TROLL 2 – a film by Roar Uthaug – (speculative recap with spoilers) ⁓

Ten-year-old Nora Tidemann (India Johanna Midske) listens to her father Tobias (Gard B Eidsvold) tell her a bedtime story. “for a long time humans and trolls lived side by side in perfect harmony,” Tobias says, “until a new world order crept over Europe. In Norway a young king was assigned to Christianize the country — Olaf the Holy. The new faith had no room for primordial beings of the earth. From the safety of their dark forests Olaf drove them out into the sunlight, where they were turned to stone.”

“Olaf showed no mercy,” Tobias continued, “slaughtering everyone, both adults and children”. Young Nora is enjoying the tale, but her mother Mathilde (Thea Borring Lande) sees that Nora is still wide awake. She takes over and sings her daughter to sleep with a lullaby written by Margit Holmberg circa 1940:

When Troll Mama tucks in
Her eleven small trolls
And ties them all together
By their tails
She sings a sweet little song
To her eleven small trolls
The most beautiful words that she knows
Ho ai ai ai ai boff

Thirty years later and three years after the events of the previous Troll film, Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck) visits Professor Nora Tidemann at her home in Jötunheimen. (The mythical home of trolls, Jötunheimr, is one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology.) Isaksen persuades her to travel with him to Vemork, 500 kilometers south.

“The giants of Norse mythology were called Jötunn, or the Jötnar. Some were large, but all possessed some form of immense physical or mystical power that rivaled or surpassed the gods of the Norse pantheon. They represented both natural and mystical forces, compared to the Aesir representing characteristics of mankind.”
— Astrid, Seek Scandinavia

Tidemann is introduced to an operation called Project Jotan and shown an immense troll bound with chains. Project Director Marion Auriyn Rhadani (Sara Khorami) and Professors Møller and Wangel (Jon Ketil Johnsen and Duc Mai-The) explain that the troll is “chemically similar to the forest floor”, and its DNA is “more spruce tree than human”. It is in hibernation, and has only a faint pulse. A library of troll-related information dating from 1030 C.E. contains a fragment of Olaf the Holy’s Troll Law. Tidemann is both astonished and appalled at what she sees.

The troll has been held prisoner like this since World War II, and it is explained that the “Heroes of Telemark” (see the 1965 film by Anthony Mann) were responsible for its capture. Their story about a Nazi heavy water plant was just a cover for the start of Project Jotun.

When she can, Tidemann sneaks away and takes a lift up to the troll’s head. She puts her hand on his face and sings softly. As she is walking away, the troll awakens.

An unnamed technician returns to his monitoring console with a cup of coffee, as the troll begins pulling on its restraints. An order is given to turn on the UV lights designed to turn the creature to stone, but Rhadani knocks the tech’s coffee onto the switch, shorting it out. Like King Kong fleeing the flashbulbs of New York reporters, the troll escapes.

Sigrid and Isaksen

At Rygge Air Force Base, Isaksen introduces a pregnant Sigrid Hodne (Karoline Viktoria Sletteng Garvang) who also works there. Isaksen is the father of her child, and they have chosen baby names — Uhura if it is a girl, and Leonard otherwise.

The group meets with the Norwegian Prime Minister (Ola G Furuseth) and it is decided that the troll should be terminated, much to the dismay of Tidemann. She persuades the mission commander, Major Kristoffer Holm (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen) to allow Isaksen and herself to ride along, suggesting that he owes it to her father. (Major Holm was in charge of the previous troll mission. The military opened fire while Tobias was trying to talk to the troll, and Tobias was inadvertently killed by the distracted troll.) “My father was the happiest when he died that day,” Tidemann tells Holm, foreshadowing events to come.

Isaksen says goodbye to Sigrid. (He calls her “Siggy Stardust” and she calls him “Andropholus Maximus”.) As he is leaving she tells him: “Don’t try to be a hero, okay? You’re Clark Kent, not Superman.”

Heading north by helicopter, they find the troll at Hensdal Ski Resort. Curious about the noise from inside the building where a rave is happening, the troll tears off the roof of the place, and when the flash from a cell phone camera hits him in the eyes, he devours the picture taker along with a few others. As the crowd flees the building, one man ruthlessly elbows a woman out of his way in his haste to escape, and the troll makes a point of devouring him, suggesting that the creature does not kill indiscriminately.

The helicopters with their UV lamps are ineffective, and the troll escapes.

Tidemann has an idea and heads to a cave in the mountains. She carries with her a piece of the troll who died at Dovre (in the first film) and she taps that on a nearby rock five times. Soon after, a troll appears from the dark recesses of the cave. Tidemann places her hand on the troll’s face, just as she did when she woke the other troll at Vemork. She has Isakson do the same. “Don’t think, just feel,” she tells him. “Hello,” says Isaksen, addressing the Troll. “What do I call you?” Tidemann says: “I’ve been calling him ‘Beautiful’.” Then she asks Beautiful for a favour.

At Tidemann’s urging, Beautiful does battle with the renegade troll, but fails to stop him. Beautiful falls through the ice and is lost to sight.

Finding St. Olaf

Refueling at Dombras Air Ambulance Base, Rhadani looks at a map and concludes that the troll is following the pilgrimage route to Nidaros and the Saint Olaf Spring, a route that leads to Trondheim, 200 kilometers further north. When they arrive, they meet Esther Johanne Tiller (Anna Krigsvoll), a historian of sorts who knows Tidemann and Isaksen by reputation. They set out to find the grave of St. Olaf the Holy, who died at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 C.E. Five hundred and seven years later, St. Olaf’s burial shrine was destroyed by the Danes and his remains were moved to a still unknown location.

Tidemann locates the King’s remains in a hidden chamber under Nidaros Cathedral. Olaf’s silver ceremonial sword is buried with him, as is the missing part of his Troll Law, which indicates that rather than expelling the trolls, Olaf planned to guarantee them a homeland. An underground spring flows through the chamber, and it is discovered that its water dissolves troll flesh. Major Holm quickly weaponizes the stuff, and when the troll arrives in Trondheim, launches a mortar attack using shells loaded with spring water.

The Battle of Trondheim

Beautiful, defeated in his first encounter with the renegade Troll, arrives in Trondheim to rejoin the fight, and again Beautiful appears to be beaten. Isaksen and Major Holm take to the air for one final try.

Aware of what he must do, he phones the pregnant Sigrid and quotes Mr. Spock (from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn). “The needs of the many…,” he says, and she responds “…outweigh the needs of the few.”

“Please, Siggy,” says Isaksen, “tell our little miracle that papa was…” The phone connection is lost, but Sigrid pauses for a moment, then finishes his sentence again. “Superman,” she says.

Carrying the bomb and a hand grenade to detonate it, Isaksen dives from the ‘copter into the Troll’s mouth. After the explosion, the final blow is struck by Beautiful who has rejoined the fight, so the parallel with King Kong holds, even though no one actually repeats the line uttered by Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) at the end of the 1933 RKO film: “It was Beauty killed the Beast.”

Watch the end credits for what is likely a strong hint about Troll 3.

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TROLL 2 can be streamed on Netflix.