Wonder Woman 2 is a 2021 live action comic book film directed by Matthew Vaughn, and the sequel to the 2018 blockbuster Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot returns as the titular character.
Cast[]
- Gal Gadot as Diana of Themyscira/ Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman
- Ryan Phillippe as Steve Trevor
- Gemma Arterton as Barbara Ann Minerva/ Cheetah
- Uma Thurman as Hippolyta
- Christina Hendricks as Artemis
- Harrison Ford as General Sam Lane
- Kyle MacLachlan as The President of the United States
- David Strathairn as Senator Daniel Moore
- Gbenga Akinnagbe as Urzkartagan tribe leader
Additionally, James McAvoy has a cameo as Lex Luthor.
Plot[]
Archaeologist Barbara Ann Minerva leads an expedition in an African jungle. Her friend, Joe, asks her if she has any idea where she is going. She is furious that he would doubt her, and tells him that the lost city of the Urzkartagan tribe should not be far. However, they are soon ambushed by members of the Urzkartagan tribe, who kill everyone in their group, with the exception of Barbara. They take her to their city and tie her to a tree as she begs for her life. They then begin performing a ritual using a dead cheetah. Barbara soon goes through agonizing pain and screams. Suddenly, her screams become cheetah growls.
At ARGUS headquarters, General Sam Lane is being briefed on a hostage situation on a boat in the Atlantic ocean. He tells his subordinates to alert the president, and then asks that Diana come to see him. However, as he buzzes for her, he gets no response and demands to be told where his secretary is. Meanwhile, the boat on the Atlantic Ocean is shown. Three thugs walk around while around fifty people are locked up as hostages. Soon, they hear gunshots and fighting from the deck. The arm their weapons and prepare to defend themselves for an army, when Wonder Woman arrives. The men laugh and try to take her prisoner, but she easily beats up all of them and then frees the hostages.
The president is then shown giving a speech about the hostage situation while General Lane watches the speech on TV in his office with Steve Trevor, who is now a high ranking officer in ARGUS. Steve commends Wonder Woman for being able to free the hostages, but General Lane points out that they had no idea if the mercenaries were acting on the authority of some type of terrorist group, and that if other nations see people like Wonder Woman acting for the U.S. government, it could start a war. Steve jokes that it isn't bad having all of the superpowered beings like Wonder Woman, Superman, etc. on their side, but General Lane still appears to be suspicious of Wonder Woman and the rest of the heroes. Suddenly, Diana shows up and apologizes profusely to the general for being out, and he simply commands her get the White House on the phone for him. Diana and Steve leave the office together, and Steve is amazed that the general is not able to figure out that Diana is Wonder Woman. However, after they leave, the general is shown opening a file on his computer that contains information about Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Arrow, implying that he knows more about them than he lets on.
Back in the African jungle, the tribe members are discussing what to do with the "cheetah woman". One of the members suggest that they bring her to their leader, as he is very interested in her. The tribe members then take the caged woman to their leader, who commands them to release her. As soon as they do, she slaughters all of them, with the exception of the leader, who is able to calm her down with some mysterious power. He tells her that she has been granted a great power and is more powerful than almost anyone on Earth. She asks why they have cursed her like this, but he tells her that this is no curse, but rather a gift. He consoles a distressed Barbara and tells her that she has found what she came to the jungle in search of, plus much more. His kind words lead Barbara to rethink her condition and begin to see it as more of a gift than a curse. The tribe leader is pleased, and tells her that there is now something that he needs from her.
In DC, Wonder Woman foils a terrorist threat at the Smithsonian, but incurs the wrath of the military presence there, who scold her for possibly threatening the lives of the civilians inside. She tells the soldiers that no one was harmed, however, a young boy is soon shown to have been shot by one of the terrorists. It is evident that he will survive, but the event clearly shakes up Wonder Woman, especially since the soldiers' point had just been made. She flies away in shame and humiliation.
The following day, several news channels are reporting stories that support for the Superman Act has dropped due to the incident with Wonder Woman and the injured boy. Lex Luthor is featured on one news show in which he scolds the president for passing the act in the first place, as Americans are putting their faith in people who are too powerful to be trusted with the lives of innocent citizens. Steve watches the news coverage while trying to call Diana, but with no answer.
Themyscira is then shown, where Diana is seen to have exiled herself. Hippolyta tries consoling her, but Diana says that the humans were just now beginning to accept those like her, Superman, etc. into society, and that this event will set them back. Hippolyta tells her that the humans are a naive race that cannot accept beings with powers that they do not understand. Diana gets infuriated at her mother for insulting the humans, and says that she took it upon herself to protect them, but could not.
