The Wandering Earth 2
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The Wandering Earth 2

The Wandering Earth 2 (Chinese: 流浪地球2) is a 2023 Chinese science fiction action-adventure film directed and co-written by Frant Gwo, and starring Andy Lau, Wu Jing and Li Xuejian. The film is a prequel to the 2019 film The Wandering Earth, which is based on the short story of the same name by Liu Cixin, who serves as the film's producer.

After the major box-office success of its predecessor, a prequel was announced by Guo on 20 November 2019 before being greenlit on 21 July 2021, with production officially starting on 13 October 2021. The Wandering Earth 2 was released on 22 January 2023, the same day as the Chinese New Year Day, in CINITY, IMAX and other formats. The film has grossed $615 million, making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2023.

The film was submitted for nomination in the Best International Feature Film category of the 96th Academy Awards, as Chinese entry. The third film in the series, The Wandering Earth 3, is set to be released in 2027.

As the expanding Sun threatens to engulf the Earth in 100 years, the United Earth Government (UEG) proceeds with the Moving Mountain Project (MMP) – building 10,000 "Earth Engines" to propel the Earth out of the Solar System. A sister project, the Lunar Exile Project (LEP), involves pushing the Moon away to minimize its gravitational attraction on Earth. The UEG shuts down the Digital Life Project (DLP), which proposed uploading human consciousness to achieve digital immortality for humanity.

The Space Elevator Crisis of 2044 begins with DLP supporters launching a terrorist attack and cyberattack on the UEG space elevator to the Moon in Libreville, destroying the elevator, the UEG base and the Ark Space Station supplying the LEP. Due to the attack, many countries pull out of the MMP amid renewed interest in the DLP, leaving China to finish constructing the Lunar and Earth engines. On the Moon, Tu Hengyu, an LEP computer engineer, receives the 550C – a quantum computer intended for the Lunar engine test run. However, it is soon damaged by a sudden solar storm. Tu offers his 550A, which stores a two-minute sample of his deceased daughter Yaya's consciousness, in the hopes of contributing to the further development of the 550 series and providing Yaya with "a complete life."

Following the successful test runs of the Lunar and Earth Engines, the MMP regains global support and is officially renamed the Wandering Earth Project. Liu Peiqiang, a trainee astronaut, marries his colleague Han Duoduo, and they have a son, Liu Qi. However, only Peiqiang and Liu Qi manage to secure a spot in the underground cities, and Peiqiang applies for work in the rebuilt space station – the Navigator ISS – hoping to secure another spot for Duoduo, who is stricken by cancer due to the spikes in solar radiation. During an interview with the advanced 550W, Peiqiang's family-oriented motivations trigger his outburst, part of a personalized stress test for each candidate. The elderly Tu, prompted by Peiqiang's outburst, revisits his daughter's consciousness and attempts to upload it into the 550W supercomputer. However, the upload causes the lunar engines to explode, propelling the Moon toward Earth. Tu is immediately arrested.

To deal with the “Lunar Fall crisis”, the UEG plans to implode the Moon using Earth's nuclear arsenal while powering the Earth Engines to propel the Earth away from the Moon debris. As the control network for the Earth Engines is incomplete, they plan to reboot the Internet root server data centers in Tokyo, Beijing and Dulles for the control network. Tu is released to assist his mentor Ma Zhao to restart Beijing’s root server after the latter uses the copy of his daughter's DLP consciousness as leverage. Peiqiang joins the team to transport nuclear weapons to the Moon, crash landing when his team's shuttle collides with another shuttle. Shortly after, lunar debris begins hitting Earth and floods Beijing’s data center, drowning Ma Zhao. With the deciphering process taking another 716 hours, a team of 300 old astronauts volunteers to manually detonate the nukes. Peiqiang narrowly avoids the nuclear detonation as he pilots a capsule back to the Navigator. Before drowning, Tu uploads a copy of his recorded consciousness into the 550W network. While the UEG initially believes they have failed, Tu's uploaded consciousness reunites with Yaya's digital self and both manage to reboot Beijing's server in time, activating all the Earth Engines. Earth begins its course towards Jupiter.

In a mid-credit scene, the 550W, now calling itself "MOSS," confronts Tu's digital self, now copied into multiple clones, to reveal its role in all major crises. It also includes future incidents, hinting at it having gained a non-linear perception of time and a role behind three messages from the future previously received before the crises, potentially as a test. Recognizing humanity as a threat, the now through analysis of Yaya sentient supercomputer reveals its intention to annihilate humanity, leaving open a digital preservation under its rule. Previously, a flashforward of an elderly Zhou Zhezhi in an uprising against MOSS showed him claiming that human bravery also transcends time.

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