A sequel to 1992 hit Sister Act and starring Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris once again, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit was released in 1993, under the direction of Bill Duke.
Deloris takes her story to Las Vegas and her show becomes a hit. One night, her old friends from the convent pay her a visit, and they tell her that the Catholic school where they've been teaching (which happens to be Deloris' own alma mater) is slowly going under. Deloris agrees to return as Sister Mary Clarence and teach the music class to a large group of very disinterested teenagers (led by a young Lauryn Hill). After a series of pranks being pulled on her, she strikes back in her own way and humbles the kids so that she can work with them. She decides to form the kids into a choir, singing the same sort of music from the previous film and entering a choir competition in hopes to convince the archdiocese that the school is worth funding.
The film provides examples of:
- 555: Shows up when Rita is filling out her permission slip.
- Accidental Misnaming:
- Mr. Crisp at first has difficulty remembering the “Clarence” in Sister Mary Clarence. Once he learns she is not a real nun, he stops trying to remember her given pseudonym and just calls her “Sister Mary Fake.”
- Mary Clarence returns the favor by calling him “Crispy.” As does the Reverend Mother in her last parting shot to him!
- Arc Words: "If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention."
- Asleep in Class: Sister Mary Clarence gently, but firmly chastises a student for this—"I like you, but I don't want you catching zzzz's in my class anymore", dismissing his complaints about managing school and a job.
- As the Good Book Says...: Father Ignatius tries to encourage Mary Clarence by quoting from the Bible, “O ye be of strong will.” Mary Lazarus follows up by saying, “And ye better be as tough as nails too.”
- Banister Slide: Mary Clarence does one of these.
- Big Bad: It is obviously clear that Mr. Crisp doesn't care about the children or school and he wants it closed.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- When Frank-ay and Maria overhear the nuns mentioning that "Sister Mary Clarence" has a past in Vegas, they give the camera synchronized confused looks and say, "Vegas?"
- And of course the camera mob during the closing credits....
- Comically Missing the Point: When Mary Clarence sits down on the seat with glue, all the students cry out a whispered “Yes” and respond excitedly when she talks about “fusion.” She thinks the students are saying “Yes” because they agree with her love for The Supremes. Only later does she realize they are celebrating their successful prank against her.
- Compliment Backfire: Reverend Mother tells Deloris that she is an example of how “a sow’s ear can be turned into a silk purse.” Deloris wouldn’t have phrased it that way.
- Concert Climax: The movie ends with the music class choir performing at the contest in order to impress the archdiocese and save their school.
- Continuity Nod:
- Sister Mary Clarence's cover is blown when Mr. Crisp finds a copy of Rolling Stone magazine with Deloris on the cover, which appeared during the credits of the first film.
- At the end of the cast's performance of "Shout", which is used alongside the closing credits of the first film, Sister Mary Lazarus screeches "now wait a minute!" This is used once again to start the cast's performance of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which is used alongside the closing credits of the second film.
- Deloris' horrified reaction upon first seeing her students, leading her to leave the room and slam the door shut almost as soon as she opens it, ironically echoes the way Reverend Mother in the first film initially reacted to her.
- Cool Old Lady: Many of the nuns who sing “Ball of Confusion” at the retirement home definitely count as this.
- Cool Teacher: Deloris is asked to go undercover as the music teacher at an inner-city Catholic school on the verge of closure, discovers the students can sing, and turns them into a competition-winning choir, simultaneously convincing the local diocese to keep the school open.
- Crowd Song: The movie ends with the whole cast singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
- Demoted to Extra: Outside the finale, the Reverend Mother only appears in five scenes in the movie.
- Drives Like Crazy: Father Thomas, who somehow was the designated driver even if he doesn't have a license.
- Education Mama: Initially, Rita's mom does not bless her choir participation. It's made quite clear, albeit obliquely, that the reason she disapproves of her daughter's desire to sing and instead tries to force her to focus only on education is not a general "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" or "you have to have better opportunities and do better than I did" mentality, but because her husband tried the same path, failed utterly, and died leaving the family destitute. So it isn't that she disparages Rita's dream, but that she finds it impractical and unrealistic and is afraid that pursuing it could cost Rita the same as happened to him.
- Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: On some television airings of the movie, during the scene where the kids are freestyle rapping on the basketball court (most of which was improvised by Lauryn Hill), all of the rapping is captioned as "[INDISTINCT RAPPING]", and a few seconds later, "[INDISTINCT RAPPING CONTINUES]". Other TV airings use the same captions as home media and streaming, which do show the rapped lyrics.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- However unruly and eccentric most of the other students are in their own ways, many of them still find Jamal's Afro-pride speeches OTT and ridiculous. Also, as troublesome as Rita is, she does help stop a fight between Jamal and Frankie by pushing the former down onto his seat.
- When Rita rebels against Mary Clarence's "new way", i.e. that they will actually have genuine lessons, no one else in the hitherto unruly class joins her.
