Film / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

Go ninja go ninja go!

"Ten flips, now... and remember... go ninja go ninja go!"

— Splinter

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is the 1991 sequel to the original Ninja Turtles film. It is directed by Michael Pressman from a screenplay by Todd W. Langen. It was released on March 22nd, 1991.

The Foot Clan is back, and back at the helm is Shredder (François Chau, with voice dubbing by David McCharen), thought dead by practically everyone. Scarred from his dive into a trash compactor, he is out for revenge against the Ninja Turtles Leonardo (Mark Caso, with voice dubbing by Brian Tochi), Michelangelo (Michelan Sisti, with voice dubbing by Robbie Rist), Donatello (Leif Tilden, with voice dubbing by Adam Carl) and Raphael (Kenn Troum, with voice dubbing by Laurie Faso). Their numbers may be diminished, but they have something to even the odds. Taking a sample of the waste that birthed the Turtles from the TGRI laboratory, the Foot has two deadly enforcers in the form of Tokka and Rahzar (Kurt Bryant and Mark Ginther, with voice dubbing by Frank Welker), a mutated snapping turtle and wolf.

Can the Turtles finally stop the Foot once and for all, or will Tokka and Rahzar's strength be too much?

The film also stars Paige Turco as April O'Neil; David Warner as Professor Jordan Perry; Kevin Clash as Splinter; Raymond Serra as Chief Sterns; and Toshishiro Obata as Tatsu, with voice dubbed by Michael McConnohie.

This movie was also notable for the one-time character Keno—played by Ernie Reyes Jr.—a martial artist/pizza delivery boy who provided some assistance for the Turtles after they saved his hide from a group of muggers. He disappeared from the rest of the movies. Tokka and Rahzar were original characters made for the movie as well, but this would not be the last we would see of them. The mutant duo would appear later in an episode of the original cartoon, the video games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time and The Manhattan Project, as well as the Intercontinuity Crossover movie Turtles Forever.

Infamous for the appearance of rapper Vanilla Ice, who (in the context of the movie; it was presumably written ahead of time) came up with a rap almost instantaneously when the fight between the Turtles and Tokka and Rahzar wound up at his gig at a club. It also featured pro wrestler Kevin Nash as Super Shredder, the monster that Shredder turns into after drinking the last vial of the ooze.

Also the only Ninja Turtles movie made prior to the 2014 reboot to not feature Casey Jones.

Its story is followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

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This film provide examples of:

