Film / Never Back Down 2

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Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown is 2011's direct-to-DVD follow-up to 2008's Never Back Down.

Mike Stokes (Dean Geyer) is a college wrestler with daddy issues AND anger management issues. Zack Gomes (Alex Meraz) is a cocky up-and-coming boxer forced to retire due to an eye injury. Tim Newhouse (real-life UFC fighter Todd Duffee) struggles to make ends meet for his family following the death of his father. And Justin Epstein (Scottie Epstein) is a bullied comic book store clerk with poor self-esteem. These four young men are all set to take part in the Beatdown, an underground mixed martial arts tournament now promoted by college student Max Cooperman (Evan Peters), Jake Tyler's best friend in the first film. But first, they need to truly learn the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, emphasis on mixed, with former MMA fighter/ex-convict Case Walker (Michael Jai White) as their trainer. Walker is stern, strict, and largely humorless, and the trainees can't stand each other, but they eventually develop respect for their mentor, and the respect and friendship of one another.

Well, except one of them, though we'll get to that later.

The film marks White's directorial debut, and a third entry in the series, also starring and directed by White, was released in 2016.

This film provides examples of:

• Bald of Evil: Justin after he shaves his head, likely to emulate Case.
• Berserk Button:
  • Like Jake from the first film, Mike has daddy and anger issues, but this time, his father is alive and well, but having recently left his family for another man. Hinting at this makes Mike testy, and mentioning it outright often makes him snap.
  • Tim, while preparing for his Beatdown semifinal match against Justin. Otherwise the Gentle Giant of the four trainees, he finally loses his temper at Justin at the Beatdown, when Justin taunts him about his mom working in a strip club. And gets his leg whacked by Justin as a result, forcing him to forfeit their semifinals fight.
• The Cameo: For former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, BJJ instructor Eddie Bravo, and referee "Big John" McCarthy.
• The Casanova: Zack, who makes no attempt to hide his being a player with the ladies, and even dumps Eve via text message.
• Character Development: Zack. He starts out the film as being too arrogant for his own good, and even withdraws from the Beatdown, partly due to his bad eye, partly due to hubris. But as he realizes the importance of Case's training and develops respect for Mike and Tim, he learns to humble himself.
• Chekhov's Skill
  • The rubber guard the trainees learn is utilized at the start and end of the Beatdown. In particular, Zack uses the gogoplata from the guard as his first Finishing Move.
  • In the last fight, Mike finally pulls off the punch that Case drilled into him when he started training.
• Create Your Own Villain: The street gang that attacked and stabbed Justin, may have unknowingly unleased a dangerous sociopath. Justin would even thank the gang leader for making him the monster that he is today, right before he savagely beats him with a steel baton.
  Justin Epstein: I came here to thank you, for turning me into the beast that I am today. ... Happy birthday to me!
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Although they finally put their differences behind them prior to their semifinal match, this is further underscored when Zack and Mike hug it out after the latter beats the former.
• Dirty Cop: The racist police officers who keep harassing Case while he's on probation.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Early in the film, a group of knife-wielding thugs decide to assault Justin, who seems like easy pickings. Despite training with Case and becoming quite a capable MMA fighter, the bullying and teasing often directed Justin's way makes him less and less mentally stable as the film goes on. This climaxes when he decides to get revenge and waste the thugs. After breaking some bones with his MMA skills, he tops it off by grabbing a metal rod from one of the guys and using it to beat another one of the thugs to a bloody pulp.
  • After being kicked out of training, Justin gets back at Case by planting a gun in his trailer to frame him up and send him back to jail for violating his parole.
• Face–Heel Turn: Justin. Awkward and only mildly annoying at first, he's often the butt of his fellow trainees' jokes. But as his new-found MMA skills — and the teasing — get to his head, he shaves his head and eventually evolves into a full-blown psychopath.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Tim's Struggling Single Mother, who takes a job as a strip club waitress following her husband's death. Tim later gets hired as a bouncer for the same club.
• Foil: Justin, compared to his fellow trainees:
  • While he's clearly in good shape, he's not a collegiate/professional athlete and implied to not have much prior training.
  • Unlike Zack, he's socially awkward, especially around girls. After training with Case, Zack learns to humble himself somewhat while Justin develops an ego.
  • He's not on good terms with his father while Mike and Tim have strained but ultimately loving relationships with their families. Justin learns to set them off by mocking their families.
