Shock Wave 2 is a 2020 Hong Kong-Chinese action film written and directed by Herman Yau, produced by and starring Andy Lau.
In the film, Lau plays a former bomb disposal officer who falls into a coma in an explosion, resulting in amnesia, and becomes a top suspect of a terrorist attack.
Poon Sing-fung, Ma's friend and a former Hong Kong Police Explosive Ordnance disposal officer who lost his leg to a neglected explosive in a rescue mission five years ago, was denied of his career by his superiors in fear of damaging the police' reputation for employing the handicapped.
She reminds him of his past life after his leg loss, such as being a model officer in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EODB), his deteriorating relationship with his superiors, and his slandering of the police forces in a ceremony honoring him.
Upon receiving a message containing inspiration magazine from Al-Qaeda, Poon meets with Vendetta's leader Ma Sai-kwan and four other members of the group, codenamed Money, Slave, Sniper and Rhino who are all planning yet another attack.
Vendetta sends Sniper to place a bomb in the middle of the city, which would destroy a large area by rupturing gas pipelines below it.
Tung, Inspector Lee, Pong Ling, and Poon's former co-workers in the EODB, Lun Ting-pong and Chan King-to, are dispatched to the scene.
Poon tells them Vendetta is planning to bomb the IFC building and the Hong Kong airport, while "Davy" is a tiny nuclear warhead.
Ma and his men simultaneously raid the IFC and Hong Kong MTR as well as the Airport Express train.
Lun and his co-worker Fat Sze managed to defuse the rigged van in IFC parking garage while also killing Money and Slave.
The plan involves destroying both connections of the Tsing Ma Bridge to sink the explosives, thereby minimizing any collateral damage.
Pong and her CTRU teams successfully raid the control station, killing Rhino's men, and he commits suicide.
Tung escapes into the helicopter, but Poon insists staying behind as atonement for his involvement in the previous Vendetta terrorist attacks.
With Lun's help, Ma's train is intercepted by the severed bridge and sinks before exploding moments later, killing him and Poon while sending a shockwave underwater, saving HK from a potential fallout.
In the closing scenes, Pong requests one of the neurology doctors to erase all her memories associated with Poon, save for one particular moment.
She then flashes back to encountering Poon at a police dinner, where he deliberately spills some red wine on her uniform to catch her eye.
[5][6] A sequel to Shock Wave was first announced by producer and star Andy Lau during a celebration event for the film on 4 May 2017.
Daneil Lam also announced that production would commence in 2019, and that it would be a standalone sequel with new characters and a new story line.
[11] The film held its production commencement blessing ceremony in Kam Tin, Yuen Long on 28 March.
[16] Shock Wave 2 was originally set for release in July 2020,[3] but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to 24 December 2020.
[17][18] The film retained its 24 December 2020 release date for China, where it played in IMAX theatres,[19] Singapore[20] and Western countries such as North America, Australia and New Zealand.
1, after consecutively topping the daily box office during its four days of release despite theaters operating with reduced capacity due to Covid-19 safety guidelines.
[54] Jeanmarie Tan of The New Paper gave the film a score of 4/5 and praises Andy Lau's physical prowess and multi-layer performance.
[55] Edmund Lee of the South China Morning Post gave the film a score of 3.5/5 stars and compliments its abundance of action sequences which makes it "easy to look beyond the overwrought story".
[56] Tay Yek-keak of Today gave the film a similar score of 3.5/5, praising it as larger, more fast-paced and entertaining than its predecessor.
[58] Anna Smith of Deadline Hollywood gives praises to the film's action set pieces and visual effects.