Knight Rider 2000
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| Knight Rider 2000 | |
 Promotional poster for Knight Rider 2000 |
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| Directed by | Alan J. Levi |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Michele Brustin, Rob Hedden |
| Written by | Rob Hedden, Glen A. Larson |
| Starring | David Hasselhoff Edward Mulhare Susan Norman Carmen Argenziano Mitch Pileggi |
| Music by | Jan Hammer |
| Cinematography | Billy Dickson |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | May 19, 1991 |
| Running time | 91 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
Knight Rider 2000 is a 1991 sequel movie to the television series Knight Rider. It is included in the Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4 versions of the Knight Rider Season One box set. The movie served as a pilot for a proposed new series, but despite high ratings, the plan was abandoned.
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[edit] Plot
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In an unspecified city in an alternate year 2000, handguns have been banned and law enforcement carry non-lethal "stun" pistols. Criminals are sentenced to cryonic suspension prison instead of conventional jail cells.
One such inmate, Thomas J. Watts (Mitch Pileggi) – a former cop turned psychotic killer, has just been released from the prison and assassinates the current mayor. Police officer Shawn McCormick (Susan Norman) confronts the masked Watts holding the next Mayor hostage at gunpoint. She shoot Watts, who is able to flee, the next Mayor being unharmed. She finds the handgun used in the murder dropped in a bush, and hides the gun not knowing what to do. The city's new Mayor, Harold Abbey (Lou Beatty Jr.), demands the gunman be found, but his fellow councilmen reprimand him for his choice to disarm the police and setting up the meaningless cryo-prison where the inmates just "sleep away" their sentences and emerge the same person as they entered
The Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG) steps in with a possible solution to help the police force and unveil the "Knight 4000" – a red custom car that will become the next generation of the Knight Industries supercar previously called KITT. With the vehicle, law enforcement will have an edge on heavily armed criminals and will be better equipped to apprehend them safely. The city's Police Commissioner Ruth Daniels (Christine Healy) adamantly argues the need for an independent law enforcement organization. Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) and his partner, Russel Maddock (Carmen Argenziano), are green lighted on the idea, but the city wants to see a working prototype of the 4000 in 30 days. Devon informs Abbey the Knight 4000 is still in prototype form, and completion would take at least three months. Abbey stands firm with his deadline. Maddock does not see a problem with the deadline, but Devon knows they will need help with an effective demonstration. He decides to bring in Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) as the test driver.
Shawn later gives the gun to her partner not knowing what to do. Later, Watts ambushes Shawn, and discovers that some of her fellow patrolmen are working with the assassin in a twisted conspiracy – to rearm the criminals so the city will have no choice but to give the police their "real" weapons back. Watts shoots her in the head. Shawn survives the attack and is rushed to the hospital. There, doctors save her life by installing a cybernetic microchip implant into her brain. She eventually recovers, but the vital details of the attack are gone and all that she remembers is that someone tried to kill her
Meanwhile, Devon visits Michael, who has been "retired" for the past ten years and living in seclusion near a mountain lake. Devon convinces him to join the project, but Michael is furious to learn KITT has been reduced to a pile of parts at Maddock's direction, sighting KITT’s obsolete technology, and the Knight 4000 development already underway. He also disagrees with the idea to have Michael Knight brought back to the Foundation. Furious, Michael is ready to walk away, but later decides to rebuild KITT's AI unit, which he finds difficult since Maddock has sold most of KITT's cybernetic technology to medical research. Eventually, Michael is able to reactivate KITT's logic module and temporarily installs him in the dashboard of his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. KITT protests his vintage look, but it is the best Michael can do for him under the circumstances. While parked in the garage, KITT tries to get to know the Knight 4000, but finds the vehicle is just as temperamental and arrogant as the man he's modeled after, Maddock.
Shawn quits the police force after she learns Daniels didn't want to authorize her brain chip implant, nor get involved in her case. She seeks employment with the Foundation where Michael learns one of KITT's missing cybernetic chips is now in her head. Because of this, KITT is able to link up with the chip through physical contact and extract her missing memories. Shawn remembers that Watts is the one who shot her and her fellow officers were with him when he did it — including her partner.
The plot thickens when Watts learns Shawn is still alive and involved in the new Foundation project. He sends the crooked cops to eliminate her and Michael. The two are easily chased down by the police when they try to get away in KITT's classic car body, which isn't the indestructible shell he once had. He decides to evade capture by driving off a pier into the harbor where he quickly sinks to the bottom. Michael and Shawn are momentarily kept safe inside the "air tight" driving compartment, but KITT isn't so lucky as water seeps in and shorts out his circuitry. With Watts believing Michael and Shawn are dead, he captures Devon and uses mind scanning technology to discover what Devon knows. Afterward, he injects a lethal drug into an intravenous tube which kills Devon.
