Movies - Pitch Black

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	Movies - Pitch Black

Pitch Black is a 2000 science fiction movie, directed by David Twohy. It stars Radha Mitchell and Vin Diesel as its anti-hero, Riddick. After the release of the movie's sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick
, Pitch Black was released on DVD under the title The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black to match Universal Studios' branding strategy.

This movie is loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short story Nightfall. Initial for the movie in fact, displays its title as Nightfall.

Tagline: Fight Evil With Evil

Cast

Plot

As the movie opens, The Hunter Gratzner, a passenger spacecraft, crash-lands on a strange desert planet. Most of the ship is destroyed; only 12 people survive. Among them are: a dangerous criminal (Riddick, headed for a new prison), his captor Johns, the surviving pilot Fry; an Islamic imam with three young boys (settlers headed for New Mecca), a young stowaway named Jack and some other men and women.

Assessing the situation, they realize that the planet's three hot suns illuminate the surface continuously, creating the desert conditions. The ship's destruction has left them without food or water; only a few personal possessions, including a stash of alcohol. Led by Fry, the survivors gather what little they have and set off in search of water.

The group is disoriented, scared, and barely cohesive. This is no brave band of survivors; there are personality problems and arguments right from the start. Nobody is happy to discover a dangerous criminal among them, either. Riddick has altered eyes which enable him to see in the dark, an adaptation to prison mines where he worked. Because of this light-sensitivity, he needs to wear welding goggles during daylight (especially in the harsh continuous sunlight of this planet).

The survivors find strange boneyards and then lose a person in a bloody struggle near a burrow. Is the escaped Riddick to blame? Fry investigates and discovers flying predatory creatures living underground (cf. grue). Riddick tells the survivors that they now have something other than him to fear.

Near the boneyards, they find an abandoned research base. This provides a water generator and some shelter. Even better, there is hope for escaping the planet, in the form of a small spacecraft (the skiff). Then it is discovered that the three suns will be eclipsed by another planet in the system soon, and not rise again for months.

The skiff needs power cells to restart its electrical systems, for which they must return to the ruins of their ship. But then the suns set. All of them. In the dark, the creatures of the night begin to stalk the survivors. Riddick becomes one of the group's most important assets.

Hiding in their ship with their only sources of light, they make a plan to take the power cells back to the skiff. Riddick, with his superior night vision, leads the remaining survivors through the dark. The group takes all their available light sources with them after learning that light damages the creatures.

En route to the settlement and the skiff, the group loses several people to the aliens with just four people (Riddick, Jack, Fry, and Imam) to reach the canyon just before the settlement. It is also revealed that Jack is actually a young girl (Riddick is able to smell her menstruation). When most of their light sources (save a flashlight) are gone, the three remain in a cave while Riddick heads back to the ship promising to return with more light.

While waiting in the cave, they discover little creatures with bioluminescence. They put the creatures into a bottle and Fry makes for the skiff. Fry finds Riddick in the skiff preparing to take off. She realizes that he had intended on leaving them behind.

Riddick is impressed and Fry's instinct and skill to find her way to the ship, and callously asks her to leave Imam and Jack behind and escape with him. Fry initially accepts, but then overcomes her fears and pins Riddick to the ground, ordering him to help her rescue the remaining survivors. Riddick then easily overpowers Fry and holds a knife to her throat, asking if she is willing to die for them. Having grown stronger from the first scene of the movie, Fry states that she would. Riddick is once again impressed and surprised by Fry, and agrees to return to Imam and Jack, and the four then make their way to the ship.

On their way back, Riddick has trailed behind and is surrounded by two creatures. Fry, who had made it back to the skiff, subsequently finds Riddick with a severe leg injury (incurred in his off-screen fight with the aliens). She begins helping the normally self-sufficient Riddick to the ship while stating that she said she was willing to die for the Imam and Jack, but not Riddick. However as the two are moving to the ship, Fry is struck from behind by one of the creatures. She and Riddick share one last gaze before she is pulled into the darkness. Riddick then collapses to the ground, crying out "Not for me, not for me!" This is an important point in Riddick's character development, as he has fully realized that there is someone more important to him than his own survival.

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Movies - Pitch Black

Cast

Plot

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