• Adapted Out: In the comics, the company that created the ooze was secretly a front for a community of disguised space aliens, the Utroms. There's nothing in the movie to indicate that the TGRI staff are anything other than humans.
  • Although certain dialogues imply that they're more than they seem.
• Adaptation Name Change: The company's name is slightly tweaked- in the comics, it was TCRI, not TGRI. This is because the "C" stood for "Cosmic", referring to the adapted-out extraterrestrial origin.
• Aesop Amnesia: In the first film Raph got into a big fight with Leo and ran off to the rooftops to blow off some steam, which is when the Foot catch him alone and he gets beaten up really badly. Here Raph gets into another fight with Leo complaining about them relocating and goes out to find the new Foot home base alone, where he gets captured.
• Agony of the Feet:
  • When Keno enters April's apartment, he blows the Turtles' cover by purposefully stepping on Raphael's visible foot.
  • Donatello becomes a victim of this when Leonardo angrily throws a box full of stuff on his foot while ranting about Raphael leaving.
• All Part of the Show: The crowd in the club thinks the fight between the Turtles and the mutants is something Vanilla Ice came up with.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Invoked by Tatsu. With Shredder gone, he intends to lead the Foot and offers any challenger a chance to beat him and take his place. Quickly averted when Shredder returns and reclaims his position as master of the clan without even having to fight.
• Awful Truth: In a sense, the revelation of the titular secret: That the creation of the Ooze (and by extension the Turtles themselves) was all a complete accident. While the rest of the team takes it in stride, Donatello is left heartbroken at having his hopes that there was something more or special to their origin dashed.
• Behind the Black: Probably the only way Shredder could hide from Raphael before making his dramatic reveal to him.
  • Oddly enough, while insulting Tatsu, Raph briefly looked to his right, a second before Shredder appears.
• Berate and Switch: When Freddy returns with the enlarged dandelion, Shredder says this is not why he sent him to follow April around. Freddy immediately pleads to be heard out, but Shredder angrily yells at him to be quiet. Shredder then reveals he thinks what Freddy has done is even better than what he wanted; he just hates being interrupted.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Splinter fires his arrow at the rope to the construction crane holding Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello to rescue them from certain death in the junkyard.
  • Keno kicks away the ooze canister from Shredder's hand so that Perry can retrieve it.
• Book Ends: At the beginning, Shredder's first appearance is his hand rising out of the garbage heap, indicating that he's still alive. At the end, after he gets crushed by a pier, his hand once again rises out of the rubble, only to collapse, indicating that he's finally gone for good.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In April's apartment, Leonardo and Raphael debate whether or not to go back to the old lair. Leo points out the dangers of staying in a place the Foot know about, while Raph notes many of them are in jail and without their leader.
  Donatello: [to April] They're both right.
• Call-Back:
  • Like in the first film, Leonardo says "Awesome!" as his first onscreen line.
  • Upon meeting Keno for the first time, Splinter has him sit down and tells him the Turtle's origins, just like he did with April.
  • Splinter says "Cowabunga!" upon rescuing Leo, Mikey and Don from the Shredder like he did at the end of the first film.
  • The Super Shredder raising his hand from under the docks the same way he did back in the junkyard.
  • At the end of this film, Splinter cracks wise in a similar vein to what he did in the previous film.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Tokka and Rahzar replace Bebop and Rocksteady, a combination of rights issues with the cartoon and Eastman and Laird's reluctance to use Bebop and Rocksteady from the cartoon.
  • Keno has no counterpart elsewhere in the franchise, at best substituting for Casey Jones in this film alone.
• Canon Immigrant: Tokka and Rahzar made their way into other TMNT continuities, as well as Super Shredder.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: While Super Shredder is hulked out immensely, he became little more than a rampaging beast and ended up doing himself in.
• The Comically Serious: Similar to the ending of the first film, Splinter scolds the Turtles over revealing themselves, ending his "Ten flips, now!" command with a "Go ninja, go ninja, go!" As soon as they started to flip, Splinter says "I made another funny! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
• Creator Cameo:
  • As in the first film, Michelangelo's suit actor Michelan Sisti plays one of the men April encounters outside of her apartment.
  • Director Michael Pressman has a brief scene as April's boss Phil at the news station. The guy next to him who tells April has a call from someone named "Donnie" is Mark Caso, Leonardo's suit actor.
  • Leif Tilden, Donatello's suit actor also makes a cameo as a foot clan member.
  • Mak Wilson, Mikey's animatronic puppeteer, appears as one of the men working at the Dockshore Club.
• Crowd Hockey: The Turtles try their best to keep a canister of mutagen from falling into Foot hands by playing a game of football.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tatsu tries to challenge the Turtles himself... all four of them. They do a synchronized move smashing him between their shells and he's out for the rest of the movie.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: The turtles are easily outmuscled by Tokka and Rahzar, but are slightly faster and can dodge them for a short time.
• Demoted to Extra: Chief Sterns was a prominent supporting character in the first film, but here he only has one small scene late in the film after Tokka and Rahzar’s rampage.
• Denser and Wackier: Not to the point of being an outright comedy, but there are definitely more comedic moments than the original film. The fight scenes also avoid having the turtles use their ninja weapon in favor of an Improvised Weapon and more slapstick gags (using sausage links and yo-yo's or the lab fight becoming an impromptu football game).
• Destination Defenestration: At the Dockshore Club, Mikey uses a sound amplifier to magnify a keytar and blast the Shredder out of a nearby window.
• Disney Death: The Shredder survives his fall from the garbage truck in the first film, albeit heavily scarred.
