Sonic the Hedgehog: 200 Years

 Sonic the Hedgehog: 200 Years  is an 2024 American live-action/animated sci-fi action comedy film based off the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise created by Sega and Sonic Team. As a sequel to the 2013 film Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos and its 2015 sequel TV show Project Shadow, the film is directed by Brad Bird, who returns to the franchise after Triple Trouble, and the director of Chaos Peter Jackson with a screenplay by Bird and former Sonic the Hedgehog 2001-09 writer Shiro Maekawa. It is the second film produced by Sega Movies that is not apart of the Sega Cinematic Universe. The film stars Denzel Washington, Isabella Sermon, Robert Pattinson, Wayne Knight, Andrew Garfield, Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Day, and Eddie Murphy. Adapting the story of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and turning it into a film, the story follows the titual main character (Pattinson) as he goes far away with Princess Elise the Third (Sermon) to stop Doctor Robotnik's son Julian (Knight) from kiddnaping her while Shadow the Hedgehog (also Pattinson) and new character Silver the Hedgehog (Garfield) battle Solaris, an ancient evil entity who is pursued by Julian as well as Sonic and Elise exploring new places. Another new enemy is Mephiles the Dark, who tricks Silver into thinking that Sonic is an Iblis Trigger.

200 Years was originally announced in 2013 and set for an release in October 2017 as the first film of Chapter 2 of the Sega Cinematic Universe. However, after 20th Century Studios and Peter Liguori left Sega after a contract deal, the film entered development hell as it was bounced around with different studios to distribute it, even almost getting canceled several times. It wasn't until Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to the film in February 2020. It was offically announced in production with Brad Bird returning and Sony's animation division Sony Pictures Animation set to produce. Amy Pascal and Tom Kalinske were announced to produce among a multitude of others including Naoto Ohshima and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Michael Barrett the cinematographer announced that production would start in August of the same year with an release date of November 2023 however the COVID-19 pandemic had an affect on the film's production. Eventually, production on 200 Years was restarted in September 2021, with a release date now set for 2024. Filming began in October.

After a lot of hype and anticipation, Sonic the Hedgehog: 200 Years was released on November 16, 2024 to massive absolute acclaim for critics, audiences, and fans of Sonic. The film was praised for its visuals, story, performances (more notably Knight, Sermon, and Pattinson), characters, and its emotional moments including its ending. 200 Years was a major success, grossing $2.021 billion at the box-office becoming the highest grossing live-action/animated film of all time, beating Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos, the highest grossing film of 2024, and also the second highest grossing opening for a movie ever.

Plot
A few weeks after the events of the Space Colony ARK incident, Sonic the Hedgehog (Robert Pattinson) and his friends have been legally banned by the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) as well as humans. This is because they were the cause of thousands of deaths on Prison Island as well as in Central City such as with the GUN Truck that killed hundred of people and the Black Arms and Black Doom. The government as well as military general and leader of Area 55 Thomas Mackerel (Denzel Washington) have ceased all operations with them. After almost preventing a train from falling, Sonic is sued for collateral damage after saving the train as well as injuries from the passengers. After Doctor Ivo Robotnik (Bruce Willis; archival recordings) got a death sentence and died from an electric chair, his son Julian Robotnik (Wayne Knight) swore to take revenge on Sonic, plotting a plan to kill him as well as his friends too. Meanwhile in the year 2024, Shadow the Hedgehog (Pattinson) receives news of his ally/partner Rouge the Bat (Scarlett Johansson) being captured by Julian Robotnik in his base White Acropolis after trying to retrieve the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow invades the base and finds Rouge in the middle of accomplishing her mission but then finds Julian and his new henchman Egg Robo (who was the previous henchman for Ivo), who sends his robots to attack them. Shadow and Rouge fight the robots over the scepter but it is shattered after it falls down on the ground, causing it to releasing Mephiles the Dark (Tony Todd), an evil entity.

