Riddick is a 2013 American science fiction action film and the third installment in the Riddick film series. Produced by and starring Vin Diesel as the title character, Riddick is written and directed by David Twohy, who previously wrote and directed the first two installments, Pitch Black (2000) and The Chronicles of Riddick (2004).
The film was released on September 6, 2013, in the United States. It was shown in both conventional and IMAX Digital theaters. Five years after Kyra's death, Riddick has become increasingly uneasy in his role as Lord Marshal of the Necromonger fleet. His refusal to swear into the Necromonger faith has caused dissent among his subjects and assassination attempts by his subordinates. After the latest attempt on his life, Riddick strikes a deal with Commander Vaako: the location of Furya and a ship to take him there, in exchange for Vaako succeeding him as the next Lord Marshal, so that he can achieve what he calls transcendence. Led by Vaako's aide, Krone, Riddick and a group of Necromongers arrive on a desolate planet. Realizing that it is not Furya, Riddick kills most of his escort when they attempt to assassinate him. In the chaos, Krone causes a landslide and buries Riddick alive.
Two mercenary crews promptly arrive in answer to the beacon. The first, a barbaric group led by violent and unstable Santana, and consisting of second-in-command Diaz, preacher Luna and hunters Falco, Rubio, Vargas and Nunez. The second, a team of professional mercenaries; leader Colonel R. "Boss" Johns, second-in-command and marksman Dahl, tracker Lockspur and gunner Moss. Riddick leaves them a message promising they will all die unless they leave one of their ships and depart the planet on the other. Rubio, Nunez and Falco are killed by Riddick during the first night, forcing a reluctant Santana to cooperate with Johns' team. Riddick later steals power nodes from each of the teams' ships and approaches Johns and Santana to strike a deal for their return. However, the conversation turns into an ambush as Dahl shoots Riddick with several rounds of horse tranquilizer, and Riddick's hyena-beast is shot and killed by Santana.
Back at the Station, Johns interrogates Riddick about the fate of his son, William J. Johns. When the storms reach the station, Riddick's threat is revealed as thousands of Mud Demons emerge from hibernation underground, awakened by the rainwater, and besiege the station, killing Lockspur and Moss. Johns agrees to release Riddick in order to locate the hidden power cells, but Santana attempts to kill Riddick because he is worth twice as much dead as he is alive, and because Riddick promised to kill Santana within five seconds if set free. Riddick, with only one leg free, beheads Santana with his own machete, with Dahl remarking "that was five seconds." The group then releases Riddick on the condition he retrieve the nodes and each party gets a ship.
They fight their way to the ships, however Vargas is killed by a Mud Demon. Johns, Diaz and Riddick leave the ship together on the hover-bikes to retrieve the power nodes. During their journey, Diaz knocks Johns' bike over the side of an embankment, causing him to crash. He is then picked up by Riddick. After they reach the power nodes, Riddick reveals Johns' son's morphine addiction, as well as his attempt to utilize a child as bait for the creatures. Diaz attempts to kill Riddick and Johns but Riddick fights and kills him, however as Diaz dies he shoots and disables the last hover bike, having already sabotaged the other.
Riddick and Johns fend off a seemingly endless horde of Mud Demons while running back to the station. Riddick is severely wounded and Johns takes both nodes and abandons him. Riddick begins to fight a futile battle against the advancing Demons whilst climbing a rock spire. Just when it seems he is about to be killed, Johns arrives in a repowered ship and shoots the creatures while Dahl descends to rescue Riddick. Giving him the other ship, Johns asks Riddick where he intends to go, before deciding he is better off not knowing. Riddick praises Johns for being a better man than his son and departs into deep space.
In an alternate ending used only in the director's cut, Riddick returns to Helion Prime and demands Vaako's whereabouts to Krone. Krone replies that Vaako 'kept his word', as he was a true Necromonger. Riddick then looks out to the vast galaxy with Vaako's words echoing to the audience, "Transcendence."
Casting
- Vin Diesel as Riddick
- Matthew Nable as Colonel R. "Boss" Johns
- Jordi Mollà as Santana
- Katee Sackhoff as Dahl
- Dave Bautista as Diaz
- Bokeem Woodbine as Moss
- Raoul Trujillo as Lockspur
- Conrad Pla as Vargas
- Nolan Gerard Funk as Luna
- Danny Blanco Hall as Falco
- Noah Danby as Nuñez
- Neil Napier as Rubio
- Karl Urban as Siberius Vaako
- Alex Branson as Lex Branman
- Andreas Apergis as Krone
- Keri Hilson as Santana's Prisoner
Rumors of a third film in the Chronicles of Riddick series had circulated since 2006. At first, Twohy assumed that the film would be an independent, low-budget production, rather than being released by Universal Studios as the other films in the series had been. Despite the second film's tepid reception, Diesel and Twohy remained optimistic about a third film, pushing it toward completion. "Everyone knows I love the Riddick character and I'm always working on it," Diesel asserted. "It just takes five years to make another one because David Twohy and I are so precise about it." In 2006, Diesel agreed to make a cameo in Universal's film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in exchange for the ownership to the rights to the Riddick franchise and character. Over the next four years, Diesel periodically posted information on his own Facebook page updating fans on the film's progress. In November 2009, shortly after Twohy had finished the script, he announced that pre-production work was underway.
In April 2010, a review of the Riddick screenplay (it was then subtitled "Dead Man Stalking") appeared on the Coming Attractions website. "Free from the constraints of delivering a PG-13 movie, the dialogue in Dead Man Stalking is more suited to a film like Training Day; the mercs we meet are hard-living people, not those washout fakeout space mercs from a film like Alien: Resurrection", wrote reviewer Patrick Sauriol. On February 9, 2010, Diesel confirmed in an update on his Facebook page that one of the locations used in the upcoming sequel would be the White Desert in Farafra, Egypt. He mentioned the terrain features, unique to the area, would lend to the off-planet atmosphere of the film. On March 13, 2011, Diesel released a video on his official Facebook page in which he and Director David Twohy talk about the proposed third film. They reaffirmed that the movie will be rated 'R', like the first one (Pitch Black), a priority for them, and they plan to shoot it lean and quickly.
In September 2011, it was announced that Karl Urban would reprise his role as Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick. In January 2012, it was announced that Katee Sackhoff and Matt Nable had also joined the cast. Since they did not have enough money to shoot the film in its entirety, Diesel had to mortgage his house, obtain loans and spend most of his personal money on the production of the film, "I had to leverage my house," Diesel said. "If we didn't finish the film, I would be homeless."
