M3GAN’s ending clearly left us hoping for a second movie full of fun antics and pop-music-singing toys for emotional support. In M3GAN 2.0, we get that and much more. While the first film was predominantly marketed as a horror, which it did deliver on, the second is entirely sci-fi. Honestly, the beginning of the movie had me wondering if I had gone into the wrong cinema. But, putting that aside, the film ties up the two loose ends from the first film and then gives us loads of easter eggs, because that’s what franchises are for, eh? M3GAN 2.0 may take the action up a notch, which is super fun to see. Of course, the most important thing about these films is their characters, and we see that they’ve changed over time, which is quite fun. Now that Cady’s an adolescent, things are still quite hard between Gemma and her. While M3GAN wasn’t meant to be in their lives, maybe she came back at the right time to set things straight yet again, and help Gemma remember that she’s exactly the kind of mom Cady had hoped for. But, with that said, let’s get into the connections between M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0.
Spoiler Alert
What Connects The Two Films Together?
The main thing we had to remember from the first film was that Kurt, David’s assistant, before he was killed by M3GAN, stole Gemma’s code. We never found out what he did with it, and then he gone for good. But this was clearly setting up the second film. While M3GAN was designed to be a doll, and the first film is all about the fun and games, it should’ve been pretty clear that this was the direction we’d be going in because of the technological advances seen here. M3GAN essentially became a killer robot on a murdering spree, perfect for a military weapon. So that’s what happened. We don’t know who Kurt sold the code to exactly, but despite Gemma and her colleagues having destroyed their copy of the code, it had already been sold to some dark organizations. Nobody knew what Kurt had done, so nobody worried it would get into the wrong hands. 2 years later, there’s a killer robot much more menacing than M3GAN.
The second thing we predicted was that M3GAN probably transferred herself to Elsie, the AI assistant in Gemma’s house, before her “brain” was completely destroyed. This is exactly what happened, and M3GAN hides away in Elsie for 2 years before she’s needed and makes her grand return. These are the only 2 major connections between the two films, because the first is a horror film and the second is essentially an action film. This leaves the two quite disconnected in every other way, but there are quite a lot of references from the first film that we can see in the second one. So, I’m going to try and list them down.
The Crawling
When Amelia is introduced to us, a test is being conducted, and she’s meant to rescue a kidnapped scientist named Naveen Tripathi. The details are unimportant here because the only thing that you end up really paying attention to is how she crawls down the wall just like M3GAN did back in the day with that little bully who hurt Cady. The 4-legged run doesn’t end there, though; later in the film, M3GAN does it again, too. Somehow, that’s an upgrade she hasn’t gotten yet, but I guess it makes her faster?
The Pop Song
The biggest highlight of the first film for me was when M3GAN decided to serenade us with the pop song Titanium. The second film also sees her serenade somebody; it’s not Cady this time, it’s Gemma, and it’s somehow much funnier than the first film because it entirely breaks the flow of the emotional conversation that had just before. Yes, we all need M3GAN’s hand gestures, thank you very much.
Socially Conscious Products
We’ve all heard of sustainability and conscious ecosystems, but in M3GAN’s case, the “socially conscious products” are being created so that they don’t become murderous villains. I guess we’ve moved on from capitalistic rich-people toys.
Waterproofing
Some would argue that M3GAN’s downfall began when she got water splashed on her in the first film. Cady does the same thing with the handy device that’s trying to kill Tess in the second film. Later, Gemma also tells her team that they should make M3GAN waterproof this time around, because they knew we’d not fall for that trick again.
The Car Scene
The funniest part of the first film was when M3GAN got into a fancy luxury sports car and drove it to her own event. I guess you could say the second film pays homage to that scene by putting Gemma and Cole in the car and allowing M3GAN to do the driving still.
Gemma therapy
In the first film, M3GAN gave a few monologues to Cady to make her understand how connected they truly are. This is why Cady believes in the second film that M3GAN feels feelings, and she’s not just a killing machine. In the second one, before the singing begins, M3GAN has a heart-to-heart with Gemma, and it basically acts as therapy. The doll tells the human that she’s doing all she can to be a good parent to Cady. She even brings up the things she’s “seen” Gemma do over the years to be there for Cady. It’s quite sweet, even if it is kind of creepy.
Lydia returns
The second film begins with Cady explaining stuff to us through a conversation she has with her therapist, Lydia. It’s nice to see her back unafraid. I wonder how M3GAN didn’t see her as a threat.
Tess and Cole Are Important
The film acknowledges that we always focus on Gemma even though her colleagues, Cole and Tess, played a huge role, not just in developing M3GAN but also in fighting her and surviving in the second film. They do appear at the end of the first film, safe, so it’s great to see that they choose to stick with Gemma, despite her ignorance of them. Cole does try to go to Apelton, but he realizes his mistake pretty quickly.
Did you find any other connections between the first film and the second? Let us know in the comments down below.