Meanwhile, Cheetah is shown sneaking onto Themyscira. Her presence is soon noticed by a woman, who tries apprehending her, but Cheetah immediately slaughters her, along with several other Amazonian women. Artemis arrives at the chambers of Hippolyta and tells her that they are under attack. Diana leaves to tend to the matter. She and Cheetah come face to face with each other, and begin to fight. Diana is stronger than her, but Cheetah's speed and endurance proves to make her a match with Diana. Diana asks her who she is and what she wants with them, and Cheetah tells her that she wants to see who the strongest woman is. Cheetah then overpowers Diana and is about to kill her, but Artemis arrives and injures Cheetah. Cheetah is enraged and stabs Artemis. Cheetah runs away, but rather than going after her, Diana tends to Artemis. As she slowly dies, Artemis tells Diana that it was an honor to have died for her and that she has no regrets. Diana begins to cry as her friend dies in her arms. The Amazons then hold a funeral service for Artemis.
Soon after that, Cheetah goes back to the African tribe, where the tribe leader asks her if she is alright. Cheetah tries to attack him, and demands that he tell her why he wanted her to attack the Amazons. The tribe leader tells her that she needs to calm down, which only infuriates her more, to the point of almost choking him to death. The tribe leader asks her if she wants to know the source of her powers, and how much more she could achieve with them. She relents and lets go of his neck. He explains to her that Wonder Woman may be a goddess, but she is not the only one with godlike qualities, and would be foolish to think that she and the other heroes are the only ones among humans who are capable of being gods. Cheetah asks the leader if he has seen more of these gods, and he tells her yes and that they cannot wait to meet her.
Steve walks into his apartment and is surprised to see Diana there waiting for him. He asks her where she has been for the last week, and she tells him that she couldn't face the people she swore to protect after failing to do so. Steve reminds her that the boy is still alive, and that all of the hostages from that night would have died had it not been for her. Diana then tells Steve about Artemis's death, and how she died protecting her. Steve asks who attacked them, and Diana tells him about Cheetah and how she was able to sneak onto Themyscira, which no one had been able to do before, apart from the accident that led Steve to arrive there. He asks what Cheetah wanted with the Amazons, but Diana doesn't think that she was after the Amazons, just her.
At ARGUS, General Lane is greeted by a representative from the White House, who makes small talk with the general before finally asking for the General to hand over the files that he has on the heroes. General Lane plays ignorance, but the rep tells him that the president has known about the files for over a year now, and now wants to see them to know what it is that America has to worry about with the heroes due to the recent incident with Wonder Woman at the Smithsonian. General Lane then demands to see the President about this himself, but the rep tells him that he is already facing treason charges for keeping these files from the president, and is only making things worse for himself by being even more difficult about it. General Lane then hands the rep a flash drive, and the rep leaves. As the rep is leaving the office, Steve is shown to have been listening to the entire conversation.
Steve angrily storms into the general's office and ignores his command to get out. Steve scolds the general for keeping such a precious piece of information a secret from the government, and from the rest of ARGUS itself. General Lane says that the information in the files was enough to destroy a few of the heroes and that if it had fallen into the wrong hands, then the faith that America had put into these people would have been jeopardized. Steve tells the general that his excuse is "complete bull****", and that he only did it because he couldn't trust the heroes himself and needed to protect himelf, and that what he did clearly violates the Superman Act. General Lane says that it doesn't matter because the act will more than likely be appealed within the coming months, and the heroes will have to go back to pretending to be ordinary citizens, which Diana seems to have a hard time doing. This last statement shocks Steve, as it reveals that General Lane knows that Diana is Wonder Woman. Steve asks how long he has known, and the general asks if Steve really thought that he was smart enough to compile all of this evidence on the heroes but dumb enough that he couldn't see that his own secretary was Wonder Woman. Steve then asks if her identity is in the files, and the general says yes. Steve curses out the general and tells him that he hopes he rots in a prison cell for the rest of his life.
Diana sits by herself in a park, taking in her own thoughts, when all of a sudden, she hears a familiar voice from behind her. She turns around and is stunned to see her mother, Hippolyta, has arrived in Washington DC. Diana asks what she is doing there, and Hippolyta tells her that she could tell that Diana was in no right state of mind even before Artemis died, and couldn't even imagine what she was going through after her death, and needed to be there for her daughter. Diana admits to Hippolyta that she cannot be a hero to these people any longer, and she has let them down. Hippolyta asks Diana if the boy from the attack is dead, and Diana says no, but that he was critically injured and could have died. Hippolyta reminds Diana of when she protected the humans from Ares's wrath, and then when she saved them again from Checkmate, and asks why one injured boy has disturbed her so greatly. Diana says that this time it was an injured boy, but next time it could be a dead boy, or even more than one, and she cannot have anymore blood on her hands. Hippolyta then realizes that this is about her having to kill Maxwell Lord during Checkmate's attack, and not just about the injured boy. Diana tells Hippolyta that before she killed him, he put illusions inside her head of millions of people dying, including her own friends, and that the event at the Smithsonian only reminded her of the danger that she could put other people in. Hippolyta then tells her that when Artemis died protecting Diana, she was reminded of why she allowed her daughter to leave Themyscira in the first place, because she could now see that her daughter was no longer a little girl, but rather a warrior who was destined to protect those around her with her extraordinary abilities, and that is exactly what Artemis saw as well, which was why she was willing to die in order to protect her.
