Screamers: The Hunting is a 2009 sequel to Screamers.
The film features a group of Alliance Marines sent from Earth to Sirius 6B to investigate a distress signal. It has been over a decade since last contact from the planet and the screamers are thought to be dormant. What could possibly go wrong?
Tropes:
- Abandoned Area: The former iron ore mine at Bell Island Museum is used for the tunnels the survivors are holed up in.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Hannah prefers a knife or bow & arrow. How she kills Screamers with these is a mystery, given that they're difficult enough to kill with bullets.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Averted; when Bronte points out that she killed a Screamer, Guy says that different Varieties of Screamer are killing each other every day.
Unfortunately the audience is denied a full-on Robot War with humans caught in the middle. - Armor Is Useless: Averted; on realising they have to go back to make contact with the people who fired on them, the team wear helmets and body armor.
- As You Know: Said verbatim by Commander Sexton during his Mission Briefing. There's Info Dumps on the war and the Screamers for those who didn't see the previous movie. The former should be familiar history to those being briefed, even 13 years later. Information on the meteor storm is handwaved by saying they didn't have that data two months ago (it's implied the information was deliberately withheld).
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Madden and Schwartz.
- Big Electric Switch: Used to power up the distress beacon in the Action Prologue, but not used by Orsow despite him being a Mad Scientist.
- Body Horror: When the human Screamers are morphing into Killer Robots.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The Five-Second Foreshadowing that a human is a Screamer, before sharp instruments come bursting out of their bodies.
- Black Dude Dies First: Not quite; Romulo is actually the second member of the team to die.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The deaths are a lot messier than the previous movie.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Apparently Colonel Hendricksson did send a final transmission, but this is dismissed as "the delusional ravings of a shell-shocked soldier".
- The survivors fire on the rescue party and refuse to believe they're from Earth. Apparently they have no knowledge of the Distress Signal sent in the Action Prologue.
- The protagonists are warned about the human-looking Screamers, and that it's a really bad idea for anyone to get back to Earth for this reason. They don't listen.
- Hanna tells Bronte that Guy doesn't appear to sleep. When she wakes from hibernation at the end of the movie, she finds the capsule next to her empty. She senses something is wrong, but it's already too late.
- Catchphrase: Hannah keeps saying "Unreal". It's her last words, too.
- Chair Reveal: Bronte and Guy make it back to the Medusa only to find Hybrid Madden waiting in the pilot's seat.
- Chekhov's Gun: A vial of acid taken as a sample is used to shut down the electromagnetic field.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Orsow doing his Big Damn Heroes.
- Credits GagThe characters, screamers and events depicted in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or screamers, living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended. No screamers were harmed in the making of this motion picture.
- Cyborg: The Hybrid Screamers.
- Deadly Hug: Danielli's death from the woman he's just rescued. She puts her fist through his chest and out the other side. Later Hybrid Danielli kills Madden in a similar fashion.
- Death by Materialism: Commander Sexton slips out while the others are asleep and activates a Screamer to download all the information from its AI, which is worth a fortune back on Earth. This causes the automated factory to reactivate. As Sexton is dying he passes on the data chip to Bronte, but she just crushes it underfoot.
- Dramatic Slip: Done with both female characters, no less. Bronte falls and Schwartz goes to help her up, leaving them vulnerable to an approaching Screamer. Fortunately Madden shoots it.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: While in hypersleep Bronte has a Catapult Nightmare of future events.
- Due to the Dead: Soderquist is cremated like his ancestors. Given that the Screamers salvage any bodies, it's actually the best thing that can be done. Unfortunately Schwartz stays back to take care of Hannah's body and gets killed.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The characters have an Oh, Crap! reaction when they see just how big the automated Screamer factory is.
- Emergency Refuelling: After a member of their team dies when they're fired on by the people they've come to rescue, Sexton decides Screw This, I'm Outta Here and orders them to return to the Medusa. They find a Screamer has gotten on board and drained their power cells, so they have to go and find new ones before the meteor storm hits.
- The End of the Beginning: Instead of The End there's a title card which says The Beginning... as the Screamers will now start doing on Earth what they did on Sirius 6B.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Or lowering from the ceiling behind when Schwartz is attacked by a horseshoe crab-like Screamer.
- Everybody Smokes: Averted; there's a throw-away comment that radiation levels are within survivability limits and no-one is seen smoking their Reds, even the survivors.
