Line #59 Film/PitchBlack


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pitch_black_cover_1_5.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Fight evil with evil.]]'']]
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8	->''"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?"''
9
10	''Pitch Black'' is the first entry in ''[[Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick The Chronicles of Riddick]]'' series. After the release of its sequel, it has also been retroactively called ''The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black''.
11
12	In the year 2678, the ''Hunter-Gratzner'', with its crew and passengers in stasis pods, passes through the debris of a comet. The resulting damage badly cripples the ship, kills some of its crew and eventually causes it to crash land on a nearby planet. The remaining survivors find themselves in a harsh, barren landscape with constant daylight due to its three suns. A bounty hunter, William J. Johns, informs them that one of the passengers was a dangerous criminal named Richard B. Riddick, and worse still, he's managed to escape during the crash.
13
14	After a member of the group is killed investigating a cave, Riddick’s the natural suspect and when eventually captured is kept under close watch. However, it soon becomes clear that not only is Riddick the least of their worries, they may actually need his help to survive.
15
16	Considered the breakthrough performance of Creator/VinDiesel, the movie was a sleeper hit despite its modest budget and was deemed successful enough to have a big budget sequel, which became ''Film/{{The Chronicles of Riddick\|2004}}''.
17
18	----
19	!!This film provides examples of:
20
21	* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Riddick does this by dislocating both his shoulders in order to escape from his restraints.
22	* AdmiringTheAbomination: Upon seeing the huge swarms of vicious night-dwelling flying monsters emerging from underground, [[SociopathicHero Riddick]] can only whisper: "Beautiful". Probably because he identifies with them much better than with humans.
23	* AgainstMyReligion: Imam refuses to drink liquor because he's a Muslim, even though it's the only thing drinkable for the moment. Which is not well researched regarding Islam: Imam's position in the film is dire, stuck on a desert planet with no other food or water, and he has three children to look after. In Islam, if the situation is dire enough to threaten one's life by lack of halal food and clean (no alcohol) drinks, Muslims are permitted to consume any available meat (meat of a lizard, meat of a dog or pig) or drink alcohol, just to survive until help comes. This is, however, somewhat mitigated by the fact that their high alcohol content would leave an unaccustomed drinker floored. Also, the castaways had barely begun to explore their surroundings at the time he was offered alcohol, and he still had high hopes of finding a water source.
24	* AlienBlood: When the flying monsters start killing each other, the blood that [[RainOfBlood spatters down on the fleeing humans]] is ''blue''.
25	* AlienSky: Three suns and an eclipsing planet featuring TWO separate ring systems. Skies don't get much more alien than that.
26	* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: It's a desert planet, obviously hotter than hot. [[HollywoodScience How it supports such an oxygen rich, earth-like atmosphere complete with rain is never explained.]] Yet there is a comment about the atmosphere being thinner, "like high altitude". And there was a preliminary scan during the crash to establish that, luckily, the planet can support human life. So the trope receives at least a HandWave.
27	* AndThisIsFor: Riddick cuts off all the lights on the ship prior to taking off, because he wants to kill as many of the creatures as possible when they gather around the ship. [[spoiler:It's implied it's in honor of Fry.]]
28	-->'''Riddick:''' We can't leave... ''({{beat}})'' without saying good night...
29	* ArtificialGravity: A loading bar on the inside of the glass on Fry's cryo booth shows the ship's gravity quickly go up to 100%.
30	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
31	** Apparently, the creatures have survived millions of years after wiping out all other life on the planet by...pure cannibalism? Such a system won't be efficient and would probably make them extinct in a couple of generations due to decreasing energy levels and them eating more of their own young than they can breed.
32	** Really the entire planet’s ecology would be worth a deep dive since the scant bits we do get give only the barest hints of how the whole ecosystem works/worked, but [[Mst3kMantra that’s not what the movie is concerned about]].
33	* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: Paris states that any liquor over 45 proof can be set alight easily. In reality, liquor needs to be over about 80 proof to catch fire. The screenwriter probably confused "proof" with percentage of alcohol, since 45% alcohol liquor is 90 proof, just above the threshold to catch fire.
34	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Required to make the planet dark, as required by the plot. True a giant gas planet blocks the sun, but its rings would scatter the light ([[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Saturn_eclipse.jpg here's the sun eclipsed by Saturn]], see?), putting the planet into a very dark twilight, but not something human eyes couldn't adjust to. True it eventually rains, it could have been cloudy - but that's artistic license, too. Add to that the near impossibility of this particular orbital configuration, and.. well, Administrivia/TropesAreTools!
