Nightmare Fuel / Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

The first movie may have had its own share of nightmare fuel, but in Sonic the Hedgehog 2? The stakes are even higher, and chaos will reign.

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Trailers

• Two words: Super Robotnik.
  • The final trailer shows Robotnik empowered by the Master Emerald and being able to teleport, fire energy bolts, tear apart and repurpose technology, and create massive tornadoes. While channeling the emerald's power, Robotnik's eyes glow bright green and he has Creepy Shadowed Undereyes. When he speaks, he sounds possessed and mechanical, almost like the machines he always loved using. For anyone who was a child in the 90s, it can bring back some fear-filled memories.
  • Super Robotnik might bring back memories of Robotnik's other terrifying transformations from across the franchise's extended history, like Supreme High Robotnik or God Robotnik. But even if this transformation might not bestow Robotnik with the full-on godlike powers of the aforementioned two cases, it instead takes a page from the games' super transformations by accentuating his already existing capabilities to new heights, perfectly emphasizing that it isn't raw power alone that defines Robotnik as a dangerous threat— it's the ambitious mind that's now free to use all that power to finally realize its twisted imagination.
• The shot of Knuckles' eyes glowing a bright magenta and purple to symbolize his sinister power is both awesome and unnerving.
  • His response to being called a space porcupine by Agent Stone? Break the man's arm (with his bones audibly cracking, no less) while pointing out that he is an echidna warrior.
  • In the trailers, he also claims that he will destroy the planet. Thankfully, this turned out to be a case of Never Trust a Trailer.
  • In a TV Spot, Knuckles holds Sonic by the neck, intending to squeeze his hand tighter.

