NOBODY 2 : Tuesday 19th August 2025.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'NOBODY 2' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this American action thriller film is Directed by Timo Tjahjanto who first burst onto the scene in 2009 as one half of The Mo Brothers with their feature length debut with 'Macabre', which they would follow up with 'Killers' in 2014, and 'Headshot' in 2016, and then in his own right 'May the Devil Take You' and 'The Night Comes for Us' both in 2018, 'May the Devil Take You Too' in 2020, 'The Big 4' in 2022 and 'The Shadow Strays' in 2024. This film was released in the US and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$19M off the back of a US$25M production budget and has garnered generally positive critical reviews.

Here then, this sequel to 2021's 'Nobody' sees suburban husband, father and workaholic assassin Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk who also Co-Wrote the screenplay and Co-Produces here too) is forced to take on assignments for 'The Barber' (Colin Salmon) as an assassin to pay off a US$30M debt he owes after destroying a Russian obshchak. 

His relationship with his family has grown distant as a result, especially with his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen). Wanting a break to re-bond with his family, he plans a family trip to Plummerville, a somewhat outdated amusement park which he visited when he was much younger with his brother Harry (RZA) and father David (Christopher Lloyd), promising Becca to leave his life as Nobody for the duration of their holiday.

While at an amusement arcade at Plummerville, his teenage son Brady (Gage Munroe) gets in trouble after a teenager, Max Martin (Lucius Hoyos), destroys a plush toy meant for his younger sister Sammy (Paisley Cadorath). This results in the whole family being kicked out. When an employee slaps the back of Sammy's head, Hutch impulsively beats up the staff, drawing the ire of both Wyatt Martin (John Ortiz), the owner of the amusement park, and Abel (Colin Hanks), a corrupt sheriff. Wyatt wants Hutch and his family kicked out, but Abel secretly tells his men to kill them. 

The next day, on a river boat, Hutch is attacked by some of Abel's men, losing the tip of his pinky finger in the process. He soon finds out from his brother, Harry, that Plummerville is a bootlegging route, while The Barber informs him that the route belongs to Lendina (Sharon Stone), whom Abel works for, and Wyatt has to pay off. When Wyatt tells Lendina this is his last payment and that his original debt is now cleared, she has Abel kidnap his son, Max. 

Hutch, wanting to de-escalate the situation, tells Abel that he and his family will leave town. But, when he sees the kidnapped Max bound and gagged, he decides to rescue him and burns a stack of Lendina's money and drugs, and blows up their warehouse in the process, scarring Abel for life.

Hutch and Max head to an old lodge where David was staying, and Brady and Max reconcile their differences. While Becca is angry that he couldn't keep his promise of not getting into more trouble, she tells him that she's not going anywhere, and he must fix it. He and Wyatt reconcile and prepare the amusement park for Lendina's arrival, with help from Harry and David.

Later that night with the theme park cleared of all tourists, Abel saunters up to Hutch and Wyatt and delivers them an ultimatum while Lendina and her small army of henchmen look on, saying that they can accompany him and risk their fate, or stand and fight and face certain death. Needless to say Hutch and Wyatt decide to stand their ground and as Abel turns and walks back he is executed at Lendina's command for being an annoyance, while most of her men are killed by Hutch and Wyatt. 

Harry kills Lendina's henchmen at the lodge, while Wyatt is shot in the leg, and David is knocked unconscious. Lendina attacks Hutch, but is tranquilised first in the shoulder and then in the eye by Becca. David recovers just in time to blow up the park, killing Lendina and the remainder of her men in the process. 

Hutch and Becca embrace and then dive headlong into a water feature to escape the burning explosions all around them as the park erupts in a ball of flame. After being interrogated in an unknown hangar, Hutch and Becca are freed on orders from an anonymous source. Later on, the family watches a visual album of their Plummerville holiday.

'Nobody 2' is B-movie action fare writ large, which packs a punch (pun intended) when Hutch's back is against the wall, and there are a couple of genuine laugh out loud moments to be enjoyed here. Bob Odenkirk does a fine job of playing the somewhat down at heel suburban, yet nonetheless loveable, dad and family man masking a cold hearted killer when he's doing his day job as a latter day hero. Sharon Stone turns in an all too brief role as the main antagonist here arriving on the scene well beyond the half-way mark, and Connie Nielsen get's her moment in the sun when she takes out Lendina with a tranquiliser gun. However, this film follows the formula of most sequels and fails to deliver the story we all hope for, instead opting for cartoonish action sequences delivered by half baked cookie cutter characters. All of that said, this film lacks the originality and the polish of the first film, but it is serviceable yet easily forgettable, and at an 89 minute runtime it doesn't leave you wanting either. 

'Nobody 2' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-