Now You See Me 2

Plot

One year after outwitting the FBI, the remaining members of the Four Horsemen—J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco)—are in hiding, awaiting further instructions from The Eye, the secret society of magicians they've been recruited into. Atlas, having grown tired of waiting for a mission, seeks out The Eye himself. His search leads him to an underground tunnel in which he hears a voice that tells him that his wait may be coming to an end. The Horseman handler FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) ultimately assigns them a new mission, exposing corrupt businessman Owen Case (Ben Lamb), whose new software secretly steals data on its users for Case's benefit. Lula (Lizzy Caplan) is added to the team to replace former member Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), who has left the Horsemen due to her breaking up with Atlas.

The Horsemen hijack the launch party for the new software, but the show is interrupted by a mysterious individual who reveals to the world that Wilder, believed to be dead, is actually alive, and that Rhodes is their mole, forcing him to escape. While escaping, the Horsemen enter their escape tube on a roof and emerge in Macau, where they are captured by mercenaries and Chase McKinney (also played by Woody Harrelson), Merritt's twin brother. The Horsemen are then brought before Chase's employer, technology prodigy Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), Case's former business partner, who faked his death after Case stole Walter's company. Mabry conscripts the Horsemen into stealing the data-mining device developed by Case to prevent him from using it. The chip allows the user to decrypt and access any electronic device around the world. The Horsemen agree to steal the device.

They get supplies at a famous magic shop in Macau, run by Li (Jay Chou) and Bu Bu (Tsai Chin), and secretly contact The Eye to arrange to hand over the device after they steal it. Meanwhile, Rhodes is branded a fugitive and forced to spring his rival Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), whom Rhodes blames for the death of his father, out of jail for help.

The Horsemen infiltrate the facility. They're interrogated and searched by security guard Allen Scott-Frank (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), but they manage to steal the chip. Atlas is then confronted by Mabry, revealing that Atlas had been fooled into thinking that Mabry was The Eye. Rhodes intervenes and pretends to retrieve the device but is captured by Mabry's forces and taken to a nearby yacht where he learns Mabry is acting on behalf of his father, Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), the businessman whom Rhodes employed the Horsemen to expose in the first film. Tressler places Rhodes in a replica of the same safe that his father died in and leaves him to drown, but Rhodes escapes. After the rescue, the Horsemen find that the chip they had stolen appears to be a fake.

Rhodes and the Horsemen broadcast that they will be performing live in London at midnight on New Year's Eve. Mabry and Tressler, thinking that they have the computer chip, make haste to London, where the Horsemen are performing a series of tricks live on the streets. Mabry, Tressler and Chase discover that Rhodes is still alive and capture the five, before boarding them on his private plane. Mabry takes the chip card from them and Rhodes, along with the other Horsemen, are thrown out of the plane in flight. However, Tressler finds that the plane has never taken off, and instead they were tricked into boarding a plane on a barge in the middle of the River Thames, their criminal activities being broadcast live to the world by the Horsemen in the process. Mabry, Tressler and Chase are arrested by the FBI, and Rhodes, now going by his real surname, "Shrike", entrusts the information they've gathered on the real criminals' activities to the FBI, who allows him a head start to escape.

Rhodes and the Horsemen are then taken to meet the leaders of the Eye in a secret library in Greenwich observatory. They find that the members of the Eye include Li, Bu Bu, Allen, and Bradley. Bradley reveals that he was actually Lionel Shrike's partner, and he had been masquerading as his rival as part of their planned act: he had exposed Lionel's first act planning to be dumbfounded by his second act, only to abandon the Eye after Lionel's death. Before Bradley leaves, he asks Rhodes to be his successor in the Eye's leadership and request that the Horsemen enter a curtain. The Horsemen, with Rhodes, go behind the curtain, and find a door behind it. They enter the room and find a staircase; the camera zooms out to the stairs, forming an Eye.

