Dark City
Short description
John Murdoch wakes in the bathroom of an unfamiliar hotel with no memory of who he is. A woman's body lies in the next room, and a phone call from a doctor named Daniel Schreber urges him to run. As he tries to piece together his past, he learns he is wanted for a series of murders, with Inspector Frank Bumstead leading the pursuit, while his wife Emma searches for him. The city around him never sees daylight, and at midnight everyone but Murdoch falls into a brief sleep.
Alex Proyas directed the film, his second feature after The Crow, and wrote the screenplay with David S. Goyer and Lem Dobbs. Rufus Sewell plays Murdoch, with William Hurt as Bumstead, Kiefer Sutherland as Schreber, Jennifer Connelly as Emma, and Richard O'Brien and Ian Richardson as the figures known as Mr. Hand and Mr. Book. Forty-one cast members and 190 crew are credited.
Made for about 27 million US dollars, the film took in roughly the same amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.2 out of 10 from 15 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.3 out of 10 from more than 3,300 votes, a much larger sample. A critics' rating of 7.2 out of 10 from 91 reviews sits close to the TMDB figure. Proyas went on to direct Garage Days, I, Robot, Knowing and Gods of Egypt.
What's left behind the scenes
- When Emma Murdoch visits her husband in prison and begins to cry (at the 75-minute mark) and smile simultaneously, the reflection during a shot change shows that she is not smiling.
- Many of the sets for this film, including the rooftops, buildings, and other locations, were used in the filming of “The Matrix” (1999).
- Alex Proyas began working on the script in 1990.
- The film was shot in Los Angeles (USA, California) and Sydney (Australia, New South Wales).
- The film's sets were designed as a tribute to “Blade Runner” and the masterpieces of German Expressionism, particularly the legendary “Metropolis” (1927). Sets of this scale had never before been built in Australia, where filming took place. The latest computer technology was used to more realistically convey the movement of the buildings.
- The initial shots of the film are accompanied by a voice-over narration performed by Kiefer Sutherland. New Line Cinema forced Alex Proyas to add it, despite the fact that the commentary reveals some plot details. The director's cut of the film was released without this commentary.
- The initial script for “Dark City” had a pessimistic ending (the film ended with the triumph of aliens), but the ending was changed several times during the work on the film.
- Filming began on August 12, 1996.
- Working titles for the film were “Dark Empire” and “Dark World.”
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 111 minutes.
- The appearance of the aliens inhabiting human corpses was inspired by the look of Richard O’Brien, who played one of them.
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