Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (1996)
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Gamera 2: Legion Invasion (1996)
Gamera: Attack of Legion (DVD 2003)“
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Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (ガメラ２ レギオン襲来 Gamera Tsū Region Shūrai, lit. Gamera 2: Legion Invasion) is a 1996 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company and the tenth entry in the Gamera series, as well as the second entry in Shusuke Kaneko's Heisei Gamera trilogy and the second Gamera film to be distributed by Toho.
Plot
In 1996, NASA scientists suddenly detect a massive meteor shower unexpectedly hurtling toward Earth. As it is too late to initiate preparations for impact, NASA simply makes a press release about a "freak meteor shower." One particularly large meteor crashes near Lake Shikotsu in Hokkaido, and in its aftermath a strange aurora appears in a night sky over the area. Immediately the JSDF's chemical protection platoon scrambles to investigate the impact site. Also investigating are the Sapporo Science Center curator Midori Honami and director Akio Nojiri. As they approach the Lake, their vehicle suddenly breaks down. Honami flags down the nearby JSDF soldiers and recruits them to help start their car. Honamu and Nojiri begin discussing the meteor with Colonel Yusuke Watarase and First Lieutenant Hanatani, who reveal that in their investigation found no sign of the large meteorite, only an impact crater. Honami proposes that perhaps the meteor somehow moved under its own power, as unlikely as it sounds. Watarase and Hanatani realize it may be a possibility, as the impact crater shows skid marks as if the meteor was slowing down before landing. In the outskirts of Sapporo, more strange phenomena begin occurring over the next several days. Security guards at a brewery witness a strange human-sized insectoid creature rummaging through the bottled beer. Obitsu, an engineer at NTT Hokkaido's network operation center, discovers that the network's fiber-optic cables have mysteriously disappeared. As each incident occurs, they happen closer and closer to the city limits of Sapporo. Honami investigates the brewery with Watarase and Hanatani, and discovers that all of the bottles have seemingly been disintegrated while their contents were left behind. She next views a police interview tape with one of the witnesses, Tsutomu Osako, who describes seeing a huge creature disintegrating the bottles. Watarase explains that the police were hesitant to believe Osako's story, as he was the first reported witness of Gyaos the year before while he was a detective with the Nagasaki Police Department. Hanatani shows Honami that silicon powder was recovered from the scene, suggesting that the bottles were all broken down into silicon powder.
Five days after the meteor impact, a subway train in Sapporo is attacked by the same type of creature that was seen in the brewery. In addition, a gigantic flower erupts from the buildings in the center of town. The Sapporo police attempt to close off the subway, but Watarase's platoon arrives to take over the situation. Several survivors of the attack are rescued, while Watarase witnesses several of the creatures crawling around the subway tunnels, which he describes as neither crustaceans nor insects. Curiously, some of the subway passengers were spared while others were killed by the creatures, seemingly at random. Honami proposes that the creatures, or "Colony," are in a symbiotic relationship with the plant, or "Pod," and they both arrived together from outer space in the meteor shower. She compares them to leafcutter ants, which cultivate a fungus in order to maintain their nest. In this case, the Colony breaks down silicon and feeds it to the Pod, which gives off high amounts of oxygen. Watarase attends a meeting of JSDF personnel to discuss their findings, and at this meeting it is determined that the alien creatures cannot possibly co-exist with humanity, and that they must be destroyed before they can destroy mankind. The JSDF prepares to destroy the Pod, which is now in flower, by planting explosives on its roots in the subway, assuming that the blast will be amplified by the heightened oxygen levels and completely destroy it. Honami believes that the Colony must spread to other worlds by making the Pod launch a seed into outer space, and convinces Obitsu to run a simulation using NTT's computers showing the projected damage should the Pod seed. To their horror, the simulation shows that everything in a six mile radius would be wiped out by the explosion produced when the Pod seeds. Obitsu tells Honami that they should run, but she points out that they would never be able to outrun that explosion.