35	* TheAtoner:
36	** Fry. At the beginning of the movie [[WhatTheHellHero she tries to sacrifice her mostly civilian crew to save herself]], despite the fact that captains are supposed to put themselves last in crisis. [[spoiler:At the climax, she tells Riddick that she would die for the others, and eventually loses her life saving Riddick.]]
37	** Riddick might also count, [[spoiler:as he appears to be ready to turn over a new leaf at the end, saying: "Tell them Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."]].
38	* BackseatDriver: Owens for pretty much [[spoiler:all of his screen time.]] All he does is heap demands on Fry, bitch when she tries to take any action, and generally be an unhelpful noisemaker during an emergency. [[spoiler:There's at least an attempt to give him a slightly noble slant in that he won't let Fry dump the cryo bay to correct the ship's attitude during the crash, but even that's called into question as his stated complaint is "company says we're responsible" for the passengers' lives. So even that token nobility is on shaky ground.]]
39	* BackToBackBadasses: Johns and Riddick (briefly).
40	* BaitTheDog:
41	** So it seems like Riddick, after all this talk about how bad he is, might be an alright guy after all when he prevents Jack from getting killed and used as bait by Johns. [[spoiler:Then Riddick leaving the others to die as soon as it becomes a viable option really drives home the point of what a scumbag he can be.]]
42	** [[spoiler:But it's {{Averted}} once more as Fry convinces him to go back for them and he does. Further proved by the fact that Riddick is very visibly heartbroken when Fry is killed, and in the sequel where he's been trying keep mercenaries from hunting Jack/Kyra, and is also later on the verge of tears when Lord Marshall kills her.]]
43	* BarrierBustingBlow: After the suns go down and the planet is covered in darkness due to the eclipse, the Bioraptors roam free. The protagonists temporarily hide out in a storage compartment of the crashed ship. Imam sits down against a wall, but then an Alien pierces its claws through the hull right next to his head, almost impaling him. Earlier on, the other survivors use this trope to rescue Fry when she's cornered in one of the salt tubes and can't make it out to the surface on her own.
44	* BatScare: Subverted, because the flock of little chittering flyers turns out ''not'' to be harmless. At all.
45	* BavarianFireDrill: Riddick's captor lets the other crash survivors believe he's the equivalent of a federal marshal, but is actually a drug-addicted mercenary, out to collect the price on Riddick's head.
46	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Carolyn not only redeems herself by refusing to leave Jack and Imam, but then risks and loses her life saving the injured Riddick.]]
47	* BinarySuns: The planet has three suns: one red, one yellow, and one blue. The red and yellow suns are always close in the sky opposite the blue, which creates an effect instead of day and night, there's ''blue day and orange day''.
48	* BioluminescenceIsCool: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due to the BizarreAlienBiology of the light-sensitive monsters that eat everything else on the planet [[FridgeLogic during every eclipse]]. [[spoiler:The glow-worms end up saving the lives of the survivors.]]
49	* BizarreAlienSenses: The monsters use echolocation. Shots of their P.O.V. depict this using monochromatic pixel-clouds that take the form of solid objects and show clearer resolution when they cry out.
50	* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Shazza gets a surprise face-full of blood when Zeke shoots one of the crash survivors, whom he takes to be Riddick about to attack her. ''"Crikey!"''
51	* BondOneLiner:
52	** (Riddick throws someone to the monsters in the dark) "One rule: Stay in the light."
53	** (Riddick disembowels an alien) "[[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith Did not know who he was fucking with.]]"
54	* BoozeFlamethrower: [[spoiler:Paris]], who goes out spraying alcohol onto a flame, burning the surrounding monsters about to attack.
55	* BulletHolesAndRevelations: Toward the end of the movie, Riddick is wounded running interference for the remaining survivors. Fry returns to attempt to pick him up, allowing him to use her as support. After a lot of stumbling around, they both freeze after an obvious sound effect of someone being struck. [[spoiler:Fry is revealed to have been impaled by one of the bioraptors and is lifted away to her death, much to Riddick's dismay.]]
56	* ChekhovsSkill: The main reason Johns is opposed to the idea of taking Riddick to the skiff is that Riddick's actually a trained pilot. Sure enough, after [[spoiler:Fry's death, he's the only one able to fly the remaining survivors off at the end]].
57	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: The entire second half of the film. The filmmakers initially wanted to film the whole thing in real, full blackness with the only light being the sources held by the characters, but this quickly proved impractical. Still, the film uses the absolute bare minimum of light once the eclipse hits totality.
58	* ClosedCircle: They just loved this trope. First, their starship crashes to a mysterious planet. They go to retrieve power cells so they can leave in a smaller, functional ship. Their car they're using is solar powered, and seemed ideal on a planet with three suns, but as luck would have it, they have a solar eclipse, which releases the monsters that are harmed by light. As monsters pick off each of the characters, and they continuously lose light sources, the remaining characters are trapped in a cave, with Riddick holding the only working flashlight.
