The Decider 2: Invasion, USA! is a 2003 American science fiction action film starring Walker Bush, Lew Bremer, and Lan Chao, sequel to the 2001 film
The Decider. It was almost immediately green-lit after the success of the first became apparent, but production was plagued by numerous set-backs - the abrupt collapse of New America left Republic Films scrambling for a new partner, the original script became untenable when Rob Bolton declined to reprise his role, Lan Chao's role had to be drastically reduced on the fly after she discovered she was pregnant several weeks into shooting, and Andrew Card's withdrawal from the project caused several investors to drop their support, forcing the film to be made on a smaller budget than the first. At release, the film was mostly panned by critics as an inferior follow-up that exchanged a tightly-wound plot for greater emphasis on gun-play and action, but it performed very well in the home entertainment market with strong retail sales, enough to salvage the series.
Former FBI Special Agent Dirk Hammer (Bush) remains trapped in Wonderland, a parallel dimension where the United States succumbed to an absolute dictatorship under his alternate reality duplicate, the Decider. In the three years since the events of the first film, Hammer and his lover, CIA operative Susan Park (Chao) have been fighting a resistance with the Freedom Commandos against the tyrannical government, now under the control of President Dominus (Bremer), while seeking any method of returning to their original reality. After ambushing a government convoy transporting prisoners in rural Pennsylvania, Hammer learns that the Dominus regime is on the verge of collapsing as the world supply of resources is nearly extinguished. Park uncovers rumors of a secret project to stave off collapse, code-named LOOKING GLASS, operating out of the Rocky Mountains.
Hammer and Park lead a team of Freedom Commandos in an attack on Horsham Air Force Base to hijack the planes necessary to reach Colorado, as all ground transportation is under strict government control as oil supplies continue to dwindle, but Park is wounded on take-off by a sniper. She nearly dies, but is resuscitated by Hammer, and then accidentally thrown from the plane when it comes under attack by enemy fighters. Hammer evades the attack, even causing a number of the fighters to crash by flying through a narrow canyon, but his own plane is so damaged he is forced to crash land in the woods near the LOOKING GLASS base.
Hammer survives the crash and staggers from the wreckage, nearly captured by regime troops investigating the wreck site, when he is saved by the only other survivor, Freedom Commando Kristine Carter (Maggie Veneman). They evade other patrols and seek shelter in an abandoned park ranger cabin over night. Hammer, distraught over the apparent death of Park, contemplates the futility of his struggle, but finds renewed hope in Carter's arms. In the morning, they don the stolen uniforms they took off the patrol and infiltrate the base, which is buried deep under the Rocky Mountains.
Inside, they find a facility nearly identical to the one that brought Hammer to the Wonderland reality in the first place, and President Dominus' chief lackey, General Whitaker (Don Rummy) preparing an elite assault force for an attack through the portal. Carter wants to trigger the base's self-destruct and bring the whole mountain down, but Hammer is confused - there are not enough troops to do serious damage to the United States, even in a surprise attack, and LOOKING GLASS is isolated from any centers of power. Together, Hammer and Carter sneak into Whitaker's quarters at the base, with Carter posing as being sexually infatuated with the General to gain access, and take him hostage. Whitaker is at first terrified of Hammer, thinking he is the ghost of the Decider, and confesses to a litany of crimes before realizing his mistake. Carter beats Whitaker until he reveals the true plan - the Wonderland base location corresponds to that of the Cheyenne Mountain Command Base on Hammer's side, and the assault troops will be attacking to seize control of the nuclear control systems, simulating a nuclear attack on the United States, destroying all her enemies before being crushed in response, leaving the Dominus regime free to launch an all-out invasion and seize the natural resources.
Hammer and Carter attempt to use the General as a hostage to escape capture when he triggers a silent alarm, but this fails when Whitaker orders his men to open fire anyway. Whitaker is killed and the pair flee deeper into the base, a running gun-battle that kills most of the original invasion force and ends with their escaping through the portal, where they are swiftly captured, their protests of being from another dimension soundly ignored as they are stripped of weapons and locked up. National Security Police Chief Marshal Kieth (Boots Southerland) arrives with more soldiers and President Dominus to complete the preparations for the invasion. Dominus demands to continue in spite of Hammer's escape, overruling Southerland when he protests that it is too dangerous to go ahead now that the target has warning of an attack.
Southerland and the Wonderland NSP troops pass through the portal and use the advantage of surprise to cut down the unprepared defenders, swiftly gaining control of the Cheyenne Mountain Base and control room. The base commander is able to trigger a security alert just before he is killed, locking out access to the missile launch systems for a 90 minute countdown. Furious with the delay, Dominus orders Southerland to connect the computers of the two bases through the portal, enabling an inter-dimensional hack that accelerates the countdown clock. However, this also resets the electronic locks on Hammer and Carter's cell, and they are able to escape and arm themselves.
In a lengthy shootout through the base (which held something of a record for several years for the longest continuous action shot on film, before being eclipsed by the 2009 movie
Shanghai Storm), Hammer and Carter defeat the NSP troops and retake the control room, though both are wounded, Carter quite badly. Southerland escapes through the portal back to Wonderland, and despite their best efforts neither Hammer nor Carter can stop the new countdown. Realizing the only way to prevent the launch is to shut down the portal, Hammer orders Carter to stay behind and returns to Wonderland, intending to sacrifice himself to sever the connection. Between him and the machinery that generates the portal, however, are President Dominus and his elite bodyguards.
Hammer is wounded several more times dispatching them, but in his weakened state proves no match for Dominus himself. Dominus shoots Hammer with his last bullet, which goes through his shoulder and strikes the portal generator, fatally damaging it. They have a vicious hand-to-hand fight on the threshold, and Dominus is killed when Hammer pins him with his head just inside the portal, severing it when the portal finally closes. Hammer barely manages to escape the collapsing base, but is reunited on the surface with Park, and they board a captured helicopter to escape, happy to have saved the world in spite of remaining trapped in Wonderland.