He introduces himself to the two of them and hints at the past history that they have shared. Mephiles uses a time warp similar to Shadow's Chaos Control to transport to a future on the brink of collaspe. They are confused, but then they find disturbing answers about the past. They even come across a dusty inactive E-123 Omega (Jon St. John). They discover they are in the distant future destroyed by Iblis. 200 years in the future in 2224, the world is in an apocolyptic state as it has been wrecked and destroyed by what is known as the Flames of Disaster. Among two people who have survived are Silver the Hedgehog (Andrew Garfield) and Blaze the Cat (Anne Hathaway) who use their telekinetic powers on a common basis. Silver and Base are teleported to a mysterious base where they are then greeted by Mephiles, who introduces himself as a nice person. Mephiles explains to Silver the time the "Iblis Trigger" was unleashed, saying that Sonic the Hedgehog was the cause of the trigger. He gives him and Blaze a Chaos Emerald, showing a vision of Sonic in a burning town looking evil. Determined to defeat Sonic and save his world, Mephiles teleports Blaze and Silver in 2024 where the Iblis Trigger is alive. Silver is seperated from Blaze and Mephiles. Silver runs into Amy Rose (Emma Stone) along the way, who doesn't confuse him for Sonic. She develops a friendship with Silver and helps him look for the person he is trying to get, not realizing that it is Sonic her love interest.

In the city of Soleanna, the town is ruled by 17 year old Princess Elise the Third (Isabella Sermon) who the keeper of the secret of the Flames of Disaster which involve the chaos emeralds. The citizens of Soleanna are celebrating the Festival of the Sun. Sonic is also here, free from the government's wrath. While lighting the ceremonial torch, Elise gets a hallucination about Soleanna in flame because of an demonic creature composed of molten magma. Fireworks are launched into the air, but the fireworks are destroyed as several missles hit them and a giant ship comes down. Julian, Egg Robo, and his other army of robots arrive and reveals his plans to kidnap Elise to obtain the Flames of Disaster's secret, which she obviously denies. Before Julian can get a hold of it, Sonic arrives and destroys almost all his robots and carries Elise out of the mess. While Sonic is running down below, Silver stands on a roof saying that he found the "Iblis Trigger" with Amy being confused that he's targeting Sonic. Sonic carries Elise out until they're cornered by Julian's robot and defeats them, but while he is distracted, Elise is captured, but before she is taken, she gives Sonic a chaos emerald. The next morning, Sonic tries to gather info on Julian's wherabouts to save Elise and ends up running into Miles "Tails" Prower (Anna Faris) in the process. Sonic and Tails chase Julian's new Egg Carrier to Wave Ocean but are unable to catch up to it, returning to the city. While Elise is captured on the Egg Carrier, she has a flashback of when Sonic arrived at the festival, wondering why he looked like the white hedgehog and having flashbacks of her and her butler Daniel (Eddie Murphy) who tells her not to cry. Silver and Amy are still looking for Sonic with Amy still not knowing who the Iblis Trigger is. Thomas Mackerel and Grant Svenson investigate the damage of Soleanna and realizes that Sonic had something to do with it.

Sonic and Tails find out where Julian is going to the Dusty Desert and they follow his Egg Carrier there where he and Tails are able to save Elise, who still confuses him for Silver. Sonic and Elise make their way back to Soleanna while Tails fight Julian's robots and Egg Robo. Elise fills Sonic in about the Flames of Disaster, the Chaos Emerald she has, and how she lost her father (Mark Wahlberg) in an incident 10 years ago. At Soleanna, Silver runs into Sonic and starts fighting him while Elise watches helplessly as she has several more flashbacks of Silver. Although Sonic ends up winning the fight, Silver almost kills him by using his telekinetic powers until Amy comes in and stops him from doing it. While this is happening, Julian again kidnaps Elise but Sonic is able to keep her down until Silver stops him again. After again fighting Silver and Julian over Elise, she eventually runs away. Julian goes to capture her in his Egg Carrier but Sonic is distracted by Silver until Amy physically distracts Silver and gives Sonic time to get Elise, who has been kidnapped once again. Sonic pursues Julian with Tails and Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba), which the latter gives him a holographic version of Julian telling him that he will get Elise if he gives him one of the Chaos Emeralds, which he has in Tails' bag. Shadow and Rouge, who are still in the future, are able to revive E-123 Omega with a chaos emerald. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles go through White Acropolis and get to the room where Julian is, but it is revealed to be a trap when they are trapped in a pod. The trio are transported to a time period with Julian saying to Elise that they're alive, but he needs all seven Chaos Emeralds to fine tune the machine in order to make it work. For now, Elise is trapped in a cage in the Egg Carrier until further notice.