- Evil All Along: Guy starts as a sinister character, but then warms up to Bronte. Even for those in the audience who suspect that Guy is a Screamer (probably everyone) the events of the first movie appear to be playing out, but this time he murders the protagonist after the Robotic Reveal, rather than overcoming his programming as Jessica did.
- Evil Overlooker: The cover of The Hunting.
- False Innocence Trick: The team is skeptical when told the more advanced Screamers can take human form. The survivors are a bit vague as to where they get food to survive, so when the team find a bloody dissection table and several people imprisoned behind Some Kind Of Forcefield, they naturally assume they're being used as food. Once freed however, the 'victims' quickly sprout cybernetic killing blades and attack their rescuers. The irony is the Screamers probably were being used as food and spare parts.
- Fetus Terrible: The final shot is the fetus in Bronte's womb sprouting a cutting blade.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Orsow invented the original Screamers, and has developed a Lightning Gun and an improved Tag.
- Get It Over With: Schwartz is being choked to death by a snake-like Screamer and gasps, "Please...just make it fast..." The Screamer obliges, releasing its grip only to ram its tail through her chest.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Averted; one of the Hybrids gives a Motive Rant that they've evolved into a superior being, but their basic incentive is still to Kill All Humans, so it's doubtful that they've really changed at all.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Sgt. Romulo hands his tag to Danielli when the latter loses his. Moments later he's crippled by Screamers and stays behind while the others escape. Combined with Taking You with Me as Romulo blows himself up with a grenade.
- Colonel Hendricksson from the previous movie self-destructed his escape rocket to stop the Screamer getting back to Earth.
- Hollywood Acid: After walking into a mining tunnel dripping with water, Sutton gets scorched when a drop falls on his hand. Turns out it's RA-6, a radioactive acid by-product of the mining.
- Humanity Is Insane: And being The Spock can make you an object of suspicion.Hannah: Humans are irrational! But him...he never does anything without a reason.
- Human Popsicle: The spaceship crew is required to hybernate for two months when traveling between Earth and Sirius 6B.
- Immune to Bullets: Bronte empties her pistol into Hybrid Madden's chest to no avail, and even the Lightning Gun has little effect until Guy gives Hybrid Madden the full blast and disintegrates him.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: When Bronte finds that her commander has downloaded data on the Screamers to take back to Earth, she puts a gun to his head, but doesn't pull the trigger despite his expectations.
- It's Personal: Bronte turned down her own command to go on the mission. Turns out she's Hendricksson's daughter, looking for answers as to why her father supposedly killed himself.
- Just Think of the Potential!: The cybernetic technology developed by the Screamers is worth a fortune on Earth, but the Alliance has banned import for fear it would lead to more Screamers being created.
- Kill and Replace: Though not used as infiltration units as you'd expect. The characters barely have time to say This Cannot Be! as No One Could Survive That! before the Screamer concerned is chewing on their face.
- Knife Struggle: Hannah puts her knife to Guys' throat and insists he's a Screamer. She ends up being stabbed when Sexton tries to grab it off her.
- Leave No Man Behind: Averted with Commander Sexton. He's prepared to abandon the mission after his sergeant gets killed, and is later revealed to be ready to abandon the others ("They're not my friends.") once he gets working power cells. Bronte ironically goes back for him (she is her father's daughter, after all) but Sexton is already fatally injured.
- Licking the Blade: Guy cuts Bronte's hand and tastes her blood. Apparently the artificial blood of a Screamer tastes different, but as the rescue team haven't seen a human Screamer, this only convinces them that he's a villain after they find the survivors have been eating people.
- Lightning Gun: Invented by Orsow to knock out Screamers.
- Loves Me Not: The Yandere is doing this as a Madness Mantra while the object of her infatuation is loading bullets into a magazine and she's sharpening her knife. Later she sees him talking to Bronte and finishes, "He loves me not..."
- Made of Plasticine: A female Screamer punches her fist through bodies and even skulls. The Hybrids have a drill tongue that does the job more efficiently.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sexton is noticeably shaken when he sees the Screamer he reactivated has gotten onto the Medusa, killed a crewman and drained their power cells, preventing their escape.
- Mysterious Watcher: As soon as they set out, the team is observed through Robo Cam by a humanoid figure in Gas Mask, Longcoat. He's not a cyborg but Gadgeteer Genius Orsow.