• Foreshadowing: After Justin and Zack get into an argument during training and start trading fists, Justin is seen reaching for a metal pipe.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine (Mike), Choleric (Zack), Melancholic (Justin), and Phlegmatic (Tim).
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Justin was once a shy and weak comic book store clerk who got beaten and stabbed by a local gang. After a few weeks in training in mixed martial arts under Case Walker, Justin is a new man, shaving his head bald and getting more violent and sociopathic as time goes on.
• Gentle Giant: Tim. Soft-spoken, humble, wouldn't hurt a fly (outside training and the Beatdown, that is). Just don't mess with his mom and her unfortunate occupation.
• How We Got Here: The movie starts during the Beatdown, then goes back 96 hours before.
• Hypocrite: Zack has no problem Slut-Shaming his ex-girlfriend while he's flirting with various women even before they broke up.
• Inevitable Tournament: Not surprisingly, all four of Case's trainees make it to the semifinals in the 16-man Beatdown tournament.
  • At first, Tim has no reason to join the Beatdown, while Zack, initially interested, backs out when he realizes he doesn't want to risk going blind from his retina injury. They ultimately decide to join (or in Zack's case, rejoin) in order to avenge their mentor Case, who was framed up by Justin and sent back to jail.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Most of the central characters, more or less, especially Stern Teacher Case Walker. He softens a bit after seeing the makeshift gym his students put together for him and sincerely thanks them.
• Kick the Dog: Much like popular Jerkass Ryan from the first film, loser-turned-psychopath Justin takes pleasure in tormenting his opponents when they're down, may they be street thugs or his opponents in the Beatdown.
• Love Triangle: Between Mike, Zack, and Eve while the latter two are already dating, though Zack isn't particularly committed and breaks it off.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: After Case gets kicked out from the vacant lot he's training at, the team gets together to turn Tim's (father's) old warehouse into a dojo where they can keep training without drawing attention from the cops.
• Moment Killer: Mike's college roommate Kurt walks in while Eve surprises a recuperating Mike in his dorm room, wearing an arguably Stripperific outfit best suited for the club, not the campus. Far from being pissed-off at Kurt for telling everyone about his daddy issues earlier, Mike deadpans that she already has a boyfriend.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Again, played straighter than Robin Hood's arrows.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Averted when one of the crooked cops calls Case by his real name, Elijah. His father's name, however, is Casey, which does justify the nickname somehow.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • When Justin goes mental on the three thugs who had mugged him earlier in the film, and brags about annihilating them to an unimpressed, eventually disgusted Case, who promptly kicks him out of training.
  • In the final round, Mike snaps Justin's shoulder after warning him to give up. Then knocks him out clean after Justin still refuses to accept defeat.
• Police Are Useless: Zig-zagged. Case is frequently hounded by racist cops, which culminates in an arrest and a fight after they find a (planted) gun in his trailer. Thankfully, Max records the altercation showing Case defending himself, and more reasonable authorities find more evidence proving Case innocent. Unfortunately, they can't just let him out of the station while he's still being processed.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Justin. At first, he overcompensates for still being a pushover by making juvenile taunts and wisecracks, but gradually progresses into a remorseless villain out for revenge against everyone who wronged him.
• Sherlock Scan: Upon meeting and looking them over, Case can tell that Zack and Mike have respective backgrounds in boxing and wrestling.
• Shout-Out: Plenty of 'em in here, like in the first film.
  • When recruiting Mike to join the Beatdown, Max says the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, and Alistair Overeem have all heard of Case Walker, even if younger fans like Mike have no idea who he is.
  • One scene in the locker room has the boys dropping a plethora of MMA mainstays' names, including Mirko Cro Cop, Bas Rutten, Michael McDonald, and that "buff, blond brother" whom none of them can remember, until Case appears from out of nowhere and says it's Kevin Randleman. Walker is even referred to have had a classic rivalry with Rutten (maybe in this film's continuity Rutten is not undefeated).
  • Case's lecture on "emotional content" is similar to Bruce Lee's in Enter the Dragon.
• Straight Gay: Mike's dad, who left his family for another man. Justin uses this to try to get under Mike's skin with homophobic slurs.
• Unstoppable Rage: Defied Trope—Case teaches Mike that giving in to anger makes him irrational, advising him to control his emotions.
  Mike: Isn't anger good for fighting?
  Case: No, it's about emotional content, not anger.
  Mike: Doesn't that anger make you work harder?
  Case: No, it just makes you think you're working harder. What you're actually doing is burning out your mind.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: How Mike turns the tables against Justin in the final match: playing up his leg injury so Justin will target him there, leaving an opening for a clean hit.