59	* ColdEquation: Carolyn does one. The ship cannot land safely with all the weight in the back, so she jettisons cargo compartments, until the passenger compartment is the only one left. Either everyone, including the passengers and her die, or the passengers die and she ''might'' get the ship down safe with the flight crew.
60	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Averted; Riddick can kill one creature just fine, but two of them damn near kill him (though he managed to slaughter both despite his injuries).
61	* ContrivedCoincidence: As mentioned in the ConvenientlyClosePlanet entry, the ship happens to crash land on an inhabitable (sort of) planet 22 months out from port, within walking distance of a defunct mining outpost. And does so on the one day out of every 22 years that it has a solar eclipse, which allows thousands of carnivorous, dark-loving creatures to come to the surface and terrorize the crew.
62	* ConvenientlyClosePlanet:
63	** It's a good thing the interstellar freighter which was 22 months out from its port was passing so close to an inhabitable moon when the artificial pilot malfunctioned, isn't it?
64	** It's established early that the planet they were passing was uncharted and because of that its mere existence caused the autopilot to exceed its tolerance due to the unexpected atmospheric change.
65	* ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing: ''Both'' versions are simulated by Riddick. He dislocates both shoulders (eat your heart out, Riggs!), and slips his cuffs through some [[BenevolentArchitecture Conveniently Placed Starship Damage]] before cutting them off with a [[LaserBlade Conveniently Placed Plasma Cutter]].
66	* CoolShades: In the first half, it's played straight: glasses on when Riddick is kicking ass. The brightness of the sunlight leaves him vulnerable without his welding goggles - when they're torn off during a fight, he's pretty much helpless. However, he takes them off later during the total darkness of an eclipse: he wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.
67	* CorruptTheCutie: Subverted. [[spoiler:Riddick pulls a magnificent attempt with Carolyn at the end by encouraging her to leave Imam and Jack behind to come with him instead. He's practically ''nice'' about it, being helpful by telling her he will leave her, and recognizing how difficult it must be but that nobody would blame her. She breaks down in front of him and he gets even nicer, encouraging her like a small child. One would think he's nothing but a ManipulativeBastard but it's likely he very much likes Carolyn. Doesn't ultimately take anyway as she violently rebuffs him and convinces him to go back for them anyway after remembering what she'd attempted to do at the beginning of the movie.]]
68	* CryonicsFailure: In the first minutes, the captain dies in their universe's version of cryo-sleep because some small meteorites crash through the ship, causing debris (more accurately, bolts bursting from the ship's interior) to perforate him while he's asleep.
69	* CultColony: Richard B. Riddick encounters Imam, a character determined to find the colony New Mecca, where multiple religious groups are alleged to co-exist without religious conflict.
70	* CueTheSun: Used straight, as the shuttle lifts off and the triple suns reappear from behind their respective planets (meaning no more dark-loving beasties)
71	* DarknessEqualsDeath: The film was designed from the ground up to utilize this, and every single death in the movie did in one way or another.
72	* DeadpanSnarker:
73	** Riddick, with a dark sense of humor to go with it:
74	--->'''Paris:''' ''[introducing himself to Riddick]'' [[VerbalBusinessCard Paris P. Olgilvie. Antiquities dealer, entrepreneur]].\
75	'''Riddick:''' Richard B. Riddick. Escaped convict. Murderer.\
76	'''Johns:''' Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It's called "triage."\
77	'''Riddick:''' Kept calling it "murder" when I did it.
78	** Jack, in the beginning, after the ship has crashed and there's chaos everywhere:
79	--->'''Jack:''' So... I guess something went wrong?
80	* DeathByMaterialism: [[spoiler:Johns]] dies as a result of his own greed. [[spoiler:He's been hunting Riddick for years and knows full well how dangerous he is, but strikes a bargain with Riddick in the hopes that he can keep him on a leash until they're off planet and Johns can collect on his bounty. Riddick arranges for Johns to be eaten by the predators, noting that it's Johns' own fault for not killing Riddick when he had the chance. Johns would get paid whether he brought Riddick in alive or dead, but alive pays twice as much.]]
81	* DeathOfAChild: One of the first victims is a youngster.
82	* DeathSeeker: Subtly hinted at with Riddick. That trait is (mostly) ditched in later incarnations.
83	* DeathWorld: When the bizarre layout of the planet's solar system isn't causing constant daylight and horrendous temperatures, nocturnal monsters are eating all fauna unlucky enough to come across them.
84	* DecoyProtagonist: Carolyn Fry initially appears to be the main protagonist, but the limelight is quickly stolen by Riddick.
