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* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: John and Emma feel like they're in love, despite the memories imprinted in them by the Strangers, and ThePowerOfLove allows John to break the glass in the prison just to kiss Emma. One has to wonder, were they lovers before the Strangers wiped them? [[spoiler: At the end, Emma's new persona Anna seems to have an interest in John immediately after meeting him]], but then again Emma remembers feeling like she didn't know John when she first saw him at the apartment. Are their feelings just something resulting from the Strangers imprinting them?
Deleted line(s) 6 (click to see context) :
* BetterOnDVD: The Director's Cut removes the opening narration that ruins the whole movie by explaining everything (because the studio thought that ViewersAreMorons) and uses Creator/JenniferConnelly's voice for her singing rather than a voice double.
Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* ImprovedByTheRecut: The Director's Cut removes the SpoilerOpening and allows Creator/JenniferConnelly's singing voice to be heard.
to:
* ImprovedByTheRecut: The Director's Cut removes the SpoilerOpening and allows Creator/JenniferConnelly's singing voice to be heard. It also restores an extended version of a scene where Emma finds May's surviving daughter, who's drawn a picture of the Strangers, further clueing her and Bumstead in that something isn't right.
Changed line(s) 25 (click to see context) from:
* JustHereForGodzilla: Some people watch it just for the stunning visuals.
to:
* JustHereForGodzilla: JustHereForGodzilla:
** Some people watch it just for the stunningvisuals.visuals.
** Even though Jennifer Connelly is just in a supporting role (admittedly an important one), a lot of people watch the movie for her.
** Some people watch it just for the stunning
** Even though Jennifer Connelly is just in a supporting role (admittedly an important one), a lot of people watch the movie for her.
** Creator/RufusSewell before his more remembered roles in ''Film/AKnightsTale'', ''Film/TheHoliday'' and ''Film/TheIllusionist''.
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* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: SingleMomStripper May and DefectiveDetective Walenski are both interesting characters who could have been good supporting protagonists, but each of them only has a couple of scenes.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation.
to:
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** SingleMomStripper May and DefectiveDetective Walenski are both interesting characters who could have been good supporting protagonists, but each of them only has a couple ofscenes.scenes.
** The Strangers are shown to have children, but how they reproduce or how their children feel about the experiment is never examined. They also never get to interact with the human children, such as May's daughter.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation. Christopher Nolan citing this as an influence on ''{{Film/Inception}}'' further redirected goodwill towards it.
** SingleMomStripper May and DefectiveDetective Walenski are both interesting characters who could have been good supporting protagonists, but each of them only has a couple of
** The Strangers are shown to have children, but how they reproduce or how their children feel about the experiment is never examined. They also never get to interact with the human children, such as May's daughter.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation. Christopher Nolan citing this as an influence on ''{{Film/Inception}}'' further redirected goodwill towards it.
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Approved by the thread
.
.Added DiffLines:
* CompleteMonster ([[https://imsdb.com/scripts/Dark-City.html 1992 script]]): The [[HiveMind Mystery Men]]'s leader, "[[BigBad Mr. Black]]", controls humanity by regularly having them "tuned" to rewrite their personalities and memories according to his wishes. When protagonist John White is awakened during his tuning to be remade into a SerialKiller, Black has the Mystery Men horribly murder White's intended victims--[[WouldHurtAChild including a baby]]--to frame him, and drives an investigating inspector [[DrivenToMadness insane]] through sheer agony. Slowly skinning his own reluctant human scientist alive for betraying him, Black revives the corpses of the humans he killed to accuse White of murdering them and when White refuses to break, simply overpowers him in a psychic battle before tuning White with the monstrous personality.
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Changed line(s) 26,27 (click to see context) from:
** The [[HiveMind Stranger]] known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's thought process. Able to predict John's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his race by bringing John to be made to join them, even after John resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of John's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting John with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of John's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting John with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
to:
** The [[HiveMind Stranger]] known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's Murdoch's thought process. Able to predict John's Murdoch's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's Murdoch's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his race by bringing John Murdoch to be made to join them, even after John Murdoch resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware ofJohn's Murdoch's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting John Murdoch with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of
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None
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
** The Stranger known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's thought process. Able to predict John's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his HiveMind race by bringing John to be made to join them, even after John resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
to:
** The Stranger [[HiveMind Stranger]] known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's thought process. Able to predict John's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his HiveMind race by bringing John to be made to join them, even after John resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
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None
Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Creator/AlexProyas always keeps the screen alive with some truly jaw dropping imagery that rivals Creator/ChristopherNolan or Creator/RidleyScott firing on all cylinders. Especially the amazing scene in which the buildings start changing before our eyes.
to:
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Creator/AlexProyas always keeps the screen alive with some truly jaw dropping imagery that rivals Creator/ChristopherNolan or Creator/RidleyScott firing on all cylinders. Especially the amazing scene in which the buildings start changing before our eyes.eyes.
