Pitch Black (film)
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| Pitch Black | |
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 Theatrical Poster |
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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 Claudia Lee Black Cole Hauser Keith David Lewis Fitz-Gerald |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | David Eggby |
| Editing by | Rick Shaine |
| Distributed by | USA Films (USA theatrical) Universal Studios (all other rights) |
| Release date(s) | 2000-02-18 |
| Running time | 109 min [original release] 112 min [director's cut] |
| Language | English Arabic |
| Budget | US$23,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | US$53,187,659 |
| Followed by | The Chronicles of Riddick |
Pitch Black (also known as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black) is a 2000 science fiction action movie directed by David Twohy and is recognized as the acting breakthrough of Vin Diesel.
In the film, dangerous criminal Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel) is being transported to prison in a cargo spacecraft. When the spaceship is damaged by comet debris and makes an emergency crash landing on an empty desert planet, Riddick escapes. However, when predatory flying alien creatures begin attacking the survivors, Riddick joins forces with the crew to develop a plan to escape the planet.
The film's total budget was estimated to be US$23 million. It was a sleeper hit, grossing over US$53 million worldwide. It has since developed its own cult following, particularly around the anti-hero Riddick. A sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, was released in 2004.
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[edit] Plot summary
In the 26th century, the transport ship Hunter/Gratzner, its crew and passengers in cryo-status chambers, passes through a comet's tail while on autopilot; the debris from the comet ruptures the hull and kills some of its crew, including the captain. The remaining crew is awakened, and docking pilot Carolyn Fry crash lands on the nearby planet, Hades, despite nearly dumping the passenger compartment; although many survive, the ship is a total loss. The survivors find the planet to be nearly desert-like, its orbit around three suns keeping the surface in perpetual daylight. The survivors learn that one of the passengers is a dangerous criminal, Richard B. Riddick, who escaped in the crash. Riddick is chased by a bounty hunter, William J. Johns, before he gets away. Meanwhile, one of the other survivors is killed while investigating a nearby cave. Johns returns with Riddick, who is accused of the survivor's murder and kept under close guard.
A group of the survivors travel to a nearby abandoned geological research settlement to find a supply of water and a spaceship they can use to escape the planet, though lacking power cells needed to start it up. They come to learn that the planet has a native species of deadly bat-like creatures that preyed on the former residents of the settlement, but only hunt in complete darkness, staying in the planet's cave systems otherwise. The survivors, discovering a astronomical model of Hades' orbit, realize that the suns will soon become eclipsed from Hades from another planet in the system, plunging the surface into darkness for an unspecified length of time. They quickly race back to the crashed ship to collect the power cells, other supplies, and the other survivors before this occurs.
As they begin the journey back from the crash to the settlement, the eclipse starts, and the creatures begin to emerge from the underground caves and attack the remaining survivors. Riddick reveals that he has had illegal surgery performed on his eyes to give him perfect night vision, and the group finds it necessary to trust him to lead them to safety. After Riddick realizes that Jack, a young runaway disguised as a boy, is in fact female and on her menstrual cycle, Riddick tells the others that her blood is attracting the creatures. When Johns suggests leaving Jack behind to lure the creatures away, Riddick instead wounds Johns and leaves him as the bait. Soon, the group is whittled down to Riddick, Fry, Jack, and the Muslim Imam; Riddick has the other three wait in a nearby cave with bioluminescent worms that will keep the creatures at bay while he proceeds ahead with the heavy power cells. Concerned, Fry follows Riddick and finds him ready to take the escape craft by himself, but manages to convince him to help rescue Jack and Imam.
Returning to the cave, Riddick and the others proceed back to the ship; Riddick is taken by the creatures, but is saved by Fry's sacrifice. As they prepare to take off, Riddick waits for the last possible minute to kill as many of the creatures as possible in the ship's engine blast. As they 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. Riddick responds:
"Tell 'em Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."
[edit] Cast
- Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick
- Radha Mitchell as Carolyn Fry
- Cole Hauser as William J. Johns
- Keith David as Abu "Imam" al-Walid
- Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris P. Ogilvie
- Claudia Black as Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery
- Rhiana Griffith as Jack
- John Moore as John "Zeke" Ezekiel
- Simon Burke as Greg Owens
- Les Chantery as Suleiman
- Sam Sari as Hassan
- Firass Dirani as Ali
- Vic Wilson as Captain Tom Mitchell
- Angela Moore as Dead Crewmember
[edit] Reception
Pitch Black opened in 1,832 theaters on 18 February 2000, grossing US$11,577,688 over its opening weekend and ranking #3 at the box office. The film has a domestic gross of US$39,240,659 and a foreign gross of US$13,947,000, giving it a worldwide total of US$53,187,659.
On its release, the film was met with mainly mixed reviews, and it received a 58% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 97 reviews with an average rating of 5.7/10 (with a 36% approval rating from top critics and 82% from the RT community).
[edit] Related works
The movie's sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), was also directed by David Twohy. A short animated movie released the same year, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004), was directed by Peter Chung. Dark Fury bridges the gap between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick.
In 2000, a prequel to Pitch Black was released named Into Pitch Black, which was supposed to be a Documentary movie. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a game for the Xbox and the PC, was also released in 2004 to critical acclaim. A remake of Butcher Bay, including a new campaign, was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on 7 April 2009, under the title The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
As of 2009, two live-action sequels to The Chronicles of Riddick were in development with both David Twohy and Vin Diesel attached.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pitch Black |
- Official movie website
- Pitch Black at the Internet Movie Database
- Pitch Black at Allmovie
- Pitch Black at Rotten Tomatoes
- Pitch Black at Box Office Mojo
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