An alarm goes off in the Egg Carrier, but it is unknown what happens next. In the distant future, Team Sonic run into Shadow and Rouge with the newly revived Omega saying that if Sonic and Shadow make a Chaos Control segment together, then they can create a rift in time. So they start searching for emeralds. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles encounter Silver, Blaze, and Mephiles, where Mephiles tells Silver that Sonic is responsible for the future's destruction and sends him to kill him. It is here where Sonic finds out through a file that Elise died in the Egg Carrier exploded two days after the Festival of the Sun. When Sonic and Shadow reach a pair of emeralds, they use Chaos Control to create a time rift and go through it to save Elise, all except for Shadow who stays behind to fight Mephiles. Mephiles reveals to Shadow that the humans blamed him for the destruction of the world, especially after Sonic, Shadow, and everybody else were made illegal. Shadow is hunted down, kidnapped, and trapped behind an energy seal by an older Thomas Mackerel where Mephiles tries to make a feal with Shadow to join and stop the humans, but Shadow refuses to do so. Mephiles transforms into a second form, a more powerful crystalline monster, and Shadow and him engage in a battle. Rouge in the present realizes Shadow is in danger and rushes to help him. She gives a chaos emerald to Omega and tells him to wait in stand by mode until the distant future is the present and Shadow, at Mephiles' mercy and on the verge of death, is rescued by Omega. Omega pursues Mephiles while Rouge and Shadow reunite and says that Julian is searching for him and searching for Mephiles. Shadow goes to the Egg Carrier and interviews Julian. Julian says to Shadow that to understand why he wants Mephiles, he must go back to the Solaris Project ten years ago. Meanwhile, an older Mackerel tells Grant Svenson (Charlie Day) if he made a mistake cutting contact with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Shadow. Svenson thinks he does and thinks that he should re-consider the ban.

Sonic returns for Elise but is once again ruthlessly attacked by Silver until Elise is captured once again. Shadow confronts Silver leading to Sonic going to rescue Elise while Tails and Knuckles go to help him. Shadow and Silver get into a battle but Shadow ends up getting the upper win. Shadow tells Silver that to understand more about Mephiles and Iblis, they must go back ten years to the Solaris Project. Once they travel back ten years, they witness the project's failure at hand and watch as it explodes and watch Iblis, and Mephiles, the latter being a dark puddle, emerging, opening up Silver's eyes about how Mephiles deceived him. The Duke of Soleanna, Elise's father, tells both of them that the demons must be sealed. The Duke gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow goes to capture Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness while Silver goes to capture Iblis. The Duke of Soleanna, in his last words before succumbing to his fatal injuries, tells Elise that he may not be there, but she cannot cry no matter what. The Duke tells Shadow and Silver to carry Elise out while the fire spreads. Shadow knows why Mephiles knows him. Because he captured him in the Scepter of Darkness, thats why. Shadow leaves the scepter in the past where he knows he'll find it in the present. Speaking of present, Shadow and Silver return to the present and Shadow tells Rouge everything he knows about Mephiles. Shadow tells her to find out what the Scepter of Darkness was made out of so they can create another scepter. On Sonic's way to rescue Elise, he arrives on a hill where he can see the Egg Carrier but it is far away. Amy runs into Blaze and Silver trying to save go to Sonic, but tells them good luck. Silver and Blaze find Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and reason stuff out with them, but the alarm on the Egg Carrier goes off and it explodes with Elise and Julian both dying inside. Sonic is left devastated by Elise's death blaming Silver for him not being able to save Elise in time. Silver makes this up to him by doing something. Sonic and Silver use Chaos Control to travel back in time to before the Egg Carrier exploded, giving Sonic the right time to go and rescue Elise.