----------
----------
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Added DiffLines:
* AluminumChristmasTrees: Many viewers might not realize that the automat was a real type of dining establishment popular around the middle of The20thCentury. They are quite common in the Netherlands, and a few are still in operation elsewhere.
* AwardSnub: The lack of a Best Picture UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination is understandable thanks to the SciFiGhetto, but no nominations for Art Direction, Visual Effects, or Makeup Design is ''near-obscene''.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The entire soundtrack. It's as if Music/TrevorJones managed to put the epicness of sci-fi, the intrigue of noir, the sadness of drama and the creepiness of horror in one score. Special mention must go to "Memories Of Shell Beach".
** Bonus points go to Emma Murdoch's performances of "Sway" and "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes". Turns out Creator/JenniferConnelly makes an ''excellent'' chanteuse. Her voice is dubbed in the theatrical release but her real one is heard in the director's cut - and it's still quite pleasant.
* BetterOnDVD: The Director's Cut removes the opening narration that ruins the whole movie by explaining everything (because the studio thought that ViewersAreMorons) and uses Creator/JenniferConnelly's voice for her singing rather than a voice double.
* CriticalDissonance: While the film received generally positive reviews, it didn't manage to win audiences, and didn't do well commercially. It took a combination of an extremely positive review from Creator/RogerEbert and home releases for audiences to finally appreciate it.
* CultClassic: It bombed at the box office and got a fairly average critical reception upon release but has since developed a growing fanbase who love it for its original story and amazing visuals among other qualities, leading it to be widely seen as an underappreciated classic of the sci-fi genre.
* EnsembleDarkhorse
** Mr. Wall, for being an interesting combination of TheBrute and the OnlySaneMan, all rolled into one FauxAffablyEvil package.
** Detective Walenski, for his intriguing and amusing TheCuckoolanderWasRight dialogue and accomplishments. It can be amazing to realize he has less than five minutes of screen time.
** SingleMomStripper May makes the most of her two or three scenes.
* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler: The Strangers are thwarted and Dark City is brought into the sun again in the hands of a benevolent ruler. But they're still trapped on a city-sized planet with no knowledge of how to return to Earth. And just imagine the shock and upheaval when the population discovers that their whole lives and their entire world are just lies. How is John going to create a society from that foundation? Will he be corrupted by his absolute power over reality? What happens if and when he dies?]]
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/RichardOBrien manages to utilize his campiness to exceptionally creepy effect as Mr Hand.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The image of Emma [[spoiler: or Anna now]] standing on the end of a pier, since Creator/JenniferConnelly would coincidentally recreate that same shot in two more movies. First in ''Film/RequiemForADream'' and then in ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog''.
** Creator/RufusSewell begins the movie separated from his wife because she had an affair - and you're not sure if he's the bad guy. This is pretty funny considering his roles as the other man in a love triangle in both ''Film/AKnightsTale'' and ''Film/TheIllusionist2006''.
** The fact that the film's 1940s setting [[spoiler: is just a construction]] almost seems like a response to the amount of times Jennifer Connelly had starred in movies set in that era - ''Film/TheRocketeer'', ''Film/MulhollandFalls'', ''The Hot Spot'' and ''Inventing The Abbotts''.
** In addition, this was not the first film in which Connelly is [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} inside a maze]] where reality can get mixed around some.
** All the streets are avenues followed by a letter of the alphabet. It's a good thing we never saw ''Theatre/AvenueQ''.
** Creator/JenniferConnelly would star as Betty Ross in 2003's ''Film/{{Hulk}}'', and Creator/WilliamHurt would star as Betty's father, Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse starting with 2008's ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008''.
* ImprovedByTheRecut: The Director's Cut removes the SpoilerOpening and allows Creator/JenniferConnelly's singing voice to be heard.
* IronWoobie: [[spoiler: Tortured Dr. Schreber's comeuppance against his captors with his "how to kill Tune like a mofo" memory syringe.]]
* JustHereForGodzilla: Some people watch it just for the stunning visuals.
* MagnificentBastard:
** The Stranger known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's thought process. Able to predict John's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his HiveMind race by bringing John to be made to join them, even after John resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of John's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting John with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
* MemeticMutation: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZSDCvUwN8 SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN FOREVER!]]"
