The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is a 2012 American vampire romantic fantasy film, directed by Bill Condon, and written by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2008 novel. It is the fifth and final installment in the The Twilight Saga film series. The film features Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner reprising their roles from the previous films, with the ensemble cast also including Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, and Dakota Fanning. In the film, Bella, now a vampire, aligns with the Cullens, the werewolves, and other allies to face the Volturi, who view her half-human, half-vampire child as a possible threat.
Summit Entertainment announced that Breaking Dawn would be adapted into a two-part film on June 10, 2010. Principal photography for both parts began on November 1, 2010, and wrapped on April 22, 2011. The second part was shot in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Vancouver.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 premiered at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on November 12, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 16, by Summit Entertainment. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $868 million, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2012 and the highest-grossing of the series. The film received eleven nominations at the 33rd Golden Raspberry Awards and won seven, including Worst Picture.
Plot
The film continues from the events of the previous film, as Bella, who has just given birth, awakens from her human-to-vampire transformation. After her vampire husband Edward Cullen helps her tame her initial thirst for blood, Bella is introduced to their daughter Renesmee. The rest of the Cullens and Bella's werewolf friend Jacob stay nearby, and when Jacob acts possessively towards Renesmee, Bella learns he has "imprinted" on her, a werewolf phenomenon that makes Jacob and Renesmee soul-mates.Meanwhile, Bella's father, Charlie, has been trying to contact the Cullens for updates on Bella's health. Carlisle, the Cullen patriarch and a medical doctor, announces that they have to leave Forks, Washington, to protect their identities.
Jacob, desperate not to lose Renesmee, visits Charlie and tells him that Bella is alive and vaguely describes that she has transformed, revealing his wolf form to Charlie to persuade him to stop asking further questions. Charlie goes to the Cullen house to see Bella and meet Renesmee. He accepts that Bella is now recovered but somehow different, though he does not know what has changed or where Renesmee came from, instead accepting she is "adopted".
Several months pass with Carlisle monitoring Renesmee's rapid growth. The vampire Irina spots Renesmee in the forest and mistakenly assumes she is an "immortal child": a type of vampire transformed in childhood who, because it cannot be reasoned with or trained, sucks the blood out of humans uncontrollably. The creation of such children is outlawed by the vampire leadership, the Volturi, and anyone caught with one is executed on the spot. Irina reports the supposed crime to the Volturi.
After Edward's sister Alice, who can see glimpses of the future, experiences a vision of the Volturi and Irina coming to kill the Cullens, she instructs the others to gather as many witnesses as they can to testify that Renesmee is not an immortal child.
As the Volturi serve punishments swiftly, the Cullens and their werewolf allies prepare for a possible battle. Bella soon realizes she has a special ability: a powerful mental shield that had protected her from Edward's mind-reading even when she was human, which she is taught to extend to protect others from vampire superpowers.
The army of the Volturi arrives in Forks, led by Aro, who can read people's minds by touching them. Seeing the Cullens alongside their witnesses and allies, the Volturi hesitate. The Cullens are able to prove to Aro that Renesmee is not an immortal child.
However, the Volturi are eager to subdue the Cullens to forcibly enlist their talented members, so they summarily execute Irina for her mistake to provoke the Cullens into battle. But before an all-out fight breaks out, Alice appears in time to give Aro her vision of the future if fighting ensues.
In Alice's violent vision, Carlisle, Aro, and several others on both sides are killed, including other Volturi, Cullens, and werewolves. Aro, despite being afraid of the vision, still wants to execute Renesmee as she might be a threat to the vampires' secrecy.
Alice reveals their final witness, a Mapuche man from South America, who is a half-human half-vampire, just like Renesmee. He proves that he is not a threat, supporting the notion that Renesmee is not one either. The Volturi unhappily leave, Aro concluding that there will be no battle today.
Back at the Cullen home, Alice glimpses the future, seeing Edward and Bella greeting Jacob and a fully matured Renesmee, also a couple, on a sun-dappled beach. Edward reads Alice's mind and feels relieved that Renesmee has Jacob to protect her.