Michael and Shawn swim to safety and secretly return to the Foundation where they learn of Devon's fate. After his funeral, Abbey terminates FLAG's contract to Maddock's displeasure. With the Knight 4000's development complete, Michael quits. Maddock confronts him and receives a punch in his chin. Shawn later confronts Michael in an attempt to get him to return. Michael later returns, and secretly retrofits the Knight 4000 with KITT's AI and Maddock & Shawn find out after the retrofit is complete. KITT gets used to his new body and the vehicle's advanced features, such as a heads up virtual reality display in the windshield, an ultrasound gun, thermal generator, and arominometer to name a few. Michael and Shawn both go after Watts with a personal vendetta, Shawn with a deeper axe to grind.
They follow Shawn’s former partner to a warehouse, where the guns are stored. By altering Shawn's voice to resemble Watts', she arranges a meeting and gun transaction with her former partner. She confronts him, but before he can fully cooperate with FLAG's investigation, he is shot by Watts from a remote location. Before the shot KITT informs Michael of a sniper rifle sighting Shawn and her former partner. Michael arrives just in time to prevent Shawn from being killed.
Later, Maddock sends KITT a copy of the prison release papers for Watts, signed by the murdered Mayor. KITT indicates it is a electronic signature. Michael has KITT print more copies, sending one with a fake signature to Daniels using her name, and a similar one to Mayor Abbey, this time with his name. Following Abbey's limo closely under surveillance they record a conversation between the Mayor and Watts discussing the release papers. After recording enough information KITT, Shawn and Michael return to FLAG.
After showing the Daniels the video of Mayor Abbey's conversation with Watts, Maddock proposes a pact with the police force. After ambushing a caravan of corrupt cops, they find no guns. KITT informs Michael there is another group of police cars headed for the local mall. Maddock convinces Daniels to allow KITT to go after the other group alone.
When they encounter a local traffic jam, KITT enters a waterway propelling on the water to the mall. Watts has begun a transaction with a gun buyer. KITT locks the doors and jams the radios of the police cars. When one of the corrupt cops guarding Watts sights Shawn moving in, he shoots her ensuing a panic of mall goers. The buyer flees. Watts also flees. Michael takes down one of the corrupt cops, and goes after Watts. Shawn, only wounded near her left shoulder (Just like Michael in the TV Series pilot) runs from the other cop. After disguising herself with a wig, she knocks out the other cop, and confiscates her handgun. Michael catches up to Watts, who has taken a mall goer hostage at gunpoint. With KITT's remote assistance Michael disarms Watts, freeing the hostage. A fight ensues between them, Michael only stopping when Watts picks up his handgun. Shawn arrives with the other handgun, instructing him to drop his, readying to shoot him. Michael talks Shawn down from shooting Watts. He then draws another gun hidden under his coat but Michael draws out a Ultrasound gun faster hitting Watts, who then falls down below to his death, landing on an escalator track.
After Watts' defeat, the Mayor is incarcerated. Michael returns to retirement. KITT remains behind at the Knight Foundation with Shawn and Maddock. The trio continue their police work for the city.
[edit] The Knight 4000's features
The Knight 4000 has most of KITT's original features including a few new and improved systems.
- Voice Activated Controls - The Knight 4000's dashboard is less "cluttered looking" than KITT's original dash with most of the controls now being completely voice activated rather than having to push a button.
- Virtual Reality Heads-up Display - Rather than dash-mounted CRT displays, the Knight 4000 uses a virtual reality heads-up display (VR-HUD) that makes use of the entire windshield as video monitor.
- Microwave Stunner - Similar to the non-lethal sidearms used by the police, the Knight 4000 is equipped with a microwave stunner that can incapacitate criminals.
- Thermal Expander - The Knight 4000 is equipped with an offensive weapon which consisted of a microwave projector that caused the temperatures of targeted objects to quickly rise and either ignite or explode.
- Fax Machine - The Knight 4000 can print out faxed messages from a dash mounted printer.
- Amphibious Mode - The Knight 4000 can float and manoeuvre on water much like a boat. The system was actually a major improvement over KITT's original hydroplane ability which during the original series was prone to malfunctions during its experimental phase.
