The Adventures of Hercules (also known as The Adventures of Hercules II) is the 1985 sequel to the film Hercules. It was written and directed by Luigi Cozzi (who also directed the previous film), and had Lou Ferrigno reprising his role as the title character.

Summary[link]

The film begins in outer space, just as the first film does, and begins with a retelling of the Universe's creation story (see below). This is followed by the opening titles which are accompanied by short clips that highlight the key parts of the first movie.

The plot begins with a story about the story of Zeus' Seven Mighty Thunderbolts that kept peace. One day, other vengeful gods (Aphrodite, Hera, Poseidon, Flora) stole these lightning bolts to create chaos. The lack of these thunderbolts has rendered Zeus powerless and sent the Moon on a collision course with the Earth. As the humans on Earth begin to suffer, two sisters named Urania and Glaucia speaks to the Little People and learns that only Hercules can save them now. After hesitation, Zeus finally decides to send Hercules back from the stars to Earth to aid the humans, but the vengeful gods resurrect their own warrior: King Minos. They believe that King Minos, with the help of Dedalos (Daedalus in the first film, see below), can defeat Zeus with science. Thus begins Hercules' quest to find the Seven Mighty Thunderbolts, which are hidden inside monsters across the Universe. Firstly, Hercules fights and defeats an ape-like creature and retrieves the first thunderbolt. Meanwhile, the four gods bring King Minos back to life with some help, Hercules also teams up with Glaucia and rescues her sister Urania from hideous monsters called the Slime People. They are overwhelmed by their huge numbers and they flee into a cave where they meet Euryale. The cave is full of stone statues and Hercules and the sisters battle some more monsters, while Euryale walks away and reveals herself to be a snake-haired, half-woman, half-scorpion Gorgon. Using his shield as a mirror, Hercules avoids getting turned into stone and manages to decapitate Euryale, and retrieves the second thunderbolt. Hercules and the two sisters sail to an island and enter an old, haunted forest with strange human dolls hanging from the trees. He is then attacked by a demonic sorcerer knight but Hercules overwhelms the knight and impales him onto a poison thorn branch, revealing the third thunderbolt. Glaucia is captured by a high priest's soldiers to be sacrificed to a deadly fire monster, Urania then rescues her while Hercules battles the monster summoned by the priest and defeats it by throwing around the Earth until it crashes into the sea, also revealing the fourth thunderbolt. Hercules and Glaucia then battle some Amazon warriors but he is captured by them, Urania wakes Hercules up and he strangles their leader, the Queen of the Spiders. The three travel up in space where Urania reveals the location of sixth thunderbolt, Glaucia tries to kill Urania, and Minos appears and reveals that when both Hercules and Urania had lost Glaucia, he commanded Poseidon to use the waters to drain her life. Hercules battles Minos who transforms into a dinosaur and Hercules transforms into an ape and manages to destroy Minos once and for all. The warrior finally finally deals with the Earth and the Moon problem, he grows into giant size and stops them from colliding into each other. Both Hercules and Urania are honored by Zeus and become gods and are able to live with them.

Cast[link]

• Lou Ferrigno as Hercules
• Milly Carlucci as Urania
• Sonia Viviani as Glaucia
• William Berger as King Minos
• Carla Ferrigno as Athena (as Carlotta Green)
• Claudio Cassinelli as Zeus
• Ferdinando Poggi as Poseidon (as Nando Poggi)
• Maria Rosaria Omaggio as Hera
• Venantino Venantini as High Priest
• Laura Lenzi as Flora
• Margit Evelyn Newton as Aphrodite (as Margie Newton)
• Cindy Leadbetter as Ilia
• Raf Baldassarre as Atreus
• Serena Grandi as Euryale
• Eva Robin's as Dedalos

Discontinuity between the films[link]

Many of the elements of the first film's story were changed in the second movie. The creation of the Universe, which is described as the result of an exploding jar in the first film, is changed in the sequel to be the creation of "an ancient angel-like figure: a goddess whom the ancients named Emperia. From within her came the Seed of Light." Somehow, this Seed of Light created the Universe.

Also the character Daedalus who created the robots for King Minos in the first Hercules was renamed "Dedalos" in the sequel. This may be due to the discrepancies between the screenplay and Greek and Roman mythology, especially that of gender.

