Pitch Black (film)
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| Pitch Black | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | David Twohy |
| Produced by | Tom Engelman |
| Written by | Story: Jim Wheat Ken Wheat Screenplay: Jim Wheat Ken Wheat David Twohy |
| Starring | Vin Diesel Radha Mitchell Cole Hauser Keith David Lewis Fitz-Gerald |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | David Eggby |
| Editing by | Rick Shaine |
| Distributed by |  USA Films Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | February 18, 2000 |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Language | English Arabic |
| Budget | $23 million |
| Followed by | The Chronicles of Riddick |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Pitch Black (also known as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black) is a 2000 science fiction movie, directed by David Twohy. It stars Radha Mitchell and Vin Diesel as its anti-hero, Riddick. Upon the release of the movie's sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, the title of the DVD release was changed to The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black in order to match Universal Studios' branding strategy.
This movie is loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short story Nightfall. Initial concept art for the movie in fact, displays its title as Nightfall.
Tagline:
- Fight Evil With Evil
Contents |
[edit] Plot
As the movie opens, The Hunter Gratzner, a passenger spacecraft, accidentally crosses through a meteor shower and suffers catastrophic damage and loss of life. The docking pilot (Fry), onboard, wants to dump the passenger cabin so the crew can survive. The navigator (Owens) keeps her from doing so. The ship crash-lands on a strange, brightly lit desert planet and, with most of the ship destroyed, only 12 people survive. Two crewmen survive, Fry and Owens, but Owens is killed shortly after the crash when he is impaled by a lever. Among the survivors are: a dangerous criminal (Richard B. Riddick, headed for a new prison), his captor (Johns), Fry, a Muslim imam with three young pilgrims, a young stowaway named Jack, an antique dealer named Paris, and two settlers, Zeke and Shazza.
After they land, Johns finds that Riddick has escaped from his holding cell. Shortly after this, Riddick attempts to choke Johns to death but is unsuccessful. Johns chains Riddick to a bulkhead. Riddick is left on his own and during this time he notices a small gap in the bulkhead he is chained to. He decides to get up and break free. He dislocates his arms, allowing himself to break free, pops them back in and escapes.
Assessing the situation, the rest of the crew realize that the planet's three hot suns illuminate the surface continuously, creating the desert conditions. The ship's destruction has left them without food or water; only a few personal possessions, including a stash of alcohol. Led by Fry, the survivors gather what little they have and set off in search of water.
The group is disoriented, scared, and barely cohesive. This is no brave band of survivors; there are personality problems and arguments right from the start. Nobody is happy to discover a dangerous criminal among them, either. Riddick has altered eyes which enable him to see in the dark, an adaptation that allowed him to survive in the harsh environments of Butcher Bay (the prison where he was kept. This is revealed in the Chronicles of Riddick game, a prequel to Pitch Black). Because of this light-sensitivity, he needs to wear welding goggles during daylight (especially in the harsh continuous sunlight of this planet).
The survivors find strange boneyards, near to which they find an abandoned research base. This provides a water generator and some shelter. Even better, there is hope for escaping the planet, in the form of a small spacecraft (the skiff).
They discover another survivor, a stranger, and Zeke shoots him, thinking he was Riddick. Zeke goes to bury the four dead people (Owens, two crewmen, and the stranger) and then is lost in a bloody struggle near a burrow. Is the escaped Riddick to blame? Fry investigates and discovers flying predatory creatures living underground (cf. grue). Riddick tells the survivors that they now have something other than him to fear.
One of the imam's children, Ali, sneaks into a coring room and finds an alien nest. He is ripped apart by alien hatchlings. Then it is discovered that the three suns will soon align in such a way that they will be eclipsed by two other planets in the system, plunging them into total darkness.
The skiff needs power cells to restart its electrical systems, for which they must return to the ruins of their ship. Shazza notes that the sand cat, an ATV type vehicle left by the colonists, is solar-powered. She repairs the cat so they can move faster. She offers her liquid oxygen canister to Riddick as a sign that she is apologizing to him for blaming him for Zeke's death.
But then the suns set. As they get to the ship, a swarm of hatchlings flies toward Shazza and Riddick. Both of them duck, but a second swarm comes that Shazza is not aware of. Riddick stays down, but Shazza starts to run. She becomes swarmed by the dozens as they carry off her severed torso she is eaten alive. In the dark, the creatures of the night begin to stalk the survivors. Riddick becomes one of the group's most important assets.
Hiding in their ship with their only sources of light, they make a plan to take the power cells back to the skiff. However, an alien has found a way into the ship. Riddick and one of the Muslims, Hassan, go and investigate. Hassan panics and runs, and is ripped in half. Johns comes in and kills the alien with his shotgun. Riddick, with his superior night vision, leads the remaining survivors through the dark. The group takes all their available light sources with them after learning that light damages the creatures. They make a rig using the power cells and drape light cables around their bodies as they run to the settlement with it.