As the JSDF prepares to blow up the Pod, Gamera surfaces from the Sanriku coast and flies to Sapporo. Gamera lands and inhales the increased oxygen around the Pod, then blasts it with a particularly powerful plasma fireball. Gamera then approaches the Pod and uproots it, then destroys it with another fireball. Just as Gamera seems victorious, thousands of the alien creatures pour out of the subway tunnels and climb onto him, biting through his flesh. As Watarase and Hanatani watch the creatures swarm over Gamera, Hanatani quotes a passage from the Bible: "And he asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he answered saying, 'My name is Legion, for we are many.'" Gamera struggles unsuccessfully against the creatures covering him, and finally collapses to the ground. However, several of the creatures are distracted by a nearby electrical transformer and climb off of Gamera and onto it. Gamera seizes the opportunity and flies back to the ocean. Shortly afterward, a gigantic winged creature bursts from the ground and flies away. F-15J fighter jets are scrambled to shoot the monster down, and successfully strike it with missiles over the Tsugaru Strait. However, only a severed wing is recovered, and the monster is still unaccounted for. Several carcasses of the smaller creatures are located on the beach near where Gamera plunged back into the ocean. One of the carcasses is dissected, from which it is determined that the creature move through the use of pressurized gas in their limbs in place of muscles. Watarase and Obitsu meet with Honami at her home to discuss the ecology of the creatures, which are now being called "Symbiotic Legion." They determine that the Legion communicate through the use of electromagnetic waves. Watarase shows the others that all of the subway passengers who were killed by the Legion were carrying electronic devices such as pagers and radios. They come to the conclusion that the Legion must see any electrical signals which interfere with their communication as a threat, explaining why they would attack humans carrying such electronic devices and why they swarmed off of Gamera to climb onto an electrical transformer. This also means, they realize, that the Legion must be drawn to large cities due to the high concentration of electromagnetic waves.
True to their prediction, a second Pod appears in Sendai. Due to Sendai's warmer climate, the Pod flowers much faster and is preparing to seed before the JSDF has time to respond. Evacuation of the city begins immediately, with civilians boarding helicopters at an airfield just outside the city. Honami is escorted to one of the choppers, but before she boards Gamera is seen flying overhead. As he approaches Sendai, two colossal spear-tipped claws burst from the ground and knock him from the sky. The civilians panic and begin rushing into the helicopters, knocking down a young woman on crutches. Honami and the girl's friend help her into the helicopter, and watch through a window as the gigantic Mother Legion emerges from underground and attacks Gamera. When Honami sees the friend of the girl she helped watching the battle and clutching a magatama, she realizes that she is Asagi Kusanagi, the girl who communicated with Gamera. One of the helicopters successfully takes off, but the other one is unable due to the shaking of the ground caused by the monsters. Gamera tries his hardest to hold the Mother Legion back and allow the helicopter to safely take off, with his enemy stabbing through his shell with her legs. The helicopter finally takes off and escapes, but Mother Legion is determined to hold Gamera off long enough for the Pod to launch its seed. The horn on her head splits open and fires a beam which obliterates surrounding buildings and blasts off a corner of Gamera's shell. Gamera is severely wounded by Legion's assault and collapses to the ground. With her enemy defeated, Mother Legion burrows underground and vanishes. Gamera weakly gets back to his feet and limps into downtown Sendai to try and stop the Pod. He knocks the Pod on its side and throws himself in front of it just as it launches its seed, triggering an explosion that reduces the majority of Sendai to a crater. Amid the ruins, Gamera sits lifeless, appearing to have perished in the explosion.
The JSDF convenes a meeting with Watarase and Honami to discuss further countermeasures. Honami says that after failing twice to fire their seed into space, the Legion will be desperate and likely head to Tokyo next. With Gamera no longer around to stop the Legion, the JSDF sets up a defense line outside of Tokyo in an attempt to preempt their arrival. Honami brings Asagi to an airport so she can fly home, but Asagi insists that Gamera is not dead and won't let the Legion win. Honami decides to go with Asagi to the ruins of Sendai, where many people have gathered around Gamera's body. Meanwhile, the Mother Legion appears at Ashikaga. Despite the JSDF's all-out assault from both air and land, their attacks fail to harm the monster which easily breaks through each defense line as she makes her way to Tokyo. Back in Sendai, the congregated people begin to pray for Gamera to return, and as if answering that prayer golden light begins to swirl into the air around Gamera. The energy takes the form of a magatama before flowing into Gamera's body. Asagi's magatama shatters in her hand just as Gamera awakens and takes flight. As Gamera approaches Mother Legion's location, Hanatani tells the division chief that they need to support Gamera as he cannot stand alone against the Mother Legion and her Soldiers. Gamera lands and spits plasma fireballs at Mother Legion, who deflects them with her interference wave claws. Gamera tries to attack Mother Legion, but is once again wounded by her microwave beam and outmatched against her greater size and strength. Finally, the division chief gives the order for the remaining troops to support Gamera and open fire on Legion. Artillery strikes Mother Legion's claws, severing some of them and disabling her ability to block Gamera's fireballs.
