Warning: Spoilers for Happy Gilmore 2’s opening scene below
Happy Gilmore is a classic underdog story, and in it, Adam Sandler’s hero gets an underdog’s feel-good ending. He starts the movie at rock bottom, staring down the impending repossession of his grandmother’s house with no real prospect of earning the money to buy it back. He discovers his talent for golf, works his way up in comedically chaotic fashion, and ends the movie utterly triumphant.
After sinking the improbable putt to win the Tour Championship, everything goes his way. He not only wins the house back, but fame, fortune, and a stable pro golf career along with it. He gets Grandma Gilmore out of that nursing home and settles down with Virginia. It seems like everything is in place for Happy to truly be happy.
And, according to Happy Gilmore 2, he was for a good while. But what took Happy Gilmore 92 minutes to build only required the sequel’s first four minutes to burn to the ground.
Only fame is left, and all that really does is salt the wound.
The new movie’s opening minutes are spent catching us up, with Sandler’s voiceover guiding us through a montage of moments from Happy’s post-Championship life. He continued on the trajectory the original movie laid out for him, up until the moment a shanked drive of his struck and killed his loving wife. From there, it all falls apart.
Virginia’s gone, and domestic bliss along with her. Happy descends into alcoholism. He abandons golf, abruptly ending his successful career. Thanks to his unchecked rage, he loses his fortune along with the house. It’s as if the life he’d earned for himself in the first film had been systematically dismantled. Only fame is left, and all that really does is salt the wound.
It was a jarring way to start Happy Gilmore 2, for me especially, since I’d seen the original for the time only recently – Happy’s happily-ever-after was still fresh. But it was also totally necessary for the new movie to work.
Happy Gilmore’s Original Ending Couldn’t Have Lasted
Happy Gilmore 2 Wouldn’t Have Worked If Happy Was… Happy
There’s a nice symmetry to the openings of these two movies. Happy Gilmore 2‘s montage echoes many of the same emotional beats as the original’s, right down to a beloved family member’s sudden death by sports implement. This new film does a lot to remind you of the first movie – it’s the kind of play for nostalgia that’s become standard for legacyquels.
But, in this particular case, there’s more to it than that. A lot of Adam Sandler’s comedic persona is powered by him being relatable but (at first) out of his element, and Happy Gilmore in particular is predicated on the contrast between crude, hockey-loving Happy and the elitist, sanitized world of golf. We laugh both at and with him at various times, but ultimately, we root for him to succeed.
At the same time, Happy’s original arc is rooted in real pain and growth.
By the end of the first movie, there’s nowhere left for Happy to go. He’s no longer at odds with his environment. For Happy Gilmore 2 to tell an underdog tale of its own, he had to be brought back down low, so he could be forced to climb his way up again.
At the same time, Happy’s original arc is rooted in real pain and growth. The film doesn’t overstate it, but the death of his loving, supportive father is what fuels Happy’s rage, and over the course of the first movie we watch him heal that wound. Giving Sandler’s character that emotional grounding is part of why it’s so cathartic to watch him win.
So, Happy Gilmore 2 gives him a new wound.
Killing off Virginia almost immediately was a gutsy choice, but I think it was the right one. If Happy had to walk another difficult path to an underdog victory, I’m glad the filmmakers decided on something that could be as significant to him as losing his father was the first time around.
