The Chronicles of Riddick

The Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction / fantasy / thriller 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" 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 The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Tagline:

• All the power in the universe can't change destiny

Plot

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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:

1. He took the job.
2. He came light: a 4-man crew for Riddick is "fucking insulting."
3. 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 with its capital city New Mecca, which has been mentioned in Pitch Black and Dark Fury. 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 can be found: Crematoria. While Riddick is leaving, presumably to seek Jack, Helion Prime is attacked by Necromongers.

The Necromongers are warlike zealots 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) which they seek to correct by converting others to the Necromonger faith.

They land on Helion Prime, and in one night they destroy the defending forces. Riddick helps Imam, his wife and his daughter escape from the Necromongers. As they hide, they see a group of Necromongers led by grotesque living scanners, known as 'Lensors', who find Helions pretending to be dead. They can sense their life force, and when they find a living Helion warrior, he is quickly shot. Among the group is a massive warrior carrying two picks. Riddick eyed him with interest, noting the knife stuck in his back. Imam tries to draw the group away from his wife and daughter, but is eventually cornered and killed by the large Necromonger. Imam tells him "There will be an afterlife for me, will there be one for you?" right before he is killed. Meanwhile, Imam's newly widowed wife and daughter are ready to escape, when one of the living scanners that remained behind discovers them, but is killed by Riddick.

The Lord Marshal is shown exiting his ship, looking out over the devastated world. He has his men gather the remaining Helions together. The Purifier tries to convert these people to Necroism, 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 find the Necromonger warrior that killed Imam. Riddick and the warrior fight, and Riddick kills him by ripping the knife out of his back and stabbing him in the stomach. 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 starts to make a show of resistance, Dame Vaako, (Vaako's wife), entices him into coming aboard peacefully. Riddick is then brought before 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 (they also refer to Riddick as "The Riddick", probably referring to his last name, seeing how his full name is Richard B. Riddick. However, nothing else is made of it in the film). Riddick manages to break free with an unnoticed and fleeting moment of assistance from the Purifier, 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 again 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, it seems 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.

Riddick is chained up in the mercenaries ship and they take him to Crematoria. After a rough landing in the underground hangar, Toombs' group takes Riddick by a high-speed underground rail cart a total of 29.4 kilometres to the actual prison. Along the way Riddick manages to eliminate one of the mercenaries. 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 the man's body just enough to cause his 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. Toombs then laughs and shouts "Four way split!", showing how much he cares about his crew. Riddick is then chained with his arms above his head and lowered into the prison. He escapes by twisting himself up using the wire his wrists are chained to and then lets it go. With luck he is free. Shortly after, Riddick and Jack, who now calls herself Kyra, are reunited (where they recite familiar lines from Pitch Black).

They begin to exchange heated words and then clash. Riddick restrains Kyra and then puts his arm between Kyra's legs, raising her up painfully. She then asks him where he got his eyes since it is apparent that he lied to her before when he said a doctor gave them to him. 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 everyone to prevent the prophecy 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 escaped down the rail cart passage (though without the cart because it was destroyed during the brawl) on foot. Riddick, Kyra, and three prisoners left 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 Riddick 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 the prisoner 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 and fatal heat of the sunrise. The Purifier reveals to Riddick that he too is a Furyan, one who is living and killing for a religion that was never his own. 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. But the Furyan in me hopes you won't listen", and then bravely walks out into the raging sunrise, killing himself.

Taking Toombs' ship again, Riddick flies after the Necromongers back to Helion Prime. Riddick boards the lead Necromonger ship disguised as a Necromonger warrior and plans to kill Lord Marshal. After his surprise attack, which the Lord Marshal deflects easily, 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 Riddick 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 the Marshal attempts to pull out Riddick's soul, but Riddick proves to be to resilient and strikes the Marshal, sending him across the throne room. However the Marshal is back on his feet in seconds and soon Riddick is down on the ground, injured, and appears finished but Kyra appears stabs the Lord Marshal from behind with a spear. In his anger he swats her away and she is impaled on a spike.

Meanwhile Vaako has 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, (Vaako reported success earlier 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 "You keep what you kill". Now, seeing the Lord Marshal badly wounded by Kyra, 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 his true intentions. Vaako raises the weapon and 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, and breaking the handle, leaving the blade still inside his 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 down 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).

Cast

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 ($57 million), though its total global box office take was $115 million.

When expenses on the film (estimated at $105 million) are factored in, the film made 10 million dollars in theaters (according to boxofficemojo). An Xbox game (The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, later ported to the PC) released simultaneously was very well received, as was the animated short film The Chronicles of Riddick: 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 (featuring scenes which were cut in order to obtain a PG-13 rating) 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.

Sequels

In a March 8, 2006 article on Comingsoon.net, it was reported that Vin Diesel claimed that a sequel to the Chronicles of Riddick was in the works. According to him, he had already written a storyline that covered a trilogy which began with the Chronicles of Riddick.

References

Wikipedia information about The Chronicles of Riddick This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Chronicles of Riddick". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.