Bullet Points: Nemesis 2: Nebula

Have you ever gone down a movie rabbit hole that you felt there may be no turning back from? After decades of knowing of their existence I finally watched one of the sequels to 1992’s Nemesis and now I feel like I have gone down one of those very rabbit holes.

Released in 1995, Nemesis 2: Nebula saw Director Albert Pyun pick up where he left off in the original film, albeit with a brand new action hero…

• Cyborg Wars: Nemesis 2 begins 73 years after the humans lost the Cyborg Wars and now find themselves enslaved by their cyborg overlords. But you can’t discount the human spirit and one renegade scientist has developed a DNA strain that will produce a super human that had the ability to destroy cyborgs. Zana (Karen Studer, Blast) volunteers to be injected with the DNA strain and give birth to the super human. After the birth of the child, the cyborgs get wise to what the pesky humans are up to and they are hunting down Zana and her child at the start of the film. Fortunately for Zana, she knows the whereabouts of a time traveling ship and she escapes her pursuers by going all the way back to 1980.
• Same Shit, Different Decade: Zana and her infant daughter Alex (named after Olivier Gruner’s character from the original film) find themselves in East Africa in 1980 where Zana is immediately on the run, this time not from cyborgs but some desert scumbags. Zana realizing her time is coming to an end, hides baby Alex, gives her a necklace that will explain everything when the time is right, and says goodbye knowing she will see Alex again in their future world. Zana then engages her pursuers, ends up taking one of them out before she is taken out. We then see a tribal chief find baby Alex and adopt her as a member of his tribe.

• 20 Years Later: The movie jumps ahead and we see a grown up Alex who is absolutely jacked… which makes sense since Alex was played by Sue Price, a professional bodybuilder who competed in the Ms. Olympia competition. Alex is now of the age where she can prove herself in the tribe’s warrior trial that involves catching a wild boar and going toe to toe with any member of the tribe that challenges her. Alex is victorious on both counts (she rips the boar’s heart out!) but the real trial of her life is about to begin… when she and her now fellow warriors make their way back to their village they find nothing but scorched earth and corpses and then find themselves under attack by the powerful Nebula, who they believe is the devil himself!
• Bounty Hunting: Nebula is a cyborg bounty hunter who was tasked with tracking down “The DNA Child” ever since the day Zana escaped with Alex from the future. I could best describe Nebula as a hybrid of The Terminator and The Predator. You have the time traveling aspect of The Terminator with a clearly defined mission combined with the non-human look and high-tech weaponry of The Predator. The most interesting thing about Nebula to me was the man inside the suit… Chad Stahelski, who would go on to give the action world John Wick about two decades later.

• Last Woman Standing: Alex now finds herself the sole survivor of her tribe and in addition to being chased down by Nebula still has other dangers to deal with, like the rebel forces that aren’t afraid to snatch up women in the desert and sell them into the skin trade. Alex witnesses this first hand when she sees a pair of sisters being held captive by a couple of rebels. Alex intercedes, not so much to help the sisters, but to gets some clothes and gear from the rebels… one of the sisters Emily (Tina Cote, Heatseeker) convinces Alex to help them and in turn they can fly her the hell out of here… Alex doesn’t necessarily trust Emily (good instincts) but realizes it is worth a shot since she has Nebula after her!
• Alex vs. Nebula: One of the things Nemesis 2 really does well is build up the action culminating with the inevitable Alex and Nebula showdown. They have a few brief skirmishes with Alex barely getting by and even managing to inflict some temporary damage to Nebula. Then they further build up Alex’s credibility by having her beat up, shoot up and blow up those dirty rebels every chance she gets. Alex saves her biggest explosion for Nebula and even that doesn’t stop him and only manages to piss him off more so he starts laser blasting the hell out of everything… seriously, the pyro budget had to be one of the biggest line items on the entire movie. In the end it appears that Alex has finally defeated Nebula, but after a battle weary Alex is picked up by some soldiers a not so subtle tease that there’s more to come is followed up by a hit you over the head announcement that there’s more to come as Nemesis 3: Time Lapse is hyped going into the end credits.

I am not sure why it took me so long to watch Nemesis 2. I was a fan of the original. I am not pre-disposed to hate everything that Albert Pyun directs. I don’t think it was because I knew Olivier Gruner did not return because the loss of the original star did not stop me from enjoying The Substitute and Kickboxer franchises.

With all that said, I am also not kicking myself for depriving myself of more Nemesis for the past two decades plus. Nemesis 2 had plenty of action, a lead that certainly looked like she could kick ass and a powerful foe to push her to the limit, but still felt like a stepdown from the original and if the IMDb ratings are to be believed the series continues to drop off as it goes on. It could be a rough road ahead if I keep going down the Nemesis rabbit hole.

There should be no IF where reading these Bonus Bullet Points is concerned…

• Cheeky: Nemesis 2 has no shortage of butt cheeks. You’d have to watch a marathon of Jean-Claude Van Damme classics to compete with the number of times Nemesis 2 got cheeky.
• That’s No Plane: As I mentioned earlier, Tina Cote’s Emily tells Alex she has a plane but in reality it is an ultralight aircraft. Just one of the half truths that come out of Emily’s lips. SPOILER ALERT: I’m glad she crashes and blows up!
• She’s Back Baby: Sue Price does reprise the role of Alex in all of the additional Nemesis sequels, include the non-Albert Pyun directed Nemesis 5: The New Model.