The Chronicles of Riddick

The Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction/fantasy film. It is the sequel to Pitch Black. It was directed by David Twohy and stars Vin Diesel, Karl Urban and Judi Dench, with Thandie Newton and Colm Feore.

"The Chronicles of Riddick" (with no subtitle) is the actual name of this film, though Universal has chosen to use it as an overall brand name for anything starring the character Riddick. Consequently, the 2004 re-release of Pitch Black was retitled The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black on the case (though the on-screen title remained the same) and the video game prequel/spin off was called Escape from Butcher Bay.

Cast

Actor	Role
Vin Diesel	Riddick
Colm Feore	Lord Marshal
Thandie Newton	Dame Vaako
Judi Dench	Aereon
Karl Urban	Vaako
Alexa Davalos	Kyra
Linus Roache	Purifier
Yorick van Wageningen	The Guv
Nick Chinlund	Toombs
Keith David	Imam
Christina Cox	Eve Logan

Plot

The plot to The Chronicles of Riddick follows up on some of the plot lines from Pitch Black.

Five years after the events of Pitch Black, a 4-person group of bounty hunters, led by Toombs (Nick Chinlund), are on the trail of Richard B. Riddick on the frozen planet of U.V.6. After dispatching three of the bounty hunters and boarding their ship, Riddick tells Toombs he made three mistakes:

He took the job.
He came light: a 4-man crew for Riddick is "insulting."
Having an empty gun rack.

Riddick discovers that Toombs was paid 1.5 million by a private party from Helion Prime, an unheard of amount for any escaped convict. Riddick throws Toombs out of the ship and heads to Helion Prime, knowing that there is only one person who could have betrayed him: Imam, whom he saved long ago and who was the only man who knew where Riddick had gone.

Imam, working with Aereon (an ambassador from the mysterious and rarefied race known as the Elementals), reveals his reasons for seeking Riddick. The Necromongers (a.k.a. "World Enders") are poised to attack Imam's planet, Helion Prime (a.k.a. "New Mecca"). The bounty was put on him to draw him back to Helion Prime and fight for them. Aereon believes that Riddick, a Furyan, can rebalance the universe against the Necromongers.

It is from Imam that Riddick learns where Jack (a.k.a. Kyra) can be found: Crematoria. While, presumably, leaving to seek Kyra, Helion Prime is attacked by Necromongers.

The Necromongers are a patriarchal warlike race seeking to convert, violently if necessary, the universe to their faith while on a journey to the Underverse, a constellation of Dark new worlds. They see life as antagonistic to the "natural state" (human life is spontaneous outbreak; an unguided mistake) to which they seek to correct by converting others to the Necromonger faith. The Purifier tries to convince the people of Helion Prime of this, but most are unwilling to convert, that is until the Lord Marshal pulls out one man's soul.

Riddick shows up to the gathering to seek the Necromonger that killed Imam. It is after the fight that Riddick and Lord Marshal meet, (though it seems as if it were not the first time), and Riddick also first encounters Commander Vaako, a high level Necromonger officer who seems to be one of the top commanders in the Necromonger Armada. The Lord Marshal and Vaako attempt to take Riddick aboard their ship, but when he looks to be on the edge of resisting, Dame Vaako, (Vaako's wife), entices him into coming aboard peacefully. Riddick is then brought to the Quasi-Deads. Before the Quasi-Deads, a group of mindreaders, the Lord Marshal (and others including Vaako and the Purifier) learn that Riddick is a Furyan: a warrior race massacred by none other than the Necromongers. Riddick manages to break free and easily kills a number of Necromonger troops while escaping the ship. The only one who seems to be a match for him, and who is able to fight at nearly Riddick's own level, is Vaako. During Riddick's escape from their ship, he is caught by Toombs, who this time comes after Riddick with a 5-man crew (one of whom is a woman, Eve Logan). Riddick craftily convinces Toombs to go to Crematoria in order to claim the bounty payment.

On the Necromonger command ship, although the way he treats Vaako seems to indicate that the Lord Marshal doesn't entirely trust Vaako, (the Lord Marshal is careful not to let Vaako approach him from behind, and also excludes Vaako from the group of commanders plotting the next Necromonger conquest), he assigns Vaako to track down and kill Riddick.

After landing an the underground hangar, Toombs' merc group takes Riddick by an underground rail cart a total of 29.4 kilometres to the actual prison. Along the way Riddick manages to eliminate one of the mercs. The man had been sitting on Riddick's stomach, and taunted Riddick by telling him that he would take Riddick's trademark goggles when they got to the end of the rail. Riddick responds by raising his body just enough to cause the merc's head to hit one of overhead lights above the cart. When Toombs looks back, he sees one of his hired guns missing, and Riddick doing a shrug, as if to imply he doesn't know what happened to the merc. Toombs then laughs and shouts "Four way split!", showing how much he cares about his mercs. Shortly after being put into the prison, Riddick and Jack, who now calls herself Kyra, are reunited (where they recite familiar lines from Pitch Black). While talking, Riddick puts his arm between Kyra's legs and pushes her up painfully. During Toombs' second negotiation for the price of Riddick, an all-out-brawl ensues when the prison staff learns the Necromongers are trailing Toombs' ship to Crematoria.

Back on Helion Prime, Dame Vaako seeks answers from Aereon about Riddick. She learns that Lord Marshal learned 30+ years ago that he was fated to become the Lord Marshal, but a male child on Furya would be born who would cause his downfall. The Lord Marshal attacked Furya and killed all males to prevent the foretelling from coming true, however it seems a few Furyans managed to survive. While Dame Vaako is telling Vaako (who is now hunting Riddick) of this story, the Purifier overhears the conversation.