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** ''Dark City'' explored the themes of a mutable reality controlled by otherworldly forces a year before ''Film/TheMatrix''. By strange coincidence, the two films were also shot at the same studio, and the Wachowskis re-used some of the ''Dark City'' sets (specifically the big spiral staircase and the rooftops used for Trinity's run). Taking things full-circle, the Creator/ShinichiroWatanabe short in the ''Animatrix'' has a HeroAntagonist PrivateDetective pursuing Trinity and realizing the terrible truth about his world. This is rather similar to Bumstead's role in ''Dark City''.
** ''Film/{{Inception}}'' would also feature dreamscape cities that morph from will alone and have a plot about manipulating someone's memories in some way.
* OneSceneWonder: Mr Book appears far less than you'd actually realise - only getting lines of exposition until the climax. But he feels like a developed character and makes his presence known.
* ParanoiaFuel: One-ups even ''The Matrix''[='s=] PlatonicCave. [[spoiler:The world you live in isn't a lie, your life and memories down to ''your own entire personality'' are a lie, built to order ''mere minutes ago''.]]
* QuestionableCasting: Creator/KieferSutherland is thought to be the weak link in the film, going heavily against type to play a mild-mannered psychiatrist. One reviewer noted that making Dr Schreber MrExposition clashed badly with Kiefer's choice to give the doctor a lisp.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/MelissaGeorge has a small role as a prostitute, in her first American film.
** Creator/DavidWenham also has a small role as one of the Strangers.
* ShockingMoments: Several moments. But special mention must be made of the film's climax, where the visual effects really go off the rails in the most spectacular way.
* SpecialEffectFailure: The miniatures are woefully out of scale and poorly executed compared to the CG.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: SingleMomStripper May and DefectiveDetective Walenski are both interesting characters who could have been good supporting protagonists, but each of them only has a couple of scenes.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Creator/AlexProyas always keeps the screen alive with some truly jaw dropping imagery that rivals Creator/ChristopherNolan or Creator/RidleyScott firing on all cylinders. Especially the amazing scene in which the buildings start changing before our eyes.
* AwardSnub: The lack of a Best Picture UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination is understandable thanks to the SciFiGhetto, but no nominations for Art Direction, Visual Effects, or Makeup Design is ''near-obscene''.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The entire soundtrack. It's as if Music/TrevorJones managed to put the epicness of sci-fi, the intrigue of noir, the sadness of drama and the creepiness of horror in one score. Special mention must go to "Memories Of Shell Beach".
** Bonus points go to Emma Murdoch's performances of "Sway" and "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes". Turns out Creator/JenniferConnelly makes an ''excellent'' chanteuse. Her voice is dubbed in the theatrical release but her real one is heard in the director's cut - and it's still quite pleasant.
* BetterOnDVD: The Director's Cut removes the opening narration that ruins the whole movie by explaining everything (because the studio thought that ViewersAreMorons) and uses Creator/JenniferConnelly's voice for her singing rather than a voice double.
* CriticalDissonance: While the film received generally positive reviews, it didn't manage to win audiences, and didn't do well commercially. It took a combination of an extremely positive review from Creator/RogerEbert and home releases for audiences to finally appreciate it.
* CultClassic: It bombed at the box office and got a fairly average critical reception upon release but has since developed a growing fanbase who love it for its original story and amazing visuals among other qualities, leading it to be widely seen as an underappreciated classic of the sci-fi genre.
* EnsembleDarkhorse
** Mr. Wall, for being an interesting combination of TheBrute and the OnlySaneMan, all rolled into one FauxAffablyEvil package.
** Detective Walenski, for his intriguing and amusing TheCuckoolanderWasRight dialogue and accomplishments. It can be amazing to realize he has less than five minutes of screen time.
** SingleMomStripper May makes the most of her two or three scenes.
* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler: The Strangers are thwarted and Dark City is brought into the sun again in the hands of a benevolent ruler. But they're still trapped on a city-sized planet with no knowledge of how to return to Earth. And just imagine the shock and upheaval when the population discovers that their whole lives and their entire world are just lies. How is John going to create a society from that foundation? Will he be corrupted by his absolute power over reality? What happens if and when he dies?]]
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/RichardOBrien manages to utilize his campiness to exceptionally creepy effect as Mr Hand.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The image of Emma [[spoiler: or Anna now]] standing on the end of a pier, since Creator/JenniferConnelly would coincidentally recreate that same shot in two more movies. First in ''Film/RequiemForADream'' and then in ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog''.