• Double Take: Not just a double take, but a triple take when Keno first sees the Turtles in the background.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Super Shredder, who re-emerges from the waters after drinking the entire canister of ooze in his possession in a desperate attempt to kill the Turtles once and for all. Not only did he Took a Level in Badass, but he also Took a Level in Dumbass—focused only on his targets, he unceremoniously causes the docks to collapse on him by recklessly hitting their foundations while the Turtles just barely escape the destruction.
• Dumb Muscle: Tokka and Rahzar. When he's kidnapped and forced by Shredder to mutate the two animals, TGRI Professor Jordan Perry alters the mutagen a little so that their intelligence would not increase. As such, when Shredder demands they call him "master," they misinterpret the word as "mama" and hug the bejesus out of him.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After Freddy gives the mutated dandelion to the Shredder, the latter realizes whatever caused it to mutate would be useful against the Turtles and subsequently has his men steal the last ooze canister.
• Expy:
  • Tokka and Rahzar are original creatures, standing in for Bebop and Rocksteady from the '87 series. Originally, they were supposed to be them, but this was changed.
  • Professor Perry is something of a much more benevolent Baxter Stockman.
  • April's boss Phil is similar to Burne Thompson.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When they discover that the Shredder plans to turn Tokka and Rahzar loose in Central Park unless the Turtles agree to fight them again, Donnie asks, "How are they gonna avoid all those people?" It's only after he says this that he realizes that Tokka and Rahzar aren't going to avoid the people.
• Facepalm: Splinter's frustrated reaction over Perry's goodbye message (read by April during her broadcast) naming each of the Turtles.
• Faint in Shock:
  • Keno faints the first time he meets Splinter.
  • A woman, when Keno said "I learned that from a rat".
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: While in the junkyard rescuing Raphael, Donatello explains that the Foot will spring a trap for them soon. A few seconds later, they get trapped in a net.
• Foil: As what's left of the Foot regroups, Tatsu makes it quite clear that he wants revenge against the Turtles, but for all his hamminess, he is far more focused on practical solutions (e.g. rebuilding the organization to its former glory). By contrast, Shredder is downright obsessed and going for an outlandish "fight fire with fire" technique in the form of evil mutants.
• Food Porn: The opening of the film consists of various people across New York eating pizza.
• Forced to Watch: After trapping the others in the net, Shredder tells a restrained Raphael that he'll finish them first and then him.
• "Friends" Rent Control: April has moved into a new apartment with multiple floors and enough space to reasonably accommodate the turtles and Splinter, although it is a little tight. Not bad for a news reporter. In the first film she lived above an antique shop that was apparently in the family, after the Foot burn it down it's possible she had an insurance payout. Also, by the end of the first movie, she was made the highest paid news reporter of New York, after she was unfairly fired by Charles Pennington at the insistence of Chief Sterns.
• The Gadfly: Returning home, April immediately gets spooked by a rubber snake in her fridge. She immediately guesses that this was Mikey's doing.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment:
  • When Leo, Don, and Mikey find their new lair.
  • Mikey's response to finding a manhole, during the junkyard fight.
• Heroic BSoD: Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael go through a collective one when they realize that the Turtles' mutation from the ooze was caused by accident.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: At the end of the movie, which involved the Turtles fighting (and dancing) in a nightclub, in full view of an entire crowd of people, Splinter asks them if they were seen by anybody upon their return home.
  Leonardo: Of course not, Master Splinter.
  Donatello: We practiced ninja.
  Michelangelo: The art of invisibility.
  [Splinter holds up a newspaper with a picture of them on the front cover]
  Splinter: Practice harder.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This happens to the Shredder again when he uses the last vial of ooze to transform into the Super Shredder. It ends up doing him in when the transformation robs him of any sense of reason and he brings the docks down on his own head in an effort to kill the Turtles.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Previously a fearsome gang running wild and always one step ahead of the police, the Foot have been reduced to a relative handful of thugs hiding out in a junkyard while their fellows are rotting in jail.
• I Warned You: When Leonardo and Michelangelo try giving Tokka and Rahzar donuts containing the mutagen cubes, Raphael tells Donatello the plan won't work. Donatello doesn't listen and tells Raphael they will eat anything. Minutes later, when Rahzar crushes the donut to reveal the cubes, Raphael tells Donatello "I told you it wasn't gonna work."
• Immediate Sequel: It picks up maybe a few days after the first film, as Shredder is shown rising from the garbage and The Remnant of the Foot Clan meet up in a designated fallback location (conversely, dialogue about the Turtles and Splinter living with April imply it's been a few weeks or even months, as she has a new apartment and Keno mentions she has become famous for ordering a lot from the local pizzeria).
• Improbable Weapon User: All of the Turtles. They rarely their weapons to attack in the film, but often use improvised weapons: sausage links, yo-yos... you name it.
• Incoming Ham: Tatsu declares that he leads the Foot now and dares anyone who thinks they can do better to step forward.
  Shredder: [entering] I challenge!
• The Infiltration: Keno attempts to join the Foot Clan so he can help the Turtles find the Foot's hideout. With some assistance from Raphael, he succeeds in getting in, though it is only a short time before their cover is blown.
• Informed Deformity: After being crushed in a trash compactor, the film shadows out Shredder's mutilated face until he has a new mask forged. Unfortunately the mask actually gives away quite a bit of his face, revealing it to be in pretty fine condition, though now it is Covered in Scars in addition to the scar he already had from Splinter.
• Internal Reveal: Viewers know early on that Freddy is both a Foot Ninja and one of April's co-workers. She learns the truth late in the movie when he relays a message from Shredder to give to the Turtles.
• Irony: April picks up all the stuff left around the apartment by the turtles and mutters "The rat is the cleanest one."