External links[link]

• The Adventures of Hercules at the Internet Movie Database
• The Adventures of Hercules at AllRovi
• The Adventures of Hercules at the TCM Movie Database

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The Adventures are a Northern Irish rock group, formed in Belfast in 1984.

The band later moved to London where they signed to Chrysalis Records and released their first single in 1984. Following their debut album released a year later the group moved to Elektra Records and scored their biggest hit, "Broken Land". The song was written by guitarist Pat Gribben and reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart,^[1] and was also the most played song on BBC Radio 1 in 1988.^{[citation needed]}

The band were actively recording and touring from 1984 up until 1993, and despite the backing of Simon Fuller, The Adventures never achieved a significant commercial breakthrough. In recent years, the band have reformed to play low key live gigs and festivals in Belfast, although no further studio recordings have been made.

Background[link]

Lead vocalist Terry Sharpe and guitarist Pat Gribben first worked together when in 1978 they joined punk band The Starjets. The band experienced limited success and disbanded in the early 1980s.^[2] Sharpe and Gribben then formed The Adventures in early 1984 with Gribben's wife, Eileen, Gerard Murphy, Tony Ayre and Paul Crowder. They signed to Chrysalis Records and were taken on by upcoming manager, Simon Fuller, who saw them achieve much publicity and promotion in the music press. Despite this promising start, their debut single, "Another Silent Day", released in the summer of 1984, barely scraped into the chart.^[1] Further singles were released, "Send My Heart", "Feel the Raindrops", and "Two Rivers", all of which were minor hits in the UK Chart, but no major breakthrough was achieved.^[3] Their debut album, Theodore and Friends, was released in 1985 while the group were on a world tour supporting Tears for Fears. It received much critical acclaim, but again no significant sales.

The band laid low for the next two years. During this time, main songwriter Pat Gribben composed some new songs for a second album and the band left Chrysalis Records and were picked up by Elektra Records. With another burst of promotion and heavy airplay, their new single "Broken Land" became their first significant hit, reaching #20 in the UK Singles Chart and spent 10 weeks on the chart.^[1] The single was quickly followed up by the album, The Sea of Love, which reached #30 and also remained on the charts for 10 weeks.^[4] The follow-up singles, "Drowning in the Sea of Love" and "One Step From Heaven", failed to reach as highly and stalled at #44 and #82 respectively, though the album was certified Silver (for 60,000 copies sold) by the BPI in 1989, a year after its release.

The band combined pop/rock with a folk music sound for their third album, Trading Secrets with the Moon. Released in early 1990 along with a couple of singles, the album failed to capitalise on their earlier success and only appeared briefly on the UK Albums Chart, stalling at #64.^[5] This ended their contract with Elektra.

With another rethink and now down to a quartet, The Adventures returned in 1992 with the single "Raining All Over the World". Now signed to Polydor Records, the song reached #68, and was to be the group's final chart appearance.^[1] A fourth album, Lions and Tigers and Bears, was released in 1993, produced by ex-Vibrators bassist Pat Collier at London's Greenhouse Recording Studios. Despite featuring a new single, a contemporary reworking of the 1960s hit "Monday Monday", the album met with tepid response and failed to chart. The group were then dropped by Polydor, and essentially broke up soon after.

Pat Gribben continues to write songs and is currently working with singer Ryan Molloy, while Terry Sharpe spent some years performing in a cover band, The Dead Handsomes. The Adventures regrouped briefly in 2007 for some gigs in Belfast, but no major reunion was ever organised. They regrouped again in 2009 to perform further small scale gigs in Belfast, as well as appearances at the Time To Be Proud and Féile an Phobail festivals during the summer.

Former bass player Tony Ayre died on 20 December 2009.^[6]

Band members[link]

• Terry Sharpe - lead vocals
• Eileen Gribben - vocals
• Gerry "Spud" Murphy - guitar, percussion
• Tony Ayre - bass (deceased)
• Pat Gribben - guitar
• Paul Crowder - drums+
• Jonathan Whitehead - keyboards+

+ - studio only

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Allmusic Guide overview of The Adventures