feliu316 Cobra Soldier Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: CR Posts: 52

Hi there!



I just came back from an early screening of G.I. Joe Retaliation in my home country of Costa Rica.



I can certainly scan my tickets tomorrow for proof, but I wanted to leave with you detailed spoilers about the movie tonight in case anyone is interested.



Movie starts with a vignette recapping Rise of Cobra and the status of the villains (Cobra Commander & Destro in a special German prision), Storm Shadow and Zartan on the run. The vignette also establishes Duke as unit commander with Roadblock, Snake-Eyes, Flint & Lady Jaye being his main group.



Theres no mention of any of the other Joes from the first movie at any time during Retaliation, at least nothing I picked up. There was no mention of Rex Lewis or the Baroness at all.



The Commander was referred as Cobra Commander by everyone in the movie, including the prison warden.



The Joes, led by Duke, raid a North Korean military base that shows the Joes skills.



Here we can see the sequence from the trailer where Roadblock is cutting a fence. They establish Lady Jaye as a sharpshooter, Flint as a hothead that does his own thing and the friendship between Roadblock and Duke. Snake-Eyes is absent during the raid. Mouse is show as a sniper.



We cut back to the US President, Zartan in disguise, trying to torture the location of Cobra Commander from the real President. He mentions his bodyguard as being Zandar, though no relation is established. Zandar wears a cobra insignia pin on his secret service jacket, rather than the US Flag.



After the mission, Duke & Roadblock are back in the U.S. playing video games and hanging out with Roadblocks daughters and see in the news that the Pakistani president has been murdered and theres chaos in the streets.



It shows them as being long-time friends.



Zartan calls out an strike on Pakistan to retrieve their nuclear warheads and sends the Joes. Where we see the trailer sequence with the Joes on a plane getting ready, Jaye showing her guns to Mouse & Flint, as well as Roadblock quoting Jay Z.



The Joes take out the base with zero casualties (the trailer scene of the Joes invading a warehouse) and the are successful in getting the war heads.



After the mission, the Joes are hanging back and preparing the safe passage of the war heads. Duke and Roadblock engage in a shooting contest, which Roadblock wins and thus Duke will need to babysit his daughters when they return.



Roadblock is distracted by a mechanical firefly.



The President find out the mission was successful and orders the Joes attacked.



We clearly see the attack on the Joes happening soon after and the Joes are effectively decimated, much as we see on the trailer, and Duke is show clearly pushing Flint out of the way of a rocket that hits the Humvee where Duke is standing next to, the explosion makes it very clear that theres no way for Duke to survive such as close explosion.



Jaye, Flint and Roadblock hide in a well while the President does the press conference we see on the trailers and announces that Snake-Eyes was the Joe that killed the president of Pakistan and declares a manhunt for him. He said that the Joes intended to steal the warheads and had become traitors. He announces Cobra as the new security force for the U.S.



We cut to the German prison, where the guards arrive with a chained up Snake-Eyes (images from the trailers of a captured Snake-Eyes with neck leashes on). The warden explains that no one can escape the prison and introduces Snake-Eyes to his prized prisoners, Cobra Commander and Destro, both of whom are in suspended animation on those tubes (though the prisoners are awake and aware of what is happening) shown in the trailer.



The captured Snake-Eyes is revealed to be Storm Shadow in disguise and he is also imprisoned in the suspended animation tube, but fakes his death (Sleeping Phoenix) to distract the guards to that Firefly can attack the prison, as shown on the trailer.



Storm Shadow proceeds to escape when the guard come check on him and he frees Cobra Commander, we clearly see the Commander's scarred face and that he needs the suspended animation oxygen mask to breath.



Together kill the guards and Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow and Firefly are united in front of Destro. The Commander tells Destro that hes out of the group and they move out without him.



While escaping, the warden manages to detonate part of the prison and Storm Shadow is badly injured, Destro is presumably killed, and the Commander and Firefly send Storm Shadow to a mountain retreat to recover from his injuries while they continue their plans.



Snake-Eyes is shown training with Jinx and the Blind Master, where he sets Snake-Eyes off on a mission to bring Storm Shadow back to Tokyo to answer for the death of the Hard Master.



Jinx is established as Storm Shadows cousin and Snake-Eyes mistrusts her briefly, but the Blind Master sets him straight.



Roadblock, Flint & Lady Jaye get out of the well and identify that all Joes present on the attack are dead, Duke is once again shown/mentioned as being dead and they pick up everyones dogtags.



