Plot
Four years after their escapade in Monte Carlo,[a] Nick and Audrey Spitz work as full-time private detectives. They accept an invitation from friend Vikram "The Maharajah" Govindan's wedding on his private island, hoping their association with him will lend their failing detective agency some professional credibility.
There, they meet Vik's French fiancée, Claudette Joubert, his flirtatious business partner, Francisco Perez, his former fiancée, Countess Sekou, Sekou's lady-in-waiting, Imani, Vik's reticent sister, Saira, bodyguard Lou, and the couple's old friend, Colonel Ulenga.
At the ceremony, Audrey notices a cloaked figure following Vik's elephant. A dead body falls from the elephant and turns out to be Lou. Nick suspects that it is a diversion and watches Vik's abduction by a mysterious figure who leaves the island on a boat. The couple determines that at least two perpetrators must have been involved: one to create the diversion and the other to kidnap Vik.
The next morning, the group is joined by a team of professional detectives, led by former MI6 hostage negotiator Connor Miller. The kidnapper calls and demands a ransom of $70 million in exchange for Vik, arranging a meeting at the Arc de Triomphe.
Traveling to Paris, Miller takes Nick and Audrey to the exchange point. The kidnappers force the couple into a van at gunpoint. A fight ensues and the van crashes into Café Procope. The kidnappers frame Nick and Audrey for Vik's abduction and Miller is seemingly killed when his car explodes after taking back the briefcase of money. A mysterious figure retrieves the briefcase but is immediately run down by a second assailant in a garbage truck, who takes the briefcase and speeds off.
With the assistance of Inspector Laurent Delacroix, Nick and Audrey trace the truck to a countryside château where they are ambushed by Sekou and Imani, who insist they are not the kidnappers and only want the money. Sekou shoots Imani and attempts to kill the couple by knocking over a candle to ignite the room, but is shot dead by a dying Imani.
Nick and Audrey escape and call Delacroix and the others, requesting Vik be brought to the Le Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffel Tower. Vik appears at the rendezvous, strapped into a bomb vest. Nick reasons that the killer would never jeopardize the ransom. The bomb's countdown is suspended, and Miller, the mastermind of the abduction, appears; he had faked his death by hiding in a bomb-proof titanium chamber within the car. He attempts to kill the group, but Audrey clings to his harness and is pulled to the top floor.
Nick pursues them, subdues Miller's men, and destroys the detonator. Miller throws Audrey, who is still connected to his harness, off the tower. The two men engage in hand-to-hand combat, culminating with Nick opening the briefcase and dispersing the money into the wind.
Meanwhile, the group helps disengage Vik's bomb, and Susan tends to Delacroix, who was shot by Miller. Susan and Delacroix instantly fall in love after Delacroix shows her how to make circles with smoke.
Up on the top floor, Audrey reappears and Nick helps her tie Miller's harness to the tower's elevator mechanism, throwing him into the rotor blades of his getaway helicopter, which explodes and crashes into the Seine.
Returning to the restaurant, Audrey mistakes Saira's darkened arm for blood, but Saira insists that her henna smeared during the commotion. Audrey remarks that once dried, henna does not smear. She recalls that Saira was not present when Vik's elephant was ushered into the reception ceremony, and realizes that the clothes of the cloaked figure who killed Lou were stained by wet henna, not blood. Saira ends up being the second conspirator; she was upset that Vik's parents gave him sole control over the business, and she had previously tried to kill him in Mumbai. She further elaborates that she hires Miller in her scheme and the ransom is actually his payment. Exposed, Saira attempts to shoot Vik, but he is shielded by Ulenga, who takes the bullet. Claudette then knocks her out with the briefcase.
With the commotion concluded, Vik and Claudette decide to elope and later give Nick and Audrey $10 million and the use of Vik's helicopter. On a honeymoon in Greece, they are accosted in air at gunpoint by their supposedly European helicopter pilot, who turns out to be American; he steals the money and jumps out of the helicopter, leaving them scrambling for the controls.
Production
Development
In October 2019, it was announced that a sequel to Murder Mystery was in development with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston reprising their roles.[1] In August 2021, Jeremy Garelick was hired as director, from a script by James Vanderbilt, with the filming of the sequel to take place in Paris and in the Caribbean.[2] Sandler and Aniston had confirmed their returns during the September 2021 Tudum Global Fan Event.[3]
In January 2022, it was reported that Adeel Akhtar and John Kani would be reprising their roles from the first film, with Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, Kuhoo Verma, Enrique Arce, Tony Goldwyn, Annie Mumolo, and Zurin Villanueva joining the film as newcomers.[4]
Filming
Principal photography began in January 2022 in Hawaii[4][5] and ended on April 8, 2022 in Paris, France.[6][7]
The top three levels of the Eiffel Tower were recreated for the movie, but some stunts were actually shot on the tower itself.[8] The Indian wedding dance scene was shot in Paris and choreographed by Mahina Khanum.[9]
Release
Murder Mystery 2 was released by Netflix[10] on March 31, 2023. It reached Netflix's top 10 in over 90 countries.[11]
Between its release and June 2023, the film totaled 173.6 million hours watched (equal to 117 million views).[12]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 45% of 95 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A genially mediocre sequel to its similarly middling predecessor, Murder Mystery 2 could have been much better… and a whole lot worse."[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[14]
Accolades
Adam Sandler won the award for Best Comedic Performance at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards.[15]