• Just Eat Gilligan: When the Shredder has trapped the Turtles in a rope net and is preparing to drop them onto a bunch of sharp objects, they just panic until Splinter frees them instead of Leonardo using his katana swords to cut the ropes. Somewhat justified in that it's logistically pretty difficult to cut yourself out of a rope net from the inside while you're trapped in there with others. Besides, they were expecting Splinter to save them.
• Killed Off for Real: After surviving the previous film being crushed and sent to a landfill, Shredder dies after trying to take down the Turtles with him in the docks. Adding insult to injury, he dies in his much more powerful Super Shredder form.
• Kinder and Cleaner: The movie is devoid of profanity compared to its predecessor.
• Last Grasp at Life: Shredder begins the film by reaching his hand out from a pile of garbage. At the end, he thrusts his hand out from the ruins of the dock that had just fallen on top of him - only to die.
• Let's Get Out of Here: One of the thugs invokes the trope when the Turtles rescue Keno and thwart the marketplace robbery.
• Lighter and Softer: The film is generally more comedic and silly, compared to the harder violence and language in the first film.
• Little "No": Donatello's reaction to the Shredder still being alive.
• MacGuffin Melee: The battle in the TGRI labs between the Turtles and the Foot over a can of mutagen.
• Magic Pants: Shredder's outfit (cape and all) grows with him and becomes spikier when he becomes Super Shredder. Which may cross into Body Horror when you realize that thanks to the ooze his costume is now a part of him.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • The robbers at the start of the film when the Turtles rescue Keno and help even things out.
  • Tatsu and the Foot refugees in the junkyard get one upon realizing the Shredder has survived.
  • Donatello, Michelangelo and Leonardo when they fall victim to the Foot's trap in the junkyard. And that the Shredder's alive.
  • The Turtles when the Shredder summons Tokka and Rahzar to fight them.
  • The Turtles again when they encounter the Foot again at the construction site and later when they realize their donut plan didn't work.
  • The Turtles once again when they encounter Super Shredder at the docks.
• Mauve Shirt: Freddy fares better than the other Foot Ninja mooks, due to also being April's co-worker and the one to alert Shredder to the effects of the ooze.
• Moral Guardians: The Turtles rarely use their weapons in combat in this film (except for Donatello, who uses his bo occasionally, which is less dangerous compared to the other weapons), as a result of the movie studio attempting to tone down the violence from the previous film, catering to parents complaining that the Ninja Turtles were too violent and encouraging aggression.
• Motor Mouth: During his interview, Perry is aware he can be this and asks April (in rambling fashion, mind you) if she'd prefer succinct answers instead of something that would need to be edited later. She tells them they're live and thus won't be editing any of this, so he gets right to the point.
• Mouth Taped Shut:
  • While Donatello's busy freeing Raphael during the junkyard scene, he pulls the duct tape off of his mouth, which prompts Raph to yell at him about almost ripping his lips off. Don proceeds to put the tape back on him while he works on untying him.
  • It happens again when Don is tossed into the room where Professor Perry is being held and again, he pulls the tape off rather crudely. Professor Perry is a lot more forgiving though.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: At the junkyard, Tokka throws Donatello so hard that he crashes into the building where Professor Perry is Bound and Gagged. As a result, the Turtles gain some much needed scientific help in defeating the evil mutants. Similarly, Rahzar ends up throwing Michelangelo over a truck and right on top of a manhole cover that the heroes use to escape.
• Non-Indicative Title: Unless we consider the ooze itself secretly existing in the Turtles' world as the secret, the titular "secret of the ooze" is that there is no secret to the ooze.
  Professor Perry: An unknown mixture of discarded chemicals was accidentally exposed to a series of radiated waves, and the resulting ooze, as you put it, was found to have remarkable but dangerous mutanagenic properties
• No One Could Survive That!: Early on, Raphael doubts that Shredder could have survived his "half-gainer right into the back of a garbage truck." At the climax, after Super Shredder brings down the pier on all of them, Raphael says this out loud when he sees the hand rise from the wreckage. This is then subverted when Shredder's hand falls limp.