85	* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:Near the ending, an out-of-nowhere alien grabs the female lead just as she's about to escape. This is played as somewhat karmic, since she killed some people to save herself and had been perfectly willing to sacrifice the rest on the ship had it not been for her more heroic crewmate. To atone, she refuses to leave without saving everyone left, even the one person who everyone (even himself) thinks doesn't deserve it, which ultimately gets her killed.]]
86	* DirtyCoward:
87	** Johns pretends to be a brave, upstanding man of the law at first, but is eventually revealed as a cowardly, self-serving junkie mercenary. He hides the fact he has morphine so Owens has to die in agony. He's so convinced that Riddick is going to kill them all, or hell, he just wants to deliver him for the bounty, that he makes Fry and the others wait until the last second to bring up the cells and then the eclipse hits, so they all get trapped in the dark. After the aliens come out during the eclipse, he stays back and lets the others investigate even though he's the only one with a gun, uses Jack as an excuse to hide his own fear, and [[spoiler:is prepared to kill Jack and use her as bait to distract the creatures, causing Riddick to kill him.]]
88	** Paris is a straightforward example. Right from the start he shows himself as a cowardly gentleman. This bites everyone when he panics and [[spoiler:flees the group, with the light cables still wrapped around him. It causes his own death and many subsequent ones as he breaks their best light source.]]
89	** The fact that Riddick is ''[[AvertedTrope not]]'' this despite his otherwise ItsAllAboutMe attitude is one of the primary things that makes the audience root for [[VillainProtagonist him.]]
90	* DoesThatSoundLikeFunToYou: Riddick gives this speech to [[spoiler:Jack]] after she asks about his eyes. It's subverted in ''The Chronicles of Riddick'' when, due to {{Retcon}}, she finds out that he was pulling her leg.
91	* DontLookDown: Inverted. As the group flees from the Bioraptors during the final act of the film, Riddick warns the others not to look ''up'', as the creatures are in the sky, gruesomely ripping each other to shreds. Carolyn immediately looks up as soon as Riddick tells her not to.
92	* DwindlingParty: The movie begins with an emergency crash-landing that leaves dozen survivors seeking rescue. By the time the movie ends, only three people remain.
93	* ElephantGraveyard: The survivors of the crash stumble upon a graveyard of giant extinct aliens. Imam even [[LampshadedTrope compares it]] to an elephant graveyard. [[spoiler:Riddick is hiding there.]]
94	* EmergencyRefuelling: A large part of the movie involves the protagonists trying to refuel a spaceship so they can escape the planet they're stranded on and avoid being eaten by its deadly wildlife.
95	* EnemyMine:
96	-->'''Riddick:''' So you finally found something worse than me.
97	* EndlessDaytime: The planet the protagonists crashland on orbits three suns, such that it is always sunlight except once every 22 years, when the three suns line up and are simultaneously eclipsed.
98	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Johns suggests killing the teenage Jack to Riddick so they can use her as bait for the creatures, but [[spoiler:instead Riddick kills Johns and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard uses him as bait]]. Doing so does give Riddick control over the group, so perhaps he's not doing it for entirely benevolent reasons. Although, as he later explains in the third film, he thought Johns was a [[DirtyCoward coward]] for being willing to sacrifice a child to survive.]]
99	* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
100	** [[spoiler:Riddick, while initially coming off as a morally ambiguous and even somewhat likable character, shows what kind of a person he really is by the end when he rather apathetically decides to abandon the others entirely for his own benefit. When Carolyn confronts him, he seems to enjoy (correctly) pointing out to her that she herself is really no better than he is, as she like him was entirely willing to sacrifice the rest of the passengers to save herself at the beginning of the story, and he almost seems to see her as a kindred spirit of sorts. [[SadisticChoice He even offers to take her with him, thereby knowingly saving her own life at the expense of the others]], and tries to goad her into stooping to his level. [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame She chooses to have none of it]] and [[ShutUpHannibal rejects that she is anything like Riddick]] by [[{{Redemption}} refusing to leave Jack and Imam behind]]. Riddick chooses to help her, intrigued by her decision.]]
101	---> [[spoiler:'''Riddick:''' Would you die for them?]]
102	---> [[spoiler:'''Carolyn:''' I would try for them.]]
103	---> [[spoiler:'''Riddick:''' You didn't answer me.]]
104	---> [[spoiler:'''Carolyn:''' Yes I would, Riddick. I would. I would die for them.]]
105	---> [[spoiler:'''Riddick:''' ... ''how interesting.'']]
106	** Also a major contributor to Riddick's state of mind in the end; he cannot comprehend why [[spoiler: Carolyn would sacrifice herself for him of all people and it breaks his core life philosophies]].