Diana goes to Steve's apartment, where he tells her about the general's files. Diana asks what the files reveal about the other heroes, and Steve says that he doesn't know, but that they contain information about her identity. Diana confronts the general about it, and he asks if she is there to hurt him. Diana says that he knows better than that, and doesn't care about her identity being revealed, but wants to know what kind of information the files contain about the other heroes. He tells Diana that his predecessor, Amanda Waller, took great interest in the heroes, as they posed a threat to her plans. He tells her that she knew that Oliver Queen was Green Arrow already, and due to General Lane's continued investigations, he learned that Dr. Ira West's research created the Flash, that the technology used by the Batman is almost identical to technology produced by Wayne Enterprises, and that whoever Superman is, he more than likely grew up in the Kansas area. She then says that she thought the president didn't want to know their identities, but the general says that the Superman Act has not chased away those who are scared of the heroes and want to find ways to protect themselves from them, such as Dr. Silas Stone from S.T.A.R. Labs who is working on a cyborg project, as well as the TV reporter Vic Sage. Diana realizes aloud that the humans will never fully trust them, no matter what. The general then tells her that there would be a way to earn the trust of the human race.
Wonder Woman is then shown entering the Oval Office to meet with the president. He says that he is surprised to see her, as it is usually Superman who speaks for them. Wonder Woman tells the president that she is there to assure that the Superman Act remains in tact, but the president tells her that he has no intention to repeal it, but objectivity to the act has never been higher before and he is facing big public scrutiny. Wonder Woman tells him that she has a solution. The president then calls for a press conference, where he invites Wonder Woman to take the stand. She then addresses the crowd and says that she understands the public not feeling like they can trust people like her, Superman, the Flash, etc., but that she can assure the people of Earth that none of them have any intention to do anything but protect the Earth from threats and dangers. To prove her point, she has decided that she can no longer hide the truth from the people that she has vowed to protect. She then reveals that for the last few years, she has gone by the name of Diana Prince and has worked as a secretary for an army general all while hiding her identity as Wonder Woman.
The media goes crazy over Wonder Woman revealing her identity to the public, with people everywhere commending her for this act of courage. Cheetah is then shown with the tribe leader, who tells her that their master wants Wonder Woman dead, and now that she has revealed herself to the world, Cheetah will easily be able to find her. Cheetah makes the tribe leader promise that if she kills Wonder Woman then she will meet their master. The tribe leader agrees to the terms, and Cheetah leaves for Washington DC.
At ARGUS headquarters, General Lane prepares a letter of resignation, when he hears a disturbance outside his office. He opens the door and sees everyone being attacked by Cheetah. She then pins the general against a wall and demands to be told where his secretary is. He tells her that she no longer works there. Steve is shown calling Diana, but hangs up once he sees Cheetah about to kill the general. He pulls out a gun and shoots at Cheetah, which infuriates her. She attacks Steve, but is soon met by Wonder Woman, who obviously got Steve's call.
Wonder Woman and Cheetah battle each other throughout the streets of DC, and Wonder Woman asks her what she is, to which Cheetah responds that she is the new dominant woman. Wonder Woman laughs that all of this is to prove that she is a dominant woman, as she comes from a place that is full of them, including the one that Cheetah killed. The two then continue to feircely fight each other. After the two of them have been fighting for a long while, Wonder Woman gains the upper hand and pins Cheetah against a wall. She has the opportunity to kill her for revenge of Artemis's death, but decides against it and tells her that she will answer to the American people for her crimes.
Over the next few days, the president declines to accept General Lane's resignation, Steve is promoted to a senior level position at ARGUS, and a news report is released that the Superman Act will remain in active law. Diana then confronts Cheetah in a maximum security prison cell and asks her why she did what she did. Cheetah tells her that she was chosen by gods to kill Wonder Woman for them. Diana tells Cheetah that she was dumb to think so highly of these so called "gods", as she has met a few of them before, and aren't so special. As Diana leaves, Cheetah tells her that they will not give, and her and the other heroes will soon be defeated. Diana tells Cheetah that the will that the heroes have inspired will never be defeated.
During the end credits, the white house rep who took the files from General Lane arrives in the Urzkartagan tribe's jungle, where he is met by the tribe leader. He gives the files to the tribe leader, and it is hinted that he never intended to give the files to the president. The tribe leader thanks him, then stabs him through the heart, killing him. The real tribe leader is then shown to be dead, while the imposter shape shifts into their real form: Circe (Olivia Wilde), who is shown to have been behind everything all along. Vandal Savage then arrives and thanks her for her service while brushing her hair back.
The End
Reception[]
Wonder Woman 2 recieved positive reviews from critics, with an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Tito Cooper from the New York Times wrote, "After Superman: Metallo flowed through mediocrity, and Green Arrow II just flat out stunk, Warner Bros. and DC makes up for it greatly with the adventurous thrill ride that is Wonder Woman 2".
The film grossed $389,451,073 in the U.S. and $766,211,434 worldwide.