Babylon A.D. (2008)

Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.

Director:

Mathieu Kassovitz

Writers:

Maurice G. Dantec (novel), Mathieu Kassovitz (screenplay),

Stars:

Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Mélanie Thierry

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vin Diesel	...	Toorop
Michelle Yeoh	...	Sister Rebeka
Mélanie Thierry	...	Aurora
Gérard Depardieu	...	Gorsky
Charlotte Rampling	...	The High Priestess
Mark Strong	...	Finn
Lambert Wilson	...	Darquandier
Jérôme Le Banner	...	Killa
Joel Kirby	...	Dr. Newton
Souleymane Dicko	...	Jamal
David Belle	...	Kid with Tattoos
Radek Bruna	...	Karl
Jan Unger	...	Fight Promoter
Abraham Belaga	...	Assistant to High Priestess
Gary Cowan	...	Neolite Executive

Storyline

In a near future, the mercenary Toorop is hired by the powerful criminal Gorsky to take a woman named Aurora from a Noelite Convent in Central Asia to New York. In return, he will receive a large amount of money and a clear passport. Toorop joins Aurora and her guardian Sister Rebeka as they cross the dangerous Russian landscape chased by mercenaries that also want Aurora. On their journey, Toorop discovers that Aurora has special abilities and once in New York, they see on the news that the Noelite Convent has just been bombed. When Aurora discloses that she is a virgin and pregnant with twins, Toorop realizes that there is something sinister behind his mission and that he and Sister Rebeka are not part of Gorsky's plans.

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Plot Keywords:

new york | convent | mercenary | future | russia | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official MySpace Official MySpace blog

Country:

USA France UK

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

29 August 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Babylon Babies

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£536,968 (UK) (29 August 2008)

Gross:

$22,531,698 (USA) (14 November 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Babylon, MNP Entreprise, StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 101 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the film was released, director Mathieu Kassovitz called it a "bad episode of 24." In an interview with amctv.com, Kassovitz said that Twentieth Century Fox interfered throughout production, and he never had a chance to shoot a scene the way it was scripted, or the way he wanted it to be.

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Goofs

Despite Toorop's ranch house having been abandoned for years, with trees fallen on top of it and so on, the timbers are all very clean and dry when they should be covered in lichen and mosses and in fairly advanced stages of decomposition.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Toorop: [voice-over] Save the planet. Whenever I've read that bumper sticker I've had to laugh. Save the planet. What for? And for what, ourselves? What about God, can He help us? I don't think so. God gave us what we have to see how we use it. Shit, rats in a cage would have done it better. Life's a bitch and then you die - bumper sticker philosophy. Yeah, right. Sometimes, you get a second chance.

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Connections

References The Godfather (1972)

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Soundtracks

"Dueuces"
Written by RZA (as Robert Diggs) and Shavo Odadjian
Performed by Achozen
Courtesy of UrSession Records, Wu Music Group and Columbia Records
Published by Universal Music Careers and Allyomusic (BMI)

User Reviews

Sadly average

I should say first that I don't know the book this movie is adapted from, so I just mean to give an opinion on the movie itself and the way it's handled.

Director Mathieu Kassovitz has been in the business for a while now and is a well complete actor as well and still something about this project went wrong. The story itself seems solid - and somewhat I can imagine the book being just great - but the movie looks rushed with only the most important and visual parts shown.

Actually, it's a kind of annoying experience as you can see how really good it could have been if they only did a better job on the background and the storytelling instead of mixing everything from the book in an action packed movie. Now being totally honest, the action isn't great at all thanks to the shaky hand cam effect (The Bourne Legacy I guess ...) and uninspired choreography. Same goes for the acting : Depardieu and Wilson are easily the worst : they would have read the script for the first time it wouldn't have surprise me.

Considering all the good material it certainly feels like a misproduction, someone said the director and actor Vin Diesel were having different opinions and I do hope the latter won because if Kassovitz did it the way he wanted I'd be really disappointed.

We've been awarded with such great movies around the same kind of subject (Children of Men to name one) that this one seems pale compared to those.