• Nothing Is Scarier: This was clearly the intention of Shredder entering in shadow without his faceplate on and everyone else staring at him in shock. This is a reasonably effective moment in itself, but as noted above, the holes in the faceplate allow us to later see his mouth moving. It demonstrates he doesn't actually look any worse for wear after his garbage truck experience, thus negating the effect. That said, some of the visible parts of his face are Covered in Scars and this also hides that the actor portraying him has changed.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Keno, after beating up three thugs for robbing the stores, only for a lot more to show up (luckily for him the Turtles show up).
  Keno: [still in his martial arts stance] Help?
  [They come at him]
  Thug: You're gonna need it, kid.
  • April when she sees Michelangelo's rubber snake in her refrigerator shortly after returning to her apartment.
  • Donatello in the TGRI laboratory when a Foot Clan member knocks the ooze canister out of his hand.
  • Keno and Raph when Tatsu and the Foot Clan members catch them trying to escape the junkyard.
  • Raph, when the Shredder appears in front of him, after insulting Tatsu.
  Raph: You know pal, if I had a face like yours, I try to make it up for with some sort of a personality. Ha ha ha! [Shredder steps out between him and Tatsu] Shredder!
  • Donatello when Tokka throws him into the house where Perry was captured.
  • April when she learns from Freddy about Shredder's plans to send Tokka and Rahzar into Central Park.
  • Tatsu at the end just before the Turtles are about to body slam him and knock him out.
  • Shredder when Donatello and Michelangelo use an amplifier to blast him out of the nightclub.
• Ornamental Weapon: Due to parental complaints, the Turtles don't use their weapons whatsoever (aside from a few joke usages, like Raph uses his Sai to grab a pizza, Leo uses his katanas to stick them in the ceiling and then hangs by them) despite still carrying them everywhere and constantly finding themselves in dangerous situations. Donatello uses his bo occasionally, and Leo grabs an opponent's fighting sticks once, but unlike the sword, sai and nuchucks, they are far less lethal or dangerous.
• Painful Adhesive Removal: Raph gets Bound and Gagged and used as bait for the rest of the turtles. When the fighting starts, Donnie removes the adhesive gag and Raph complains about almost getting his lips ripped off, prompting Donnie to put the gag back while he undoes the ropes. Shortly after, Donnie finds the kidnapped professor in the same state, and painfully rips off his adhesive gag. Upon hearing the professor also cry in pain, he remarks, "I've gotta get the hang of that."
• Parental Bonus: After falling into the Foot's trap at the junkyard:
  Donatello: These nets are very effective and very well-constructed.
  Michelangelo: Yeah, remind me to drop a line to Ralph Nader!
• Pet the Dog: Shredder decides to keep Tokka and Rahzar around after seeing them lift a bulldozer to the best of their abilities. This proves to be a blessing in disguise for the Foot, since the Turtles get their shells handed to them during their first encounter.
• Physical Fitness Punishment: Splinter hands these out to his turtles when they get in trouble.
  • Leonardo and Raphael get in a scuffle and are both ordered to do ten back-flips.
  • Michelangelo is given the same punishment when he teases Raphael (“All the good [turtle names] end in O!”). When Splinter notices that Mike has started just jumping up and down to make it sound like he was doing back-flips, he makes him do more.
  • All four are given the back-flips punishment at the ending when they try to lie to Splinter about not being seen.
• The Professor: Jordan Perry.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • At the beginning of the film, Raphael suggests that instead of staying with April, the Turtles just go back to their old sewer lair. Leonardo refutes this, stating, "It's a little tough, when about 500 members of the Foot Clan know where you live!" And when the Foot reveals themselves, the Turtles move out to keep April from being caught in the crossfire again.
  • While discussing that TGRI created the ooze that mutated Splinter and the Turtles, Splinter states, "If the contents of this canister were not unique, the city may be facing grave danger." Which is precisely what happens when Shredder gets his own sample of ooze, and decides to create his own mutants.
• Raised Hand of Survival: Played straight at the beginning, when we see the Shredder's hand rise from the garbage. Subverted in the climax, when his hand rises from the wreckage of the dock that fell on him... only to go limp.
