Happy Gilmore 2 is the latest comedy from Adam Sandler, a sequel to his 1996 movie about an amateur hockey player who turns his attention to professional golfing. The film picks up almost three decades after Gilmore’s game-changing victory on the US Golf Tour, as he’s dragged out of retirement to help pay for his daughter’s ballet school. Happy Gilmore 2 is now available on Netflix.

Much like the original movie, Happy Gilmore 2 is filled with celebrity cameos and offbeat characters that help to create the unique brand of comedy that Adam Sandler is so well-known for. Sandler has recently provided several great dramatic roles, but Happy Gilmore 2 is a welcome reminder of just how entertaining he can be when given a sharp comedy script.

How Did Happy Manage To Beat The Maxi Golfers?

Gilmore Wasn’t A Favorite To Win The Match

Despite their surgical enhancements and huge financial backing from Frank Manatee, the Maxi Golf team still doesn’t manage to beat Happy Gilmore and his professional golfing colleagues in the final moments of Happy Gilmore 2. It’s a happy ending all around for the golfing community, and it was only possible because of their infallible team spirit and adherence to the spirit of the game.

Happy Gilmore’s story is largely about the importance of traditional sports and the way many top-level tournaments are being morphed into entertainment spectacles that don’t maintain the spirit of the game. Happy’s natural talent and his love for golf are what push him to victory over Maxi Golf’s soulless drive for success, strengthening this central tenet of the movie.

Happy and his teammates may have had the physical advantage if they’d undergone the hip surgery that made players like Billy so successful, but they would have lost their integrity in the process. Instead, Happy drew from his love for his family (and hatred for Hal) to give him the boost he needed.

Everything Happy Won By Defeating The Maxi Golf Team

It Wasn’t Just His Daughter’s Tuition

However, the idea of putting Frank Manatee in his place wasn’t the only thing driving Happy to success in that final match. The prospect of sending his daughter, Vienna, to a ballet academy in Paris was the main reason he came out of retirement in the first place – but as he approached the final hole, Happy spotted the perfect opportunity to get even more out of Frank.

Before making his final sH๏τ, Happy bargains with the Maxi Golf leader for even more conditions upon victory: Vienna’s ballet tuition, the return of his grandmother’s house, Frank’s luxury sports car, and an Italian restaurant for his caddy Oscar. He manages to secure something for all of Happy Gilmore 2’s main characters, relying on Frank’s blind greed and desperation to extort as much as possible.

Why Did Shooter Team Up With Happy And The Pro Golfers?

The Golfer Spent His Whole Life Resenting His Rival

One of the most surprising elements of Happy Gilmore 2 is the dynamic between Adam Sandler’s protagonist as Christopher McDonald’s antagonist, Shooter McGavin. The pair were relentless adversaries in the first movie, but Happy Gilmore 2 sees Happy and Shooter working together on the pro golfers’ team against the Maxi Golfer squad.

Even after spending most of his life in a psychiatric hospital for reasons that Shooter still attributes to Happy, the golfer manages to put his vendetta aside to work against their common enemy: the destruction of traditional golf by Frank Manatee. This proves just how much Shooter cares about the game, and even allows him to redeem himself by making a game-winning sH๏τ.

Why Did The FBI Raid Hal’s AA Meeting?

Ben Stiller’s Antagonist Finally Paid For His Behavior

The return of Ben Stiller’s character Hal was one of Happy Gilmore 2’s best decisions, and the criminal finally gets his comeuppance in the final moments of the film. After taking advantage of the members of Happy’s alcoholics anonymous group for months on end, Hal is finally arrested by the FBI on charges of fraud and extortion.

Although Ben Stiller has been moving away from comedies recently, his performance in Happy Gilmore 2 proves that he’s still just as comfortable within the genre. The way he portrays his character’s final moments of freedom is some of Happy Gilmore 2’s funniest material, and his reaction to discovering that Charlotte was an FBI mole all along is just as entertaining.

Will Happy Stay Out Of Retirement?

The Post-Credits Sequence Seems To Suggest So

Although Happy manages to win the Maxi Golf tour and successfully send his daughter to ballet school in France, the protagonist doesn’t seem quite certain at the end of the film whether he’s going to remain out of retirement or not. Thankfully, a subtle detail in the movie’s post-credits scene confirms that Happy does, indeed, continue golfing.

After Happy suggests at the airport that he’s going to play again soon, the news report in the post-credits sequence reveals that both Happy and Shooter McGavin traveled to the British Open, with the unlikely hero leading his old rival by two strokes. While there was little doubt that Happy wouldn’t be able to stay away from golf, the news chyron offers welcome confirmation.

Is This The End Of Maxi Golf?

Manatee’s Company Seems To Be Going Under

While there’s no official confirmation that Maxi Golf is over as a company following Happy’s victory at the finals, the fate of Frank Manatee seems to suggest that his revolutionary golf tour is rapidly falling in popularity. The news report at the end of the film expresses that “bad news just keeps coming for Maxi”, with the newsreader referring to the league as a “spectacular failure.”

While it’s certainly possible that Maxi Golf could return in a potential sequel if Happy Gilmore 2 is well-received, it seems more likely that Frank Manatee’s career is pretty much over. Not only did his golf league fail, but he’s also caught up in a news scandal concerning a recall of Maxi Sports Drink that’s sure to stain his reputation even further.

The True Meaning Of Happy Gilmore 2’s Ending

The Film Is A Celebration Of The Sporting Community

On the surface, Happy Gilmore 2 is a movie about resisting the ongoing transformation of traditional sporting events into entertainment spectacles. Manatee’s tasteless “Maxi Golf” is an obvious allegory for this process that’s happening in several major sports, and Happy’s decision to team up with some of golf’s leading names is a very feel-good way of approaching this commentary.

On a more character-driven level, Happy Gilmore 2 is a story about putting one’s family first and not letting anybody stop you from achieving your true potential. Like many of Sandler’s best movies, that message is quite firmly hidden behind some slapstick comedy and silly jokes, but the poignant storytelling is still there.