Zenon: The Zequel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zenon: The Zequel

Directed by	Manny Soto
Produced by	Diane Gutterud Suzanne Coston Suzanne De Passe Stu Krieger
Written by	Marilyn Sadler Roger Bollen (novel) Stu Krieger (teleplay)
Starring	Kirsten Storms Phillip Rhys Stuart Pankin Tom Wright Stephen Lovatt
Music by	Sabelle Breer Jamie Dunlap Stu Krieger Phil Marshall Bill Pearson Kristina Rex
Distributed by	Disney Channel
Release date(s)	January 12, 2001
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
Budget	N/A
Preceded by	Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century
Followed by	Zenon: Z3
IMDb profile

Zenon: The Zequel is a Disney Channel Original Movie and the second installment of the Disney Channel's "Zenon" TV movie series, followed by Zenon: Z3 and following the first installment, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 See also
4 Trivia
5 External Cast

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 2051, two years after the original, Zenon is still enjoying her special privileges garnered from saving the Space Station from Wyndham and Lutz. With Nebula, she accesses a restricted area of the ship with her authorized pass and begins to play a "game" that resembles Pong. Unbeknownst to her, the game is actually controlling the air lock in Commander Plank's office, and as Zenon and Nebula miss hitting the balls, the items such as Commander Plank's chair, his desk, and his nameplate, go floating out into space.

Much to her dismay, the captain eventually finds out and furiously rescinds her special authorization to restricted areas. He thinks that her time would be best spent helping out Orion search for aliens from the satellite room in the Space Station.

Reluctantly, Zenon succumbs and spends her free time falling asleep in the room while Orion monitors alien activity. At one point, Orion leaves her alone in the room to do the monitoring, and an alarm clock goes off that snaps Zenon out of a stupor, who then proceeds to run around crying, "ALIENS!" before running into the commander. The commander presents to her the alarm clock and says her first day of work has come to an end.

Eventually, Zenon is again monitoring for alien activity and picks up an overload of paranormal reception as well as a series of 'Zum' sounds. She runs out to tell the commander what she's found, but because of the last incident and general pragmatism, he doesn't believe her. He also concedes to her that he had only put her there to keep her busy and out of his way, and that she wasn't actually supposed to find anything. She eventually gets him to go look in the room, but by then it is too late and the noises and spiking read-outs have passed.

Later, Zenon is seen having a conversation with her mother about the aliens she's discovered and asks if she believes her. Astrid says that she believes Zenon thinks she's seen aliens, but doesn't give her own opinion on them. Just then, a newscast comes on citing that ever since the famous singer Protozoa's concert in space, he has entered a decline in his career and can no longer be found. Zenon wonders what could have possibly happened to him as she goes back to work. Once again, the 'Zum' sounds play and she realizes how close they sound to the "Zoom Zoom Zoom" in Protozoa's song lyrics of Super Nova Girl. Discovering this, she becomes convinced that these events are linked and that if she finds Protozoa, she will get to meet these aliens.

Meanwhile, the ship has wandered out of its original orbit, presumably from the damage incurred from Wyndham's super virus two years previous. This prompts the United States Military to board the space station in order to investigate, and figure out what the best plan of action may be. Much to Zenon's chagrin, she discovers that the daughter of the head military man she's told to look after is actually Margie, the rude girl from her previous adventure down on Earth. Zenon warns Margie that she better not get in her way because the Space Station is her turf, but Margie turns it around on her and threatens to tell her father that she's not making her happy, and because she has him "wrapped around her little finger", he will force her family to move back to Earth.

Disgusted by this ultimatum, Zenon relents and lets Margie start controlling her life and bossing her around, doing menial tasks for her. Soon Margie is demanding that Zenon lend her some of her outfits. Zenon almost puts a stop to it right there and keeps her from taking them, but another threat finally gets her to let go of the outfit.

All of this manipulation leads to a comical musical interlude wherein Zenon becomes severely annoyed at how Margie takes the last dessert from the dining area, and retaliates by painting Margie's toenails, and while she's not looking, adds Superglue to the nail polish, so that when Margie tries to take off her sock later it's glued to her foot. "Zenon!!!", declares Margie in a mixture between annoyance and anger. It seems, however, that Margie is winning the war because her highfalutin lifestyle and 'stellanarious' gadgets are impressing all of Zenon's friends, while Zenon is becoming known as "the girl who cried alien." This makes her really green with envy and distressed to the point where she becomes very emotional and screams into a pillow.

The Military, meanwhile, has begun to jettison sections of the Space Station off into space with the hope of pushing the station back into orbit. This really worries Zenon and her friend Nebula because they're afraid that their section will be next to go and they will have to move down to Earth to live. To Nebula's horror, her area in the station has been marked for jettison, and she now has only a certain amount of time before she has to pack up and relocate down to Earth. This realization snaps Zenon out of her angst and she and Nebula make up with each other just in time for Nebula to leave for Earth. Zenon tells Nebula that she must try the "stellar o-rings" (onion rings) when she gets there, because people on the Space Station are only used to wholesome food grown hydroponically, and not exposed to greasy junk.