** Creator/RufusSewell begins the movie separated from his wife because she had an affair - and you're not sure if he's the bad guy. This is pretty funny considering his roles as the other man in a love triangle in both ''Film/AKnightsTale'' and ''Film/TheIllusionist2006''.
** The fact that the film's 1940s setting [[spoiler: is just a construction]] almost seems like a response to the amount of times Jennifer Connelly had starred in movies set in that era - ''Film/TheRocketeer'', ''Film/MulhollandFalls'', ''The Hot Spot'' and ''Inventing The Abbotts''.
** In addition, this was not the first film in which Connelly is [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} inside a maze]] where reality can get mixed around some.
** All the streets are avenues followed by a letter of the alphabet. It's a good thing we never saw ''Theatre/AvenueQ''.
** Creator/JenniferConnelly would star as Betty Ross in 2003's ''Film/{{Hulk}}'', and Creator/WilliamHurt would star as Betty's father, Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse starting with 2008's ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008''.
* ImprovedByTheRecut: The Director's Cut removes the SpoilerOpening and allows Creator/JenniferConnelly's singing voice to be heard.
* IronWoobie: [[spoiler: Tortured Dr. Schreber's comeuppance against his captors with his "how to kill Tune like a mofo" memory syringe.]]
* JustHereForGodzilla: Some people watch it just for the stunning visuals.
* MagnificentBastard:
** The Stranger known as "[[EnlightenedAntagonist Mr. Hand]]" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand John's thought process. Able to predict John's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits John's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his HiveMind race by bringing John to be made to join them, even after John resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand [[GracefulLoser gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories]] before [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepting his fate]].
** [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Daniel P. Schreber]] was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of John's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting John with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
* MemeticMutation: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZSDCvUwN8 SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN FOREVER!]]"
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** ''Dark City'' explored the themes of a mutable reality controlled by otherworldly forces a year before ''Film/TheMatrix''. By strange coincidence, the two films were also shot at the same studio, and the Wachowskis re-used some of the ''Dark City'' sets (specifically the big spiral staircase and the rooftops used for Trinity's run). Taking things full-circle, the Creator/ShinichiroWatanabe short in the ''Animatrix'' has a HeroAntagonist PrivateDetective pursuing Trinity and realizing the terrible truth about his world. This is rather similar to Bumstead's role in ''Dark City''.
** ''Film/{{Inception}}'' would also feature dreamscape cities that morph from will alone and have a plot about manipulating someone's memories in some way.
* OneSceneWonder: Mr Book appears far less than you'd actually realise - only getting lines of exposition until the climax. But he feels like a developed character and makes his presence known.
* ParanoiaFuel: One-ups even ''The Matrix''[='s=] PlatonicCave. [[spoiler:The world you live in isn't a lie, your life and memories down to ''your own entire personality'' are a lie, built to order ''mere minutes ago''.]]
* QuestionableCasting: Creator/KieferSutherland is thought to be the weak link in the film, going heavily against type to play a mild-mannered psychiatrist. One reviewer noted that making Dr Schreber MrExposition clashed badly with Kiefer's choice to give the doctor a lisp.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/MelissaGeorge has a small role as a prostitute, in her first American film.
** Creator/DavidWenham also has a small role as one of the Strangers.
* ShockingMoments: Several moments. But special mention must be made of the film's climax, where the visual effects really go off the rails in the most spectacular way.
* SpecialEffectFailure: The miniatures are woefully out of scale and poorly executed compared to the CG.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: SingleMomStripper May and DefectiveDetective Walenski are both interesting characters who could have been good supporting protagonists, but each of them only has a couple of scenes.
* VindicatedByHistory: It didn't make a lot of money, audiences generally ignored it, and even ''most'' critics at the time thought that it was merely good, mainly praising the spellbinding visuals but finding the story to be average. Creator/RogerEbert, on the other hand, ''absolutely adored it!'' He gave it 4 stars in his initial review, declared it the best film of 1998, compared it to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', put it in his "Great Movies" collection (that's alongside ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/CitizenKane''!) only 7 years after it was released, gave a glowing audio commentary on the DVD release, and used it frequently in his film teachings. Lucky for the film, Ebert was one of the most famous critics in the world, and his word-of-mouth was quite enough to earn it some re-evaluation.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Creator/AlexProyas always keeps the screen alive with some truly jaw dropping imagery that rivals Creator/ChristopherNolan or Creator/RidleyScott firing on all cylinders. Especially the amazing scene in which the buildings start changing before our eyes.