107	* ExactWords: Since no one besides the big guy can see in the dark, Johns tells Riddick to provide recon for the group, as they have no light and the eclipse has darkened the entire planet:
108	-->'''Riddick:''' Looks clear.\
109	'''Johns:''' ''[after barely avoiding a bioraptor attack]'' You said "clear"!\
110	'''Riddick:''' I said it ''looks'' clear.\
111	'''Johns:''' What's it look like now?\
112	'''Riddick:''' ... [[{{Troll}} looks clear]].
113	* EyelessFace: The bioraptors don't possess any eyes, since they're nocturnal creatures that hunt by echolocation.
114	* EyeScream: Johns shoots morphine by injecting it into his tear duct. Cole Hauser, the actor who played Johns, stated in the commentary that he was inspired to do this by a doctor's answer to "the most disgusting place" he'd ever seen someone inject themselves.
115	* {{Fanservice}}: Carolyn has a habit of leaning forward while wearing a low-cut top.
116	-->'''David Twohy:''' ''(in the commentary track)'' To all the twelve-year-old boys in the audience; you're welcome.
117	* FantasticLightSource: The glowing leeches at the end.
118	* FinalGirl: The woman who seems most likely to be the final girl is [[spoiler:killed off only a few minutes before the movie ends, though the fact that she tries to sacrifice the passengers of the ship she was piloting early in the film hints at her [[RedemptionEqualsDeath redemptive]] [[HeroicSacrifice death]]]]. The only characters to survive the movie are [[spoiler:ironically the ones most likely to die in another slasher flick: the pacifist [[BlackDudeDiesFirst black man]]; the teenage [[SweetPollyOliver girl who pretended to be a ''boy'']] for the first half of the movie and has just reached sexual maturity]]; and Riddick, the VillainProtagonist, who survives due to ExecutiveMeddling.
119	* FunctionalAddict: Implied to be the case with Johns, who steals morphine from the medkit and injects it into his tear duct, possibly to avoid leaving visible needlemarks. See the EyeScream entry above.
120	* TheFutureIsNoir: ''Pitch Black'' is hard-boiled fiction, with themes not unlike Film/BladeRunner or "Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs ''[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]''".
121	* GhostPlanet
122	* GodIsEvil: Riddick is of this opinion.
123	-->'''Imam:''' Because you do not believe in God does not mean God does not believe in--\
124	'''Riddick:''' Think someone could spend half their life in a slam with a horse bit in their mouth and not believe? Think he could start out in some liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and not believe? Got it all wrong, holy man. I absolutely believe in God... '''''and I absolutely hate the fucker.'''''
125	* GodzillaThreshold: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Riddick when the survivers of the crashed spaceship managed to capture him, but then releases him due to the alien fauna.
126	-->'''Riddick''': ''Finally found something worse than me, huh?''
127	* GoryDiscretionShot: Played with in the ending. Fry is pulled away into the darkness to be feasted on by the creatures, but unlike others we see being eaten by them in the dark through Riddick's enhanced vision, the viewers are not forced to watch what he is clearly seeing.
128	* TheGreatRepair: The survivors of a starship crash on a remote moon must move power cells to the skiff (a small starship) so they can refuel it and escape.
129	* GroinAttack: Silently threatened by Riddick towards Johns, but not carried out.
130	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe:
131	** [[spoiler:"Where's Johns?" "Which half?"]]
132	** [[spoiler:Shazza, who gets ripped in half and carried off still screaming by a swarm of juvenile Bioraptors.]]
133	** Happens BehindTheBlack to Hasan, the second of Imam's young pupils to die, albeit out of direct view; he's yanked into the shadows by one of the Bioraptors, and its head springs forward at waist-height in a splash of blood.
134	* HandyCuffs: Riddick is blindfolded and handcuffed around a post with his hands behind him. Sensing that the post is not secure at the top, he dislocates both shoulders to get his hands up and over and escape.
135	* HardToLightFire: More hard-to-''re''light fire, when the rain starts extinguishing the torches and the fleeing survivors vainly attempt to reignite one with another.
136	* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:When Riddick tries to make Fry leave Imam and Jack behind on the dead planet or he'll leave all of them she calls him out on his manipulation, but breaks down into an unresponsive, crying mess in front of Riddick when she realizes he's dead serious, torn between trying to save herself or die trying to save the others.]]
137	* HeWillComeForMe: Jack says "He's not coming back, is he?" when [[spoiler:Riddick leaves Jack and Imam in the cave.]] [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] when [[spoiler:Riddick WAS going to leave them to die, but Fry convinces him otherwise. Their return prompts Jack to say, "Never had a doubt!"]]