Still very interested in pursuing these aliens, and upset with the injustice of her friend Nebula being forced to leave for Earth, it is not long before the ever-mischievous Zenon gets herself in trouble with the Military and is confined to her room by her parents. Instead of behaving, Zenon programs one of the gadgets in her room to respond with her voice saying she's 'busy' and to 'go away' whenever someone knocks on her door. She then proceeds to sneak into a crate inside a shuttle that is bound for Earth. When she arrives, she eventually tips her crate over and crawls out, where she's disgusted to be met by Margie who gloats about having escaped her crate "a full ten minutes ago." Zenon inquires as to how Margie knew of her plan and Margie admits to eavesdropping when Zenon and Nebula had been discussing it in the hangar.

Unable to do anything about the inconvenience this far in her plan, Zenon takes off toward the home of her Aunt Judy, with Margie in tow. Upon arriving, Aunt Judy is thrilled to see her niece again and they have a bit of a strange reunion with lots of hugging and jumping around before going in, leaving Margie standing there awkwardly at the door. She rolls her eyes and goes in after them.

Zenon then regales her Aunt Judy with tales of everything that's been going on in the Space Station, including the aliens, the military's jettisoning of the Space Station, Protozoa, and Margie's arrival. This leads to another awkward scene where Zenon and her aunt come up with conclusions about what's going on and Judy as a bit of a ditz suggests that she's as sure of what's going on as she is of her name being Judy Kling -- which she is, most days.' Before long, they are talking about where to find Protozoa and they realize that one of the names of his songs is actually a place down on Earth where they figure he must have gone off to. At this point in the story, Margie also divulges the information that she didn't want to get in trouble for leaving the Space Station alone, so she left a message for her father, claiming that Zenon had forced her to go with her down to Earth. This makes Zenon very angry and they have another fight, which ends up convincing Margie to contact her dad and tell him that she lied and snuck on along with her. However, something goes wrong with the call and they can see her father addressing the military, but he can't see or hear them. In horror, Zenon and Margie watch as he states that the jettisoning of parts of the Space Station had been a failure and that they would have to decommission the entire station and bring everyone back to Earth.

Determined now to save her home and discover the aliens, Zenon takes off toward Protozoa's presumed location with Margie, while Judy promises to hold down the fort. On their way, they wander through a bit of a forest with a huge spider web in their way that they eventually knock down with a stick, arriving at Protozoa's home. Margie admits to Zenon that 'she doesn't know how she does it', and they proceed to enter the premises. However, they get stuck in some kind of futuristic force field that causes them both paralysis and to giggle incessantly. Protozoa soon comes out to find the girls stuck in his force field, commenting on what a bizarre catch he has made. Soon they are inside Protozoa's home and Zenon exuberantly catches Protozoa up on what's been going on in her life over the past two years, while Margie sits there dumbfounded and mouth agape at being in the presence of a celebrity, even moving a little to stare more when Zenon steps closer to him and blocks him from her view. They also discuss the aliens and the message left that seems to relate to Protozoa. He agrees to go with them and help figure out what it is they want.

Meanwhile, Margie's father has received the message about her daughter being forced to go down to Earth with Zenon. He orders that some of his troops go down and retrieve her along with Zenon. Both of Zenon's parents stick up for her and claim that Zenon would never do such a thing, but even they have their doubts when they try to prove to General Hammond that Zenon's been in her room all this time, instead when they break into her room, they find only Zenon's rigged noise-sensitive voice player.

After the military clears out, Zenon's parents communicate with Aunt Judy and find out the real story behind what they're doing. With help from Judy's attraction with and influence over Commander Plank, she gets him to agree to send a shuttle out to pick Zenon, Margie, and Protozoa up to look for the aliens. He admits that it will be hard because the military seems to have taken over the entire Space Station and he has been relegated to a supply closet to work out of. Zenon also convinces her parents to help out with the charade to fool the military and go after the aliens as well, because they believe her now but they also think the military has overstayed their welcome, not approving of how they've commandeered the Space Station.

Judy then receives this information and relays it to Zenon, who in turn warns her that the military has come down in search of Zenon, knowing that they would come to her house first. As if jinxing it, they ring the doorbell, and Judy quickly ends the transmission and escapes out the back, climbing over a fence, which entails a humorous scene of her falling down the other side and letting out a yelp. Judy then arrives at Nebula's front door looking very disheveled, with part of a plant in her hair, and nearly has a break-down on the spot. They let her in and she lets the Wades know what's going on.