• Remembered I Could Fly: As the heroes watch in horror as Super Shredder destroys the dock, threatening all of their lives, Leonardo helpfully reminds the others that they're turtles, and they jump into the water. Sure enough, they swim to safety easily.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: For the first half of the movie, the Turtles were unaware that Shredder was still alive, under the impression that the Foot was being led by Tatsu, right up until their encounter with Tokka and Rahzar.
• Revenge Before Reason: After transforming into Super Shredder, Shredder becomes completely determined to kill the Turtles, by collapsing the entire pier, and not even caring that his actions could kill him as well.
  Leonardo: Shredder! You've gotta listen to reason! You're gonna destroy us all! [gets lifted up by Super Shredder]
  Super Shredder: Then so be it! [throws Leonardo to the ground]
  • Shredder spends the entire movie like this; several characters even call him on it.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Angry after his defeat at the end of the previous movie, Shredder wholeheartedly dedicates himself to exacting revenge upon the Turtles.
• Running Gag: Splinter ordering the Turtles to give "10 Flips".
• Sadistic Choice: After having Tokka and Rahzar tear up a street, Shredder has Freddy deliver an ultimatum for the Turtles: face the evil mutants at the construction site tonight or stay in hiding while his mutants rampage through a very crowded Central Park. Leo and Raph note they don't have any other choice but to go to the construction site.
• Say My Name: While the Turtles are at the construction site, Raph yells Shredder's name, prompting the Foot to reveal themselves.
• Self-Disposing Villain: The Turtles never really fight Shredder head on through the movie. In the final encounter, Shredder drinks the last of the ooze and turns into Super Shredder. He tries to kill the Turtles by dropping a pier on them... and only ends up offing himself. Leo even cites the dangers of what he's doing but Shredder's beyond caring by this point.
• Sequel Hook: When Keno knocks away a canister of ooze from Shredder, Professor Perry is shown retrieving it and suspiciously skulking away, not seen for the rest of the film. This is not followed up on, though rumors say he was supposed to be revealed as an Utrom.
• Shoot the Rope: While sneaking into the junkyard, Leo, Mikey and Donnie walk into a trap, where they are caught in a net, dangling from a rope and hauled upwards. Shredder plans to drop them on top of some homemade spikes, but Splinter shoots the rope with an arrow, freeing the turtles before they can be moved above the spike trap.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Well, the lives of two people don't amount a hill of beans in this crazy world, Ilsa. That's why you're getting on that plane. Maybe not today--" "Will you stop?!"
  • At April's apartment: "Wax on, wax off!" "Wax on--" "Mouth off!"
  • When Perry explain to the turtles about the anti-mutagen, he puts it in a glass cup that has Bart Simpson on it and makes sure to show it very clearly to the camera.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When talking about the Turtles search for a new home, Raph brings up the idea of simply moving back into their old home. Leo reminds him that the Foot Clan, the evil Ninja clan they fought in the last film, know where it is, hence the need to move. Despite Raph brushing them off due to their (seemingly) thorough defeat, this proves to be prudent when the Foot Clan begin making a come-back.
• Smoke Out: Tatsu and the Foot do this to escape the Turtles at TGRI. Notable because they throw the smoke bomb at the Turtles, which makes a lot more sense.
• Studded Shell: Having mutated from an Alligator Snapping-Turtle, Tokka has prominent spikes on its shell.
• Stuffed into a Trashcan: In the opening fight with the robbers at the local mall, Raphael stuffs Keno into a nearby trashcan for his own good. Fortunately for Keno, Michelangelo helps him out of the can after the turtles defeat the robbers.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • At the beginning of the movie, Keno spots a robbery in a marketplace while delivering pizza and jumps in to stop it. However he didn't take into account there were a lot more robbers than he accounted for and is visibly worried when the rest of them show up, knowing he's outnumbered. Luckily the Turtles arrive to help even things.
  • While April is fine with letting the Turtles and Splinter stay with her in her apartment, the latter insists they find a new dwelling as he knows sooner or later people are gonna notice more than one person living there. Which is proven when Keno comes to deliver some pizza and notes some belongings of April that she certainty wouldn't use.
    • The reason they're staying with April in the first place is due to the fact their old home's location was discovered by the Foot Clan. Turns out a secret lair loses its appeal when your enemies figure out where it is and can attack you at any time.
