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:

Fight Evil With Evil

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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) [Canada] 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 contacts that Vin Diesel wore to play Riddick were a prototype. After the first day of filming, when they tried to remove the contact lenses, they couldn't. Due to where they were filming, they had to have an optometrist flown in from the nearest town, three hours away. Diesel called the contacts hubcaps.

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Goofs

Watching the onset of the eclipse should give an indication as to its duration. The relative position and movement of the stars and planets as depicted would indeed result in an eclipse whose length were hours at most, as Johns claimed. This is in spite of the fact that the planets are orbiting in the same direction, as Imam mentions. If this were not the case, the onset of the eclipse from the time the ringed planet first became visible on the horizon would have taken significantly longer, giving sufficient time for a return to the skiff.

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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

References Stagecoach (1939)

User Reviews

Interesting and entertaining with a good cast of mostly unknowns and great special effects.

The opening scene of this movie is pretty incredible. I've seen a number of sci-fi movies with great special effects but my roommate and I looked at each other after the opening sequence and he said plainly, "sensory overload." The plot of the movie is pretty simple but the nice thing about this sci-fi movie is that it lets the audience figure out most of the technology for themselves instead of wasting time to "subtly" explain it. The creatures in this movie are also very interesting. You don't get a really good look at them until about two thirds of the way through. Overall, a very entertaining movie.