The Adventures of Hercules

The Adventures of Hercules
Le avventure dell'incredibile Ercole
Directed by Luigi Cozzi
Produced by Yoram Globus
Menahem Golan
Alfred Pecoriello
Executive Producer:
John Thompson
Written by Luigi Cozzi
Starring Lou Ferrigno
Milly Carlucci
William Berger
Music by Pino Donaggio
Cinematography Alberto Spagnoli
Edited by Sergio Montanari
Distributed by Cannon Film Distributors
Release dates
 October 1, 1985 (1985-10-01)
Running time
 88 min
Country Italy, United States
Language English

The Adventures of Hercules (Italian: Le avventure dell'incredibile Ercole), also known as Hercules II, is the 1985 sequel to the 1983 film Hercules. It was written and directed by Luigi Cozzi (credited as Lewis Coates in the American release) who also directed the previous film, and had Lou Ferrigno reprising his role as the title character.[1] Pino Donaggio's music for the first film is reused here in lieu of an original score.

Summary

The film begins in outer space, just as the first film does, and begins with a retelling of the Universe's creation story (see below). This is followed by the opening titles which are accompanied by short clips that highlight the key parts of the first movie.

The plot begins with a story about the story of Zeus' Seven Mighty Thunderbolts that kept peace. One day, other vengeful gods (Aphrodite, Hera, Poseidon, Flora) stole these lightning bolts to create chaos. The lack of these thunderbolts has rendered Zeus powerless and sent the Moon on a collision course with the Earth. As the humans on Earth begin to suffer, two sisters named Urania and Glaucia speaks to the Little People and learns that only Hercules can save them now. After hesitation, Zeus finally decides to send Hercules back from the stars to Earth to aid the humans, but the vengeful gods resurrect their own warrior: King Minos. They believe that King Minos, with the help of Dedalos (Daedalus in the first film, see below), can defeat Zeus with science. Thus begins Hercules' quest to find the Seven Mighty Thunderbolts, which are hidden inside monsters across the Universe.

Firstly, Hercules fights and defeats an ape-like creature and retrieves the first thunderbolt. Meanwhile, the four gods bring King Minos back to life with help, Hercules also teams up with Glaucia and rescues her sister Urania from hideous monsters called the Slime People. They are overwhelmed by their huge numbers and they flee into a cave where they meet Euryale. The cave is full of stone statues and Hercules and the sisters battle some more monsters, while Euryale walks away and reveals herself to be a snake-haired, half-woman, half-scorpion Gorgon. Using his shield as a mirror, Hercules avoids getting turned into stone and manages to decapitate Euryale, and retrieves the second thunderbolt. Hercules and the two sisters sail to an island and enter an old, haunted forest with strange human dolls hanging from the trees. He is then attacked by a demonic sorcerer knight but Hercules overwhelms the knight and impales him onto a poison thorn branch, revealing the third thunderbolt. Glaucia is captured by a high priest's soldiers to be sacrificed to a deadly fire monster, Urania then rescues her while Hercules battles the monster summoned by the priest and defeats it by throwing around the Earth until it crashes into the sea, also revealing the fourth thunderbolt. Hercules and Glaucia then battle some Amazon warriors but he is captured by them, Urania wakes Hercules up and he strangles their leader, the Queen of the Spiders, whose body contained the fifth thunderbolt. The three travel up in space where Urania reveals the location of the sixth thunderbolt, that was inside a rock. Glaucia tries to kill Urania, and Minos appears and reveals that when both Hercules and Urania had lost Glaucia, he commanded Poseidon to use the waters to drain her life. Hercules battles Minos who transforms into a dinosaur and Hercules transforms into an ape and manages to destroy Minos once and for all. The warrior finally deals with the Earth and the Moon problem, as, with Zeus' help, he grows as big as the galaxy and stops them from colliding into each other, putting the Moon back in its proper place. Urania then reveals that, with information she received earlier from the Little People, she is the daughter of Hera and that her body contains the seventh thunderbolt, and decides to sacrifice her life so Zeus can retrieve the thunderbolt, and does so, by allowing Hera to give her the "kiss of death". Both Hercules and Urania are honored by Zeus and become gods and are able to live with them.

Cast

Discontinuity between the films

Many of the elements of the first film's story were changed in the second movie. The creation of the Universe, which is described as the result of an exploding jar in the first film, is changed in the sequel to be the creation of "an ancient angel-like figure: a goddess whom the ancients named Emperia. From within her came the Seed of Light." Somehow, this Seed of Light created the Universe.

Also the character Daedalus who created the robots for King Minos in the first Hercules was renamed "Dedalos" in the sequel. This may be due to the discrepancies between the screenplay and Greek and Roman mythology, especially that of gender.

References

  1. ↑ J.C. Maçek III (2013-03-01). "Italy's Lost Bellissima Actress, Margie Newton, Re-Appears in The Next Reel". PopMatters.
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