    • Even though they're holing up in April's apartment, the Turtles and Splinter have continued their training sessions. This has not gone unnoticed, as one of April's neighbors chastises her for the excessive noises.
  • Despite Raph's claims of having "kicked their butts", it turns out a small number of Foot Ninja were still loyal to Shredder, and chose to run and go into hiding rather than turn themselves in.
    • This also plays into the Foot's status quo in the interim since the first film. With Shredder's presumed death, the loss of their headquarters, and the arrest of most of their members, the Foot Clan has been effectively crippled as a criminal organization. Had Shredder not clawed his way out of that junkyard, it's doubtful Tatsu — an administrator rather than a leader — would've been able to effectively rally them or to seek vengeance against the Turtles.
    • With nearly all of the old guard arrested, the Foot is also now having to recruit and rebuild their manpower completely from scratch. Nearly all of the Foot Soldiers in this film are thus greenhorns who have essentially just gone through basic training (and thus fare worse against the more-experienced Turtles compared to their predecessors in the first film). Offsetting the Foot's manpower shortage and inexperience is also another factor in Shredder seeking to create his own Mutants.
  • As soon as the Foot reveal themselves, the Turtles quickly choose to leave April's apartment and redouble their hunt for a new lair, not wanting a repeat of what happened last film.
  • Shredder thinks with the ooze, he can make two powerful mutants to fight for him. However, while Tokka and Rahzar mutate into bigger monsters, they turn out to have the mindset of babies. After all, as shown in the first film's backstory flashback, the Turtles took a while to develop too after they mutated, so Shredder forgot to take that into account. He does manage to make the most of it at Professor Perry's insistence. There's also the detail that Perry deliberately contaminated the ooze to make the two mutants less dangerous.
    • A justified instance of Didn't Think This Through. Shredder couldn't take that into account because he doesn't possess the crucial information about the Turtles' own development (and wouldn't know). If Splinter hadn't told April the story in the first movie, she too might have assumed the Turtles mutated entirely formed and developed.
  • In the climax, the Turtles make some anti-mutagen, freeze them into cubes and hide them into donuts in the hope of tricking Tokka and Rahzar into eating them. It seems to work at first, but then Rahzar starts getting suspicious of their goodwill and crushes one of the donuts, finding the cube inside. Even a child might find something's up in a given situation.
  • Though the Turtles get Tokka and Rahzar to eat some of the anti-mutagen, it doesn't take effect right away and Don and Professor Perry realize they need to reintroduce Carbon Dioxide into them for it to digest properly, which they find in fire extinguishers.
  • Pumped up with mutagen or no, bringing a structure down on top of you is not going to end well as Shredder found out at the end when he tried to drop a dock on the Turtles who survived by jumping into the nearby river (they're amphibious after all). Though for a moment it did look likely when Shredder's hand came out from the rubble... only to fall over lifeless.
  • At the end of the movie, the Turtles try to lie to Splinter that they weren't seen, but are quickly caught out both from the news report from April Splinter just watched and a newspaper reporting of their fight in the night club.
• Taking You with Me: Super Shredder has no problem bringing down the pier on his head, if it takes out his four hated enemies in the process.
• Taught by Experience: Shredder knows full well that the best way to find the Turtles and Splinter is to have April followed.
• Tempting Fate:
  • As he sits down next to Michelangelo when watching April's report, Raphael sarcastically tells off Mikey to stop eating so loud. Unfortunately, his brother takes this suggestion quite literally and crunches the candy bar he's eating right into his ear just to annoy him some more.
    Raphael: "Hey! You think you could crunch any louder? I can still hear outta this one." (gesturing to his left ear)
  • Sneaking around the junkyard to rescue Raph, the Turtles find things to be too quiet. Given the layout of where Raph is and the various structures, Donatello surmises that if the Foot were preparing a trap, they'd spring it right about now. The trap is sprung before he's even finished the sentence.
  • Happens again to Raph later in the junkyard fight. Don rips the sticking plaster off his mouth hurting him. Raph angrily berates him for doing so and a frustrated Don just tapes his mouth shut again, telling him that he's just going to untie him first.
