Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ brings back the beloved character played by Adam Sandler, as he finds a way back to golf after quite a big bump in life. The film picks up around thirty years after the events of the first one. By this time, Happy and Virginia have five children— four boys and one girl— and they have been living their happily ever after for a while now. But then, a tragedy strikes and Happy finds himself at rock bottom, or rather at the bottom of the bottles of alcohol. Treating this problem leads him to an AA group called Healing Allies for Life. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Healing Alkies for Life Brings Back a Familiar Villain
As exciting and entertaining as the events of ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ are, they remain entirely fictional, which includes the characters and specific things related to them. Healing Alkies for Life is also a made-up AA group, and it serves as a crucial plot device to bring back one of the villains from the original ‘Happy Gilmore.’ The character in question is Hal L., played by Ben Stiller. In the first film, he worked at a nursing home where Happy temporarily kept his grandma until he got her house back. In this film, however, his job has changed significantly.
In a shocking turn of events, Happy discovers that Healing Alkies for Life stands for HAL and is run by Hal L. He has come a long way from being a nursing assistant. Not only is he running the group, but he has also authored a book. This, however, has not changed him as a person, and he remains the same bully. The only difference is that he has changed his crowd. He does not terrorise the elderly anymore. In fact, he bullies recovering alcoholics into doing free labor for him, which he calls a part of their therapy and their journey to sobriety.
The scenes featuring the Healing Alkies for Life were filmed at the Roosevelt Elementary School in Kearny, New Jersey, with one of the halls in the school doubling for the space where Happy meets with other recovering alcoholics to process the grief about his wife, his stress about his current life, and his dependence on alcohol. Instead of helping him and the others through their process, Hal makes it even more difficult for them as he attacks their self-esteem and makes them wonder why they are even trying to get better in the first place. By the end of the movie, however, a shocking twist leads to Hal running for his life, while Healing for Alkies for Life is shut down for good.
Read More: Happy Gilmore: Is Virginia Dead? How Does Happy’s Wife Die?
