Screamers: The Hunting

Screamers: The Hunting
DVD cover
Directed by	Sheldon Wilson
Screenplay by	Miguel Tejada-Flores
Story by	Miguel Tejada-Flores Tom Berry
Based on	"Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick
Produced by	Paul Pope Stefan Wodoslawsky
Starring	Gina Holden Greg Bryk Jana Pallaske Tim Rozon Stephen Amell Lance Henriksen
Cinematography	John P. Tarver
Edited by	Isabelle Levesque
Music by	Benoit Grey
Production companies	Reel One Entertainment Fries Film Company
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release date	February 17, 2009 (2009-02-17)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Screamers: The Hunting is a 2009 American science fiction horror film directed by Sheldon Wilson^[1] and starring Gina Holden, Jana Pallaske, Greg Bryk, Stephen Amell and Lance Henriksen. The film is a sequel to the 1995 film Screamers and was released on DVD on February 17, 2009.

On planet Sirius 6-B, three people approach a defunct communication bunker to turn on its distress beacon. Only one manages to survive and triggers the beacon, while the rest are killed by machines known as Screamers.

Two months later, a rescue team arrived at Sirius 6B on the Alliance Command spacecraft Medusa. The crew includes medical officer Schwartz, pilot Olof Soderquist among others.

Before planetfall, the ship's AI debriefs the crew about the history of Sirius 6B, up to the death of last known survivor Colonel Joseph Hendrickson. There has been no communication from Sirius 6B until the distress signal 2 months ago. It is presumed that the Screamers have all ran out of battery.

Specialist Rafe Danielli informs the team that an upcoming planet-wide solar meteor strike constrains their mission time to 6 days. While Soderquist remains behind to monitor the ship's status, the rest move out.

DAY 1

On the way to the distress signal's location, the ground team discover a dormant Screamer factory inside a hillside bunker. The presence of human bones confirms that screamers used parts of victims as raw materials. The team spends the night in the bunker. Commander Sexton downloads the screamer schematics by charging one of them, unknowingly reactivates the factory.

DAY 2

A screamer sneaks onboard Medusa and kills Soderquist. En route to a life-form reading within an old Berynium mine, the team is ambushed by unseen figures, as well as screamers. Romulo, too injured to move, urges the others to escape before using a grenade to kill the screamers. Commander Sexton orders an immediate retreat to Medusa, against Lt. Bronte's protests.

DAY 3

Aboard Medusa, the survivors discover Soderquist's corpse. Furthermore, a screamer drained the fuel cells, making return impossible. Lt. Bronte suggests making contact with the people from the mines, to which Commander Sexton agrees.

DAY 4

Lt. Bronte saves a survivor named Hannah, who leads them to the survivors in the mine. Guy, the survivors' leader, warns them that the latest variety of screamers can impersonate human. They have to rely on bloodletting to prove each other humans.

He tests Lt. Bronte by slicing her hand and his own- proving themselves to be human.

Commander Sexton states their objective while Lt. Bronte adds that the planet will soon be hit with a devastating meteor storm. She offers a safe return to Earth if they help find fuel cells.

They are informed that there were once 400 survivors but the screamers killed off most of them, and are shown a series of tunnel explosives to be detonated if the screamers gain entry to the mine. The remaining survivors say they subsist by scavenging for "what the land gives us." Lt. Bronte strays from the group and discovers 3 human teenagers bound to metal racks who plead for release. She notices blood and viscera on a dissection table and promises to return for them.

Upon rejoining the team Lt. Bronte relates her discovery. They release the prisoners who are revealed to be screamer cyborgs. They destroy one but Rafe Danielli is killed by another. The two remaining screamers escape and kill a guard. Back at the collective, Hannah begins showing signs of acute stress by compulsively sharpening her bone knife and muttering to herself. The screamer cyborgs ambush the group and kill a few survivors before Commander Sexton and Lt. Bronte destroy them. They hear screamers entering the mine and start to evacuate, detonating the tunnel explosives in their wake.

DAY 5

Commander Sexton announces that he's found another abandoned mine where they can spend the night. Guy says he knows of a power relay station where they might be able to find some fuel cells. During the night Hannah warns Lt. Bronte about Guy's "inhuman-like" behavior, but he interrupts her and she walks off. Privately Lt. Bronte reveals to Guy that she's the daughter of the deceased Alliance Colonel Joseph Hendrickson who had presumably committed suicide upon re-entry to Earth. Guy remarks that he was a fearless commander who must've had a reason for self-destructing his spacecraft.