The remaining guards on Crematoria escape down the rail cart passage (though without the cart because it was destroyed during the brawl) on foot. Riddick, Kyra, and three prisoners leave the prison, not underground, but aboveground because the doors to the passage have been disabled by the fleeing guards. On the surface, they race against the upcoming sunrise where the temperature rises to 700 degrees. Upon reaching the hangar, they learn the Necromongers have beaten them there. After the Necromongers defeat the guards that ran underground, they fight it out with Riddick and his group. Riddick and company fight desperately, but two of the three prisoners are soon killed, and Riddick himself is knocked out when Vaako fires a blast from an energy gun at him while he is wrestling with a Necromonger soldier. Although the blast actually hits the soldiers, the force throws Riddick a great distance, and right into the path of the rapidly approaching dawn. Vaako attempts to go down and finish him, but the heat from the dawn drives him back, and Vaako is forced to leave Riddicks for dead. (In the Director's Cut, Vaako is about to kill Riddick but Riddick has a vision where a Furyan spirit reminds him of what happened to them all on Furya and he learns that the Lord Marshal was the one who massacred his race. The spirit also touches his chest, evidently reminding him of some marking saying "This is the anger of an entire race", this manifests itself as a blue glow spreading over Riddick which erupts in a force wave that kills several Necromongers and knocks over a few others, including Vaako.) After the last prisoner attacks Vaako, who easily kills him with his bare hands, the Necromongers are forced to retreat to their ship and take off before being burnt to a crisp by the sunrise. At the last moment, Kyra jumps on the Necromonger ship as well.

Strangely, as the Necromongers are leaving, the Purifier stays behind and drags Riddick into the hangar, sparing him from the immense heat of the sunrise. It is then that Riddick learns he is not the only Furyan. The Purifier reveals to Riddick that he too is a Furyan, one who is living and killing for a religion he never believed in. He also discloses his purpose: he was sent to give Riddick a message in case Vaako failed: the Lord Marshal will spare him and call off the hunt for him, if Riddick simply stays away. The Purifier reveals his own mixed feelings about the message, saying "The Necromonger in me wants you to stay away, while the Furyan in me hopes you won't listen", and then he walks out into the raging sunrise to kill himself.

Taking Toombs' ship again, Riddick flies after the Necromongers back to Helion Prime. Riddick boards the lead Necromonger ship and plans to kill Lord Marshal. After his surprise attack, which Lord Marshal foiled, he learns that Kyra was converted and is now a Necromonger. Riddick, now enraged that Lord Marshal has taken everything he's loved, battles it out with him, but seems unable to match the Lord Marshal's abilities, most notably his superhuman speed which turns him into a blur as he moves. During the battle, Kyra stabs the Lord Marshal from behind with a spear, and in his anger swats her away and she is impaled on a spike.

Meanwhile the Vaakos have been watching this fight earnestly. After learning that Riddick is still alive, Dame Vaako has become afraid that the Lord Marshal shall kill both of them because Vaako was unable to kill Riddick, (and reported success, believing Riddick must have died), and uses that and the Lord Marshal's fear of Riddick, (which, in the Necromonger Way, makes him unfit to command the Fleet), to convince Vaako to turn against the Lord Marshal. Furthermore, if Vaako strikes the Lord Marshal down, he will become the new Lord Marshal because of the Necromonger law stating that you keep what you kill. Now, seeing the Lord Marshal badly wounded by Kyra while Riddick is battered, Vaako grabs a huge halberd type weapon, and leaps into the fray.

At first the Lord Marshal assumes that Vaako is going to help him, and orders him to kill Riddick. However, when Vaako walks towards him, ignoring Riddick, the Lord Marshal begins to realize what is going on. Vaako raises the weapon, whispers "Forgive me" to the Lord Marshal, then brings the cutting edge down. The Lord Marshal just barely manages to dodge, but runs right into Riddick's path, who kills him by stabbing his knife down into the top of the Lord Marshall's head.

Riddick, who is hurt and visibly upset over the death of Kyra, collapses back into the Lord Marshal's throne. He looks up to see all the Necromongers, led by Vaako, kneeling before him. Recalling the words of the Lord Marshal, Vaako repeats the Necromonger mantra: "You keep what you kill." (In the Director's Cut of the film, Riddick mutters this line to himself instead of Vaako saying it aloud.)

Thematic elements

Much of The Chronicles of Riddick deals with the internal conflict of Vin Diesel's title character between selfishness and empathy. Billed as an anti-hero in the popular press, Riddick is closer to a reluctant hero driven by the essential human needs of self-preservation and, ultimately, revenge.

Riddick's signature line, particularly with Kyra, is "Are you with me?"

Critics and the box office

The Chronicles of Riddick received poor treatment from the critics and mediocre performance at the U.S. domestic box office (States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*57 million), though its total global box office take of $109 million resulted in rentals (the amount of money the studio receives from theater owners) of $65 million. When expenses on the film (estimated at $130 million) are factored in, the film lost 65 million dollars in theaters. An Xbox game ( Escape from Butcher Bay, later also ported to the PC) released simultaneously was very well received, as was the animated short film Dark Fury by Æon Flux director Peter Chung, and may have made the whole endeavor a financial win for Universal Studios.

The Unrated Director's Cut DVD was released on November 16, 2004 and sold 1.5 million copies on the first day alone. Director David Twohy has said that sequel plans depend in large part on the commercial success of the DVD. Vin Diesel has said that there are two sequels in development; the second film will involve a visit to the Underverse.

External links

2004 films | Cult science fiction films | Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick | American films | Films shot in Super 35

Gourt Home::Gourt :: The Chronicles of Riddick

Cast

Plot

Thematic elements

Critics and the box office

See also

External links