Cocoon 2: The Return, like most sequels, relies a bit too heavily on one's familiarity with the first film. Without dwelling too long on
Cocoon #1, we can observe that it ended with a group of senior citizens heading for the distant planet of Antarea, hoping to find a new, rewarding and elongated life. Cocoon 2 picks up the action five years later: The Antareans return to earth to check on the damage caused to their life-regenerating cocoons by earthquakes. Coming along for the ride are the elderly couples whom we met in the first film. Also carried over from the first
Cocoon are young ferryboat captain
Steve Guttenberg and gorgeous Antarean
Tahnee Welch, who resume their interplanetary romance. Oldster
Jack Gilford, whose beloved wife died in
Cocoon, likewise finds romance in the form of
Elaine Stritch. A secondary plot involves an insidious secret government plan to exploit the Antareans, which is foiled by sympathetic researcher Courteney Cox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide