A year and a half after the first part, Philippe Bas returns to service in “The Leap of the Devil 2: the path of the wolves”, broadcast this Monday evening on TF1. Is this sequel also with Benjamin Baroche (“Here it all begins”) worth the detour?
What is it about ?
Paul Vilar, former Special Forces, accompanies four teenagers during an Immersion in the Wilderness. It is for him the opportunity to pass on to young people the values of the Army and to share a moment with Sara, his daughter, who accompanies them.
On the day of departure for the forest, Paul finds Sergeant Gabrielle Martinot who is returning from a mission in Yemen. She is proud to bring priceless statuettes back to their country of origin.
During the bivouac, while Paul leaves to look for wood for the fire, the young people are taken hostage by mercenaries. The military can’t do anything, Paul is the only one who can free the hostages by stealing the statuettes before they leave the military base. Then begins for him a frightful and sensational race against the clock in the middle of a wild nature…
Monday November 7 at 9:10 p.m. on TF1 and already available on Salto
Who is it with?
Who says following Le Saut du diable, obviously says return of the main protagonists, namely Philippe Bas (Profiling) and Maïra Schmitt (Léo Matteï, La Faute à Rousseau), who return and resume their respective roles of Paul Vilar and his daughter Sara .
By their side, viewers of Le Saut du diable 2: le chemin des loups will notably find Sara Mortensen (Astrid and Raphaëlle) in the skin of Gabrielle Martinot and Benjamin Baroche (Here everything begins) in the role of Mathias Caron, a former brother of hero’s weapon.
But also Jérôme Anger, Edouard Montoute, Robin Migné (Skam France), Zoé Héran (Stalk), Jean-Stan du Pac (La Maison d’en face), Lorette Nyssen (L’école de la vie), and Scotty Bernard ( Joséphine, guardian angel), among others.
FRANCOIS LEFEBVRE / CPB FILMS / TF1
Well worth a look ?
In June 2021, a few months after Profiling ended, Philippe Bas returned to TF1 for Le Saut du diable, an action TV movie somewhere between Alex Hugo, Rambo, and Taken with Liam Neeson, who saw his character as a specialist in survival and extreme sports ready to do anything to save his daughter from the clutches of dangerous criminals.
Faced with the success of this unit, which brought together more than 6 million viewers, the channel logically ordered a second part which arrives on the air this Monday evening and takes up an already well-drained formula with more or less the same ingredients. Even if the mountain getaway is here replaced by a hike in the forest which turns into a nightmare.
Past an intro scene based on a shower in the middle of nature which gives pride of place to the plastic of Philippe Bas and a fairly quick exhibition which lays the foundations of the scenario, Le Sentier des loups is especially worth for its accumulation of sequences of action, his stunts do you want some, his parachute jump which throws (it must be said), and his sense of rhythm.
We don’t get bored (too much) in front of this TV movie which ticks the boxes of the genre and should satisfy fans of the genre. Even if we are obviously closer to a film with Chuck Norris than to a new opus of Mission impossible, TV budget obliges. And even if all originality and all psychology has obviously been left in the closet.
JULIEN CAUVIN / CPB FILMS / TF1
The actors, starting with Philippe Bas, Sara Mortensen, and the young Robin Migné, very fair, come out with honors and do what they can with dialogues that are often uninspired.
But, again, the audience for this kind of testosterone fiction surely isn’t there for that. And fans of Here it all begins will certainly take pleasure in finding Benjamin Baroche in a very nasty villain role … which would almost make chef Emmanuel Teyssier look like an altar boy.
As soon as seen, as soon as forgotten, Le Saut du diable 2 is nonetheless an honest entertainment, even if the scenario would have deserved more originality and more risks, as we see the twists coming from miles away. But this sequel at least has the merit of doing better than the first opus, which chained laughable sequences and was weighed down by a grotesque “bad guy”.
And we would almost want to see if, like Martine, Paul Vilar will take us to the beach or to the snow for his next adventure which, for sure, is already in the pipeline.