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[edit] Trivia
- The movie was executive produced by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., whose previous output includes numerous Sunn Classic films, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Greatest Heroes of the Bible, The Boogens, the original Silent Night, Deadly Night, and The Annihilators.
- The theme song by Jan Hammer was released on his album Drive.
- While early versions of the script had the story set in Seattle (including a climax featuring the use of KITT's amphibious mode to intercept Watts on a Washington State Ferry), there is no dialogue on film to imply that the story occurs in any city in particular - much like the original Knight Rider TV series.
- Knight Rider 2000 was filmed in two Texas cities, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. In some scenes, characters are in San Antonio locations such as Paseo del Río and the Tower of the Americas one moment, and the next they are at the shoreline of Corpus Christi.
- The studio was unable to use the real Pontiac Banshee IV concept car for the movie, so instead it hired Jay Ohrberg Star Cars Inc. to customize a 1991 Dodge Stealth for the Knight 4000. The custom car can also be seen, albeit briefly, as a stolen supercar in CHiPs '99.
- In several episodes of the TV series (one being season 3, episode 1, Knight of the Drones) there are pictures on the wall of the Knight semi trailer of what would seem to later become the Knight 4000 in Knight Rider 2000. This is evident in all the episodes from late season 2 up through 3.
- In the episode "Forget Me Not" of the original series, Michael mentions driving a 1956 Chevy in high school, to which KITT asks if it had any special abilities. This movie shows retired Michael driving a 1950s Chevy and installing KITT in it.
- Actor James Doohan makes a cameo appearance as an innocent bystander that KITT mistakes for a criminal stealing money from an ATM. KITT zaps the suspect with a stun beam and the man collapses. When Michael and Maddock pick up the man to arrest him, they find Mr. Doohan, delirious (from being zapped), and mumbling various lines from his role of Scotty on Star Trek. In the scene, Maddock mentions that there have been ten Star Trek movies by 2000, and Doohan was in all ten. The script writers were somewhat close. However, Doohan's last appearance was in the crossover-movie, Star Trek Generations, his seventh Star Trek film. When he was asked by a fan at a Seattle Star Trek convention as to his motives for doing the cameo, Doohan humorously replied "Their money was green."
- In the ATM scene, the original script had football linebacker Brian Bosworth getting stunned by KITT. The scene was later rewritten to feature James Doohan instead of Bosworth.
- Dan Quayle, who was Vice President of the United States in 1991, had become President of the United States by 2000 in the Knight Rider universe.
- Also in the Knight Rider universe, a Philippine War happened in 1993.[1]
- With the original KITT being the Knight 2000, and the new version being the Knight 4000, it is not made clear in the movie if there was ever a Knight 3000. However, the Knight 3000 is the car in the 2008 Knight Rider remake.
- No mention is made of Bonnie or RC3 in the story.
- Mayor Abbey is incarcerated in a cryogenic prison. The technician who closes Abbey's cryogenic unit mentions that he is also getting ready to release "some Manson guy" that's been there for a long time.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| David Hasselhoff | Michael Knight |
| Edward Mulhare | Devon Miles |
| Susan Norman | Officer Shawn McCormick |
| Carmen Argenziano | Russell Maddock/Voice of Knight 4000 |
| Eugene Clark | Officer Kurt Miller |
| Megan Butler | Officer Marla Hedges |
| Mitch Pileggi | Thomas J. Watts |
| Christine Healy | Commissioner Ruth Daniels |
| Lou Beatty Jr. | Mayor Harold Abbey |
| Francis Guinan | Dr. Jeffrey Glassman |
| John Cannon Nichols | Lieutenant Justin Strand |
| Chris Bonno | Andrew |
| Robert F. Cawley | Prison Guard |
| Ellis Posey | Mayor Frank Cottam |
| Philip Hafer | Charlie (as Phillip Hafer) |
| Carolyn G. Jackson | Bag Lady |
| Ron Jackson | Highway Police Officer |
| Stacy Lundgren | Sandy |
| Matthew Menger | Shawn's Father (as Matt Menger) |
| Paul Menzel | Businessman |
| J.W. Moore IV | Medical Technician |
| Edwin Neal | Warehouse Clerk |
| Marco Perella | Police Sergeant |
| Larry Roop | Police Officer |
| Lori Swierski | Lori |
| James Doohan | Himself |
| William Daniels | KITT (voice) (uncredited) |
[edit] External links
- Knight Rider 2000 Online - Comprehensive website about the movie
- Knight Rider 2000 at the Internet Movie Database
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