Pitch Black (2000)

Director:

David Twohy

Writers (WGA):

Jim Wheat (story) &
Ken Wheat (story) ...

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Fight Evil With Evil

Plot:

A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world.

Plot Keywords:

Darkness | Escape | Space | Eclipse | Survival

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

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

Also Known As:

Nightfall (USA) (working title)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (USA) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sci-fi violence and gore, and for language.

Runtime:

109 min | USA:112 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (director's cut) | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Queensland, Australia

Company:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment

Trivia:

The spaceship is called Hunter/Gratzner - also the name of the visual effects company that designed and built the actual model of the ship.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: 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.

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...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

Interesting and entertaining with a good cast of mostly unknowns and great special effects.

The opening scene of this movie is pretty incredible. I've seen a number of sci-fi movies with great special effects but my roommate and I looked at each other after the opening sequence and he said plainly, "sensory overload." The plot of the movie is pretty simple but the nice thing about this sci-fi movie is that it lets the audience figure out most of the technology for themselves instead of wasting time to "subtly" explain it. The creatures in this movie are also very interesting. You don't get a really good look at them until about two thirds of the way through. Overall, a very entertaining movie.