Film

• Near the beginning of the film.
  • When Sonic and Ozzie are having a movie night together after Tom and Maddie go to Hawaii and leave Sonic home alone, the lights suddenly go out, the television turns on to nothing but static, and Sonic goes to answer the door. As he tells who he believes is the pizza delivery guy to go away, sparks suddenly burst from the doorknob, sending it falling to the floor. The door then opens, revealing a disheveled Robotnik with sadistic glee in his eyes. The whole scene plays out just like a horror movie.
  • What makes this even more disturbing is how it's framed in hindsight, because Sonic isn't just some superhero holding the fort down. This is a teenager who is all by himself, his parents are gone, and he has no idea who or what is outside. Sonic's quips go from snarky to nervous and genuinely afraid as he gets closer to the door before going completely silent and carefully putting his ear to the frame. He's terrified, and that's before he learns the intruder is someone who despises him and has actively threatened his life before. It's shot like a child kidnapper broke into his house.
    Robotnik: Hello, hedgehog. Did you miss me?
  • During the blackout, Ozzie runs off with a frightened whimper after Sonic jokingly tries to spook him, which Sonic tries to apologize for. It turns out the dog wasn't scared by Sonic's joke, but rather the presence of Robotnik at their house.
• Just like other continuities, the film's version of Knuckles is the Last of His Kind. Only, the deaths of the rest of his people happened when he was just a young child. As a result, Knuckles had to grow up all alone, and became obsessed with hunting down Sonic to avenge his people. The only reason Knuckles is still alive is explicitly because his father forbade him to take part in the battle against the Owl Tribe. Just how bloody was the battle to wipe out an entire civilization like that? The other interpretation is that the Echidna Tribe was already doomed to extinction to begin with, which is a scary thought.
• While the scene where Sonic and Tails arrive at the bar is admittedly pretty funny because of the over-the-top reactions from the two, the butcher cuts a fish's head off, and as it lands near both Sonic and Tails, tells them to "Run". This is extremely out of place in a movie like this, especially in a Sonic movie of all things. Although this scene is lightened up by Tails later fainting and Sonic casually asking for a table for two. Then later in the bar, after the two are discovered, what do the patrons do? Try to throw Sonic and Tails into a bonfire! While they manage to get out of this predicament, and what follows after is further comedy, it’s still a pretty daunting scene.
• The scene where G.U.N crashes Rachel and Randall's wedding and puts Sonic and Tails into cages and arrests Tom for fighting them. This scene can be quite intense due to Sonic screaming frantically for Tails to wake up and Maddie being forced to see her adopted son and husband being taken away from her.
• The moment of dread when Sonic, Tom, and Maddie spot the green beam coming from the Master Emerald in the distance. You just know the stakes are about to get higher.
  Tom: (Unnerved) Sonic... what is that?
  Sonic: A big problem. The compass led Robotnik to the Emerald.
• After Robotnik steals the Master Emerald and the temple that he, Sonic, and Knuckles are in start to crumble, Knuckles ends up being trapped underwater and Sonic goes in to save him. But after Sonic saves Knuckles, Sonic is in danger of drowning since he can't swim, and he nearly dies, with the blurry P.O.V. Cam accentuating the danger. Thankfully, Knuckles saves him at the last second. Even more frightening, if you listen closely, you can hear a snippet of the iconic drowning theme played on strings.
• To call the movie's version of the Death Egg Robot a Humongous Mecha would be selling it short.
  • It is gargantuan, and the camera pans up to show it is as dangerous as it is large. It would have been nanoseconds away from squashing an injured Sonic like a bug if it weren't for Tom and Maddie playing Big Damn Heroes by scooping Sonic into their truck. Worse, even after the heroes put together a plan to defeat it that actually works, stealing the Master Emerald away from Robotnik in what seems like the nick of time, it doesn't take. To repeat: they actually win, and it isn't enough. The effort to pull it off leaves all three of them battered and nearly broken, but the Robo has emergency power systems, and even crippled and damaged it just keeps coming...
  • For extra scare-factor, when Robotnik had the power of the Master Emerald, he and the Death Egg glowed an eerie green. Creepy, but once he loses the Master Emerald and switches to auxiliary power, the first shot of it after it stands back up is terrifying: It's partially concealed behind smoke, so all the audience can see is its silhouette and a pair of very angry red eyes.
  • As he finishes creating it, the Death Egg Robot is still surrounded by the tornado of chaos energy, with only its face being visible, illuminated by green lightning.
• After Knuckles knocks the Master Emerald out of Eggman's body, we get a lovely scene of an injured Sonic desperately trying to retrieve it before Robotnik does, and injured in this case means barely being able to stand, much less walk. For a dose of Realism-Induced Horror, Sonic's movements are animated in a disturbingly realistic way, with him limping and dragging his leg behind him. It really sells the seriousness of the situation for someone as carefree and speedy like Sonic to be reduced to this state. If you pay attention, you'll notice that Sonic is specifically limping on his right leg and grabbing his right arm. That means that Robotnik broke his limbs or completely fractured them from the fall. If it weren't for the Chaos Emeralds, it would have taken months to heal. It also means that Super-Speed doesn't save Sonic from injury, nor give him endurance. He could have died from that fall.
• Robotnik gains the power of the Master Emerald and immediately gets it into his head to kill those who oppose him. Robotnik is a Misanthrope Supreme at the best of times, so getting a Super Mode just makes him even more dangerous. Even Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles working together can barely put up any offense. If it weren't for Tom and Maddie coming in to be Big Damn Heroes, that would have been game over. Just to drive home how damn scary Super Robotnik is, his voice has a disturbingly flanging effect while under the Master Emerald's power. There is some brief levity where Robotnik uses the Emerald's power to basically autotune his voice, but the flanging drives home just how inhumanly powerful he has become... Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic put it best.
  Tails: That can only be one thing...
  Knuckles: The fearsome power of the Emerald.
  Sonic: If that thing really turns thoughts into power, we are in big trouble. Robotnik has a lot of bad thoughts.
  • When Robotnik returns to Agent Stone, this rather chilling exchange occurs that reminds the audience that Robotnik is a Misanthrope Supreme, and with his newfound abilities he is now fully capable — and fully willing — of indulging his contempt with action.
    Stone: Sir, we have a problem.
    *opens the blinds to reveal the G.U.N. troops surrounding the shop*
    Robotnik: Incorrectus, my trusty barnacle. After all these years, what I finally got... is a solution.
• Robotnik casually stating his plans to become a Multiversal Conqueror, noting that maybe it will be enough, before pulling the above Nightmare Face and stating this as he fires his laser eyes at Sonic.
  "Full disclosure? YOU WON'T BE THERE."
• When Sonic tries to figure out how to use the Master Emerald's powers, it loses its powers and colour and breaks apart into fragments, leaving behind the seven Chaos Emeralds. The sight of this happening is enough to terrify Sonic, as he lets out a Rapid-Fire "No!". His voice is on the edge of tears. If it wasn't for the seven Chaos Emeralds giving Sonic the power to defeat Doctor Robotnik, the film would have had a really grim ending.
• The post-credits scene is a mix of Nightmare Fuel and Awesome. While the G.U.N. agents were deleting Robotnik's records, they found evidence of a project he was looking into from fifty years ago, a project even the Commander sounds terrified about Robotnik being aware of. The movie then cuts to a stasis capsule activating in a long-abandoned laboratory, inside of which is Shadow the Hedgehog, the infamous Ultimate Life Form. He wakes up with furious lightning-fuelled red eyes, indicating that he's going to be Sonic and company's next threat. For additional horror, concept art for the scene shows a skeleton which, judging by the lab coat and formulae scrawled across the walls, is seemingly the remains of Gerald Robotnik.
  G.U.N. Agent: Sir, there's something else. When we were wiping Robotnik off our database, we found something; a file buried deep in our system, and dating back over fifty years.
  Commander Walters: What was it?
  G.U.N. Agent: Co-ordinates, sir.
  Walters: Co-ordinates? To what?
  G.U.N. Agent: A secret research facility. It was a black site, sir. Someone worked very hard to keep this hidden.
  Walters: (in horrified realization) My God... Project Shadow.

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