The Wandering Earth 2

The Wandering Earth 2 (Chinese: 流浪地球2) is a 2023 Chinese science fiction action-adventure film directed and co-written by Frant Gwo, and starring Andy Lau, Wu Jing and Li Xuejian. The film is a prequel to the 2019 film The Wandering Earth, which is based on the short story of the same name by Liu Cixin, who serves as the film's producer.

The Wandering Earth 2
Official film poster
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese流浪地球2
Directed byFrant Gwo
Screenplay byFrant Gwo
Gong Ge'er
Based on"The Wandering Earth"
by Liu Cixin
Produced byLiu Cixin
Gong Ge'er
Starring
CinematographyMichael Liu
Edited byYe Ruchang
Yan Tingting
Music byRoc Chen
Production
companies
China Film Group Corporation
Guo Fan Culture and Media
GIFilm Beijing Studio Co., Ltd.
Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communication Co., Ltd.
CFC Pictures Limited
Distributed byChina Film Group Corporation
Release date
  • 22 January 2023 (2023-01-22)
Running time
173 minutes[1]
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin
Box office$604.3 million[2][3]

After the major box-office success of its predecessor, a sequel was announced by Guo on 20 November 2019 before it was greenlit on 21 July 2021, with production officially starting on 13 October 2021.[4] The Wandering Earth 2 was released on 22 January 2023, the same day as the Chinese New Year Day.[5] The film has grossed $604 million, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2023.

Plot

As the Sun becomes an expanding red giant and threatens to engulf the Earth in 100 years, the United Nations, now renamed as the United Earth Government (UEG), decides to proceed with the Moving Mountain Project, the pilot program to build thousands of gigantic ion engines that can propel the Earth out of the Solar System towards another habitable star system. In doing so, the UEG shuts down and bans the Digital Life Project (DLP), a radical group who believe humanity's future is in digital immortality by developing mind uploading technologies, despite skepticism and increasingly violent protests from the public.

The first phase of the Moving Mountain Project is to build and test an ion engine on the Moon. However, a series of terrorist attacks by well-armed DLP supporters on the UEG facilities in 2044 resulted in a hacked drone attack on the space elevator, coordinated hacking of the elevator vehicles by highly trained infiltrators, with the aim of destroying the Ark Space Station supplying the lunar operation. Although UEG trainee astronaut Liu Peiqiang and his fellow trainees manage to defeat the hijackers on their vehicles, this was after the hijackers detonated one elevator with a missile that bypassed the cargo bay using counterfeit passes. As a result, the top of the space elevator and the Ark Space station are critically damaged and crash down to Earth.

To restore public faith in the Moving Mountain Project, Liu Peiqiang and other UEG engineers are sent to the moon to work on finishing construction of three lunar engines, which are prototypes to demonstrate the function before installing the first engines on Earth. Along with this, computer engineer Tu Hengyu, who had previously worked on the Digital Life Project before it was banned, works on incorporating the new 550 Series quantum computer, which was the original edition of 550C, will both control the highly efficient automated construction of the engines, and also control the operation once the engines are to be tested. Tu, in his spare time, views a simulation of his daughter, who had died in a car crash; but due to the limitations of the computer 550A, her digital consciousness can only live for two minutes before restarting. However, the computer of 550C was damaged and he needed to use 550A for the testing. Tu had to accept it, but asked Ma Zhao to invent future versions of the 550 series.

In the next 14 years, the UEG quells the DLP supporters, gathers resources and builds over 7000 engines that stop the Earth's rotation. The Moving Mountain Project is officially renamed as the Wandering Earth Project, and the three completed lunar engines start to propel the Moon away from Earth. In 2058, Tu Hengyu decides to upload the recorded consciousness of his deceased daughter into the latest 550W supercomputer. Immediately after doing this upload, the lunar engines fire and then explode, sending the Moon on a collision course towards Earth.

To deal with the Moon crisis, the UEG initiates a backup plan that involves detonating all of the Earth's nuclear weapons on the lunar surface and triggering its implosion. The mission faces numerous setbacks due to the difficulties in nuclear code decryption, the flooding of Internet root server data centers that allow coordinated detonation control, and the short time window before the moon reaches the Roche limit and fragments into pieces which will destroy the Earth. As lunar debris started falling to the Earth and hitting different cities, such as Beijing, Earth's population grew increasingly restless and was on the verge of losing all hope. After the code deciphering hits a deadlock, 300 astronauts over the age of 50 voluntarily sacrifice themselves in order to manually detonate the nukes. Liu narrowly survives the nuclear detonation, managing to pilot a capsule back to the Navigation Space Station. Meanwhile on Earth, Tu, who is sent to help reboot the flooded Beijing server, uploads a copy of his own recorded consciousness into the network before drowning. His digital self manages to reboot the last Internet server in time, activating the Earth engines en masse and moving the Earth away from the course of the lunar debris. The Wandering Earth Project then officially begins with the Earth's course towards Jupiter.

In a mid-credits scene, Tu's digital self is addressed by the 550W artificial intelligence, who now goes by the personified name "MOSS" ("550W" upside down). The now-sentient supercomputer reveals that it has been behind every crisis that has ever harmed humanity's efforts to save themselves, adding that it will also trigger many more in the future.

