Incredibles 2 is a 2018 American animated superhero film written and directed by Brad Bird. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, it is the second film in The Incredibles franchise, and a sequel to the 2004 film. Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Vowell, and Samuel L. Jackson reprise their roles from the first film, with Huck Milner, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, and Jonathan Banks joining the cast. The film follows the Incredibles as they try to restore the public's trust in superheroes while balancing family life.
Following the success of The Incredibles, Bird postponed development on a sequel to work on other films. He attempted to distinguish the script from other superhero films and television series released since the first film, focusing on the family dynamic rather than the superhero genre.
Incredibles 2 premiered in Los Angeles on June 5, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 15, 2018. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its animation, humor, voice acting, action sequences, writing, and musical score. The film grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2018, and during its theatrical run it was the second-highest-grossing animated film, and the 15th-highest-grossing film of all time. It also became the highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada, as well as the highest-grossing Pixar film until Inside Out 2 (2024).
The film was named by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2018, and was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and 91st Academy Awards, but lost both to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It was also the winner of the 2019 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie. A sequel, Incredibles 3, is scheduled to be released on June 16, 2028.
Plot
Following Syndrome’s death, The Parrs (The Incredibles) and Lucius Best (Frozone) battle The Underminer in Municiberg. The superheroes prevent the villain from destroying city hall, but fail to stop him from robbing a bank and making his escape. The resulting massive property damage prompts the government to shut down the Superhero Relocation Program, ending financial assistance for the "supers". Violet's classmate and love interest, Tony Rydinger, discovers her superhero identity; Agent Rick Dicker accidentally erases Tony's entire knowledge of Violet instead of just this incident.
Wealthy siblings Winston and Evelyn Deavor, who run the telecommunications company DevTech, propose secret missions to Helen, Bob, and Lucius, which are to be recorded and broadcast in a movement to regain public trust in superheroes. Winston chooses Helen for their initial missions as she has caused the least property damage. Initially reluctant to be away from her family and risking getting into trouble with the law, Helen accepts after a talk with Bob. Meanwhile, Winston rehouses the Parrs in a luxury mansion.
Bob struggles in his new role as a stay-at-home parent, left to deal with Violet's dejection over Tony forgetting their first date, Dash's math homework, and the chaos of baby Jack-Jack's burgeoning superpowers. He suppresses envy for Helen and, at Lucius's advice, calls on Edna Mode to babysit Jack-Jack. Meanwhile, in the city of New Urbem, Helen encounters the supervillain Screenslaver, a hacker who can perform hypnosis through any screen. After preventing him from destroying a crowded hovertrain and thwarting his assassination attempt on an ambassador, she tracks his signals and infiltrates his base. Defeating him, she unmasks him only to discover a disoriented pizza delivery driver. At a party celebrating Helen's success, Winston announces a summit of world leaders to legalize the supers on live television, hosted aboard his luxury hydrofoil yacht, the Everjust, and attended by all "supers" coming out of hiding.
Helen realizes the Screenslaver lured her to a decoy double, and the pizza delivery driver was under the control of hypnotic goggles. Evelyn reveals herself to be the true Screenslaver and hypnotizes Helen, restraining her using her goggles and a freezing cell that negates her self-stretching superpower. Evelyn blames society's overdependence on the "supers" for the deaths of her and Winston's parents, as their father was shot by burglars after the newly outlawed supers Fironic and Gazerbeam did not answer his calls for aid, and their mother died of grief. Evelyn plans to sabotage her brother's summit to ruin the reputation of all "supers" once more and keep them outlawed in the hopes that the public will be safer with self-sufficient crimefighting.
Evelyn lures Bob into a trap on the Everjust, goggling him too, and sends six hypnotized supers to subdue Violet and Dash. Lucius arrives to protect them but is overwhelmed and goggled as well. Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack escape in the Incredibile, the supercar once owned by Bob, and, deducing their parents are in danger, stow away on the Everjust. Onboard, Helen, Bob, and Lucius are forced to broadcast themselves giving villainous speeches, subduing the ship's crew, and locking its course towards Municiberg at a disastrous pace. When the children arrive, Jack-Jack removes the goggles on Helen, who in turn frees Bob and Lucius. They work together to release the other mind-controlled supers and safely prevent the Everjust's collision with the city. Evelyn tries to escape in the yacht's parasite jet, but is then caught by Helen and arrested.
With another disaster averted and the positive publicity surrounding this, supers around the world regain their legal status. Sometime later, Tony is picked up by Violet and her family in the Incredibile for their reinstated movie date. They spot a police chase; Violet leaves Tony at the movie theater, promising a quick return, before the Parrs don their superhero masks and join the pursuit.