Obitsu puts into motion his own plan to stop the Soldier Legion from affecting the battle. He convinces an NTT substation in the area to begin broadcasting, causing the Soldier Legion swarm to be attracted to the power lines just outside the station. Obitsu arrives at the station and tries to evacuate the employee working there, but they are both menaced by a single Soldier Legion which has made its way inside. Fortunately, Watarase arrives and kills the Legion with his handgun and helps the other escape the station. Once they reach a safe distance, Watarase uses his radio to give the order for nearby helicopters to open fire. The helicopters launch missiles at the congregated Legion on the power lines, wiping them all out.
Gamera grabs Mother Legion's horn and with all of his strength tears it off. Mother Legion shrieks and collapses to the ground, but her eyes suddenly turn red and she gets back up. From the area where her horn once was she begins firing red strands of energy which penetrate Gamera's body and burn him. Mother Legion continues assaulting Gamera and breaks through the final defense line. Before his enemy can reach Tokyo, Gamera summons a huge amount of energy into himself and begins to glow brightly. Suddenly, the shell over Gamera's abdomen opens and from it he fires an extremely powerful beam of plasma which reduces Mother Legion to dust in a single strike. As the sun rises, the victorious Gamera takes flight while the JSDF looks on. The JSDF finally declares the operation successful and celebrates.
A few days later, Honami and Obitsu are walking through Sapporo. Honami says she believes Gamera isn't specifically fighting to protect humanity but rather fighting on behalf of all life on Earth. Obitsu wonders what would happen if Gamera deemed humanity a threat to other life on Earth, to which Honami replies that she wouldn't want to be Gamera's enemy.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
- Written by Kazunori Ito
- Produced by Miyuki Nanri, Naoki Sato, Tsutomu Tsuchikawa
- Music by Kow Otani
- Cinematography by Junichi Tozawa
- Edited by Shizuo Arakawa
- Production design by Hajime Oikawa
- Director of Special Effects Shinji Higuchi
- Assistant Director of Special Effects Makoto Kamiya
- Theme Song "Sky" Performed by Ulfuls
- Lyrics and Composition by Tortoise Matsumoto
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Toshiyuki Nagashima as Colonel Yusuke Watarase
- Miki Mizuno as Midori Honami, Sapporo Science Center curator
- Tamotsu Ishibashi as First Lieutenant Hanatani
- Mitsuru Fukikoshi as Obitsu, engineer at NTT Hokkaido network operation center
- Ayako Fujitani as Asagi Kusanagi
- Yukijiro Hotaru as Tsutomu Osako, security guard in brewery
- Zen Kajihara as Mano, security guard in brewery
- Hiroyuki Okita as Sasai
- Tomorowo Taguchi as Ishida, Subway Driver
- Yuka Sakano as Yukino
- Takeshi Yoro as Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University
- Hatsunori Hasegawa as Colonel Satake
- LaSalle Ishii as NTT Nazaki Transmitting Station worker
- Bengal as Honami's father
- Kazue Tsunogae as Honami's mother
- Yusuke Kawazu as Akio Nojiri, Sapporo Science Center director
- Hiroyuki Okita as Sasai
- Akiji Kobayashi
- Hiroyuki Watanabe
- Kazunaga Tsuji
- Hiroshi Okochi
- Shunsuke Takasugi
- Yasuyoshi Tokuma as Chief Cabinet Secretary
- Yoshiaki Umegaki
- Hiromasa Taguchi
- Akira Ohashi as Gamera
- Mizuho Yoshida and Toshinori Sasaki as Mother Legion
- Tomohiko Akayama, Yuji Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Akihiro Nakata as Soldier Legion
English Dub
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Jay Hickman as Colonel Watarase
- Shelley Calene-Black as Midori Honami
- Chris Patton as Obitsu
- Illich Guardiola as First Lieutenant Hanatani
- Luci Christian as Asagi Kusanagi
- Rob Mungle as Colonel Satake
Appearances
Monsters
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Weapons, Vehicles, and Races
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Gallery
- Main article: Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion/Gallery.
Soundtrack
- Main article: Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (Soundtrack).
