Borat 2 plot details

Last night, the news broke that comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen had reprised the title role in a Borat sequel that he filmed and completed in secret. A loose synopsis was provided, but now some additional Borat 2 plot details have been revealed, including the fact that the film will touch on the relationship between President Donald Trump and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

Last night, word broke that Borat 2 has already been completed and screened for a small group of people in the film industry. Details were slim, but the original report stated that “Borat is no longer the little-known Kazakh TV personality he played in the original 2006 movie. The public knows who he is now, so he has to go ‘undercover’ to interview people.”

Now The Film Stage has some additional details. According to them, “Trump and Epstein’s relationship, as well as the coronavirus, all figure into the main narrative with cameos from Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, and more best left unspoiled. We’ve also learned that one of the yet-to-be-revealed cameos could potentially derail a political career, and we imagine some backlash and lawsuits will follow.” The movie also has a title (which will presumably end up as a subtitle): Great Success.

All of this lines up with several sightings of Cohen that have occurred out in the wild this year, with some folks seeing him dressed as Borat and others spotting him in a totally different costume crashing an alt-right militia group rally and leading the group in a racist singalong.

I laughed my ass off in the theater when I saw the first Borat back in 2006. By using a ludicrous, naive character who said whatever came into his mind and had no concept of political correctness, Cohen was able to poke fun at misogyny, racism, and the nasty parts of American culture that weren’t often talked about at the time. Beneath all of the vulgarity and the blatant anti-Semitism (Cohen himself is Jewish) and the comically ridiculous stereotyping, there was actually a smart movie in there.

The film made over $260 million worldwide and instantly launched itself into the zeitgeist. Then, through no real fault of the movie itself, a certain subset of audiences latched onto it as if they were alligators who refused to unclamp their jaws from their prey. It went from quoted to over-quoted, and clueless frat bros somehow mistook the Borat character’s blatantly obnoxious personality as a tacit endorsement to endlessly imitate him. Naturally, since none of these people had Cohen’s intelligence, their imitations kept all of the obnoxious parts about Borat and none of the satire, none of the wit. It happened again and again, everywhere I traveled in the years immediately following the film’s release. (My experience is admittedly anecdotal, but I’d be willing to bet some of you had similar experiences elsewhere in the country.)

Thankfully, many of those obnoxious dudes are probably in their mid-30s by now and have hopefully put their Borat impersonating days behind them. While we’re hoping for the best from this sequel, we can only hope that the next generation doesn’t obsess over it to quite the same degree.

There’s been speculation that because of this movie’s themes and content, it could be made available to audiences before the 2020 presidential election. But so far, no release date (or even a release platform) has been revealed.

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