DAY 6

The group enters the power relay station. Hannah mentions to Lt. Bronte that she has "never seen Guy sleep" and suddenly puts her knife to Guy's throat proclaiming he's a machine, but she's overpowered and killed by Commander Sexton. The group proceeds down the corridor while Schwartz elects to remain momentarily to cover Hannah's corpse. A screamer descends behind Schwartz and kills her. The team returns to find blood on the wall and several screamers advancing. A masked stranger appears ahead of them and insists they follow him to safety. As they run past he fires an electromagnetic weapon at the pursuing screamers which deactivates them.

Safe inside his laboratory, the stranger introduces himself as Eugene Orsow. They warn him about the impending meteor storm and their need for fuel cells to return to Earth. Orsow says there aren't any fuel cells, and that screamers are following them from the mine settlement and will converge on their position in just a few hours. He says the perimeter defense might hold them off.

Lt. Bronte catches Commander Sexton reviewing the downloaded screamer algorithms. He offers to cut her in on the profits but she refuses. Bronte speaks with Orsow who says he was a close friend of her father's. Orsow refutes her statement that Colonel Henrickson committed suicide. He reveals that he and her father were close friends but had a falling out over the former's invention of the screamers. He adds that Henrickson would only have destroyed his ship if screamers had been aboard.

Commander Sexton discovers Orsow installing fuel cells to the power grid. Orsow admits he doesn't want the group to leave Sirius 6B to prevent screamer technology from reaching Earth. Sexton wounds him with his electromagnetic weapon, removes Orsow's TAB, and begins to pull out the fuel cells. As the perimeter defenses deactivate, Orsow attacks Sexton but is killed. Sexton leaves with the fuel cells to join the others.

The facility computer announces that the compound has been breached and an automated self-destruct sequence has begun a 3-minute countdown. Rafe Danielli suddenly appears before the group. Startled by his presence since he was seen killed by the screamers, Danielli appears as having been simply wounded, but suddenly kills Madden revealing to have been transformed into a screamer. The pair escapes. The Danielli screamer encounters and attacks Commander Sexton, but is destroyed by Lt. Bronte. A dying Sexton implores Bronte to take the information disc containing screamer technology back to Earth, but she refuses and crushes the disc. Bronte and Guy leave Sexton and escape the facility as it is self-destructing.

Outside the pair deduce that Danielli is a new type of screamer: a hybrid resulting from biochemical implants into a human host. The storm is about to arrive so they hastily return to Medusa. Once inside they discover Madden has already gained entry and become a hybrid screamer from Danielli's attack. Madden suggests Bronte become a screamer like himself, but Guy destroys him using the electromagnetic cannon.

Bronte installs the fuel cells enabling Medusa to take off just as the meteor storm descends. The pair enter cryogenic sleep for the two-month return journey to Earth. They awaken when the ship arrives in orbit and Bronte notices she is pregnant but farther along than she should be for the allotted time. Guy assures her everything will be ok. She turns to him in horror as his eyes have gone black indicating he is a screamer hybrid. She pounds his chest with her fists while a view of the ship enters Earth's orbit. Inside her womb, the fetus raises a hand and protrudes a claw.

The final frame bears the message "The Beginning..."

• Gina Holden as Lieutenant Victoria Bronte
• Stephen Amell as Guy
• Jana Pallaske as Schwartz
• Tim Rozon as Madden
• Greg Bryk as Commander Andy Sexton
• Lance Henriksen as Orsow
• Christopher Redman as Rafe Danielli
• Jody Richardson as Soderquist
• Dave Lapommeray as Sergeant Romulo
• Holly Uloth as Hannah
• Darryl Hopkins as Dwight
• Stephen Lush as Bryce
• Lynley Hall as Jessie
• Shaun Johnston as Haggard Man
• Ruth Lawrence as Cave Woman

Bulletproof Action said, "It wasn’t award-winning or anything but there were enough good things to outweigh the bad. If you get a chance, check it out."^[2]

• List of adaptations of works by Philip K. Dick

• Screamers: The Hunting at AllMovie
• Screamers: The Hunting at Box Office Mojo
• Screamers: The Hunting at IMDb
• Screamers: The Hunting at Rotten Tomatoes