Alternate Titles
- Gamera 2: Legion Invasion (literal Japanese title)
- Gamera 2: The Real Guardian of the Universe (early English title)
- G2: Gamera vs. Legion (early English title)
- Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (English Japanese title)
- Gamera 2: Assault of the Legion (English Japanese title)
- Gamera 2: Assault of Legion (Japanese 4K Blu-ray English title)
- Gamera: Attack of Legion (U.S. DVD title)
- Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (U.S. Blu-ray title)
Theatrical Releases
- Japan - July 13, 1996
Video Releases
ADV Films DVD (2003)
- Region: 1
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (5.1 Surround), English (5.1 Surround)
- Special Features: Interview with Shinji Higuchi (32 minutes), two press conferences (7 minutes), six trailers, ten TV spots, behind the scenes footage (3 minutes), Yubari Fantasy Film Festival premiere (6 minutes), footage from the film's opening day in Japanese theaters (4 minutes), Gamera Promotional Events featurette (5 minutes), outtakes (4 minutes; dubbing gags rather than on-set mistakes), Lake Texarkana Gamera (13-minute gag dub of the film)
- Notes: A full-length version of the Lake Texarkana Gamera dub is available on a 2004 re-release packaged with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris in the Gamera Complete DVD Collection. Out of print.
Mill Creek Blu-ray (2011)
- Region: N/A
- Discs: 2
- Audio: Japanese (DTS-HD HR 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1, ADV dub)
- Special Features: None
- Notes: Packaged with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. The two films can also be found with Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris in the Gamera Trilogy set.
Mill Creek DVD (2014) [Gamera: Legacy Collection]
- Region: 1
- Discs: 4
- Audio: Japanese (Stereo)
- Special Features: None
- Notes: Packaged with Gamera, Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gyaos, Gamera vs. Viras, Gamera vs. Guiron, Gamera vs. Jiger, Gamera vs. Zigra, Gamera: Super Monster, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris.
Kadokawa Blu-ray (2016) [Heisei Gamera 4K Digital Restoration Blu-ray Box]
- Region: A/1
- Discs: 6
- Audio: Japanese (DTS HD 5.1 Surround and DTS HD 2 Stereo)
- Subtitles: Japanese
- Special Features: Two "Special Contents" discs consisting of over 760 minutes of bonus footage for all four Heisei Gamera films; 200-page "G I-III SFX & Art Photographs" booklet featuring 750 unreleased photos from the Heisei Gamera trilogy; 32-page "G I-IV Complement Books" booklet featuring interviews, plot summaries, Laserdisc cover artwork, and more for all four Heisei Gamera films
- Notes: Packaged with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, and Gamera the Brave.
Box Office
The film did fairly well, with a gross of $6,500,000.
Reception
Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion is considered one of the best Gamera films, and is highly favored by fans. The film has an audience percentage of 84%, with an average rating of 3.8 out of 5, on the movie reviewing site Rotten Tomatoes.[2] It also has a score of 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb.[3]
Videos
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Trivia
- The film's title sequence shows a burning cross which transitions into the me (メ) character of "Gamera" (ガメラ). This complements the film's other biblical allusion, a passage from Mark 5:9 which is quoted as the basis for the Legion's name.
- The scene where it is determined that the sediment left behind by the Legion is silicon powder is similar to a scene from an episode of Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, which also shared this film's writer Kazunori Ito.
- The building in Sapporo's Susukino district where the first Legion Flower appears is actually a real department store, currently known as La Fila. At the time the film was made, the store inside the building was Robinson's, though in the film it features a sign that reads "Banderas" (バンデラス Banderasu) instead.
- Akira Ohashi, who plays Gamera in this film, would go on to oppose Gamera as Iris in the final film of the trilogy. As the Gamera suit from this film was refurbished as Trauma Gamera for Gamera 3, Ohashi wore the suit for its brief appearance in Ayana Hirasaka's nightmare.
- Ohashi and both of Mother Legion's suit actors, Mizuho Yoshida and Toshinori Sasaki, would all go on to appear in Shusuke Kaneko's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, in which Ohashi portrays King Ghidorah, Yoshida portrays Godzilla, and Sasaki performs stunts for Baragon.
- While they each play half of the Mother Legion in this film, Yoshida and Sasaki play enemy monsters Zedus and Toto in the fourth Heisei Gamera film, Gamera the Brave.
- The three Soldier Legion suits used in this film were preserved and made an appearance at New York Comic Con in 2015 to celebrate Gamera's 50th birthday.
- This film's tagline, "Who will be extinct, Japan or Legion?" (消滅するのは、日本か、レギオンか。 Shōmetsu suru no wa, Nihon ka, Region ka.), is similar to the tagline for GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters, "Who will be eradicated, man, or Godzilla?" (滅びるのは、人か、ゴジラか。 Horobiru no wa, hito ka, Gojira ka.).
External Links
References
This is a list of references for Gamera 2: Attack of Legion. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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