Alone in their favorite meadow, Bella pushes her mental shield away and finally allows Edward to see into her mind, showing him every moment they have shared together in a montage. They kiss after Bella tells him, "nobody has ever loved anybody as much as I love you", and he romantically responds "There’s one exception".
Cast
- Kristen Stewart as Bella Cullen
- Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
- Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
- Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee Cullen
- Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen
- Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale
- Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen
- Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen
- Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen
- Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale
- Billy Burke as Charlie Swan
- Michael Sheen as Aro
- Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius
- Dakota Fanning as Jane
- Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus
- Cameron Bright as Alec
- Casey LaBow as Kate
- MyAnna Buring as Tanya
- Maggie Grace as Irina
- Lee Pace as Garrett
- Christian Camargo as Eleazar
- Mía Maestro as Carmen
- Noel Fisher as Vladimir
- Guri Weinberg as Stefan
- Joe Anderson as Alistair
- Angela Sarafyan as Tia
- Rami Malek as Benjamin
- Daniel Cudmore as Felix
- Judith Shekoni as Zafrina
- Tracey Heggins as Senna
- Charlie Bewley as Demetri
- J. D. Pardo as Nahuel
- Marisa Quinn as Huilen
- Booboo Stewart as Seth Clearwater
- Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater
- Alex Rice as Sue Clearwater
- Wendell Pierce as J. Jenks
- Lateef Crowder as Santiago
- Andrea Powell as Sasha
- Billy Wagenseller as Vasilii
- Toni Trucks as Mary
- Andrea Gabriel as Kebi
- Chaske Spencer as Sam Uley
- Omar Metwally as Amun
- Valorie Curry as Charlotte
- Marlane Barnes as Maggie
- Erik Odom as Peter
- Lisa Howard as Siobhan
- Bill Tangradi as Randall
- Patrick Brennan as Liam
- Amadou Ly as Henri
- Janelle Froehlich as Yvette
- Masami Kosaka as Toshiro
- Grazi Nunes as Wolf Grazi
Production
Development
On June 10, 2010, Summit Entertainment announced that a two-part adaptation of the novel Breaking Dawn would start filming in November and made clear that all major actors would return for both parts.Pre-production
By August 2010, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg said that the scripts for Part 1 and 2 were 75 to 85 percent completed. She found the greatest challenge in writing the scripts to be the final sequence of Part 2, explaining, "The final battle sequence is a big challenge because it lasts 25 pages. It's almost an entire three-act story in and of itself. You have to track hundreds of characters. It's an enormous challenge to choreograph on the page and for Bill Condon|Bill to choreograph on the stage." She had written various drafts of the scene but, at the time, hadn't revised or discussed them with Condon yet. She said, "That's the next big hurdle to sit down with the stunt coordinator and create the ballet. It's a lot of work. I'm exhausted, but we're intent on making them the best scripts yet." Producer Wyck Godfrey called Part 2 "an action film in terms of life-and-death stakes" and said that in Part 1 "there are the pangs of newlywed tension that occur that are relatable even in a fantasy film. Marriage is not quite the experience that they thought it was."Godfrey considered releasing the second film in 3D to differentiate between the time before and after Bella becomes a vampire, an idea originally proposed for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but said that the decision was up to Condon. However, he said that if the second film were to be released in 3D, he would like to shoot it with the proper equipment in "real" 3D as was done with Avatar, not convert it into 3D in post-production as was done with Clash of the Titans.
Filming
Principal photography started on November 1, 2010, and wrapped on April 22, 2011, ending the franchise's three years of production since March 2008. Filming was shot on location in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana; and Vancouver, Canada. Filming also occurred at Raleigh Studios in Baton Rouge.On the subject of the final day and her final moment as Bella, Stewart stated, "After that scene, my true final scene, I felt like I could shoot up into the night sky and every pore of my body would shoot light. I felt lighter than I've ever felt in my life."
In April 2012, the crew and some of the cast, including Pattinson and Stewart, returned for reshoots to pick up some additional shots for technical work. These re-shoots did not include any new scenes or dialogue.