Dark Planet (2009)

A space traveler from the Earth of 22th century - without wars, poverty and oppression - crashes on the unknown planet. Politically and economically this planet similar to the totalitarian human states of 20th century.

Director:

Fedor Bondarchuk

Writers:

Eduard Volodarskiy, Marina Dyachenko

Stars:

Vasiliy Stepanov, Yulia Snigir, Pyotr Fyodorov

5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vasiliy Stepanov	...	Maksim
Yulia Snigir	...	Rada (as Yuliya Snigir)
Pyotr Fyodorov	...	Gay
Sergey Garmash	...	Zef
Yuriy Kutsenko	...	Vepr (as Gosha Kutsenko)
Aleksey Serebryakov	...	Strannik
Mikhail Evlanov	...	Chachu
Andrey Merzlikin	...	Fank
Anna Mikhalkova	...	Ordi
Maksim Sukhanov	...	Papa
Fedor Bondarchuk	...	Prokuror (as Fyodor Bondarchuk)
Yuriy Tsurilo	...	General
Kirill Pirogov	...	Svyokor
Evgeniy Sidikhin	...	Test
Aleksey Gorbunov	...	Shurin

Storyline

On the threshold of 22nd century, furrowing the space, protagonist from the Free Search Group makes emergency landing on an unknown planet where he must stay. People who are living on this planet have remained at the stone level of the 20th century, with its social problems, miserable ecology and shaky world...

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Plot Keywords:

guard | 22nd century | first part | space opera | friend | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

1 January 2009 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Dark Planet

Filming Locations:

Crimea, Ukraine

Box Office

Budget:

$29,500,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$23,772,559

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Pictures Studio, Non-Stop Productions, Premiere Stealth Rights

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Boris Strugatskiy, the only one of the book's co-authors who lived to see the film, said the film is a "directors' success", noting its faithfulness to the novel. He praised the work of Aleksey Serebryakov, Fedor Bondarchuk and Sergey Garmash, but expressed disappointment over the work of Yuriy Kutsenko, Anna Mikhalkova and Andrey Merzlikin. He noted Vasiliy Stepanov as one of the biggest success of the film.

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Goofs

Red armored car, which Maxim steals near the final, was designed without a door. So the crew had to cut the hatch in the tank's plating. When Guy Gaal knocks the car, it can be seen that the hatch cover is actually made of wood.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: The year 2157, the Noon of Mankind. Armed with the Great Theory of Upbringing, people have forgotten about wars, hunger and terrorism. Nature lives again. A breakthrough in medicine has set people free from illnesses, allowing them to use hidden resources of the human body. Earthlings are reclaiming distant planets. New generations have risen, for whom search in deep space is a routine matter. Young earthlings are brave, strong and naive. They think they are capable of everything.

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Connections

Referenced in Nanoman: Fekalonia (2015)

User Reviews

Not the worst opportunity to waste $40 million

In fact neither I nor my company had expected to be strongly impressed by the movie, when we joined to watch it on Saturday night. But having read the Strugatsky's plot-book, I was amazed that the director had followed the story so precisely. The only evident mistake was the premature assassination of one of the characters. Still the impression on the film is partial due to its halves shown with a 4 month break.

As to fighting scenes, I estimate them as dead. There was almost NO real action. The usage of Bullet Time technology of matrix all fight long turned the action into slow and boring trash. The martial arts instructors should really be ashamed of this.

There is a Russian proverb: "The first pancake is laid shapeless". It is just about the film. The spectator expected to see a miracle, because a $40million worth Russian film is considered like a $400million Hollywood movie. This expectations of a common viewer were ruined. I do hope that next attempts of Russian directors and producers to catch up with Hollywood will be more successful.