Werewolf Movies

Underworld: Evolution is the second film in the Underworld series, following Underworld in 2003. Evolution continues the feud between Vampires and Lycans, but highlights glimpses of their origins some centuries ago.

Underworld Evolution is an immediate follow-up to Underworld. Therefore, the events of Evolution begin during the same night of the first film’s finale, and ends only one night later. It has several more constructive plot elements than its predecessor.

The movie opens in the year 1202 AD in which an army led by three vampire elders (Markus, Viktor, and Amelia) arrives at a ravaged village. The vampire army is attacked by Lycans, and a battle erupts. Viktor and Amelia capture Markus’s brother William Corvinus, the first and most powerful werewolf. Viktor orders that William be imprisoned in a secret location forever.

The story then continues the present-day timeline, starting immediately after the events of the first film. Selene takes Michael to a vampire safe house so that she can return to the mansion to confront Kraven, the traitor from the first movie. However, Singe’s blood has already awakened Markus, who wipes out the entire remnant of Kraven and his men and the mansion as retribution for Viktor’s treachery. He learns Selene and Michael’s location from camera surveillance of various safe houses and leaves to track them down. When confronted by Markus, Selene defends her actions, and Markus agrees that Viktor got what he deserved. However, he believes Selene is hiding something and attacks her; Michael intervenes and protects her. Markus tries and fails to get hold of the pendant that the two have in their possession, which they were given by Lucian. They escape and seek refuge in an abandoned warehouse. During that time, they make love to one another.

Meanwhile, Lorenz Macaro, an elderly and imposing man, sends in a team of “Cleaners” to investigate the aftermath from the final battle in the first movie. When Macaro examines Viktor’s body he finds a metal disk attached to his ribcage similar to Sonja’s pendant, which Selene and Michael possessed. Now knowing that the pendant is of some importance to Markus, Michael and Selene set out to solve its mystery. Selene recalls that she’d seen it as a child, but doesn’t know its significance. To find answers, they travel to the hideout of Andreas Tanis, who is an exiled vampire historian and old enemy of Selene, as she was the one who exiled him. After dispatching the various Lycans and Vampires guarding Tanis, they confront him and discover that Tanis had been secretly trading vampire-killing weapons with Lycans and forces him to tell them as much as he can.

Tanis reveals that Markus, not Viktor, was the first vampire. One of the two sons of Alexander Corvinus, he was bitten by a bat and became a vampire; his twin brother, William Corvinus, was bitten by a wolf and became a Lycan. Unlike later Lycans, William and the Lycans created by him are entirely animal and unable to take human form again. Due to William’s wanton destructiveness, Markus approached Viktor, a warlord dying of old age, and offered to turn him and his army into immortal vampires in exchange for tracking down and stopping William. As seen in the film’s opening flashback, Markus intended to capture his brother and tame him, but Viktor betrays Markus and orders William locked away forever. Viktor is ultimately falsely regarded as the first vampire and is happy to assume this role as both William and Markus are in hibernation. He does not kill the brothers because he believes doing so would result in the immediate extinction of all other vampires and Lycans. Killing William would mean Viktor would lose his slaves and killing Markus would kill Viktor himself. Tanis also reveals that Selene’s father was the architect who built William’s prison and that the pendant is a key. Viktor thought that her family knew too much about its location, so he killed and fed on them and then turned Selene into a vampire. Tanis then refers Selene and Michael to Lorenz Macaro, stating he can help stop Markus. Shortly after they leave, Markus arrives and questions Tanis. He then kills Tanis to absorb his memories.

Selene and Michael go to see Lorenz Macaro, whom Selene realizes is actually Alexander Corvinus, Markus and William’s father and the oldest of the immortals. He reveals he has devoted his life to containing the vampire-lycan war away from the mortal world. However, Alexander refuses to help kill Markus as he is his son. Their debate is stopped when Markus attacks the boat. He learns the location of William’s hidden prison by drinking Selene’s blood and proceeds to kill Michael and mortally wound Alexander to obtain the other half of the pendant. Markus reveals that he wishes to become a god and rule a race of Hybrids. Once Markus has left, Selene talks with the dying Alexander and he has her drink his blood, stating that by doing so she will become ‘the future’.

Selene leads the cleaners to the prison to confront and destroy Markus, but Markus has already freed William. A battle ensues in which Selene and the Cleaners seem to be losing. William bites the Cleaners and begins turning them into Lycans. Michael, presumed to be dead inside his bodybag, suddenly regenerates and joins the fight in his Hybrid form. Michael ultimately kills William, while Selene then kills Markus. Michael and Selene, the only survivors, stand in the morning sun. Selene reveals that she is no longer harmed by ultraviolet light. As the film ends, Selene narrates that she fears the days ahead, but is nevertheless hopeful.