Voice cast
Holly Hunter as Helen Parr / Elastigirl, the mother of the family who has the ability to stretch her body into many shapes and forms. Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible, the father of the family who possesses superhuman strength, endurance and limited invulnerability. Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr, the family's oldest child and only daughter, who can become invisible and project force fields. Huck Milner as Dashiell "Dash" Parr, the family's middle child and oldest son, who has superhuman speed. He replaces Spencer Fox, who previously voiced the character in the first film. Eli Fucile as Jack-Jack Parr, the youngest child of Bob and Helen who develops an assortment of powers. Nick Bird provides the vocal effects for Jack-Jack's monster form. Bob Odenkirk as Winston Deavor, a superhero fan who leads a giant telecommunications company called DevTech with his sister Evelyn, and wants to bring back superheroes by revamping their public image. Samuel L. Jackson as Lucius Best / Frozone, Bob's best friend, who has the ability to form ice from humidity. Catherine Keener as Evelyn Deavor / Screenslaver, Winston's sister, a technological genius who has never encountered a problem she could not solve. She is later revealed to be a villain who hijacks screens and uses them to brainwash other people. Bill Wise voices Evelyn while wearing the Screenslaver mask, as well as a pizza delivery driver hypnotized by Evelyn to pose as her decoy double. Brad Bird as Edna "E" Mode, a fashion designer for superheroes and a close friend of the Parrs. Jonathan Banks as Rick Dicker, a government agent responsible for helping the Parrs stay undercover and unremarkable. When his department is shut down, the Parrs are left to their own devices. Banks replaces Bud Luckey from the first film, who died in 2018 with the film being dedicated to his memory. Michael Bird as Tony Rydinger, Violet's love interest and later boyfriend. Sophia Bush as Karen / Voyd, an aspiring superhero with the power to create portals. Phil LaMarr as: Krushauer, an aspiring superhero with the power to telekinetically crush objects. He-Lectrix, an aspiring superhero with the power to control electricity. Paul Eiding as Gus Burns / Reflux, an elderly aspiring superhero who can vomit hot lava. Isabella Rossellini as Ambassador Henrietta Selick, a foreign official committed to the support and legalization of superheroes. Rossellini reprised her role in the Italian dubbing of the movie. The character is named for director Henry Selick. John Ratzenberger as the Underminer, a mole-like supervillain who seeks to bring war and destruction to the world. Barry Bostwick as the Mayor of New Urbem Jere Burns as Detective No. 1 Adam Rodriguez as Detective No. 2 Kimberly Adair Clark as Honey Best, Frozone's wife. Adam Gates as Chad Brentley, a news reporter. Usher as the unnamed limo driver who is a big fan of Frozone.
Production
Development While publicizing The Incredibles (2004), Brad Bird had already conceptualized the eventual approach of a sequel where Bob and Helen Parr would switch roles and Jack-Jack would develop multiple powers unknown to the family. Following The Incredibles, Bird directed Ratatouille (2007), his next film for Pixar. Near its premiere in June 2007, Bird said he was open to an idea of a sequel to The Incredibles, but only if it could be better than the original. He stated, "I have pieces that I think are good, but I don't have them all together." In a May 2013 interview, Bird reiterated his interest in a sequel: "I have been thinking about it. People think that I have not been, but I have—because I love those characters, and love that world ... I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another Incredibles film, and if I can get 'em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that."
At the Disney shareholder meeting in March 2014, Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger confirmed that Pixar was working on an Incredibles sequel, and that Bird would return as both director and screenwriter. Bird started the script around April 2015, and said that the Incredibles sequel would be his next film after Tomorrowland (2015).
Writing One challenge in writing Incredibles 2 was how to deal with the large number of superhero films and television series that had been released since the first film, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). To try to differentiate the sequel, Bird wanted to avoid tropes related to the superhero genre: "I don't think that kind of idea stays interesting for very long. For me, the interesting thing was never the superhero part of it. It was more the family dynamic, and how do superhero things play into that." He said he wanted to include some unused ideas from the first film, and that the new story would focus on Helen Parr / Elastigirl.
Though the sequel was released thirteen-and-a-half years after the first, Bird did not want to use a narrative element like an ellipsis or to come up with new characters, and instead continued from where the first film left off. This allowed him to keep characters with the same superpowers and not have to develop new ones, nor did he need to figure out how to deal with Violet and Dash being adults. This also allowed him to keep Jack-Jack as an infant with an array of powers, which Bird likened to how infants are able to understand numerous languages. While the plot of the 2005 follow-up video game to The Incredibles, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, begins at that same point of time, the film discards the game's continuity. The film was produced with a production budget of $200 million.
Casting