Sonic goes onboard the Egg Carrier and reunites with Elise, even battling Julian's Egg Wyvern. Sonic and Elise escape the battle ship and are able to make it back to solid ground. Sonic and Elise run through the beautiful rivers and grasslands as they embrace life and nature. After returning back to the future, Blaze and Silver, resolved to defeat Iblis have a battle with him. They successfully beat him but Silver is unable to use himself as a vessel to defeat Iblis. In the ultimate sacrifice, Blaze uses herself as the vessel, sealing herself and Iblis into another dimension to save Silver and her world. Silver, upset over the loss of his best friend, just unsure if what he set out to do was worth with what he had to pay at the end. However, light returns to Silver's world and he glares at the Chaos Emeralds floating in the air. Meanwhile, Omega finds Mephiles on the beach and defeats him once again but Mephiles says that the reason he can beat him is because he was made by Ivo to defeat Shadow in the future. Omega refuses to admit the truth but he tells it to Rouge and Shadow, saying that he was the one who sealed Shadow in the future. Shadow, Rouge, and Omega hunt down Mephiles to a desert temple with a new Scepter of Darkness where Mephiles has already found the yellow Chaos Emerald. Shadow fights Mephiles and gains victorious with Mephiles reverting to his original form as a puddle, however when Shadow attempts to seal Mephiles in the scepter, it shatters and Mephiles is able to free himself. Mephiles says that what worked ten years ago no longer does today because he is using Shadow's form. Mephiles creates an army of clones of himself who circle around Shadow, Rouge, and Omega. Mephiles calls Shadow a fool for continuing to protect those who will seal him away (ex. the humans who banned them) but Shadow states that even if the world chooses to become his enemy, he will fight back like he always does. Shadow removes his inhibitor rings and in a huge burst of energy, defeats the Mephiles clones with Omega and Rouge by his side.

After the incident, Mephiles is frustrated by this, so he thinks of the perfect plan. He collects the purple Chaos Emerald and goes to where Sonic and Elise currently are. While they are distracted, Mephiles uses a energy beam to impale Sonic from the back. As the final salt in the wound, Mephiles uses a giant sword he found in the desert temple to impale him once again, delivering the final blow and killing Sonic. Elise tries to wake Sonic up, but of course to no avail. Realizing that Sonic is dead, Elise finally cries after ten years in despair, with Iblis finally being released. Mephiles combines with Iblis and turns into the monster Solaris and creates his own world to destroy space and time itself. Shadow, Omega, and Rouge have recovered from their fight with Mephiles and his clones, but they see the yellow and green Chaos Emeralds that Mephiles had. They then create a blinding flash that send all of them to time space rift created by Mephiles. In Soleanna, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles notice a bright large light that embeds the entire city. They notice they've been transported to where they have previously gone before. Amy is the first person to spot Silver, who has been teleported here too by the Chaos Emeralds. The humans, even Mackerel, Svenson, and Julian have been transported here. Every anthrophromorphic person (excluding Blaze) is here now. Julian reveals that Iblis' seal has been broken by Mephiles. Among the humans, they find Elise with the dead body of Sonic. Julian also reveals that Solaris is about to bring an end to time and space itself. Julian also reveals that Solaris is about to bring about the end of the world by destroying time itself, and that, being a transcendental life form, it cannot be defeated in the present as it exists in all timelines, so defeating it in the present would do nothing.

Silver refuses to give up and defeat Solaris in past, present, and future but Shadow deems this impossible. With Sonic dead, Solaris is completely unstoppable. With everybody accepting their fate and Amy upset over Sonic's death, Elise recongnizes a familiar wind that tells her that Sonic is not 100% dead. Silver then explains that they have to use the Chaos Emeralds to revive Sonic, further supporting Elise's plan. Elise stays with Sonic while Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and Silver go to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds in the previous locations they were in. With all seven emeralds gathered, Elise says an prayer to bring Sonic back to them. Elise cries a little bit during this process, and a teardrop falls on Sonic's nose. With Elise finally crying without releasing Iblis, Sonic's wounds are healed and he is revived back to life, transforming into Super Sonic. Super Sonic uses his power to transform Shadow into Super Shadow and Silver into Super Silver. The three super-powered hedgehogs fight Solaris and defeat both Mephiles and Iblis, with everybody (even Julian) rooting for them. Solaris is reduced into a tiny flame. Elise and Sonic decide they both have to go to the past to blow out Solaris' flame. Before anybody can say a word, Elise and Sonic are transported to the past in a dark room with the only source of light being the flame of Iblis. Elise realizes that if she blows out the flame, then Solaris will never exist but at the cost, Sonic and Elise will never meet. Overcome with despair now, Elise shouts she doesn't care what happens to the world as long as he and her are friends. Sonic, who is clearly upset by this too, lightens up and tells Elise to smile. Elise confidently puts out the flame, eliminating Solaris from existence once and for all, and erasing the events of the film.

