The Old Guard 2 Screenings

So originally, I meant to write this and publish it maybe two weeks after the long-awaited The Old Guard 2 premiered on Netflix, but between life getting in the way and honestly the sad reaction to the film, I kind of lost steam. But I know a few are still interested, and frankly, I also just wanted to share my experience. Some reactions to the film were mixed (and overall not good), but I still want to put this out here to let everyone know that, regardless of what you did think of the film, I really believe there was a better version of it. Opinions will vary, but I feel like it might interest some to know the details that I can provide from the screenings – please note, I am not in any way affiliated with the film so reminder: I have no answers on script edits and preproduction or filming or casting or etc. But I think it might be a view into the difficulties of getting art made in today’s industry. It’s a rocky road, and I think we ended up with a rocky product, but I still hope we might get a third and final installment. All versions of the film I saw ended in a cliffhanger, and I believe we deserve a conclusion.

I’ll start from the beginning:

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend all four screenings of The Old Guard 2 that were conducted between May of 2023 and December of 2024. As a big fan of TOG, I jumped at every chance to see how each version progressed.

Now, it’s been a while since the first screening, so I’m going to do my very best to recall what I can from each cut for those who are curious as to what was different and what could have been, for better or worse. There will be some gaps in my memory and some stuff I don’t remember being in exactly which cut, for instance.

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I think my favorite part of ToG2 was the confirmation of Joe’s infinite ability to love and forgive. He’s passionate and fierce, but he’s also empathetic and understanding. Once the anger washes away, he can look at the situation more clearly. He forges his own path. He did it with Nicky, and then he did it again with Booker.

Marriage counselling by Sebastien

the old guard 2 spoilers no context

tog2 summary

Adidas tracksuit booker is the only thing standing out to me from tog2

Nicolo is disappointed in all the men around him lol

Lying husband

Traitor brother

Copley also a traitor

Tuah : also lying older brother who disappeared for centuries

Nicolo can’t look at any of them

The Andy Quynh fight scene in Rome is so special because it there's no way they should be so smooth, no way Andy should be able to predict the way Quynh is going to respond after five hundred years, but she does, they both do. They fundamentally understand each other so well that the only reason that Andy lost is because she wasn't committed to hurting Quynh.

Taking a deeper look at the fight its broken into a few phases:

The first phase of the fight: Andy is attempts to stop Quynh from leaving, this is the briefest stage, but for the first few moves of the fight Andy is acting purely defensively.

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Here’s some things I’m choosing the believe lore-wise/ideas I’m throwing around lore-wise to help explain some plot holes or oddities:

They can still regrow limbs/organs/their whole body, it’s just a lot more painful and takes a lot longer than if you can just find what’s missing and have it reattach

Immortals only see each other regularly reoccurring in their dreams if they’re similar. It seems everyone in the original gang was a soldier or warrior of some sort before becoming immortal

• Perhaps Tuah and Discord were not fighting oriented - more hands off approach which would help explain Discord’s actions and how Tuah has mostly stayed with archiving
• Them having a more hands off approach would also explain why no one else really knows about them
• And perhaps the others have had dreams infrequently about other immortals like Nile - they just didn’t recognize it for what it was bc it wasn’t immediately relevant like it was here

Immortals can both loose immortality randomly and get it taken away. Like passing away of old age vs getting killed by something

• I do like to think either way, there is the option for the immortality to be transferred within a certain amount of time, maybe a viable timeframe of 48 hours before they stop healing to 48 hours after they stop healing

The prophecy came about and was written about by previous ‘groups’ of immortals. Maybe it’s less the first and last immortal ever, but maybe the first and last immortal of a ‘group’

• In this case, groups refers to immortals that regularly dream of each other and allows those groups to ‘die off’ or naturally ‘pass away’ in a less painful way than people just randomly losing their immortality and having their numbers slowly dwindle until the last one living is just completely alone
• Kinda like people need a community of support but that’s hard to get as an immortal so this is the way nature creates it. I guess kinda like a weird Good Place ending concept, but instead of walking through a door your friend kills you
• This a tenuous theory (and I’m not as sure of it like I am with the others) as we don’t know if Lykon had that birthmark as Andy sure doesn’t
• Also I don’t remember if Lykon or Andy was older so I’m not sure who should have it, though I’m p sure Quynh is younger but I’d need to fact check that
• Also for this to work (imo so you don’t just have the ‘last’ immortal going slowly insane/becoming massively depressed) and for the community theory three bullet points up to make sense, either the last immortal would be able to have the choice to have their power work on them when they want, or the first immortal of their group would ONLY have the ability to take away the last immortal’s power though the second option makes less sense bc theoretically the first immortal would be the first one to go