138	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Two-Fold for Johns. He didn't kill Riddick when he had the chance, as Riddick tells him just before one of the aliens eats him. And he fails to kill said alien even though he's armed with a shotgun, because in his panic he loaded one of his fake shells filled with his drugs, and after firing on Riddick, the next round to cycle is the fake shell, leading to a misfire that costs him his life.]]
139	* HollywoodAtheist: Subverted. The imam thinks that Riddick is one of these. Riddick is in fact a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misotheist misotheist]], one who believes in God, and hates Him.
140	* HollywoodDarkness: Averted. The film is well-named, since during the triple eclipse the whole planet becomes astonishingly dark.
141	* HopeSpot: The crash survivors searching for water think they see some trees on a hill. Then they crest the hill and find an graveyard for [[StarfishAliens gigantic, slug-like extraterrestrial beasts]].
142	* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The flying Bioraptors have apparently driven all life on the rest of the planet to extinction, to the point that they start killing off and eating each other en masse by the end.
143	* HostileWeather: The long eclipse certainly picks a good time to strike, although that could be chalked up to bickering, procrastinating crew members. Then the rain starts and douses their lights. The rain also doubles as an ironic punch in the gut for the characters. In the first part of the movie, they were scrounging around trying to find water because of the brutally hot sunlight on the desert planet. When the rain finally comes it serves only to make them even more vulnerable to their enemies. Could be justified, as the eclipse probably dropped the ambient temperature low enough for atmospheric water vapor to consense for the first time in years.
144	* HowDareYouDieOnMe: This is Riddick's response when [[spoiler:Carolyn Fry]] is dragged away and killed by the monsters. Immediately beforehand, this was also the motivation used to get him up after he was bleeding intensely and in a state of panic, just having been nearly killed by the creatures.
145	* IronicEcho:
146	** An instant-action example: In the scene where Johns unlocks Riddick's restraints, Johns makes like he's about to shoot him, before the two have this exchange:
147	---> '''Johns:''' I want you to remember this moment.\
148	''(Riddick disarms him and points the gun at his head)''\
149	'''Riddick:''' I want you to remember this moment.
150	** Happens ''again'' [[spoiler:right at the end of the climactic fight between the two]]. Doubles as a really black BrickJoke.
151	---> '''Riddick:''' [[spoiler:Remember that moment?]]
152	** Imam offers to pray with Riddick, but Riddick explains that he has nothing but [[{{Naytheist}} loathing for God]]. Imam says that even though the circumstances are grim, He is with them nonetheless. Later, [[spoiler:when it starts raining which will make the flares protecting them from the aliens go out]], Riddick cynically remarks "So where the hell's your God now?" And even later, [[spoiler:when Riddick goes back with Fry to save Jack and Imam]], Imam states "There is my God, Mr. Riddick."
153	** The scenes at the skiff. [[spoiler:Riddick tries to convince Carolyn to abandon Imam and Jack. Once she forces him to go back for them and they've returned to the skiff, it's Imam and Jack who quietly urge Carolyn to leave the fallen-behind Riddick.]]
154	* ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: The ship crashes on the planet, conveniently within walking range of the settlement, though it was intended as an [[AvertedTrope aversion]]. Ken Wheat, the original writer of the film with his brother, Jim, explained that in the first draft of their script The Ship had detected the Settlement and tried to land near there so as to be near an area where there might be supplies.
155	* IWarnedYou: When Johns is considering releasing Riddick until they get off the planet, Riddick gives Johns an honest warning that he'd be better off killing Riddick there and then rather than run the risk of getting knived by Riddick in pursuit of a bounty. [[spoiler:Riddick reminds Johns of this when he kills him to use Johns as bait for the predators.]]
156	* JustDesserts: [[spoiler:Johns let a man die an agonizing death by not revealing he had morphine and was ready to murder Jack to distract the bioraptors. Riddick ultimately leaves him alone in the dark and Johns is killed and eaten by the monsters.]]
157	* KarmicDeath:
158	** [[spoiler:Zeke murders a survivor who he mistook for Riddick, and then is killed by the creatures when hiding away the body.]]
159	** [[spoiler:Paris panics and runs away, which disables the best light source and screws over the entire group. He is killed very quickly afterwards.]]
160	** [[spoiler:Johns is willing to kill anyone else in the group, even Jack, to distract the creatures so he can escape. Riddick wounds him instead, letting him be the distraction. Doubly so as he takes a shot at the alien that kills him, but his shotgun cycled to a fake round (which he uses to carry his drug stash) that he loaded accidentally in his panic.]]
161	* KillTheLights: In the last act, the more intelligent of the creatures appear to be trying to do this by attacking those holding light sources.
162	* LiveActionEscortMission: The second half of the film.