At the Festival of the Sun, Julian does not attack this time. Elise waves to the crowds in her boat as Sonic runs through the crowds. As he runs past, Elise loses one of the feather on her hair. Elise's butler Daniel asks if she is alright, which she responds yes to and she thought that someone called her. Another maid says that its the wind. Elise says it might be, but it felt familiar. She looks at a rooftop to see Sonic staring at her, which Elise smiles back apparently knowing who it was. It ends with Sonic watching Elise's feather from her hair fly out into the night sky.

Cast

 * Sophia Lillis as Princess Elise the Third: The princess of Soleanna, guided by her butler Daniel. Elise had a tragic childhood, as she lost her father, the Duke of Soleanna, in a fatal accident and to a lesser extent, her mother when she was younger. For an entire decade, Elise was not allowed to cry (ex. breaking down into tears), as if she did, she would release Iblis, a universe-destroying evil entity. After Julian Robotnik tried to capture her, Sonic came in and rescued Elise in time, while she gets kidnapped and Sonic fights Silver several times. Elise develops a friendship with Sonic throughout the film. Elise dies when the Egg Carrier is destroyed, but Sonic travels back in time with the help of Silver to save Elise. After Sonic is killed, Elise cries, releasing Iblis. However, with the help of the seven Chaos Emeralds and Elise's tears, Super Sonic along with Super Shadow and Super Silver help to defeat Iblis. However, Elise has to blow out a candle that erases Iblis from existence, but her and Sonic will never meet. Elise blows out the candle, but at the end of the film when the events of 200 Years are erased, Elise says she feels a presence, signifying that she remembers Sonic.

Voices

 * Tobey Maguire as Sonic the Hedgehog: A blue hedgehog who can run at the speed of sound, and in rare occasions, even the speed of light. Sonic has his own team, Team Sonic, consisting of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. It used to have Shadow, but since then Shadow has left and formed his own team, Team Dark with Rouge and Omega. Sonic has his own right of freedom, believing that everyone deserves to be free, which is why his friendship with Elise expands. Sonic rescues Elise many times until the two go to explore nature on their own, with Sonic even being attacked by Silver, believing the former is the Iblis Trigger until Shadow convinces him that he is not. Sonic has morals, especially if you're afraid of something, then you need to run at it, not in fear but in determination. After several injury lawsuits to Sonic and his friends, they are banned by the government, forcing them to go into hiding. Near the end of the film, Sonic is killed by Mephiles after he impales him with a laser. This causes Elise to burst out in tears, resulting in Iblis to be released, and Mephiles to form with Iblis, becoming Solaris. Sonic is revived by Elise's tear with the seven Chaos Emeralds and becomes Super Sonic. Along with Shadow and Silver, they defeat Solaris. Elise blows out a candle that wipes out Iblis' existence, but at the cost, her and Sonic will never meet. At the Soleanna Festival, Sonic and Elise both sense their presence, which mean they sort of remember each other. Maguire has described playing the role of Sonic the Hedgehog to be amusing, loving to improvize and provide lines for an iconic video game character, and also loved working with Andrew Garfield, as both of them played the roles of Spider-Man.
 * Andrew Garfield as Silver the Hedgehog: A white-silver colored hedgehog who came from 200 years in the future to find the Iblis Trigger that destroyed his world. Silver, along with his best friend Blaze, are tricked by Mephiles when he convinces them that Sonic the Hedgehog is the Iblis Trigger that destroyed his future. After going 200 years back, Silver battles Sonic multiple times and even gets close to killing him, but his attempts are wasted when Amy stops him. Silver is later convinced by Shadow that Sonic isn't the Iblis Trigger, he and Shadow go and prevent Iblis from being released. After a battle with Iblis, Silver prepares to use himself as an vessel to defeat Iblis, but Blaze sacrifices herself to defeat him. Silver also gives a Chaos Emerald to a young Elise, which makes sense that she remembers him, as shown in the scene where Sonic comes to save her from Julian. Along the way, Silver runs into Julian a couple of times as well. After Mephiles the Dark kills Sonic resulting in Iblis being released, Silver has hope, but the odds of defeating Solaris (Mephiles and Iblis combined) without Sonic is deemed impossible. Silver along with six others collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, where along with Shadow and a revived Sonic, defeat Solaris. However, after Elise blows out the candle, Sonic, Elise, and Silver never meet each other. Garfield described the experience of recording lines with Tobey Maguire as very fun, as they both played Spider-Man. They would later star together again in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).