An elite assassin who has settled into the daily grind of bone-crunching action yearns for a good old-fashioned family vacation in Nobody 2, opening in Prague and worldwide this weekend. This spry, action-packed sequel carries over both the strengths and weaknesses of 2021’s Nobody, and while it may be a step down from its predecessor, it’s only a small one: there’s still plenty of fun to be had here, especially for fans of the original.
Central to it all is Bob Odenkirk, once again delivering an unusually committed performance in what might otherwise have been a disposable action role. He remains stuck with the baggage of the first film—as an unstoppable John Wick-style super-assassin—but Odenkirk’s everyman charm continues to bleed through the screen (and all over it), and his performance provides the human core to an otherwise heightened comic-book spectacle.
Despite a change in directors—Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (Headshot) replaces Ilya Naishuller, whose Heads of State released earlier this summer—Nobody 2 doesn’t miss a beat in terms of action. What it does offer is a new, refreshingly playful setting that nicely distinguishes it from the first movie.
When we last saw Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk), he had fully revealed his past as a government assassin—and settled into a life of uneasy domestic balance. Nobody 2 finds him once again struggling to reconcile his violent past with his suburban family life. Wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) is weary of his absences, children Braden (Gage Munroe) and Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) are detached, and Hutch himself longs for something resembling normalcy.
His solution? A family trip to Plummerville: a small town with a run-down retro amusement park a la Action Park that holds nostalgic memories from his childhood. The setting—equal parts kitschy and eerie—gives Nobody 2 a little more personality than the first film; from the boardwalk arcades to the classic diner, this amusement park feels grounded in Americana and ripe for inventive carnage.
The explosive climax in Nobody was a bit of a letdown, but that’s one area the sequel improves upon, leaning fully into its theme-park backdrop: a land mine hidden in the ball pit, a pirate ship ride turned into a battering ram, and a spiked water slide trap that could have come straight out of Home Alone. A mirror-maze showdown nicely echoes Bruce Lee’s classic Enter the Dragon, and the film’s playful inventiveness makes these sequences a standout.
There’s no showstopper on par with the bus brawl that defined the first movie, though a set piece on a duck-themed tourist boat comes closest. The cramped locale becomes the site of a brutal fight in which Hutch improvises with whatever comes to hand—a life preserver, an anchor—as weapons. The choreography is tight and clever, and the hits are satisfying—all that’s missing is the emotional backdrop of repressed violence finally being unleashed.
Sharon Stone chews up the scenery in a fleeting appearance as the film’s primary villain. Decked out in a sharp power suit and exuding pure camp menace, she’s a blast to watch—but she barely registers in the narrative, and only interacts with the film’s primary characters in its final ten minutes. The minimal presence makes it difficult to invest in the supposed central conflict.
More effective are the supporting antagonists: Colin Hanks as a smug small-town cop and John Ortiz as the conflicted sheriff. An early diner confrontation between Hutch and Hanks’ cop nicely sets the stage for what should have been Nobody 2‘s central conflict. Instead, the film transitions into the same kind of faceless, disposable mafia goons that we usually get in these movies.
Visually, Nobody 2 lacks some of the moody flair of its predecessor. Cinematographer Callan Green (Netflix’s The Gentlemen) replaces Pawel Pogorzelski (Hereditary), and while the film is competently shot, it misses the noir sheen that made the original stand out. The amusement park setting provides color and texture, but the final nighttime battle is at times difficult to follow, with murky lighting dulling what should be a visual spectacle.
Still, under Tjahjanto’s direction, the film retains a brisk, inventive rhythm. Known for his bone-crunching Indonesian action films, he brings the same visceral energy here, balancing brutality with moments of dark humor. If Naishuller established the tone of the franchise, Tjahjanto proves capable of sustaining it.
But Odenkirk is the reason this film works as well as it does. He’s far from the typical action star, and his background in comedy and character work infuses Hutch with a vulnerable, self-deprecating quality. For all its implausibility, Nobody 2 remains engaging because Odenkirk commits fully. He sells Hutch’s exasperation, everyman vulnerability, and grim efficiency, even as the screenplay attempts to turn the character into a kind of superhero.
Nobody 2 doesn’t reinvent the action-revenge-thriller formula (also seen earlier this summer in Ballerina), nor does it reach the heights of the first film’s most memorable moments. But the amusement park setting is irresistible, the action is consistently inventive, and Odenkirk once again proves that he can carry an action movie. The result is a ridiculous, brutal, and darkly comic sequel that may be slightly less sharp, but still offers a ride worth taking.
