F/X man Rollie Tyler is now a toymaker. Mike, the ex-husband of his girlfriend Kim, is a cop. He asks Rollie to help catch a killer. The operation goes well until some unknown man kills both the killer and Mike. Mike's boss, Silak says it was the killer who killed Mike but Rollie knows it wasn't. Obviously, Silak is involved with Mike's death, so he calls on Leo McCarthy, the cop from the last movie, who is now a P.I., for help and they discover it's not just Silak they have to worry about.
Practical Effects
The clown robot and toy store chaos — pure practical effects joy
Acting
Dennehy and Brown's grumpy divorced dad energy, reunited
Direction
Franklin keeps sequel bloat surprisingly tight at 108 mins
Director
Richard Franklin
Bryan Brown
Roland 'Rollie' Tyler
Brian Dennehy
Leo McCarthy
Rachel Ticotin
Kim Brandon
Joanna Gleason
Liz Kennedy, Assistant DA
Philip Bosco
Lt. Ray Silak, NYPD
Kevin J. O'Connor
Matt Neely
Tom Mason
Mike Brandon, NYPD
Caroline Yeager
Desk Sergeant
Damir Andrei
Defense Attorney
Dominic Zamprogna
Chris Brandon
Jossie DeGuzman
Velez
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'Cyborg Clown' robot was a real animatronic built for the film, not CGI — and reportedly terrified child extras during the toy store sequence.
Released four months after Terminator 2, this was one of the last big studio action films to proudly lean into practical effects before CGI dominance. The meta-plot about 'real' vs. 'fake' feels almost defensive in retrospect.
US