- Never Split the Party: Played for the usual horror movie Idiot Ball. One character even asks, "Why?" when told to stay behind for no logical reason.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Sexton turns on a Screamer to download the information from its AI. In doing so he activates the automated Screamer factory.
- It's suggested that Colonel Hendricksson self-destructed his own spaceship to stop the Screamers from getting back to Earth. His daughter manages to bring back a highly-advanced Screamer model.
- Nightmare Face: The Hybrids have four mandibles that unfold out of their mouths, and a drill on their tongues.
- Not Helping Your Case: Hannah tries to warn Bronte there's something creepy about Guy, but it doesn't help that she's openly jealous and waving a knife about while ranting crazily.
- Not Quite Dead: The inventor of the Screamers, an engineer called Orsow, was supposedly killed by his own creation but turns out to be the Mysterious Watcher. Played straight with Danielli who staggers in after an apparently fatal injury earlier in the movie, only to quickly reveal himself as a Hybrid Screamer.
- Off with His Head!: In the Action Prologue The Squadette catches a Screamer full in the face, decapitating her in one stroke. Later a sentry gets his head chopped in half by a Type V.
- Plot Hole: How did the Screamer get into the ship to drain the power cells? No-one left a hatch open, and if they can burrow through or infiltrate the hull, why isn't the spaceship in pieces by the time they get back to it?
- Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice: Orsow would rather let everyone die (including himself) rather than take the risk of Screamers getting to Earth. Sexton discovers that he has the power cells they need running his defenses, despite claiming otherwise. Sexton kills Orsow and steals the cells regardless of the fact that it will let all the Screamers inside.
- Race Against the Clock: The search team has six days to look for survivors before the planet is hit by a massive meteor shower that will kill everyone on the planet.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Screamers are assumed to have shut down once they killed everyone on Sirius 6B. Turns out some of them are still active, killing each other and the few remaining survivors, and Sexton inadvertently activates a factory to create more of them.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: One activates automatically (with requisite countdown) when the power shuts down allowing The Swarm of approaching Screamers inside Orsow's base.
- Send in the Search Team in response to a Distress Call. The Screamers were assumed to have killed everyone on the planet, so no-one has been to check before now.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: The sex scene is a shirtless Guy kissing Bronte's bare midriff.
- Scavenger World: Both Screamers and humans are using each other as Human Resources.
- Screaming Woman: Despite being a Combat Medic, Schwartz screams and Security Clings to Madden after seeing the shredded remains of Soderquist.
- Stock Footage from the previous movie is used for the data module's exposition montage.
- Token Romance: There's little chemistry between the leads and no apparent reason why Bronte would have sex with a stranger she's recently met other than it's required for the Cruel Twist Ending. Compare the Jessica/Hendricksson relationship which managed to have both UST and a Love Confession without sex.
- Transhuman: Hybrid Madden claims that the real Madden is still inside him — he's just been upgraded to a superior being. He even offers Bronte a chance to join him. Guy however kills Madden saying he just wants her as a pilot to get him to Earth. As it turns out, that's exactly what Guy wants her for; that and a human incubator for the next Variety of Hybrid Screamer. "He's our first...and there won't be anyone like him. Ever."
- Two Girls to a Team: Bronte and Schwartz in the rescue team.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- There is no mention of the N.E.B. and conversation in general gives the impression that Alliance is the governing body of Earth. Particularly puzzling since the first film established that the N.E.B. (who were in a state of Cold War with the Alliance) was not stymied by the loss of Sirius 6B and moved on to a new planet where they found Berynium deposits.
- The identity and fate of the group that sent the distress signal is also left unexplained. Two of them get killed and one of them manages to barricade himself in the communication array and send the distress signal. However, the rescue team never makes it there. All we can determine is that they were not affiliated with the survivors at the refinery (who were unfamiliar with a distress call and disbelieved the rescue team when they mentioned it) or Orsow (who stated that he does not wish anyone leaving the planet for fear of spreading the Screamers).
- Worm Sign: The orb-shaped Screamers move so fast they send dirt flying into the air as they burrow through the ground beneath.
- Yandere: After seeing Guy is interested in Bronte, Hannah sneaks up on her with a knife when she sleeping, but she wakes just in time.