Cast
  • Andy Lau as Tu Hengyu (图恒宇), a computer scientist who worked on both the Digital Life Project and the Moving Mountain Project.
  • Wu Jing as Liu Peiqiang (刘培强), a UEG trainee astronaut who survives numerous crises involving the Moving Mountain Project and the main protagonist of the first movie.
  • Li Xuejian as Zhou Zhezhi (周喆直), the Chinese ambassador to the UEG.
  • Sha Yi as Zhang Peng (张鹏), a senior UEG fighter pilot and Liu's mentor.
  • Ning Li as Ma Zhao (马兆), AI and quantum computing researcher and Tu's colleague.
  • Wang Zhi as Han Duoduo (韩朵朵), Liu Peiqiang's fellow trainee and later wife. She eventually succumbs to cancer from radiation sickness.
  • Zhu Yanmanzi as Hao Xiaoxi (郝晓晞), Zhou's personal assistant and protégé.
  • Khalid Ghanem as tower commander , American commander
  • Andy Friend as Mike, the American ambassador[6] to the UEG and a good friend of Zhou.
  • Vitalli Makarychev as Andre Graschnov, a senior UEG fighter pilot and Zhang's close friend
  • Clara Lee, Tony Nicholson and Vladimir Ershov as the three space elevator hijackers who tried to impersonate astronaut trainees.
  • Daniela Dassy, as the Brazilian astronaut.[7][8]

The Wandering Earth 2 is dedicated to Ng Man-Tat, who died of liver cancer in 2021 after starring as Han Zi'ang in the first movie. Ng appears in a brief CGI-rendered cameo.

Production

Development

After The Wandering Earth was released to major commercial success in January 2019, director Frant Gwo announced at the Golden Rooster Awards on 20 November of the same year that a sequel was in the works, revealing that audiences were being conducted and sorted to guide the sequel's guide structure which will focus more on characters' emotions as well as improving visual effects. Gwo also stated that production may not begin for four years.[9] On 2 December 2020, Gwo announced at the 2020 Golden Rooster Awards that the shooting plan for the sequel has initiated and have set the release date for 22 January 2023, the first day of the Chinese New Year holidays. A teaser poster which features the phrase "Goodbye Solar System" written in numerous different languages was also released.[10]

On 18 June 2021, Andy Lau announced during a live broadcast celebration of the 33rd anniversary of his fan club, Andy World Club, that he will be starring in the film.[11] On 21 July 2021, it was reported the film has been approved by the National Radio and Television Administration and production is set to take place from October 2021 to March 2022 in Qingdao and Haikou. Wu Jing was confirmed to return to the prequel. Aside from directing duties, Guo also co-wrote the script with producer Gong Ge'er while the film will be financed by Guo's company, Guo Fan Culture and Media and China Film Company.[5]

Filming

Principal photography officially began on 13 October 2021 in Qingdao, where a production commencement ceremony was held. Aside from Andy Lau and Wu Jing, actor Zhang Fengyi was also present, confirming his participation.[4][12]

Release

On 19 August 2022, The Wandering Earth 2 officially released the first "a little white dot" version of the trailer.[13]

The Wandering Earth 2 was theatrically released on 22 January 2023, the first day of the Chinese New Year holidays.[5] It also has North American limited release by Well Go USA Entertainment in 125 screens, 30 IMAX, starting day-and-date 22 January.[14]

Reception

Box office

The Wandering Earth 2 was a massive commercial success in China. The film earned close to US$70 million on its opening day on January 22 in China, followed by US$55 million on its second day. In total, it made US$187 million in its first three days[15] In just 8 days, the film had earned over US$378 million with US$31.3 million coming from IMAX shows.[16] The film earned US$56.4 million on its first weekend and passed the US$500 million mark on its sixteenth day.[17] It held on the top spot for a second weekend after earning US$24.5 million.[18]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 19 reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 6.4/10.[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[20]

See also

References
  1. "The Wandering Earth II (2023)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  2. "Liú Làng Dì Qiú 2 (流浪地球2) (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  3. "流浪地球2". maoyan.com (in Chinese). 22 January 2023.
  4. "現身《流浪地球2》開機儀式 劉德華戲鬥吳京張豐毅 (21:00)".
  5. Davis, Rebecca (21 July 2021). "'Wandering Earth 2' Adds Andy Lau, Will Begin Production in the Fall After Being Approved by Censors". Variety. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  6. "Khalid Ghanem". IMDb. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  7. Zerbetto, Rafael Henrique (3 February 2023). "Uma mensagem do filme Terra à Deriva 2 para o Brasil". Revista Fórum (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  8. "Brazilian actress in "The Wandering Earth 2" fulfills dream in China". english.news.cn. 24 March 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  9. "Director Frant Gwo Announces "The Wandering Earth" Sequel". Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  10. Davis, Rebecca (2 December 2020). "'The Wandering Earth' Sequel Sets Chinese New Year 2023 Release Date". Variety. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  11. Hsia, Heidi (21 June 2021). "Andy Lau to star in "The Wandering Earth 2"". Yahoo! Life. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  12. "《流浪地球2》正式開機2023年上映 劉德華伙吳京片場照流出". HK01 (in Chinese). 15 October 2021.
  13. "The first trailer for The Wandering Earth 2 has been revealed". 腾讯网. 19 August 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  14. Brzeski, Patrick (9 January 2023). "China's Sci-Fi Blockbuster 'The Wandering Earth 2' to Get North American Release (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  15. Frater, Patrick (25 January 2023). "Lunar New Year Brings Revived China Box Office Cheer". Variety. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  16. Frater, Patrick (29 January 2023). "China Box Office Hits $1 Billion Over Lunar New Year, as Zhang Yimou's 'Full River Red' Earns $465 Million in Eight Days". Variety. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  17. Frater, Patrick (5 February 2023). "China Box Office Has Roaring Post-Holiday Weekend, as 'The Wandering Earth 2' Holds Strongly". Variety. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  18. Frater, Patrick (12 February 2023). "China Box Office: Theaters Await Valentine's Day Releases". Variety. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  19. "The Wandering Earth II". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  20. "The Wandering Earth II", Metacritic, retrieved 6 February 2023
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