Sacrifice. Dedication. Redemption. Without these things, the battle of Veldt might have been lost. But, as we learn in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon –– Part Two: The Scargiver, when a group of heroes band together to fight for what they believe in, nothing can stop them — not even the Imperium.
“If movie one is the set-up — where we see the team being collected and a proposed elimination of the threat — movie two is a war movie,” Snyder told Netflix. “In Part Two, our heroes have to fulfill their promise of defending Veldt with every bit of their wit and cunning to protect their homes and everything they love.”
Part Two also gives us insights into our revolutionaries as we learn their backstories and what drew them to the tiny moon of Veldt to defend the villagers against the Imperium.
“It was incredibly emotional for the actors and for myself to get this opportunity to show the ‘why,’ ” Snyder said. “From a character point of view, it was rewarding to have everyone reach back, deal with their trauma in a cathartic way, and have that opportunity to heal. Healing and redemption is a big piece of Part Two.”
The sequel begins immediately after the events of the first film. Kora (Sofia Boutella), Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), Nemesis (Doona Bae), Tarak (Staz Nair), and Milius (Elise Duffy) have returned to Veldt after defeating Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) — or so they think. The robot, Jimmy (voiced by Anthony Hopkins), has been wandering the moon, experiencing all the beauty it has to offer as he grapples with what he has become after defying his programming and slaying the Imperium officers in Part One.
Thanks to the Imperium turncoat Aris (Sky Yang), the team discovers that Admiral Noble and his ship the King’s Gaze will return to Veldt in five days, placing the villagers and their grain back in the crosshairs of the Imperium despite Noble’s supposed demise.
Following his confrontation with Kora and the other revolutionaries in Part One, Noble seemingly falls to his death. But his story isn’t over — the Imperium soldiers take his barely alive body to one of their cryo chambers, which not only treat his injuries but also make him stronger.
As miraculous as the healing chambers are, they can’t heal every wound. Noble retains a scar on his chest — a potent reminder of his fight with Kora that he wears with pride. Noble swears he will have his revenge on the “Scargiver,” a nickname given to Kora that feels more and more apt.
For generations, the Imperium expanded across the galaxy, using its strength and powerful technology to colonize dozens of worlds. But as Princess Issa’s (Stella Grace Fitzgerald) supernatural healing abilities grew, she inspired Motherworld’s king (Cary Elwes) to make the Imperium more peaceful and benevolent.
The king and royal family arrive to christen the final Dreadnought, declaring it a ship of peace. But the elites, comfortable with the status quo, conspire to assassinate them and install the ruthless Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) to continue the Imperium’s unrelenting expansion.
Balisarius, who is also Kora’s adoptive father, makes her complicit in the assassinations, forcing her to kill the young princess she had sworn to protect. Before taking the fatal shot, Kora is shocked when Issa forgives her.
With the king dead, Balisarius and his co-conspirators in the Senate take control of the Imperium and pin the murders on Kora.
Yes! The Imperium invaded Veldt for one reason — to take the grain the villagers grew to feed its ravenous war machine. The villagers begin their defense plan with a simple idea: If the Imperium is there to steal their grain, why not use it to shield themselves from orbital bombardment? To neutralize the King’s Gaze’s advantage in space, the villagers harvest the wheat, mill it, and place the flour around their homes, ensuring destruction of one would mean destruction of both — an effective way to bring the Imperium soldiers to the surface, where our revolutionaries have a chance to fight on their own terms.
Growing his own wheat for the film “was something I had to do,” Snyder told Netflix. “I wasn’t daunted by the concept. I thought, ‘What’s the big deal? Why is everyone acting crazy?’ [Laughs.] It was the scale that I was asking for, really. I needed acres and acres. I wanted to see a horizon of only wheat. And we weren’t sure how long it would take.”
Two wheat fields were planted to achieve Snyder’s vision. Stefan Dechant, one of the film’s production designers, said different fields were needed for a pair of scenes that were set at different times during the wheat’s growth cycle, as well as to suggest different senses of scale.
“We had one in Simi Valley, California, that was about five acres wide that was planted specifically for scenes that had to showcase the expansiveness of Veldt,” Dechant told Netflix. “Then we had a smaller one planted in the main village set at Blue Cloud studios in Santa Clarita that was about two-and-a-half, three acres large.”
In order to get the wheat to look right, the team hired a consultant in northern California who had experience growing the crop for beer. Snyder says he even began growing a small patch at his house, so he could get an idea of what the wheat he would be filming was doing. (Like everyone else during the pandemic — when the movie was shot — the director baked a lot of bread using the grain he grew.)