Meanwhile, General Hammond has discovered their little conspiracy and puts Commander Plank, Orion, and both of Zenon's parents under a type of 'House Arrest'; sequestering them in a guarded room together so they can't go through with their plan. Zenon's parents become really discouraged and upset that they're stuck there and not able to help Zenon, until they realize there's a way to escape through the ceiling and that Orion has access to a garbage shuttle that they can use to carry out the plan with. The problem is that only a couple of them can go and risk getting caught. Zenon's mom is horrified to learn that she is one of them because she hasn't flown in so long and has a huge fear of both that, and going down to Earth again. Her husband says the decision is ultimately hers, and she goes through an internal struggle before deciding that she will be brave and go through with it. They're able to communicate with Zenon and tell her that Plank is in lockdown and what they plan to do instead. Zenon approves the new idea and they plan a meeting location to get picked up by the shuttle. Zenon quickly leaves a message for Aunt Judy and takes off to the planned location, Protozoa and Margie right behind her.

Margie, Protozoa, Judy, and Zenon finally all reunite (Protozoa not having seen Judy since the previous movie), and Judy tries to update Zenon with the obsolete news that Commander Plank is on his way to take them to meet the aliens. "Cetus Lupetus, Aunt Judy! Haven't you heard?!", interrobangs Zenon. She then fills her in on how the original plan backfired and now there is yet another secret plan underway involving Zenon's mother. When the shuttle finally arrives for them, they are able to board the ship and take off right before the military arrives to detain them. News gets back to General Hammond and he lines up all the people under 'House Arrest' from left to right and rants about how asinine it is that his daughter, and her daughter, and her aunt, and his wife, and a rock star have stolen a shuttle and are out looking for aliens.

Finally up in space, Zenon and her crew travel to the location they estimated was given out by the aliens during their earlier transmissions and wait there for them, wondering why they don't see them yet. Suddenly, the ship starts to gyrate harshly and move a little bit out of control, and Astrid and Orion try to figure out what's going on. "You did remember to refuel the ship before we left, didn't you, Orion?" asks Astrid before getting a blank guilty stare from him. Having almost entirely run out of fuel, they all panic as they feel the ship being pulled into another planet's gravitational pull that they will inevitably crash into. Suddenly though, the ship stops and stays in place. Everyone looks out to see that the ship is being held firmly in a tractor beam, followed immediately by the beautiful display of a large alien spacecraft constantly changing colors and flapping wing-like structures similar to a bird, approaching them. Everyone stares at the ship in awe, while Zenon starts talking about how she was positive that they existed the whole time, despite all of the harsh skepticism around her.

The aliens attempt to make contact with the ship by emitting some strange ray directly inside their ship, revealing a bizarre swirling of lights in what appears to be the form of an extraterrestrial body that makes undecipherable squeaks and noises. Protozoa gets up first and walks over to the aliens, trying to communicate with them because he thinks that because they relayed part of his song to them, they wanted to meet him and get his autograph. When nothing happens, he sits down and Zenon goes over to them and is suddenly overcome with a bright light and thrust into deep thoughts, while everyone else watches in confusion. Zenon soon snaps out of it and reveals that the aliens talked to her telepathically and that they said they had sent out the "Zums" as distress signals, having intercepted the song two years previous when Protozoa broadcast their first concert in space with the song Super Nova Girl, sending the signal back to the Space Station with their own synthesizer.

What they really needed all along was to borrow the navigation data their ship contained so they could figure out where they were. When asked by one of the crew why they didn't just take it, Zenon chuckles and replies that the aliens had said, 'Taking without asking is not nice.' The aliens then with permission reaches into the ship and copies the navigation data and kindly carries the garbage shuttle devoid of fuel back to the Space Station where everyone is reunited and they share their magical story of meeting the aliens.

Margie's father doesn't believe them and is furious with her and the rest of the crew for all of their mutinous behavior, promising that there will be severe repercussions. For once, Margie stands up to her father's authoritarian attitude and defends Zenon and everything they had done and seen. Her father is in surprise with Margie's new attitude and tries to reprimand her, but a big crash interrupts them. They all look out the window to see that a jettisoned part of the ship has crashed back into the Space Station, before they see another segment coming into view being carried by the alien ship. The ship proceeds to bring all the jettisoned pieces of the Space Station back and fit them into their place, restoring power to each area, and finally knocks the entire Space Station back into its proper orbit as a kind of 'thank you' for all their help.

Now that everyone has seen the alien ship with their own eyes, they finally all believe, and Margie's father goes soft and says that the important thing is that they're all fine now and that they had quite an adventure. Afterwards, they all have a party and Protozoa conducts his second concert in space with a whole new song, while Zenon realizes that Orion's a pretty sweet and interesting guy and no longer a total geek, which she thought at the beginning.