En route to the settlement and the skiff the creatures swoop in dangerously close to the group despite the illumination from the lights. After an extremely close attack, Paris panics, and attempts to run on his own damaging the light rig and plunging everyone into darkness. Paris is soon surrounded and consumed as the group lights their makeshift alcohol torches. As the remaining survivors are continuing to walk, the group recognizes their own tracks and asks Riddick why he is circling instead of moving forward. Riddick says he didn't want to go into the valley with the high concentration of beasts because the "girl" is bleeding, and the light wouldn't be enough to drive them off. The group is confused, as Fry isn't hurt. Riddick enlightens them by gesturing and indicating that Jack is really a girl and is bleeding because of her period. He explains that this is how the creatures have been tracking them so far. Riddick's captor, the brutal Johns, leads him away from the group and tries to persuade Riddick to kill Jack. Riddick, having exposed Johns' treachery, decides to make Johns the bait. They fight, and Johns is left alone in the darkness after being cut by Riddick. One of the aliens impales him and eats him. After returning to the group, Riddick is asked, "Where's Johns?" He replies by saying, "Which half?" Now, five people are left: Imam, his son Suleiman, Riddick, Fry, and Jack. When they enter the canyon it starts raining. The lights go out and Suleiman is grabbed by an alien and they ward it off with light. They continue but Suleiman is taken by an alien again, too quickly for anyone to help.
Now just four people are left to reach the canyon just before the settlement (Riddick, Jack, Fry, and Imam). When most of their light sources (save a flashlight) are gone, the three remain in a cave while Riddick heads back to the ship promising to return with more light.
While waiting in the cave, they discover little creatures with bioluminescence. They put the creatures into a bottle and Fry makes for the skiff. Fry finds Riddick in the skiff preparing to take off. She realizes that he had intended to leave them behind.
Riddick is impressed at Fry's instinct and skill in finding her way to the ship, and callously asks her to leave Imam and Jack behind and escape with him. Fry initially accepts, but then overcomes her fears and pins Riddick to the ground, ordering him to help her rescue the remaining survivors. Riddick then easily overpowers Fry and holds a shiv to her throat, asking if she is willing to die for them. Having grown stronger from the first scene of the movie, Fry states that she would. Riddick is once again impressed and surprised by Fry, and agrees to return to Imam and Jack, and the four then make their way to the ship.
On their way back, Riddick has trailed behind and is surrounded by two creatures. Fry, who had made it back to the skiff, subsequently finds Riddick with a severe leg injury (incurred in his off-screen fight with the aliens). She begins helping the normally self-sufficient Riddick to the ship while reminding him that she had expressed her willingness to die for the Imam and Jack, not Riddick. However as the two are moving to the ship, Fry is struck from behind by one of the creatures. This is an important point in Riddick's character development, as he has fully realized that he respects Fry and considers her an equal, and also that there are other valid life philosophies besides his; Fry and Riddick share one last gaze before she is pulled into the darkness. Riddick then begins to cry out "Not for me!" into the darkness, referring to Fry's initial pledge that she would die for Jack and Imam, but ambiguously foregoing mentioning whether she would die for him as well.
Riddick makes it back to the skiff to find Imam and Jack waiting. In a final stroke of revenge, he delays departure until the last second before engaging the engines at full throttle to incinerate the greatest possible number of advancing creatures.
As the three are leaving the planet, Jack asks what they should say if they run into bounty hunters or other law enforcers asking where to find Riddick. He responds by saying, "Tell 'em Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Vin Diesel | Richard B. Riddick |
| Radha Mitchell | Carolyn Fry |
| Cole Hauser | William J. Johns |
| Keith David | Abu "Imam" al-Walid |
| Lewis Fitz-Gerald | Paris P. Ogilvie |
| Claudia Black | Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery |
| Rhiana Griffith | Jack / Jackie |
| John Moore | John "Zeke" Ezekiel |
| Simon Burke | Greg Owens |
| Les Chantery | Suleiman |
| Sam Sari | Hassan |
| Firass Dirani | Ali |
| Vic Wilson | Captain Tom Mitchell |
| Angela Moore | Dead Crewmember |
[edit] Trivia
- Several of the set pieces, the Hunter Gratzner pods, the skiff and several of the "mud Towers" the creatures emerge from are owned by a local miner in Coober Pedy where the film was shot. Towards the end of filming he bought the soon to be broken down sets from the art department in a deal brokered at the front bar of the Opal Inn Hotel. They currently reside above his dugout near the lookout and were featured in the background of the episode of the Great Race filmed around 2000.
- Universal Studios at first only owned the international rights to this film (and US DVD rights), but when Vivendi Universal (Universal's parent at the time) acquired USA Films (the original US distributor), Universal would get the US theatrical rights as well.
- The concept of flying alien creatures arriving in pure darkness and vulnerable to light inspires the idea for a mutant race called the "Kryll," who operate in a similar manner in the Xbox 360 title Gears of War
- Jim Wheat the co-writer of Pitch Black stated at a 2004 fan signing that the name Grue was inspired by the fictional dark dwelling monster from the Zork series of computer text adventures.
[edit] Related works
The movie's sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, was released in 2004 and was also directed by David Twohy. A short anime movie, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, directed by Peter Chung, was also released that year. Dark Fury bridges the gap between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a game for the Xbox and the PC, was also released in 2004.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
