Director Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1997 sci-fi comedy Men in Black proved a smash hit for Amblin Entertainment, as audiences were delighted by the winning combination of Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, extra-terrestrial excursions to Earth, and the agents that monitored and policed such passage. Set five years after the end of the original Men in Black, the story catches up with Agent J (Smith), no longer a rookie and half-a-decade without his original partner and mentor Agent K, retired after saving the planet from a particularly nasty “bug.”

Investigating the murder of an extra-terrestrial by Serleena, an especially aggressive Kylothian shapeshifter (Lara Flynn Boyle) on the hunt for a power referred to as the “Light of Zartha,” clues lead J back to K for his help—only K was neuralzyed, his memories wiped, following his decision to leave the MIB. J leads K on a mission to retrieve his memories so they can unlock the key to stopping Serleena before she herself finds the Light of Zartha—and the power to destroy galaxies.

Along with Jones and Smith, MIB veterans Rip Torn, as MIB Chief Zed and Tony Shaloub as pawn shop/alien arms dealer Jack Jeebs return. New to the franchise are actors Lara Flynn Boyle, Rosario Dawson, Johnny Knoxville, Patrick Warburton and David Cross. The screenplay was written by Robert Gordon (DreamWorks Pictures’ Galaxy Quest) and Barry Fanaro. The film would be followed a decade after by Men in Black 3.

A brand-new MIB adventure, Men in Black International, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson, was released in the summer of 2019.