Reign of Fire (film)

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Reign of Fire
Reign of Fire film poster
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Produced by	Richard Zanick, Lillieni Zanick, Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber
Written by	Story: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka Screenplay: Matt Greenberg, Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka
Starring	Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler, Alice Krige, Ben Thornton
Music by	Mad at Gravity, Ed Shearmur, Brad Wagner
Cinematography	Adrian Biddle
Editing by	Declan McGrath, Thom Noble
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures Spyglass Entertainment(Some markets)
Release date(s)	July 12, 2002
Running time	102 min.
Country	United Kingdom, Ireland, United States
Language	English
Budget	USD$95,000,000^[1]
Gross revenue	USD$82,150,183^[2]
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Reign of Fire is a 2002 action/science fiction film directed by Rob Bowman and starring Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, and Gerard Butler. It takes place in the year 2020 in England, after dragons have reawakened. In Japan, the film was called Salamander.^[3] The film grossed about $82 million^[2] on a $95 million budget^[1] and was considered only a modest failure. It was generally disliked by critics, scoring only a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes^[4], and a 39% on Metacritic.^[5] Though the end left an opening for a sequel, there has been no news of one.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Awards
4 Distribution
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

During Underground construction in London around the year 2008, a huge, hibernating dragon is discovered and springs to life, instantly incinerating all construction workers with its fiery breath. The only survivor is the 12-year-old Quinn Abercromby (Ben Thornton), whose mother (Alice Krige) was chief of the construction crew. The dragon escapes, and soon thousands of them work their way through Europe and eventually the rest of the world, burning everything, feeding on the ashes, and multiplying at an exponential rate (brief newspaper and TV news accounts reveal that among other things, Paris was burned by the dragons but terrorists were initially suspected, an attack in Kenya kills dozens of people, paleontologists discover dragon fossils in Antarctica during Arctic heating, scientists prove the dragons are a separate species through their cell types, and the United Nations calls an emergency session after a large dragon nest is discovered in Pakistan). By late 2010 (as the news accounts also reveal), The world powers begin to use their most powerful weapons, but this only hastens the destruction of the planet, and soon all semblances organized government and society falls apart, save for small communities of survivors.

12 years later, in 2020, the adult Quinn (played by Christian Bale) runs a medieval stone castle in Northumberland, a lonely bastion of mankind, afraid of the sky and the dragons that could attack any time. Their hope is to outlast the dragons, wait until they die out again (as they presumably did several times before) and go into hibernation. Unfortunately, the people are beginning to starve while waiting for their crops to ripen. Eddie Stax (David Kennedy) and his children attempt to leave the castle, but they actually lure a dragon to them. One of Eddie's children's friends, and one of his children, are killed by the dragon, and most of the crops are burned.

One day, a team of American dragonslayers arrive, led by Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) and bringing a Chieftain tank and an Agusta A109 helicopter, piloted by Alex (Izabella Scorupco). Mistrusting, but needing each other, the two leaders Quinn and Van Zan work together and eventually manage to kill the dragon that destroyed the crop. The inhabitants of the castle celebrate the victory, only to be chastised by Van Zan, who is disgusted by their behaviour, having lost three of his team in the battle.

Afterwards Van Zan and Alex tell Quinn that all dragons his unit have encountered so far are female. Their theory is that they are like fish, the females would lay their eggs, then the male would come and fertilize them, leaving them with the concept that there is only a single male within the whole dragon population world-wide.

Van Zan and his unit go to London to find the single male dragon, and discover a road block. Van Zan then sends Alex to find a new way around. The male dragon soon arrives and annihilates nearly the entire army, save for Alex (whose helicopter crashed), Van Zan, and a wounded soldier. The male dragon follows their route back to the castle and destroys it. The castle inhabitants are however saved by hiding in an underground shelter that is designed to survive the intense heat, but Quinn's dear friend, Creedy (Gerard Butler), is killed as he tries to go save more people in the castle.

Defeated, Van Zan returns to the castle, rescuing Quinn and the surviving children from the castle's shelter. Quinn tells Van Zan that they and Alex will hunt the male dragon in London. They use the helicopter to follow the River Thames to the city, unnoticed, where they see that the dragons are beginning to starve and are resorting to cannibalism. Van Zan's plan is to fire an explosive charge, placed on a crossbow bolt, into the dragon's mouth during the brief moment it inhales, drawing air to produce fire. During the battle, Van Zan is unable to destroy the dragon using his crossbow and attacks the dragon with no more than his axe in a head-on leap. He is killed when the dragon swallows him in mid-air. Quinn and Alex are able to lure the dragon to street level and Quinn destroys it with his own crossbow.

At least three months after the male dragon is slain, Quinn and Alex are seen erecting a radio tower and receive a transmission from another group of survivors in France. The sun is shining brightly and it is implied that there have been no dragon sightings for quite some time.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Christian Bale	Quinn Abercromby
Matthew McConaughey	Denton Van Zan
Izabella Scorupco	Alex Jensen
Gerard Butler	Creedy
Scott Moutter	Jared Wilke
David Kennedy	Eddie Stax
Alexander Siddig	Ajay
Ned Dennehy	Barlow

[edit] Awards

Reign of Fire was nominated for one Saturn Award, one award from Festival de Cine de Sitges, and won one Sitges award:^[6]

Group	Award	Won?
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (2002)	Best Fantasy Film	No
Festival de Cine de Sitges (2002)	Best Visual Effects	Yes
Festival de Cine de Sitges (2002)	Best Film	No

[edit] Distribution

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Reign of Fire was distributed to theaters by Buena Vista Pictures, and on DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in America.

On July 7, 2005, ABC had scheduled a broadcast of Reign of Fire, but because of the terrorist attack on London that day, it was replaced with another movie, Big Fat Liar.^[7]

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The film contained a trailer for Kingdom Hearts, one of the few films to contain a trailer for the game.^{[citation needed]}
The trailer for the movie included the line "How did they go from one to a million in less than a year?" which did not appear in the movie.
The trailer states that the film's opening takes place in London 2084 A.D. when in fact it takes place 80 years earlier; in 2008 A.D. The majority of the action doesn't take place in London, rather around Northumberland.
Despite posters portraying London being destroyed by the dragons, no such scene appears. Instead one only sees the ruins of London in the lead up to the final confrontation, specifically showcasing the ruins of Big Ben and Parliament. In an earlier scene a soldier remarks that it looks like the roadblock around Pembrey was caused by nuclear weapons, he is corrected by Van Zan.
Also, despite the posters also showing dragons being engaged by human military forces, no such actions occur in the film, but are alluded to by Van Zan as well as flashbacks from Quinn.