General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella

Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella is a 2001 Spanish comedy film directed and written by Santiago Segura, the second entry in the Torrente series about the crude Madrid ex-policeman José Luis Torrente. In the film, Torrente has moved to the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella, lost his money gambling, and sets up as a private investigator, stumbling into an arms dealer's plot to destroy the city.¹^•² With 5,321,969 admissions in Spain, it became one of the most-attended Spanish films ever made.¹

Key fact	Detail
Director and writer	Santiago Segura, who also plays José Luis Torrente¹
Production year and country	Spain, 2001; ICAA file 109400¹
Spanish box office	€22,142,173.13 from 5,321,969 spectators¹
Budget	2.8 million euros³
Main cast	Santiago Segura, Gabino Diego (Cuco), Tony Leblanc (Mauricio), José Luis Moreno (Spinelli), Inés Sastre, Arturo Valls, Juanito Navarro, Eloi Yebra⁴
Rating	Not recommended for viewers under 13 (ICAA classification)¹
Historical rank	Fifth most-attended film in the history of Spanish cinema, per 2026 trade reporting⁵

Spoilers

Plot

The Spanish film archive's synopsis states that the ex-policeman José Luis Torrente settles on the Costa del Sol and decides to open a detective agency. With the help of his inseparable companion Cuco and the faithful Gayolo, he takes on Spinelli, a dangerous arms dealer who has threatened to destroy the city of Marbella if he does not receive 2,000 million pesetas.¹

SensaCine's fuller synopsis connects the film to its predecessor: after taking 50 million pesetas from the Chinese traffickers of the first film, Torrente has left Madrid for Marbella to live lavishly on women, money, and casinos, until greed at the dice table costs him everything he has. His plan to get by is to fight crime again, in his own fashion, as a private investigator, aided by Cuco (Gabino Diego), a well-meaning polydrug addict who is tracking the arms dealer Spinelli (José Luis Moreno).² IMDb's summary adds that one case places Torrente between a villain's missile plot to destroy the city and his own uncle's blackmail operation, without his knowing it.⁶

Cast and production

The ICAA catalog credits Santiago Segura as José Luis Torrente, Gabino Diego as Cuco, Tony Leblanc as Mauricio, José Luis Moreno as Spinelli, Inés Sastre as a beautiful singer, Arturo Valls as Fabiano, Juanito Navarro as the Mayor, Eloi Yebra as Gayolo, and Rosanna Walls.⁴ The production companies were Amiguetes Entertainment, S.L. and Lola 2002, S.L., each with a 50 percent Spanish share.⁴

The film was shot in Marbella, and local participation was extensive: when Segura returned to present the film in April 2001, El País reported that it was hard to find anyone in the city without a relative, friend, or acquaintance who had appeared as an extra, even for a couple of seconds; more than 3,000 people had applied at the casting.⁷

Box office and records

The film earned €22,142,173.13 from 5,321,969 spectators in Spain, according to the ICAA.¹ Within two months of release it had passed 4,371,624 spectators, the admissions record that Tito Fernández's 1970 comedy No desearás al vecino del quinto had held until then.⁸ A 2026 trade analysis places it fifth among the most-attended films in Spanish cinema history, behind only a handful of later titles, and ahead of the other Torrente sequels: Torrente 3 drew 3,575,759 spectators and Torrente 4 drew 2,632,922.⁵

Against a budget of 2.8 million euros, the 22.1-million-euro gross made it by a wide margin the most profitable entry of the saga to that date; the first film had earned 10.9 million euros from about 3 million spectators.³^•⁵

Reception

Critical and audience responses diverged. A FilmAffinity critic quoted by 20minutos described the film as offering "more of the same: plenty of vulgarity, coarse humor, and a delirious, zany story," while audiences gave it 5.3/10 on FilmAffinity (51,114 ratings) and 6.4/10 on IMDb.³ SensaCine users rate it 2.8 out of 5.² Santiago Segura received a European Film Awards nomination for Best Actor in 2001.⁹

An academic study of the Torrente phenomenon notes that the first two films were very popular and that the character's wide acceptance meant he lost much of his intended transgressive effect.¹⁰

Place in the saga

Torrente 2 is the second of what became a six-film series running from Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley (1998) to Torrente presidente (2026).⁵ Its commercial performance set the template for the franchise: each sequel was more expensive than the last, from 5 million euros for Torrente 3 to 10 million for Torrente 4, while admissions declined from the 2001 peak.³ A 2004 PC first-person shooter based on the character drew on the first two films, placing its setting and the characters Cuco and Spinelli in the world of this installment.¹¹

Title and versions

Although widely known as "Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella," the title used on posters, DVD covers, and promotional material, the on-screen title reads only "Misión en Marbella," preceded by a James Bond-style formula, "Santiago Segura is Torrente in...".⁶ Reference sources disagree on the running time: the ICAA catalog records 101 minutes,¹ SensaCine lists 1 hour 27 minutes,² and IMDb and JustWatch list 1 hour 39 minutes.⁶^•¹² The release date is likewise given as 29 March 2001 by the ICAA¹ and 30 March 2001 by SensaCine and contemporary press coverage.²^•⁷

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026