163	* LivingMotionDetector: A variant, in that the monster can't see you if you stand between its eyes, because of a blind spot caused by their armored heads.
164	* MeaningfulEcho:
165	** We get this exchange:
166	---> '''Johns:''' ''(after freeing Riddick from his bonds)'' I want you to remember this moment.\
167	''(Riddick disarms him, pointing Johns' own gun at him.)''\
168	'''Riddick:''' I want you to remember this moment.
169	** Later becomes a double-example [[spoiler:during the climactic fight with Johns.]]
170	---> [[spoiler:'''Riddick:''']] [[spoiler:Remember that moment?]]
171	* MenDontCry: [[spoiler:Carolyn's death]] is the only time Riddick shows tears.
172	* MonsterThreatExpiration: The critters are a prime example of this trope. At the beginning of the film, they are clearly crawling around while there's still sunlight visible. Later on, a dimly luminescent glass jar can send them screaming away.
173	* MonstrousCannibalism: Implied to be why the bioraptors start killing each other in midair.
174	* MorePredatorsThanPrey: The story occurs on a [[SingleBiomePlanet Desert Planet]], and one of the only two species the protagonists encounter are predators. They arrive to the surface in numbers which a desert biome couldn't possibly provide enough food for. To make things worse, the animals can only hunt in the dark, so their only opportunity to come to the surface for prey is one month in 22 years during an eclipse of the BinarySuns. However the world is littered with the skeletons of long dead animals, some of which were massive, but has no current signs of life. It's strongly implied the unchecked predator population has rendered their surface prey extinct. Which also explains their rather [[SuperPersistentPredator keen interest]] in the humans. Eventually the creatures even begin turning on each other, apparently resorting to cannibalism to sate their hunger.
175	* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: A few shots of the bioraptors reveal that their mouths are ''filled'' with long, needle-thin teeth.
176	* {{Naytheist}}: As he explains to the imam, Riddick absolutely believes in God -- but he absolutely ''despises'' him. This is a belief known as misotheism.
177	* NewNeoCity: Imam and co. are travelling to somewhere called New Mecca.
178	* NiceDayDeadlyNight: Survivors of a starship's crash landing discover that the deserted planet they're on has three suns, resulting in almost constant sunlight. When a prolonged total eclipse occurs, they are swarmed by deadly alien monsters in the dark.
179	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Paris has a breakdown during the trek to the ship and crawls away into the darkness. As he's wrapped up in light cords, he accidentally pulls the portable generator that powers them off the sled, destroying it. This not only gets him killed, but also leaves the rest of the characters without much light.]]
180	* NoPeriodsPeriod: [[spoiler:Jack is actually a teen girl, and well, you put the rest together...]]
181	* NotMeThisTime: When the crew discovers Zeke's body, Riddick appears out of nowhere, and is immediately captured and accused of having killed him. Riddick admits that he has killed a few people, but Zeke wasn't one of them... which leads to the crew finding out about the Bioraptors.
182	* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: The survivors praise Carolyn for having got them down safely, not knowing that she tried to jettison their cargo compartment.
183	* OpeningMonologue: The film opens with the crew of the Hunter Gratzner in stasis in deep space. The captured Riddick notes that his brain --or at least the animalistic side-- is still awake, and asserts the situation in voiceover, surveying the rest of the crew and his plans for escape.
184	* OrangeBlueContrast: The binary pair of the red and yellow suns and the opposite blue sun take turns in the sky evoking this trope.
185	* PassThePopcorn: A more sadistic example, where Riddick is seen [[spoiler:casually drinking some liquor while watching another man get gunned down by a Zeke, who thought the innocent man was Riddick]].
186	* PeriodShaming: [[spoiler:When it's revealed that Jack is [[SweetPollyOliver a teenage girl]] and is on her period, thus drawing the creatures to their location, Johns gets especially angry and crudely snaps at Jack to "put a cork in it". While the situation is far from ideal and Jack could've mentioned it earlier, it's hardly Jack's fault she got her period at the worst possible time and the other characters are more sympathetic to her, as she's distraught enough already. Even Riddick simply points out the practical problems rather than blaming and insulting Jack for it, underlining that Johns is even worse than [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Riddick]]. Johns then suggests [[WouldHurtAChild using Jack as bait]] for the creatures to save his own skin]].
187	* POVCam: The echolocation of the alien creatures is represented by POV shots of "images" made up of tiny pixel-dots that convey textures and surfaces. Riddick's POV is also shown several times, giving us a look at his natural night vision.
188	* PushedAtTheMonster: Johns suggests to wanted criminal Riddick that they use teenage Jack as bait to distract the man-eating alien creatures. [[EveryoneHasStandards Riddick doesn't take this suggestion well]], instead wounding Johns and leaving him for the creatures while the rest escape.
