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:

There's A New Reason To Be Afraid Of The Dark.

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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

When Carolyn sees Johns injecting drugs into his eye she refers to him as a "hype." This was also a historical slang term for drug users (mainly heroin users) in the 1940s to early 1960s.

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Goofs

Although the planet's surface is supposed to be completely dark - "pitch black", as it were - the landscape is actually almost always fairly brightly lit, and the characters habitually have visible, very distinctive shadows that clearly betray the strong lights they used in the filming. The less light the characters themselves are carrying, the more obvious this becomes.

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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 Aliens (1986)

User Reviews

The next Alien...

From the first 10 seconds of Pitch Black I was hooked. I had walked into this movie thinking that it would be just another cheesy sci-fi movie. Instead I found a highly entertaining, on the edge of your seat, thought provoking action film. The movie goes beyond your basic special effects flick. The actors are amazing, Radah Mitchell (High Art, Love and other..) as Fry is truly a joy to watch on screen, while Vin Diesel as Riddeck is so captivating that you are dying just to hear him speak again.

The look of the movie is breath taking, the contrast of blues, yellows and oranges due to the three different suns is amazing. Followed by the complete darkness of nightfall. I would truly recommend any lover of the ALIEN movies or Radha Mitchell (which is why I went to see it) to check out this film. I'm sure by the end you'll look at the dark in a whole new way.