Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Trailer: This Movie Isn't About What We Thought At All

The boys from Hot Tub Time Machine (or most of them, anyway) are soon coming back to theaters, and they're bringing all kinds of time travel weirdness with them. Find out what I mean by watching the brand new trailer below:

It's been a good long while since we last actually saw footage from Hot Tub Time Machine 2, as the first red band trailer was released back in July. The delay could partially be explained by the fact that the movie found its release date bumped from Christmas Day of this year to February of 2015. But did you catch the other bit of weirdness in this trailer? It makes the movie look like it has a completely different plot.

Going by this trailer alone, it looks like the movie picks up after the events of the first movie and finds Jacob (Clark Duke), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry) all becoming incredible successes thanks to their access to time travel. They decide to take a whirl in the hot tub for old time's sake, but instead of going to the past they wind up going to the future - where there lives are totally awful. In order to fix their situation, they must try and figure when things went totally wrong and fix it.

With me so far? Now watch the red band trailer that came out a few months ago:

Yes, there's more nudity and curse words, but this trailer sets up an entirely different narrative than the new trailer does. Here, Jacob, Nick and Lou have to get back into the hot tub because Lou has been shot in the dick. They wind up in the future, but there they have to find out who tried to kill Lou. Obviously this is quite different than the plot described above, and it's even weirder that the "Lou getting shot" scene is played for a quick gag in the green band trailer instead of major plot point.

To go with the new trailer, Paramount Pictures has also sent out a new poster, but sadly it doesn't really help clear up any of the questions that we have:

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Poster

So which movie will we actually be be getting on February 20th? I'm definitely curious to find out. After all, while the plot seems up in the air, these trailers are pretty funny and showcase a ton of really talented actors - including not just the main three stars but also Adam Scott, Gillian Jacobs, Collette Wolfe and Thomas Lennon. Are you excited for the film?

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.