Mouse if shown dead as well.



They trek through the desert until they find an apparently illegal airstrip and make their way back to the U.S. Roadblock already suspects the president is the reason why the Joes were attacked, since he could be the only one to order such a strike.



Once theyre back in the U.S., Roadblock orders Flint and Lady Jaye not to go back home, but rather to keep a low profile and they go to Roadblocks old neighborhood and establish a base of operations in a run down gym.



He is called Marvin by some buddies and later on his last name is revealed as Hinton, so at least he is keeping his filecard name (not so much for others).



Jaye setups a computer and starts to gather proof that the President is fake by watching videos of his speeches before and after August 9th and shows two different mannerism and speech patterns. They are now convinced the President is a fake and go to ask for Joe Coltons help.



Snake-Eyes and Jinx arrive to the mountain retreat using the AWE Striker (great movie tie-in), where Storm Shadow is being nursed back to help.



Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes have their duel (I felt a resemblance of the Silent Issue here) and Jinx manages to chloroform Storm Shadow into submission after a good fight between the former sword brothers.



Snake-Eyes and Jinx attempt to escape the mountain with Storm Shadows unconscious body (hes in the large duffel-bag type that Snake is shown carrying around in the trailers) and this is where we get the Red Ninjas mountain battle, which was very well executed in my opinion and full of surprises not seen on the trailers. Snake-Eyes starts up an avalanche to get rid of the Red Ninjas and escapes with Jinx and Storm Shadow back to Tokyo.



Back in the U.S., the Joes meet with Colton and while he believes them, he cant do much to help them on getting to the President without better proof, but he does tell them where to find one of the Presidents aides in order to try to get access to Zartan.



Colton antagonizes Lady Jaye, calling her names and treating her like secretary, which annoys Lady Jaye. Colton is told that Duke died in the ambush (I get the feeling they really want us to know he is not coming back).



Lady Jaye pretends to be a jogger and ambushes the Presidents aide, who is drugged and forced to make a phone call to get Lady Jaye into a party the President is having, under a fake identity.



Snake-Eyes, Jinx and Storm Shadow arrive to the Blind Masters dojo and recount the story told in ROC, about how Storm Shadow murdered his uncle (with flashback to those sequences).



However, Storm Shadow refutes their claims and explains that someone else had murdered his uncle, who was the local swordsmith (Onihashi?).



Storm Shadow proves this when the sword that was used to kill the Hard Master breaks, showing it was not a true Arashikage blade.



Storm Shadow is aware that Zartan is the culprit and means to kill him, but was hurt that none of this family and friends believed of his innocence, which is why he ran away and hooked up with Cobra.



The Blind Master convinces Storm Shadow to join forces with Snake-Eyes and together kill Zartan, Storm Shadow accepts and they somewhat reconcile.



Lady Jaye, disguised, enters the party, but Zandar suspects she is not who she said she is and starts running a facial recognition program, while Jaye dances with the President and snatches a hair to use for DNA matching.



The President insists for Jaye to dance with him while Flint and Roadblock are running the DNA trace.



Zandar manages to get a positive ID and the computer shows her name as Jaye Burnett (not Allison). The Joes confirm he is indeed Zartan.



Jaye manages to sneak out and Roadblock sets up to kill the Zartan, but he is ambushed by Firefly who manages to beat him down (the trailer scene of them fighting in a warehouse) and he is only saved by Flint coming in to the rescue in an SUV.



Back at the gym, Lady Jaye tells Flint about her childhood, how her father wanted to have a boy (and be the fourth member of the family in the military) and that he felt she was not qualified to be in the military because she was a girl.



She kept pushing herself hard to earn his respect and to outrank him, just so that he could at least salute her, but he died before that could happen.



Flint flirts a bit with Lady Jaye, but I didnt see much chemistry to be honest.



Cobra Commander, Zartan & Firefly reunite to get Project Zeus completed, which is a series of 8 satellites that will be used to conquer the world, though its not clear how yet.



All 4 Joes, plus Jinx and Storm Shadow, meet up at Roadblocks old gym and confirm they will need to take down Zartan at a summit about nuclear weapons, so they go back to Joe Colton for help and he provides them with the weapons needed for the attack.



Storm Shadow refuses to pick up any military weapons and insists he will use his sword, however Roadblock tries to pick up a gun that used to belong to Gen.Patton, but Colton stops him and says its special.



