"Years ago, [Jesse] forged a friendship out of loneliness. Now, theirnote survival will depend upon that bond."
— Promo
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home is the 1995 sequel to Free Willy, directed by Dwight Little and featuring most of the main cast from the first film.
Two years have passed since Jesse helped release Willy back into the wild, and he and his adoptive parents are prepared to go on a camping trip to San Juan Island. Before they can go, Jesse is informed that his mother has died and has left behind Jesse's half-brother Elvis. The two do not get along, but that doesn't stop the vacation. Once there, Jesse reunites with Willy, who has been happily reunited with his family. But when an oil tanker ruptures and spills its contents out into the bay, Willy's sister Luna gets sick and beaches herself. With Luna's life in the balance, Jesse must help her recover and reunite Willy's siblings with the rest of his family.
This film contains examples of the following:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: When Jesse meets his younger brother Elvis, he instantly hates him. They continue to antagonize each other throughout the movie, but begin to develop a genuine bond as the story goes on, and by the end their animosity has turned to more playful teasing than genuine conflict. According to the novelization, Willy also feels this way about his little brother Littlespot, who's always following him around and copying his actions, but it's indicated to be because the younger whale looks up to him.
- Artifact Title: There isn't a whole lot of literal freeing in this movie. Unless the "free" there is supposed to be an adjective describing Willy, it doesn't really make sense.
- Getting Willy and his family from the cove and the oil spill could be considered setting him free, in addition to the fact that the owner of the oil tanker intends to capture and sell Willy and his family.Promo Announcer: The fight for a family's freedom rests in [Jesse's] hands alone.
- This was actually going to be averted as the film was originally called Willy 2: The Adventure Home (early trailers carry this title). Warner Bros probably feared people not getting the connection to Free Willy.
- Getting Willy and his family from the cove and the oil spill could be considered setting him free, in addition to the fact that the owner of the oil tanker intends to capture and sell Willy and his family.
- Award-Bait Song: The Michael Jackson original "Childhood (Theme from Free Willy 2)", which was simultaneously released on his album HI Story Past Present And Future Book I. It underscores an otherwise expendable sequence involving a secondary character.
- Chekhov's Skill: Elvis was telling the truth about learning karate.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The president of the oil company. He lied about helping the whales out of the cove, instead wants to capture the whales and sell them.
- Crying Wolf: Elvis has a habit of doing this. Consequently, Glen and Annie don't believe him at first about the crashed oil tanker, until they actually hear Willy calling. And he really does know martial arts.
- Darker and Edgier: Jessie nearly drowns and incinerated by the tanker fire during the climax.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Jesse's defensiveness of his mom (which was already seemingly undeserved given her actions) only becomes more fervent than ever after he learns that she's died. Subverted with Elvis, whose grief at one point comes out as resentment towards his mother for "leaving" him.
- Happily Adopted: Though he's technically still a foster kid rather than formally adoptednote , it's clear pretty much from the first scene that Glen and Annie have become Jesse's true parents in every way except legally. The end of the episode suggests that the same may soon be true of Elvis, though we never find out how this played out in the long run.
- I Know Karate: Elvis tells Jesse he knows karate. Jesse assumes it's another lie, but it's revealed to be true when Elvis karate kicks one of the villains in the butt.
- Magical Native American: While Randolph averted this trope in the first movie, it's played much more straight here. It's Randolph's traditional medicine that makes Luna better.
- Missing Mom: The film begins with Jesse learning that his mom — who he hasn't seen since he was six — has died. He also learns that before her death, his mother had another son, leaving that boy (Elvis) now without a mother as well.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Among the lies that Elvis tells is that he saw Jesse kissing Nadine. In light of this, Glen attempts to give Jesse The Talk, but he doesn't specify what he's talking about first, so Jesse thinks Glen is trying to warn him about playing with the whales. It's not until Glen says "it" can lead to sex that Jesse figures out they're not on the same page. (Although given that he does kiss Nadine a few scenes later anyway — albeit it's a single kiss rather than the full-blown make-out session that Elvis had implied — giving him The Talk might not have been the worst idea in retrospect.)
- The Only One: In the climax, the kids ends up being the only ones to stop the president of the oil company and his flunkies from trying to sell the whales, and to get Willy and his family back out to sea.
- Papa Wolf: Willy is very protective of his siblings, and only allows Luna to be examined because Jesse tells him it's alright.
- Parental Abandonment: Jesse's mom. At the beginning of the film, it's revealed that she passed away. Elvis later tells Jesse that before she died, she told Elvis that giving Jesse up was the hardest choice she ever had to make.
- Say My Name: Near the end, Glen and Annie call out the kids' name as they search for them at night.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: At first, Elvis acts rude and dismissive towards Jesse and the Greenwoods, and is smug with his constant lies. Later, when Jesse asks him about their deceased mother, Elvis breaks down as he denies this (which is revealed to be yet another lie at the end), openly expressing his resentment towards her for "leaving" him.
