Pitch Black (film)

Pitch Black
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Twohy
Screenplay by	Ken Wheat Jim Wheat David Twohy
Story by	Ken Wheat Jim Wheat
Produced by	Tom Engelman
Starring	Vin Diesel Radha Mitchell Cole Hauser Claudia Black Keith David
Cinematography	David Eggby
Edited by	Rick Shaine
Music by	Graeme Revell
Production companies	Gramercy Pictures Interscope Communications
Distributed by	USA Films (United States) Universal Pictures (International)
Release date	February 18, 2000 (2000-02-18)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$53.2 million

Pitch Black (titled The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black on later re-releases) is a 2000 American science fiction horror film directed by David Twohy and co-written by Twohy and brothers Ken and Jim Wheat from a story conceived by the latter. The film stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Claudia Black and Keith David. Dangerous criminal Riddick (Diesel) is being transported to prison in a spacecraft, and escapes when the spaceship is damaged by comet debris and crash lands on an empty desert planet. When predatory creatures begin attacking the survivors, Riddick joins forces with them to escape the planet.

Pitch Black was the final film credit of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, which merged with Universal Pictures during production. It was shot on a modest budget of US$23 million. Pitch Black was released on February 18, 2000, by USA Films and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised some inventive elements, the film's visual style, and Diesel's performance, but criticized a failure to fully expand on the core premise and some cliched characterizations. It was a sleeper hit, grossing over $53 million worldwide, and started a franchise centered on the antihero Riddick. A sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, was released in 2004 by Universal, with Diesel back as the title character and Twohy returning as writer and director. A third film, titled Riddick, was released in 2013, with Diesel and Twohy reuniting again.

Plot

In the distant future, the spaceship Hunter-Gratzner is transporting passengers in cryostasis. When the ship is struck by micrometeoroids that tear through the hull, killing the captain, it veers off course toward a nearby planet. First Officer Owens and docking pilot Carolyn Fry attempt an emergency landing. As the ship breaks apart, a panicked Fry prepares to jettison the passengers to save herself, but Owens intervenes. The ship crash-lands, killing Owens and most of the passengers. The survivors include Fry; Abu "Imam" al-Walid, a Muslim preacher escorting three young pilgrims to New Mecca; a teenage boy named Jack; prospectors Shazza and Zeke; wealthy merchant Paris; law enforcement officer William J. Johns; and his prisoner, the dangerous and enigmatic murderer Richard B. Riddick, who escapes in the confusion.

While searching for him, the group discovers a graveyard of gigantic bones and an abandoned geological research settlement containing a nonfunctional dropship. When Zeke goes missing, the survivors suspect Riddick. However, when Fry investigates the underground cave where Zeke's blood was found, she is attacked by aggressive creatures and narrowly escapes. Johns recaptures Riddick and offers to release him in exchange for his help in keeping the others alive.

The group returns to the settlement to repair the dropship. While exploring, one of the pilgrims disturbs a cluster of dormant juvenile creatures, which devour him alive before retreating underground. The survivors realize the creatures are fatally vulnerable to light. Using an orrery, Fry discovers that a total eclipse—occurring every twenty-two years—is imminent. Once darkness falls, the creatures will emerge to hunt, explaining the fate of the previous settlers. As tension builds, both Johns and Riddick try to win Fry to their side: Fry recounts Riddick's cold pragmatism, while Riddick exposes Johns as a morphine-addicted bounty hunter who had refused to use his drugs to ease Owens' agonizing death.

The group races back to the Hunter-Gratzner to retrieve power cells for the dropship, but the total eclipse begins, unleashing thousands of flying creatures that kill Shazza. The survivors take shelter inside the Hunter-Gratzner, but the creatures breach the ship and devour another pilgrim. Realizing they must reach the dropship to survive, they enlist Riddick—whose surgically enhanced eyes grant him night vision but make him highly sensitive to light—to guide them through the darkness. Armed with available and improvised light sources, the group sets out.

