Pitch Black (film) - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

In the distant future, the transport ship Hunter-Gratzner, and its crew and passengers in cryo-stasis chambers, pass through a comet's tail while on autopilot. Debris from the comet rupture the hull and kill some of its crew, including the captain. The remaining crew is awakened and docking pilot Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell) and her co-pilot, Greg Owens (Simon Burke), awake in time to attempt to land the ship on a nearby planet. Fry wants to dump the passenger compartment to save the ship and herself but Owens stops her. The ship crashes on the surface, killing Owens. Fry joins with the surviving passengers, including the Muslim Imam (Keith David), a young boy named Jack (Rhiana Griffith), and William J. Johns (Cole Hauser), who claims to be a cop. Johns discovers that another passenger, the convict Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel), has escaped, and implores the others to help find him.

As they explore the planet, they find it is surrounded by three suns, keeping it in perpetual daylight. They come upon an abandoned human geological research settlement, with supplies of water and a spacecraft they can use to escape the planet, though lacking power cells. They prepare to return to the crashed ship to collect its power cells. When one survivor is killed exploring a nearby cave, Riddick is discovered and captured by Johns. Fry investigates the cave, looking for the body, but instead discovers several living indigenous creatures, vicious winged hunters that can only survive in the dark. Fry believes that the population of the settlement was killed by the creatures, and orders Riddick released, believing him to be a far lesser threat than the creatures. Riddick reveals that Johns is actually a mercenary for hire, and is being brought in by him for a bounty. As they are about to leave the settlement, they discover that the planet undergoes a month-long eclipse every twenty-two years, due to start shortly.

The group returns to the wreckage of the Hunter-Gratzner and collect the power cells and remaining survivors. The eclipse begins, shrouding the planet in darkness and causing the creatures to emerge from their underground dens. Riddick, who has the ability to see in the darkness, takes control, ordering them to collect all the light sources to ward away the creatures before they make their way back to the settlement. Though the group initially works together, the tension breaks them apart, and several of the survivors are killed during the chaos. To make matters worse, Riddick reveals that Jack is a girl, and undergoing her menstrual cycle, the scent of blood leading the creatures to them. When Johns suggests using Jack as bait to lure the predators away, Riddick wounds him and leaves him behind, luring the beasts to devour Johns. With the survivors down to Riddick, Fry, Jack, and Imam and little light sources left, they take shelter in a cave near the settlement where bioluminescent worms keep the creatures at bay. Riddick promises to return to the three and goes off to the settlement to collect the spacecraft.

Fry, attempting to ward off the creatures, discovers Riddick ready to take off in the shuttle by himself, and she begs him to stay, revealing that she had been ready to ditch the other passengers before to save herself. Riddick initially declines, imploring her to go with him now, but after a brief tussle, he relents and returns to help the others. Fry sacrifices herself to allow the three to enter the shuttle safely, and Riddick waits for the last moment to ignite the engines to kill as many of the creatures as possible as revenge for Fry's death. As they enter space, Riddick tells the others that should they encounter any law enforcement personnel, "Tell 'em Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."