Pitch Black (2000)

A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world.

Director:

David Twohy

Writers:

Jim Wheat (story), Ken Wheat (story),

Stars:

Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
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
Ric Anderson	...	Total Stranger
Vic Wilson	...	Captain Tom Mitchell
Angela Moore	...	Dead Crew Member

Storyline

The space transport vessel "Hunter-Gratzner" carrying 40 people on-board crashes on a desert planet when the ship is struck in a meteor storm. There are only 12 survivors, among them are pilot Carolyn Fry (Who has assumed command after the ship's captain is killed), bounty hunter William J. Johns, religious man Abu Al-Walid, Antiques dealer Paris P. Ogilvie, runaway teenager Jack, settlers John 'Zeke' Ezekiel and his lover Sharon 'Shazza' Montgomery and Richard B. Riddick, a dangerous escaped convict. Marooned, the 10 survivors finds the barren and hot desert-scape has sunlight from three suns. Not only must they find food and water and worry about Riddick, the survivors find themselves being hunted by the planet's flesh-eating alien inhabitants when the planet is engulfed in darkness, which happens every 22 years, as they emerge from underground to hunt and eat all signs of life. Fry and the survivors find Riddick is their best chance of survival, as Riddick has surgically-enhanced ...

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Plot Keywords:

darkness | survival | desert planet | criminal | spaceship | 

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Taglines:

A new species of terror

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sci-fi violence and gore, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Showbizz.net (French) [ca] USA Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Nightfall

Filming Locations:

Queensland, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$23,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£900,663 (UK) (10 November 2000)

Gross:

£2,702,570 (UK) (8 December 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Interscope Communications

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min 112 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The core sample that Fry examines is: 76875/87/656.

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Goofs

When Carolyn first addresses Imam, she quite obviously pronounces his name "ell-mom," as though the capital I in his title were a lower-case L.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Riddick: [voiceover] They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake. Transporting me with civilians. Sounded like 40, 40-plus. Heard an Arab voice. Some hoodoo holy man, probably on his way to New Mecca. But what route? What route? I smelt a woman. Sweat, boots, tool belt, leather. Prospector type. Free settlers. And they only take the back roads. And here's my real problem. Mr. Johns... the blue-eyed devil. ...

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Crazy Credits

The persons and events in this production are fictitious. No similarity to actual persons or predators, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

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Connections

Followed by The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

User Reviews

How to survive in pitch black?

Pitch Black is a survival story. It's about how to survive in an hostile, alien world against even more hostile enemies. The task gets even more difficult when the nearest enemies can be found within your own surviving group.

The plot of Pitch Black is quite usual and has been seen several times before in different variations. But what makes this movie shine above others, is it's well-written characters.

The group consists of very different people with few more interesting than the others: Jack, a boy with a secret; Fry, a pilot having hard time with her own conscience; Johns, a bounty- hunter with a drug-habit; Imam, a holy man facing the fact that God is sometimes cruel and Riddick, a convict and a murderer learning to value others, not only himself. Characters start to live in the movie. They aren't only paper like in many other movies of this genre. You start to care for the characters, especially for Riddick though that feels quite odd. He is supposed to be the bad guy. In this movie, the line between light and pitch black is very thin. All characters are familiar with both.

Other thing that works in this movie is the casting. Rarely do actors fit to their roles this well. Radha Mitchell is suitable for Fry. Cole Hauser brings the right amount of cruelness and sense of responsibility for Johns. But the most impressive work is done by Vin Diesel. He does great job as Riddick. In his hands Riddick is quite creepy, definitely very dangerous and also deep character, just as he is supposed to be.

So, how do you survive in Pitch Black? Keep your friends close and enemies even closer.