra: Maury gets a brief shot in the news showing he turned state's witness, but nothing more.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Valentina and Katinka get into a cat fight that distracts everyone from what they're doing.
  • Disney Death: At the end of the film, Mugatu is seemingly killed by Derek and his son's El Niño look. However, it later turns out that Mugatu has survived the explosion.
  • Exotic Extended Marriage: In the years since the first movie, Hansel had settled down in the deserts of Malibu with a harem of attractive women, a Maori warrior, an old male Chinese villager, a sumo wrestler, a chimney sweep, a dwarf (female) elf, Kiefer Sutherland, and a goat. They were all impregnated by Hansel at the same time.
  • Extreme Omnisexual: Hansel begins the movie in a long-term relationship with an orgy involving multiple women, several men, Kiefer Sutherland and a goat. He then cheats on the first orgy with a second orgy whose participants include Susan Sarandon, Willie Nelson, a chicken, and a hippopotamus.
  • Fake Muscles: As Mugatu exits prison, he appears to have a gigantic set of muscles but reveals that it is a muscle suit when it tears off.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: Derek and Hansel, due to being in seclusion for about a decade, take a second to update to the technology of the era and find themselves entirely out of place in the modern fashion world.
  • Foreshadowing: El Nino means "the boy," so, appropriately, the boy among the main cast, Derek Jr., is able to use it.
  • Geek Physique: Derek Jr. has the heavyset version of the trope.
  • Happy Ending Override: Zoolander ended with Derek and Matilda getting married and having a son, and the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good finally being opened. The sequel reveals that the center collapsed mere days after being opened due to being built from the same materials as its scale model, which scarred Hansel's face and killed Matilda. Derek subsequently lost custody of his son, and retreated from the public eye to live as a recluse.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: The movie hints that Atoz, the new female fashion designer, is going to be the main villain. Later on, Mugatu becomes freed from prison and is revealed to be the one assassinating the world's most beautiful people in order to kill all fashion designers and models, with Atoz actually being Katinka from the last movie in disguise.
  • Hollywood Atlas: Parodied. Derek is hiding out in the snowy mountains of "far northern New Jersey," and Hansel is living deep in the "uncharted deserts of Malibu."
  • Hollywood Pudgy: In-Universe with Derek Jr.
  • Idiot Hero: Both Derek and Hansel, of course.
    Valentina: He'll try to confuse you, mess with your mind.
    Derek: Don't worry. That is... Closed for business.
    • Deconstructed in one sense when we discover that Derek lost custody of his son because he was genuinely too stupid to care for him, and this was what drove him into seclusion.
  • Latex Perfection: Parodied MERCILESSLY. Mugatu hypes up the masks he spent 10 years making, only for them to look like paper mache versions of himself and Derek. However, they don't have to fool anyone clever. Just the prison guards, who all happen to be former male models. Seconds after escaping, Mugatu then reveals that his muscular prison physique, riddled with prison tattoos, happens to be an EVEN MORE ELABORATE bodysuit covering his business suit and trademark hair.
    • Zigzagged, however, when Atoz is unmasked as Katinka in a realistic mask.
  • Lethally Stupid: Derek crashes a car while trying to take a selfie. He also tries to swim in lava.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Hansel admits he has no idea who his own father is. It turns out to be Sting.
  • Masking the Deformity: Played for Laughs; Hansel wears a mask to cover a "hideous" scar on his face that he got during an accident. When he shows Derek just how "deformed" he is, the damage is revealed to amount to a thin, barely noticeable scar. Hansel only considers it hideous due to the importance he places on his looks.
  • Master of All: Not only is Derek Jr. smart and talented like the Rock Stars, as he really is The Chosen One, he also becomes the most beautiful plus size model ever, and can use the most powerful face in the world.
  • Meaningful Look: Several scenes in the film have two characters stare at each other longingly or lovingly for several seconds, only for neither of them to have any idea what the other is thinking.
  • Mister Seahorse: Kiefer Sutherland and the other male members of the orgy turn out to be pregnant, much to Hansel's confusion.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Valentina, who's introduced wearing a skintight jumpsuit and gets two scenes showing off her breasts.
  • No Kill like Overkill: Justin Bieber gets shot a ridiculous number of times in the film's opening scene. And he still manages to live long enough to take a selfie, apply a filter and post it on Instagram.
  • Noodle Implements: Hansel has an orgy that involves, of all things, a chicken and a pygmy hippopotamus.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Derek's school was made out of crafting materials. Justified as Mugatu's construction firm approved the plans.
  • Not So Above It All: Valentina and Mugatu turn out to have their own eccentricities despite not being airheaded like the two leads. Even Derek Jr. adapts well to the fashion world at the end.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Similar to the first film, Mugatu still seems to be enough of one to point out Derek and Hansel's stupidity.
    • He also rails on how completely idiotic the entire fashion world is for believing in the legend of Adam, Eve, and Steve and that Derek Jr. could be some "chosen one."
    • Valentina takes over Matilda's role from the first film being the smart one in the Trio of her, Derek, and Hansel.
    • Derek Jr. also plays the straight man to most of the cast, being completely baffled by his father's behavior and Mugatu's plans to fatten him up.
  • Only Six Faces: Derek is called in to help Interpol understand why the recently murdered models and singers all made the Blue Steel look before dying. He becomes offended at this, recognizing it as the "Aqua Vitae" look. A computer analysis then confirms the many subtle differences between the two.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The DJ from the first film shows up again as the headmaster of Derek Jr's school, putting a wig on his dreadlocks. Naturally, this is enough to fool Derek and Hansel, even after Derek has been warned to be wary of the headmaster.
  • Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Parodied. Mugatu appears to have turned into a muscle-bound, tattooed hulk during his time in prison, but it's just a bodysuit.
  • Raging Stiffie: Derek and Hansel both suffer one of these when Valentina demonstrates why she never successfully transitioned out of swimsuit modelling.
  • Scars Are Ugly: Parodied. After being injured during the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good's collapse, Hansel wears a stylish mask to hide his disfigurement. When Derek asks to see it, confident that it isn't as bad as he thinks, we see that the "horror-show" is just a faint less-than-an-inch-long scar on his cheekbone. Derek reacts like it's a freakish deformity.
  • Second Love: Valentina is this for Derek. Even Matilda's ghost gives them her blessing.
  • Skyward Scream: Derek does this in the Aqua Vitae commercial.
  • So Last Season: Magnum isn't enough to stop Mugatu's bomb even with two more people giving support.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Matilda's death kickstarts the plot.
  • That Man Is Dead: Mugatu's real name is Jacob Moogberg. Mugatu claims that that person died the day he invented the piano-key tie.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Mugatu attempts to throw a dagger at Derek Jr., but Derek Sr. gets in the way and fails to pull off the Magnum look. The dagger stabs him in the face. Then Derek attempts to pass the dagger to Hansel and ends up stabbing him in the leg.
  • Too Much Information: Hansel tries to cheer up Derek Jr. by telling him how wonderful his mother was, but ends up recounting far too many details about what he got up to with both of Derek's parents.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Derek Jr. has no experience in the modeling industry, but, as The Chosen One, he still can don the most powerful face in the world.
  • Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Derek really isn't happy to find that his son is a mildly overweight bookworm.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Killing Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber gets cornered by an assassin who empties a full magazine into him.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (7 votes)

Example of:

Main / MultipleGunshotDeath

Media sources:

Report