Pitch Black

Pitch Black is a 2000 science fiction film, directed by David Twohy.

Plot

As the film opens, The Hunter Gratzner, a passenger spacecraft, crash-lands on a strange desert planet.

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Most of the ship is destroyed; only 12 people survive.

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Among them are: a dangerous criminal (Riddick, headed for a new prison) and his guard; the surviving pilot, Fry; some Islamic men (settlers headed for New Mecca); and some other men, women, and children.

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Assessing the situation, they realise that the planet's three hot suns illuminate the surface continuously, creating the desert conditions.

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The ship's destruction has left them without food or water; only some meagre personal possessions including a stash of alcohol.

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Led by Fry, the survivors gather what little they have and set off in search of water.

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The group is disoriented, scared, and barely cohesive.

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This is no brave band of survivors; there are personality problems and arguments right from the start.

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Nobody is happy to discover a dangerous criminal among them, either.

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Riddick has altered eyes which enable him to see in the dark, an adaptation to prison mines where he worked.

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Because of this light-sensitivity, he needs to wear welding goggles during daylight (especially in the harsh continuous sunlight of this planet).

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The survivors find strange boneyards and then lose a person in a bloody struggle near a burrow.

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Is the escaped Riddick to blame?

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Fry investigates and encounters strange creatures living underground.

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Riddick tells the survivors that they now have something other than him to fear.

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Near the boneyards, they find an abandoned research base.

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This provides a water generator and some shelter.

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Even better, there is hope for escaping the planet, in the form of a small spacecraft (the skiff).

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But why is the base abandoned?

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An encounter with the flying creatures kills another survivor.

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Then it is discovered that the three suns will eclipse each other soon, and not rise again for months.

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The skiff needs power cells to restart its electrical systems, for which they must return to the ruins of their ship.

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But then the suns set—all of them.

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In the dark, the creatures of the night begin to stalk the survivors.

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Riddick becomes's one of the group's most important assets.

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Hiding in their ship with their only sources of light, they make a plan to take the power cells back to the skiff.

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Riddick, with his superior night vision, leads the remaining survivors through the dark.

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The group takes all their available light sources with them after learning that light damages the aliens.

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En route to the settlement and the skiff, the group loses several people to the aliens with just four people—Riddick, Jack, Carolyn, and Imam—to reach the canyon just before the settlement.

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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.

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While waiting in the cave, they discover little creatures with bioluminescence.

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They put the creatures into a bottle and Carolyn makes for the skiff.

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Carolyn finds Riddick in the skiff preparing to take off. She realizes that he had intended on leaving them behind.

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After a discussion and minor physical brawl, Carolyn talks Riddick into going back for Jack and Imam.

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On their way back, Riddick has trailed behind and is surrounded by two aliens.

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Carolyn, 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). During Carolyn's desperate help to Riddick in getting back to the ship, an alien pulls her away into the darkness.

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Riddick makes it back to the skiff to find Imam and Jack waiting.

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In a final show of Riddick's true nature, he waits for the aliens to close on the ship and puts the engine at full throttle to burn the aliens.

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