Food of the Gods II, sometimes referred to as Gnaw: Food of the Gods II as well as Food of the Gods Part 2, is a 1989 film that is a very loose sequel to the 1976 Bert I. Gordon The Food of the Gods, based on the 1904 H.G. Wells novel of the same name. It is a sequel in name only, as its plot bears no relation to the 1976 film.
Plot
Dr. Neil Hamilton receives a call from his mentor Dr. Kate Travis about a young boy named Bobby, whose deficient growth has been treated with Travis' experimental serum. Bobby has swiftly and unexpectedly grown larger than a full-grown adult and become violent. To find an antidote, Neil takes a sample of the serum back to his lab at a university science complex. There, animal-rights activists led by Mark Hales and Neil's girlfriend Alex Reed are protesting the work of Prof. Edmund Delhurst, who claims to studycancer but in fact subjects animals to experimentation seeking a cure for baldness. Neil and his assistant Joshua inject the serum into some lab rats. That night, the activists break into the complex to trash Delhurst's lab and accidentally release the now-giant rats, which kill Mark and escape into the campus' utility tunnels. Police Lieutenant Weizel does not believe the surviving activists' statements despite Neil's corroboration about the serum, and Dean White hires a pair of exterminators to handle what he believes are normal-sized rats. The giant rats kill several people, including one of the exterminators and the surviving activists, Al and Angie, escape. But the giant rats apparently kill whoever tried to hunt the animals down themselves. Delhurst's assistant, a janitor named Zeke, is attacked. But, the surviving exterminator, despite taking several rat bites to his arms and face, appears and burns this rat. Later, a night watchman tries to escape some rats, though he is killed off screen. Alex discovers the body of a workman while two other men killed by the rats, whose bodies are still in the car, are discovered by the police. Although Lieutenant Weizel is convinced of the threat, Dean White remains skeptical and refuses to shut the campus down because of the upcoming grand opening of the university's new sports complex. When Joshua falls victim to the rats, Neil attacks the Dean and is fired. Delhurst steals the serum sample and tests it, first on Neil's pet rat Louise, then on a sample of cancer cells. He accidentally contaminates himself with treated cells and dies within minutes as his entire body develops massive tumors. Neil returns to the lab to retrieve the antidote he has created, testing it by destroying Delhurst's transformed corpse. Meanwhile, the rats attack the swimming competition being held in the new sports complex, killing several people including Dean White. Neil uses the enlarged but still-docile Louise, who is in heat, to lure the giant rats into the university courtyard where Weizel and his men gun them all down. Neil phones Dr. Travis to inform her of the antidote, but it is too late; Bobby, now psychotic and larger than ever, kills Travis while she is on the phone and escapes.