The Joe's plan will be to have Storm Shadow, Jinx and some Red Ninjas (these guys are unaware of the upcoming double-cross) accompany Cobra Commander to the Summit and then turn on them, giving the Joes a distraction to attack. The Ninjas are shown with the Commander on the Fangboat from the trailer.



Colton provides Roadblock with the Tread Tripper (another toy to sale) to take out the Hiss tanks safeguarding the Summit, while Colton insists that Jaye accompany him to save the President, much to her surprise.



At the Summit, Zartan has other world leaders, all of whom possess nuclear warheads, at his mercy when he announces that he will launch an strike against all of their countries immediately if they refuse to disarm their nuclear programs.



When they call his bluff, he immediately launches all of the US Nuclear Missiles all over the world, which prompts all of the other world leaders to do the same thing.



Before they strike, Zartan turns around and self-destructs all of the US missiles and mentions that having the world destroyed wont be the U.S. fault, but rather all the other leaders who launched their counter strikes, similarly unprovoked.



This forces all of the nations to do the same and self-destruct their own warheads, thus leaving all nations without protection.



Theres a funny exchange between Zartan and the North Korean representative as well as Zartan playing Angry Birds while waiting for the other delegates to self-destruct their own warheads.



Cobra Commander then makes his presence known and states he has 7 Zeus satellites that will drop a missile from the sky that will destroy all of their capitals if they dont surrender and plead allegiance to him, he then shows the he means business by destroying London.



Since the missile is just dropped from space without a nuclear device, the damage is substantial but doesnt leave radiation trace.



The other countries comply and we have the montage of Cobra placing their flags around the White House.



Storm Shadow chooses this moment to betray the Commander and the Joes attack the Cobra forces.



Colton and Jaye (in El Camino) manage to save the President.



Meanwhile Roadblock takes out all of the HISS Tanks around the Summit.



The Commander orders Firefly to take the briefcase with the Zeus firing controls, having enabled the sequence to have the other 7 capitals destroyed in the meantime.



Roadblock catches up to Firefly using the Fangboat while Firefly escaped on a speed boat (finally making sense of the comment The Rock made during an E! interview where he said he piloted the boat).



Firefly and Roadblock have their rematch and of course Roadblock wins and uses Fireflys explosive firefly devices to kill him and stop the launch of the Zeus missiles from space.



Storm Shadow catches up to Zartan and after a brief scuffle, murders him with Snake-Eyes sword whom Snakes gave to him at the beginning of the attack. Jinx is given the sword to return to Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow walks away.



The rest of the Joes are unable to prevent Cobra Commander from escaping their counterattack, thus setting up a potential 3rd movie.



The Joes are reinstated by the President and a memorial is created to honor the fallen Joes.



Jinx is formally inducted into the team and Colton gives Roadbock the gun that used to belong to Patton, telling him that he can use it on Cobra Commander.



Colton then reveals to Jaye, that he served with her dad and that he would have been very proud of her, Colton then salutes her to provide her with some closure.



The President states that they will recruit to bolster the Joes ranks again (could we potentially get Falcon on a third movie? No spoilers or clues about it, just a feeling/wishlist).



The Joes gather around the memorial and Roadblock shoots Pattons gun once to signify his intent to search for the Commander and the movie ends.



I really liked it over ROC, it has much more military action, I dont recall much science fiction (other than the Zeus satellites and some of Fireflys technology), which made it more grounded.



I loved Snake-Eyes and Lady Jaye on this, but Flint just had some parts of his personality and easily couldve been any other Joe.



Firefly was badass and I didnt know ahead of time of Storm Shadows turn, which made it a really cool surprise for me.



Zartan was also very good and I wish the Commander had done more, but he did look/sound menacing while he was on screen.



I didnt stay until the end of the credits (left about midway through them, after a finale sequence showing action scenes from the movie, including an unused scene of Jinx dressed in white similar to her SDCC figure), but the folks that work at the cinema didnt think there was a post-credit scene.



Definitely a huge improvement over ROC and Im genuine excited about where the franchise will go from here (Tomax & Xamot? Crystal Ball? Yeah, probably not Crystal Ball).



Let me know if you would like more detail about something and Ill be happy to share.



Ill try and rewatch it in a couple of week, as the screening was done in Spanish and I would like to see if I can pick up on anything else with English dialogue.



Now you know...