When the group reaches a narrow canyon teeming with creatures, Paris panics, runs, and is killed. Riddick reveals that Jack is actually a girl disguising herself as a boy, and her menstrual blood is attracting the creatures. In private, Johns suggests to Riddick that they wound Jack and leave her behind as a distraction. Riddick pretends to agree, then attacks Johns—injuring him and leaving him to be killed by the creatures.

The remaining group continues toward the canyon. At Riddick's urging, they sprint through as the creatures cannibalize one another above, showering them with blood. After reaching the other side, rain begins to fall, extinguishing their improvised torches. The last pilgrim is killed in the ensuing attack. Riddick initially moves on alone but ultimately returns to fight off the creatures and save Jack. He hides Fry, Imam, and Jack in a cave, then sets out to retrieve the dropship. Suspicious, Fry follows and finds him preparing to take off and abandon them.

Fry pleads with Riddick to help her save the others, but he urges her to escape with him instead. Feeling guilt over her earlier attempt to sacrifice her passengers, she refuses. Riddick agrees to help after she admits she would now die to protect them. Together, they rescue Imam and Jack, but Riddick is cornered and wounded by the creatures. Fry returns to save him, but she is fatally stabbed by one of the creatures and carried off.

Riddick returns to the ship but delays takeoff, allowing the creatures to gather around it. He then uses the engines to incinerate as many as possible. Once in space, Jack asks what they should tell the authorities about him; he tells them that Riddick died on the planet.

Cast

Vin Diesel (pictured in 2005), Radha Mitchell (2012), and Cole Hauser (2010)

• Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick. A former mercenary, soldier and pilot, turned infamous criminal and murderer. Riddick has eyes that allow him to see in the dark but cause him immense pain in light; he wears goggles at all times to protect them.
• Radha Mitchell as Carolyn Fry, a docking pilot for the transport ship Hunter-Gratzner. She has a moment of weakness during the emergency landing and tries to sacrifice the ship's passenger section to save herself. Her regret over this decision causes her to become obsessed with getting the survivors off the planet.
• Cole Hauser as William J. Johns, a bounty hunter and morphine addict posing as a lawman. He is exceptionally selfish and willing to do whatever he can to save his own hide.
• Rhiana Griffith as Jack, a young girl who disguises herself as a boy to fit in. She idolizes Riddick, and shaves her head and wears goggles to copy his look.
• Keith David as Abu "Imam" al-Walid, a devout Muslim who is travelling to New Mecca. He is accompanied by three boys named Ali, Hassan, and Suleiman.
• Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Paris P. Ogilvie, an antiques dealer who sells weaponry and art.
• Claudia Black as Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery, a free settler who is travelling across the universe looking for a new home.
• John Moore as John "Zeke" Ezekiel, Shazza's companion.
• Simon Burke as Greg Owens, First Officer of the Hunter-Gratzner. During the ship's emergency landing, he stops Fry from dumping the passengers.
• Les Chantery as Suleiman
• Sam Sari as Hassan
• Firass Dirani as Ali
• Ric Anderson as Total Stranger, a surviving passenger shot dead by Zeke, who mistakes him for Riddick.
• Vic Wilson as Captain Tom Mitchell, who dies in the crash of the Hunter-Gratzner

Production

According to Ken and Jim Wheat, the original concept of Pitch Black was suggested by David Madden during his tenure in Interscope Communications. His initial premise was: "[t]ravelers visit a planet where multiple suns mean perpetual daylight, but when an eclipse brings darkness, ghosts emerge." These "ghost" antagonists survived the first draft, but were later replaced by physical predators. Interscope approached David Twohy with the concept, letting him direct if he could refine the screenplay. Twohy had worked on an early version of Alien 3, and was aware that Pitch Black's concept had similarities to that franchise. He proposed changes to character arcs in the script. Said Twohy:

I've got three characters in this film who not only change from where they begin but also change from where you expect them to end up ... I had three leads, and they each thought they were the lead, which made for a lot of ego problems on the set. But ego problems are not always a bad thing.

