‘Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut:’ More Blood, More Sex, and a More Comprehensible Plot

The R-rated Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut—aka Rebel Moon Part One: Director’s Cut and Rebel Moon Part Two: Director’s Cut—began streaming on Netflix today, with nearly two hours of new footage not included in the PG-13 cut. With a combined runtime of 6 hours and 17 minutes, this director’s cut is a lot bloodier, a lot sexier, and a lot more comprehensive than the previously released films. It makes you wish this had been the version released from the start!

Directed by Zack Snyder, who also co-wrote the script with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten, the Rebel Moon franchise stars Sofia Boutella as Kora, formerly a brainwashed soldier for the evil Imperium Motherworld, now a fierce rebel fighter dedicated to defending a small farming community on the moon of Veldt. The first film is about assembling a team to fight the Motherworld, and the second film is about the epic battle, between the rebels and the back-from-the-dead villain, Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein).

Snyder sets the tone for the director’s cut with a brand-new violent, gruesome opening scene in Part One, which he also renamed Rebel Moon — Chapter One: Chalice of Blood. It’s a flashback sequence that provides the tragic backstory for one of the supporting characters, Aris (played by Sky Yang), a Motherworld soldier who eventually switches sides to defend Veldt. In this flashback, we see that Motherworld soldiers, led by Atticus Noble, invaded Aris’s home planet. Women are stripped and tortured, and Snyder makes sure the camera lingers on their exposed breasts. Then, Atticus forces a young Aris to kill his own father—the leader of the world—by violently bashing his head in. Not only do you see (and hear) the bloody, sickening crunch of the father’s skull, but Snyder takes the gore one step further. The sociopathic Atticus Noble picks up the father’s brain matter in his hands to examine it. Pretty gross!

It’s just one of many instances of blood, gore, and nudity in this R-rated extended edition. All the fight scenes from the PG-13 films have been updated with CGI to include a lot more blood, including several instances where blood splatters on the camera lens. There’s also more sex and nudity, including two explicit sex scenes with Sofia Boutella—one with her fling, Den, and one with her love interest, Gunnar—that reveals Kora’s extensive scarring on her torso. But beyond the blood and boobs, the most interesting part of the Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut are the entirely new threads of plot and world-building. Here’s a list of some of the biggest plot points cut from the PG-13 films.

Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut key plot differences:

• A new subplot involving a giant cyber-woman who functions as the engine of the Motherworld’s version of the Death Star, the King’s Gaze. Kora got to know this engine-woman during her time as an Imperium soldier. She tells Gunnar that the engineers feed the engine-woman “organic matter,” aka the human remains of the Motherworld vicitims. In Part Two: Director’s Cut, Kora briefly speaks to the engine-woman before she destroys her. The engine-woman tells Kora she is forgiven, because, “One day you will wake my sisters, and their wrath will be my vengeance.” This implies there are even more giant cyber women out there, setting up a storyline for the possible continuation of the franchise.
• A new subplot involving some creepy, religious-looking, red-robing-wearing monks called the “high scribes.” Every time Atticus Noble kills another world leader and conquers their planet for the Motherworld, the high scribes come out, do a little chant, and collect a tooth from the fallen leader. They then place the tooth around a portrait of the fallen Princess Issa. This mostly seems like a world-building detail, to further emphasize that Princess Issa—whom the Regent Balisarius coerced Kora into killing—is being used as a martyr to justify the Motherworld’s violent colonialism.
• More scenes with Hawkshaws, bounty hunters that the Motherworld hires for their dirty work. In Part Two: Director’s Cut, we see that the Motherworld has sent Hawkshaws to Veldt to spy on the farmers, as they prepare for their fight.
• Many more scenes with Jimmy the Robot, an android designed to serve the now-dead king of the Motherworld. Jimmy spends a lot of time in nature on the moon of Veldt, as he overcomes his programming in order to turn on the Motherworld and join the rebels in their fight. (That’s why he puts on the deer antlers. He’s a wild robot now!) There’s a new scene where Jimmy smashes the Hawkshaws communication device before the bounty hunters can report that the farmers have repaired a crashed Motherworld ship. Jimmy also gets to go Rambo on some Motherworld soldiers with his antlers, during the big battle scene.
• More backstory for the off-worlders who come to Veldt to fight the Motherworld, including Tarak, Nemesis, and King Titus.
• An extended explanation of how Kora and Gunnar disguise themselves as Motherworld soldiers to sneak onto the King’s Gaze ship.

And many more little things. Rebel Moon Part Two: Director’s Cut also comes with a brand new ending. After the rebels vow to find the apparently not-dead Princess and fight, Snyder cuts to a new scene of the Regent Balisarius in the King’s Palace, putting on a crown and gloves. Cleary, the evil Balisarius orchestrated all of this so that he could seize the throne. An underling tells him that the King’s Gaze ship has been destroyed. Balisarius muses that his adopted daughter, Kora, would have ensured there were no survivors. He then steps out to address a huge crowd, like a proper dictator. With that, this over-six-hour saga ends.

Maybe it’s because this was my second time watching the franchise, or maybe it’s because of the two hours of extra footage, but the Rebel Moon story makes a lot more sense after watching the Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut. Even though the first two films didn’t make much of a splash, maybe Netflix viewers will give Snyder’s space epic another chance. We can’t give up hope for a Rebel Moon Part 3 just yet.