Upon getting injured by the last immortal, there is a period of 0-48 hours before healing stops, which may or may not depend on the severity of the wound or how ‘fresh’ someone’s immortality is (perhaps on either side?), if they subconsciously wanted it, etc. See below, as this could by explained away several ways, none of which I particularly like except for perhaps the 1st one:

• (These are also tenuous as it took a while in the first movie for Andy to lose her immortality after Nile stabbed her but both Booker and Quynh stopped healing immediately)
• (Also this is ranked by theory I like most to theory I like least, usually based on how much “sense” I feel like it makes as I like things to have logic and clear rules. I feel like it says something then that my number 2 is random chance)

1. How fast the recipient wants it to work subconsciously. This is makes the most sense imo. Andy has no wish for death. She has this group to lead and while she’s stopped searching for Quynh, she hasn’t given up on Quynh. I like to imagine she still had days when they were apart when she combed the ocean for her, just not as religiously as before she ‘gave up’. And I like to think she still keeps tabs (or has Booker keep tabs) on marine archeological findings and advances in technology in that field. Meanwhile, Booker literally has nothing to live for. Depressed as hell, burned with guilt for the first movie, exile obviously didn’t agree with him, and with Quynh back he’s even more alone than he was before even if he’s out of exile. At least Andy was the company in ‘misery loves company’ before. Now Quynh. This is all speculation but she’s been drowning non-stop for 500 years. She thinks Andy’s in the same situation and that’s why she hasn’t been rescued. Gets out and Andy’s not in the same situation. Turns out Andy even stopped searching for her. Gave up on her. Now she’s filled with unimaginable rage and trauma. If she wasn’t suicidal in the bottom of the ocean, the only reason I can think of is her desire to rescue Andy from the same situation. Finding out Andy wasn’t in the same situation was probably the last straw but she can’t die so instead she’s just gonna take everyone down with her in her attempt to go nuclear (no pun intended).
2. Coincidence that both Booker and Quynh ‘rolled low’ on the dice and immediately lost their immortality. It’s random chance how long it takes and they both rolled a Nat 1
3. How close they could’ve been to straight up dying. Please remember I know practically nothing medically, this is just my understanding. It seems like Andy’s was an easy heal that is hard to get infected. Both Booker and Quynh’s were slashes - large potential to get infected. Booker’s injury was near an artery. Quynh’s injury was near a lot of important organs and probably an artery or something. Again; doesn’t fully explain things so combine that with random chance
4. Severity of injury, as while none of their injuries were super severe, Booker’s and Quynh’s, especially without the advances of modern medicine, were worse or had the larger potential for infection and death. But that doesn’t fully explain things so combine it with random chance
5. Perceived severity of injury to a layman and someone with no experience being stabbed or gravely injured. There would be no reason for it to work this way but to me, ranked least to most severe, Andy’s stab wound was the least life threatening, Booker’s seemed like it hurt like hell, and I thought Quynh might bleed out. It doesn’t fully explain things so again, combine it with random chance
6. How fresh Nile’s immortality was. Perhaps becuase Nile was literally fresh as hell that’s why it took so long. But in the grand scheme of things, she’s still fresh as hell. It hasn’t even been a year. This one doesn’t make sense at all.
7. How fresh Booker’s immortality was or Quynh’s wasn’t. This one doesn’t explain things either and tbh this should probably be two bullets but whatever. Booker was the freshest and closest to Nile and age so it worked instantly. Quynh was way older than Nile and (presumably) closer to death than the others so it worked instantly. Doesn’t explain Andy at all.

I might add more as I did all this in one go and probably forgot some other plot holes that I have theories for. Feel free to hmu if you see I missed addressing one!

Though there are some decisions that I’ve seen a couple people say are plot holes that I feel are easily explained by characterization, though the only one atm that comes to my head rn is Discord waiting several hundred years to raise Quynh out of the water.

But still, feel free to give me a shout if you think I missed any! Also if something doesn’t make sense, lemme know

so my first reaction after finishing 2o2g was definitely what the fuck just happened, hit by a train, disappointed. a lot bc of processing The Ending. and have i changed my mind that the cliffhanger ending really sucks? and that there is so much about the plot i would change if i could get in there with a scalpel (more nile and either re do or scrap discord and tuah)? nope that's all true.

but reliving the highlights in gifs and tumblr posts has me putting on the rose colored glasses and pivoting to both enjoying all the great little joenicky character moments and juicy andromaquynh tragedy, and just daydreaming about all the new fanon possibilities. and that's fun! and i'm glad we're all having some fun despite it not being perfect.