Most of the filming, including all of the external locations, took place in and around Coober Pedy, South Australia. It was winter in the region, and rain before the shoot caused filming delays. Most interior sequences were shot at the Village Roadshow Studios, in Oxenford, Queensland. In Los Angeles, New Deal Studios were used for miniature photography and the interior sequence of the spaceship crash. To highlight the different suns for some of the daytime sequences, the filmmakers used a bleach bypass process during post-production.

Reception

Pitch Black opened in 1,832 theaters on 18 February 2000, grossing $11,577,688 over its opening weekend and ranking 4th at the box office. The film has a domestic gross of $39,240,659 and an international gross of $13,947,000, giving it a worldwide total of $53,187,659.

Critical response

At review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 59% approval rating based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's consensus reads: "Despite an interesting premise (and a starmaking turn from Vin Diesel), Pitch Black is too derivative and formulaic to fully recommend to sci-fi or action fans". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and stated, "It's not an especially challenging part, but Diesel handles it with aplomb." BBC.com gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated it as "an entertainment and quite a good one too." Peter Bradshaw of Guardian gave the film a positive review and stated that the film "undoubtedly has something interesting about it, and that something can be summarized in two words: Vin Diesel." Nathan Rabin of A.V. Club gave the film a positive review and stated that the film "falters a bit in its last half-hour" and "reduces Diesel to delivering a pithy one-liner-but for the most part, it's terrific."

San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 0 out of 4 stars and called the film "a tiresome experience." Austin Chronicle gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and called the film "a very streamlined exercise in interplanetary mayhem and the logistics of the body count." Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, stating Pitch Black was inferior to Twohy's The Arrival (1996) and adding: "how sad it is that humans travel countless light years away from Earth, only to find themselves inhabiting the same tired generic conventions."

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2000	Saturn Award	Best Science Fiction Film	Pitch Black	Nominated
2001	Australian Cinematographers Society Award	Cinematographer of the Year	David Eggby	Won
		Golden Tripod		Won
	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Actor - Horror	Vin Diesel	Nominated
	Bram Stoker Award	Best Screenplay	David Twohy, Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat	Nominated
	International Horror Guild Award	Best Movie	Pitch Black	Nominated

Home media

Pitch Black was released on VHS and DVD on October 10, 2000 by Universal Studios Home Video. It was re-released on DVD in 2004 as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black. It was released on HD DVD on July 11, 2006, and on Blu-ray on March 31, 2009. The disc contains the theatrical edition and an unrated director's cut edition, containing 3 more minutes of extra material. A LaserDisc release was also planned, but cancelled by mid-2001 due to waning support for that format. In 2020, the year of the film’s 20th Anniversary, Arrow Video released Pitch Black on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Expanded franchise

Main article: The Chronicles of Riddick (franchise)

Sequels

The movie's sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), was also directed by David Twohy. To tie in with the sequel, the film was novelized under the name The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black, which was written by Frank Lauria.

A short animated movie released the same year, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004), was directed by Peter Chung. Dark Fury bridges the gap between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick.

Riddick, a live-action sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick, opened on September 6, 2013, with both David Twohy and Vin Diesel attached. The sequel ties in more closely to the original Pitch Black.

Riddick: Furya, the fourth installment was announced in February 2023. Vin Diesel will again appear in the film and David Twohy has written the script and will direct the film. Filming began in August 2024.

Prequel

Into Pitch Black (2000) is a Sci-Fi Channel special that includes clips from Pitch Black and takes place before and after the events of the film. Inconsistencies with the storyline of later sequels have made it non-canonical.

Video games

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a game for the Xbox and the PC, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim. A remake of Butcher Bay, including a new campaign set after Butcher Bay, was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on 7 April 2009, under the title The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

See also

• List of films featuring eclipses

External links

• Pitch Black at IMDb
• Pitch Black at the TCM Movie Database
• Pitch Black at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Pitch Black at Box Office Mojo
• Pitch Black at Rotten Tomatoes
• "Vin Diesel of Pitch Black" at the Wayback Machine (archived June 7, 2004). (Online chat transcript) SciFi.com, February 16, 2000. Archived from the original on June 16, 2004; and Part 2 at the Wayback Machine (archived June 14, 2004), February 24, 2000. Archived from the original on June 14, 2004.