“It was an insane undertaking, because [the] wheat itself took 120 days to grow, and we couldn’t push the schedule much past 120 days to get those shots,” Dechant said. “So, for many of us, the constant prayer was: ‘Come on, baby, grow!’ ”
Harvesting the wheat was a huge team effort. Huisman told Netflix that it gave him a unique opportunity to better understand his character.
“We all learned how to harvest wheat the old-fashioned way for Part Two, and it turns out my character needed to be very good at that,” he said. Gunnar “is a farmer, after all. So getting good at harvesting was a way for me to emotionally relate to Gunnar.”
One of many emotional moments leading up to the final battle for Veldt is a small scene in which General Titus sings a song meant to empower the village warriors by “venerating our gods, our ancestors, through remembrance and celebration of them.”
The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke in a hybrid of African languages spoken in Benin. The lyrics convey “the act of conjuring strength at the feet of evil,” Hounsou told Netflix. “It gives us hope and provides faith in ourselves, so that we may confront the forces of evil.” And yes, that’s really him singing. In fact, you can listen to an entire album inspired by Rebel Moon called Songs of the Rebellion, which includes the song “Ode to Ancestors” by Black Coffee, featuring Hounsou.
Protecting the village against an enemy with superior numbers and technology isn’t easy, and Snyder wanted the battle scenes to feel authentic. “For me, it was all about figuring out the logistics. How are they going to take on the Dreadnought? How are they going to defend this village?” Snyder told Netflix.
The team studied war movies and real footage from World War II to inform the battle on-screen. “Together with the stunt team and all the usual suspects, we did the work that we always do of trying to design some beautiful and poetic fight sequences that we thought honored the initial emotional mission that we laid forward,” Snyder said.
Before the fight begins, Noble offers Kora a chance to spare the villagers in exchange for her and the grain. Deciding her life isn’t worth more than the rest, Kora gestures to her team that she will not allow anyone to die for her. Seconds before she turns herself over to the Imperium and certain death, Gunnar steals her pistol and uses it to signal the start of the revolt. The villagers attack the Imperium soldiers, fulfilling their vow to protect their homes, no matter the odds.
As the battle begins, Kora and Gunnar run for the drop-ship that has been disguised as a casualty of battle and use it to infiltrate the King’s Gaze. Once aboard, Kora and Gunnar plant several explosives on the ship’s core that will ground it for good.
General Titus leads the villagers against the Imperium forces, using spider holes –– dug by the production team –– in which they hide before springing up to surprise the invading soldiers.
As the battle rages in the village below, Kora and Gunnar cut through the soldiers on the Dreadnought after planting the explosives in the core. In their epic, final face-off, Admiral Noble confronts Kora and Gunnar, and they engage in a pitched hand-to-hand battle while the King’s Gaze falls from the sky, disabled by the bombs.
Kora makes good on her promise to Noble, killing the Admiral and making the King’s Gaze his tomb.
Jimmys were built centuries ago and were intended to guard and protect the Royal Family and their bloodline. But following the royal family’s assassination, they laid down their arms and refused to fight. The Imperium repurposed some of them for manual labor and grunt work.
We first meet Jimmy in Part One, as he assists the Imperium with unloading their drop-ship — not exactly a challenge for a robot that can fire a rifle and hit a target 1,000 yards away. When a young villager’s life is in danger, Jimmy acts — and, for the first time, discovers he can reach beyond his programming.
That brings him into the fight to defend the village, where he tips the balance of the battle for Veldt, destroying an assault tank and saving the lives of those fighting the Imperium.
Did you think we’d seen the last of the Bloodaxes? The fierce group of intergalactic insurgents, led by Devra Bloodaxe (Cleopatra Coleman), triumphantly returns to save the day, destroying the last remaining Imperium drop-ships and crushing their advance once and for all.
Still, there’s always room for another twist. After our heroes triumph over Noble and destroy his ship, we learn a shocking truth: Princess Issa, believed to have been killed by Kora, is still alive.
Princess Issa was more than just a member of Motherworld’s royal family. She was also known as the Chalice, the Redeemer, and the Lifesaver, and she was believed to have the supernatural power to restore life — which may include her own.
In an intimate confession to Gunnar, Kora reveals the dark secret she kept while hiding on Veldt the past few years: She shot the princess at the urging of her adoptive father, Balisarius, and that guilt inspired her to see Veldt’s rebellion to the end.
Once the dust settles and the dead have been honored, General Titus reveals he was aware of Kora’s secret and has one of his own: The princess is still alive thanks to her burgeoning powers.
Inspired by the news, the team vows to find Princess Issa and restore her to the throne.