• That's Gotta Hurt: After Don's battle with Tokka leads to him being thrown into the house where Perry is captured, Don says, "Whoa, that hurt." while brushing himself off. Seconds later, after Don pulls off the tape from Professor Perry's mouth, the latter yells "Ow!" in pain.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Once Splinter rescues the Turtles from Shredder's net, their theme music (not the cartoon theme song, mind you, but their movie theme, a bouncy synth-rock number) kicks in, as they begin to whoop some Foot Clan butt.
• Toy Disguise: At the beginning of the film, the Turtles battle the robbers at a toy store. When Donatello comes across a clown doll, this gives him the idea to pose as one to catch the robber off guard.
• The Unchosen Ones: The Turtles discover that the creation of the ooze that changed them was purely an accident. Don was not very happy to learn this. He always thought they were special and believes there's got to be more to it. There isn't.
• Undying Loyalty: After all the posturing about how he leads the Foot now and will gladly fight any challengers, Tatsu immediately defers to Shredder upon his return and does whatever he asks.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Fitting their status as Dumb Muscle, Tokka and Rahzar depend solely on their brute strength and durability to fight the Turtles. During their first fight, the Turtles end up running from them, and they only won the second time around thanks to the anti-mutagen developed by Professor Perry.
• Unusual Hiring Practices: To join the Foot, Keno has to remove training bells from a dummy silently in the dark. Raphael does it for him, and places all of them into Keno's hands.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Even though this installment gets sillier as it goes along, the Shredder attempts to stay as threatening as he was in the first film. One reviewer even remarked that Shredder's character arc in the film seemed to be him being frustrated that his life has basically turned into a cartoon.
• Villain Decay: The Foot get worse in this film, where they don't even land a hit. This is lampshaded when Keno tells the Turtles that the Foot are openly recruiting on the streets to bolster their ranks after the bulk of their forces were beaten by the Turtles and arrested by police in the first film. A lot of them are just freshly trained, so it makes sense.
• Unfazed Everyman: A couple about to get into a taxi witnesses Tokka and Rahzar's street rampage. The husband expresses concern over this situation and wonders what to do if directly confronted, but the wife deadpans that the mutants can get their own taxi.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: Keno spots Mikey's nunchucks in April's apartment. When she tries to convince him that they're really hers, she can only flail them around weakly. Keno tells her to "keep practicing".
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Director Michael Pressman argued this was the key to the live action films' success: You believe them. It's not that the Turtles are real; the kids know they're just guys in fancy costumes, but they pull it off so well that you're not distracted by the suits and can just get into the story.
• Would Hurt a Child: Because of their infantile mindsets, Shredder was not initially impressed by Tokka and Rahzar. If Prof. Perry hadn't pointed out their Super-Strength, Shredder would have had the two mutants disposed of;
  Perry: You can't do that, they're living creatures!
  Shredder: Not for long.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The Turtles (particularly Donatello) are hit hard over learning their mutation was just an accident and had no grander purpose.
  Donatello: I thought we'd find out we were special.
  Splinter: Do not confuse the specter of your origin with your present worth, my sons.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Because the Foot discovered their lair in the first movie, this movie starts with the Turtles staying at April's apartment until they find a new place.
• You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: At the junkyard, Raphael briefly glimpses Shredder from a distance and stares in shock.
  Keno: What? What is it?
  Raphael: Uh, I thought I just saw a ghost.
• You Watch Too Much X: Judging by the mess he leaves, Leonardo likes to read comic books.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The Turtles do the "Cowabunga!" high-five celebration after the Shredder's apparent demise— only to have Super Shredder tear the dock out from underneath them.

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"I made ANOTHER funny! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

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