- Failed a Spot Check: The friars apparently never met or heard of Deloris van Cartier, despite being in the same city as the convent she previously stayed in and working with the same nuns as she did. Were there no conversations about Deloris before the nuns decided to recruit her? The Pope personally requested a concert from Deloris' choir while he was in San Francisco! Given that, Mr. Crisp should have heard of her as well.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Rita's mother is determined to squash her dreams of becoming a singer. She won't even allow her to join the school choir as an extra curricular because she thinks she should be spending all her time studying to get into a good college. Nevermind that it's a constructive hobby that keeps Rita from running the streets, or that colleges look favorably on students with extracurriculars on their records.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Rita Louise Watson!
- Funny Background Event: After the rap segment in "Joyful Joyful", we see one of the boys run like a bunny to get back into his position in the choir.
- Genre Shift: The first movie is a Witness Protection comedy, while the sequel is a Save Our Students dramedy.
- Henpecked Husband: A non-spouse example, the priests are all practically under Mr. Crisp's foot.
- Hey, Let's Put on a Show: While the choir competition in the sequel isn't created or put on by Deloris and the other nuns, it otherwise fulfills this trope, seeing as it a) gives the students confidence in themselves b) proves the school is and can be successful again and c) convinces the archdiocese not to close it.
- Hidden Depths: The seemingly useless and indifferent Rita has a deeply spiritual side and a beautiful singing voice.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Father Thomas once tells Deloris that he has a message for her despite working for the Catholic Church, not for FedEx.
- Incredibly Long Note: Ahmal at the end of “Oh Happy Day”Ahmal: “When Jesus waaaaaaaaaaashed my sins away!”
- Inner City School: The main setting of the second movie, with mostly African-American students and a few Hispanic and white kids.
- Insistent Terminology: At the end of the film, the kids find out that she worked in Vegas, and they ask her about whether she was a Vegas showgirl.Deloris: Let's get one thing straight... I am not, nor have I ever been, a Las Vegas showgirl. I am a headliner!
- Malcolm Xerox: Wesley, or as he prefers to be called, “Ahmal M’jomo Jamaael," which means "He who is spirited.”
- Nails on a Blackboard: Deloris does this to silence the loudly chattering, music-playing students in her music class. Twice.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, the Reverend Mother and Father Maurice caused Bishop O'Malley a lot of problems.
- Passing the Torch: In the first film, Deloris gets to know the sweet, Shrinking Violet novice Mary Robert, helping her to find her voice (literally) and become confident in herself. In the sequel, Mary Robert performs something of the same role (and even lampshades it to Deloris) for Rita.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure:
- Tyler has never heard of The Supremes, but he does at least know who Diana Ross is. Justified that he's just a teenager unfamiliar with 1960s girl groups.
- Maria somehow made it through pre-school and elementary school without learning “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Frank-ay (ayy-oh-ayy) is actually a pretty good rapper.
- Previously on…: The events of Sister Act are summed up with a medley at the beginning of the sequel.
- Save Our Students: Deloris' nun friends ask her to help turn around the choir of the Catholic school she attended as a child. Also overlaps with Saving the Orphanage, since thanks to the greedy superintendent, if Deloris can't turn the problem class around, the archdiocese is going to close the whole school and have it torn down to make, yes, a parking lot.
- Signs of Disrepair: The name of the classroom, Music Class, frequently has the first two letter of the second word scratched off.
- So Proud of You: Rita's mother says this to her at the end of the movie.
- Spontaneous Choreography: Technically averted, since some of the students are briefly shown practicing the dance moves when they first arrive at the competition. Still, it’s hard to imagine how they would’ve done all those moves in the choir robes.
- Teasing the Substitute Teacher: Deloris is technically a new teacher rather than a substitute, but the dynamic with her students for the first few classes is the same. She has zero control of them and they have zero respect for her; they brazenly tell her that her class is a "bird course" they expect to pass with no effort, and ultimately humiliate her by spreading superglue on her desk chair. It's only when she lays down the law that they show her some begrudging respect, and not until their first concert that they begin to have genuine affection for her.
- Technician Versus Performer: Sister Mary Clarence's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (perfomer) against a choir that's won the championship for 3 years running (technician). To illustrate the effect, both choirs sing "Joyful Joyful". The other choir sings it with military precision, while the misfit class puts in raps and riffs on Janet Jackson. One guess as to which choir wins.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Rita's mother doesn't know that Rita has gone to the competition until she gets home, several hours after the class has left, and yet she's still able to make the 376-mile trip to Hollywood in time for the competition, conveniently arriving and taking her seat just seconds before her daughter begins singing on stage.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The movie was inspired by the life a choir teacher called Iris Stevenson who caught the school board in order to stop layoffs.
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech: The sequel is pretty much one long one of these. (Incidentally, they work.)
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: "Who Got the Flo?" and the rap sequence in "Joyful, Joyful".
- Your Mom: When Deloris first meets the students, they are trading a series of these jokes.