Production

On July 3, 2013, after the box office success of the first film, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed that there would be a sequel to the film, with production beginning in 2014 for an unspecified release date. In September 2014, it was confirmed that Jon M. Chu would replace Louis Leterrier as director. On October 2, 2014, Michael Caine confirmed in an interview that Daniel Radcliffe would be playing his son in the film, and that shooting is expected to begin in December in London. The film was produced by Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment. In October 2014, it was announced that Isla Fisher would be unable to reprise her role as Henley Reeves due to her pregnancy, and Lizzy Caplan was cast as new character Lula to replace her as the Fourth Horseman. The sequel was thought to be titled Now You See Me: Now You Don't, but it was announced in November 2014 that the film had changed its title to Now You See Me: The Second Act. On January 28, 2015, Henry Lloyd-Hughes was confirmed to play the role of a tech whiz kid named Allen Scott-Frank. On December 22, 2014, it was reported that Morgan Freeman was not going to reprise his role as Thaddeus Bradley, but on January 19, 2015, film director Chu posted a selfie with Freeman on his Instagram, verifying that he would return.

Filming

On November 25, 2014, Mark Ruffalo posted to his Facebook that filming had begun on the sequel, as the film was shooting in London, England. On March 11, 2015, shooting began in China, where filming took place in Macau and the Macau Science Center, and ended on May 12, 2015 in New York City.

Soundtrack

The film’s music was written and composed by Brian Tyler. The soundtrack was released on June 10, 2016 by Varese Sarabande.

Track Listing

All music composed by Brian Tyler.

Release

In November 2014, the film was officially titled Now You See Me 2, and was set to be released on June 10, 2016. In March 2016, the film's international release date was announced as July 4, 2016.

Home media

Now You See Me 2 was released on Digital HD on August 19, with a subsequent Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD released on September 6.

Box office

Now You See Me 2 grossed $65.1 million in the United States and Canada and $269.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $334.9 million, against a budget of $90 million.

In the United States and Canada, Now You See Me 2 opened on June 10, 2016, alongside Warcraft and The Conjuring 2, and was projected to gross $23–26 million from 3,232 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $1.8 million from its Thursday night previews, besting the $1.5 million made by its predecessor, and $8.4 million on its first day. It went on to gross $22.3 million in its opening weekend, finishing third at the box office behind The Conjuring 2 ($40.4 million) and Warcraft ($24.1 million).

In China, the film was released on June 24, 2016 and had an opening day of $14.8 million, a record for Lionsgate and up 67.9% from the original's first day. In its opening weekend the film grossed $44.4 million, also a record for Lionsgate. China was the largest territory for the film, with a total gross of $97.1 million.

Critical response

Now You See Me 2 received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 34% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Now You See Me 2 packs in even more twists and turns than its predecessor, but in the end, it has even less hiding up its sleeve." On another aggregator, Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor.

Although critics and fans were disappointed that Isla Fisher was not returning as Henley Reeves, many praised Lizzy Caplan's addition to the cast. Caplan was described as "one of the sequel's biggest improvements" by Entertainment Weekly, while Dave White of TheWrap wrote that she "provides a fresh infusion of smart-ass energy into the boy's club." Australian film magazine Filmink also noted that Caplan "over-shadows her skilled co-stars with her sassy and commanding screen presence." Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote that "all bearded creepy grins, [Daniel Radcliffe] makes Walter a megalomaniac imp, like the world's youngest Bond villain." Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic, who preferred the film to the original, said of the villain character that "In [Radcliffe's] hands, he is a spoiled and petulant baddie, alternately creepy and hilarious."

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club wrote that the sequel "up[s] the ludicrous quotient" from the original, "double-timing the convoluted plotting and embracing implausibility as an aesthetic...[I]f [director Jon M.] Chu doesn’t seem comfortable with the swooping, lens-flare-speckled flashiness that director Louis Leterrier brought to the first film, he seems even less interested than his predecessor in creating the impression of a recognizably real world — which is a good thing, at least for a movie about a superstar heist crew called the Horsemen that involves twins, multiple secret identities, and a global corporate surveillance plot that can only be foiled through the use of stage magic."

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a mixed review but considered it "more fun" than its predecessor.

Now You See Me 3

In May 2015, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer announced that they had indeed "already begun early planning" for Now You See Me 3. It was later confirmed that not only will Lizzy Caplan be replacing Isla Fisher and reprising the role of Lula May in the new upcoming film, but a new cast member, Benedict Cumberbatch, will be joining the cast.

Spin-off Film

In July 2016, Hollywood Reporter reported that Lionsgate was to make a Now You See Me spin-off with a primarily Chinese cast, starring Jay Chou as Li, his character from Now You See Me 2.