Scream 2[]
is a 1997 horror thriller film, the second part of the Scream trilogy. This movie takes place one year after the original. As with the other films in the trilogy, Scream 2 combines straight-forward scares with dialogue that satirizes conventions of slasher films, especially (in this case) slasher film sequels
.
Plot[]
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) attend Windsor College. While attending the preview of Stab, based on a book by Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) about the Woodsboro murders, Phil Stevens is stabbed through the wall of a bathroom cubicle. The killer sits next to Maureen Evans, and she assumes the killer is her boyfriend wearing a mask. During the Casey Becker death scene the crowd goes wild. Taking advantage of this, the killer stabs Maureen. Since many of the movie-goers are wearing the killer's costume (as publicity material provided by the movie studio) and carrying fake knives, nobody takes Maureen's attack seriously. As the crowd realizes she's not faking, she dies. Sidney and Randy realize that a killer is on the loose again.
Dewey Riley (David Arquette) arrives on the campus to protect Sidney. Randy and Dewey discuss the fact that anyone could be the killer, including themselves.
The killer attempts to stab Sidney while setting up a copycat ploy. Alone in her sorority house, Casey "Cici" Cooper (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is threatened over the phone before the killer attacks her. After the police discover the body, the students at the nearby martini mixer go to investigate, leaving Sidney and her boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell) at the Delta Lambda Zeta house. The killer attacks Sidney, but Derek helps her escape.
At the police station, Gale and Dewey notice that the names of the victims loosely match the victims from Woodsboro. The police chief assigns two detectives to protect Sidney.
The group is outside amongst dozens of college students when the killer telephones and taunts them. Gale and Dewey search the students in the area who have cell phones, trying to discover the killer. Randy is also looking around while talking to the killer on the phone, hoping to stall them. While he is outside a van, Randy is pulled inside and killed. His body is discovered by Gale and Dewey. The detectives protecting Sidney are attacked while their vehicle is stopped at a traffic light. One of the detectives tries shooting the killer while he is on the hood of the car. The killer crashes the car, killing the detective and knocking the killer unconscious. Gale and Dewey approach the killer, resulting in Dewey being stabbed. Sidney and Hallie (Elise Neal), her roommate, narrowly escape the wreckage of the car by squeezing past the unconscious killer in the front seat. Sidney decides to remove the killer's mask, but finds the killer gone. She turns around only to see Hallie being stabbed.
Sidney runs to the school theater and is confronted by the killer. The killer reveals himself to be Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), her new boyfriend's best friend. Sidney finds Derek tied to a stage prop, and Mickey shoots Derek in the chest. Mickey also has a partner: Sidney turns around to see Gale coming out of the stage door, leading her to believe that Gale is the killer. Gale shakes her head "no" and Debbie Salt comes out, holding the other cop's gun. Sidney recognizes her as Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) (Debbie Salt is the name she had when she staged herself as a journalist), the mother of Sidney's previous boyfriend Billy. Mickey reveals that it was his plan to be caught for the murders so that he would become famous, immortalized by the media. He wanted to blame the killings on horror movies; the "effects of cinema violence in society." He met Mrs. Loomis on a "psycho website" and she agreed to fund his college tuition in return for his part in the killings. She also helped Mickey place calls to the victims. Mrs. Loomis' motive for killing Sidney and her friends was revenge for Sidney killing her son. Sidney points out that if Mrs. Loomis had not abandoned Billy then he and Stu Macher would not have started their killing spree. Mrs. Loomis shoots Mickey, removing him as a potential threat and stating that his legal defense was absurd.
As Mickey is shot he shoots Gale, causing her to fall off the stage. Sidney is cornered by Mrs. Loomis and tricks her into believing Mickey is alive; when Mrs. Loomis is distracted, Sidney hits her with a prop jar. Sidney barricades herself backstage and causes the front of the stage to collapse on Mrs. Loomis. Mrs. Loomis survives and gets Sidney in an armlock, but then Cotton (Liev Schreiber)—the man Sidney had blamed for killing her mother—arrives and takes Mickey's gun.
Mrs. Loomis tries to convince Cotton to let her kill Sidney, but Cotton shoots Mrs. Loomis. Sidney and Cotton discover that Gale is wounded but alive, and help her. Mickey jumps up, and Gale and Sidney shoot him. Sidney turns around and shoots Mrs. Loomis in the head — "just in case". It is revealed that Dewey survived his stabbing. He and Gale take an ambulance to the hospital. It turns out that Dewey's scar tissue from previously being stabbed in the back prevented this stabbing from being fatal. At the hospital, the news team arrives and tries to get a story on Sidney. Despite Sidney being the heroine, she tells them Cotton is the man to interview. The news team goes to him, after Cotton tells them there is a "time a place and a price" for an interview, he says, "it'll make one hell of a movie." Sidney walks off the campus, having survived the murders