The film stars Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lee Byung-hun, Anthony Hopkins, and Helen Mirren, with Dean Parisot directing a screenplay by Jon and Erich Hoeber.

Three years after the events of the previous film, ex-CIA operative Frank Moses tries to lead a normal life with girlfriend Sarah Ross.

Corrupt agent Jack Horton and a team of private military contractors ambush the facility; he threatens to torture Sarah until Frank gives him the information he needs.

Marvin, Frank, and Sarah search the box themselves and find documents pointing to Bailey is alive, held for thirty-two years in a maximum security asylum for the criminally insane in London.

They escape, but a call from Victoria, who has broken out of MI6 confinement for failing to kill him, reveals that Bailey was imprisoned because he wanted to detonate the bomb in Moscow.

Holding Frank at gunpoint, the anti-Communist Bailey confirms Victoria's message, admitting he was the one who originally leaked word of Project Nightshade and made a deal to give Horton the bomb.

In January 2011, Summit Entertainment rehired writers Jon and Erich Hoeber to write a second installment of Red due to the film's financial success, which even surpassed producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura's expectations.

[6] In October 2011, Summit announced that Red 2 would be released on August 2, 2013 and the film would "reunite the team of retired CIA operatives with some new friends as they use their 'old-school style' to take on new enemies in Europe.

[9] Also in May, it was reported that Anthony Hopkins was up to appear in the film as the villain, Edward Bailey, if a scheduling conflict could be worked out with Thor: The Dark World.

[21][22] Justin Chang of Variety called Red 2, "An obligatory sequel that can't quite recapture the sly, laid-back pleasures of its cheerfully ridiculous predecessor.

"[23] Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap said, "...in a lackadaisical sequel no one asked for except perhaps his creditors, Bruce Willis seems unmotivated to smile at all, much less offer a series of emotions that constitute a believable or compelling performance.

"[24] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Not that it isn’t entertaining, but the film's premise is certainly well past its 'use by' date, resulting in another passably palatable sequel distinguished by a lack of narrative and stylistic coherence that could potentially underpin a really viable franchise.

"[25] Betsy Sharkey of Los Angeles Times said, "No doubt the hope was that Dean Parisot could do to the action genre what he did to the Star Trek universe in the spot-on satire of 1999's Galaxy Quest.

"[26] Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times said, "Cars careen, lazily written infiltration plans are executed, and the violence is plentiful and toothless.

[30] In 2015, NBC announced that they were developing a Red TV series with the Hoeber brothers, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Mark Vahradian.