189	* RedemptionEqualsDeath:
190	** This almost happened to [[spoiler:Riddick. In the original script, Riddick was supposed to die instead of Fry]]. ExecutiveMeddling put a stop to that, since [[spoiler:''The Chronicles of Carolyn Fry'' would not have made for a decent sequel.]]
191	** Keep in mind, it ''was'' redemption for [[spoiler:Carolyn, since she almost sacrificed her passengers to save herself at the start of the film]].
192	* {{Retirony}}: Paris, to the extent that he was "supposed to die in France". [[spoiler:He "never even saw France".]]
193	* RibcageRidge: Several seem to indicate that there was once other life on the planet.
194	* RuleOfPerception: The filmmakers tried accurately representing the lighting effects of the three differently-colored suns, but even when achieved practically, it [[RealityIsUnrealistic still looked fake]]. They eventually gave in and colored the actors to match the star ''behind'' them, which conveys the concept to the audience very effectively, despite making no actual sense.
195	* SadisticChoice: As part of Riddick's attempt to corrupt Fry and win her over, he presents her with an impossible choice. [[spoiler:She can only convince him to go with her willingly to rescue the two others she left behind. Riddick however offers her to leave them to die and take off with him in the skiff instead. She can either die along with them, knowing that she's a good person but save no one or come with Riddick and live with the guilt for the rest of her life. What makes this worse is that as Riddick points out, there is no one to blame Fry for choosing self-preservation. She eventually does make a moral stand and convinces Riddick to help her, as her moral actions intrigue him.]]
196	* SamusIsAGirl: Jack fools everyone, until Riddick casually mentions her gender as TheReveal.
197	* SealedCastInAMultipack: The film features a starship on a very long journey carrying the passengers and crew this way. When the ship detects a hazard in its path, in this case, a passing comet trailing debris, it automatically wakes the crew. Unfortunately, it does this just in time for the ship to collide with the debris while the crew is still trying to wake up. The passengers end up waking up during the crash, and the plot kicks off when it is discovered that one of them, a multiple-murderer, is no longer in his pod...
198	* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: Some [[http://www.impawards.com/2000/pitch_black_ver4.html posters]] and DVD covers depict Riddick points a gun at the audience. [[CoversAlwaysLie Rather odd]], considering he doesn't wield a handgun at any point in the film, and the only firearm he ever carried was the one he took from Johns when he released him and gave back barely a minute later.
199	%%* SecretTestOfCharacter: Debatable if Riddick is giving one to Fry with his offer.%%ZCE. Examples aren't arguable.
200	* SenseImpairedMonster: The aliens have no eyes due to hunting exclusively in total darkness, leaving them completely blind. They make up for this through SuperHearing and echolocation.
201	* SensoryOverload: Happens briefly to Riddick when another survivor accidentally shines a flashlight in his super-sensitive eyes.
202	* ShakyPOVCam: They combined this trope with a weird ghost-images-in-static effect, to simulate how its blind alien creatures perceive their surroundings via echolocation.
203	* SherlockScan: Riddick spends the first half of the movie doing nothing but this, first predicting the types of people on the ship, then accurately describing just how the original inhabitants of the moon ''didn't'' make it offworld. He is also able to deduce that the creatures have a blind spot from analyzing a dead one.
204	* ShipTease: Riddick and Fry. His first direct act, before being revealed to the other survivors, is to cut away a lock of her hair and smell it. Later he demonstrates a willingness to stand up for her, and is generally more forthcoming with her than with most other characters. And of course, there is his offer near the end to have her join him in escaping the planet alone due to being impressed by her determination. It's less clear whether Fry reciprocated any of these feelings, though. The closest clue that it might be partially reciprocated is when they hold hands, even going so far as to link fingers, during part of the final escape towards the ship. [[spoiler: She also dies saving him, so it's quite possible that part of her connected with him after he changed his mind about leaving Imam and Jack because of her sheer determination.]]
205	* SinisterShiv: Riddick uses a sharpened piece of metal obtained from a crashed spaceship as his shiv of choice, both for killing and for personal grooming.
206	* SleeperStarship: The film begins with the crew and passengers on a long-distance ship in hibernation. In a bit of unusual flair with the concept, the Anti-Hero (and narrator) Riddick is awake in his pod, and introducing the rest of the cast by smell.
207	* SmallUniverseAfterAll: The novelization makes it clear that humanity has colonized multiple galaxies with Riddick coming from the Sigma Galaxy and John's chasing Riddick across three galaxies.
208	* SmellsSexy: Riddick appears to be preparing to shank the new female captain from the shadows, he simply cuts off a piece of her hair to give it a sniff when she isn't looking.
209	* SpacePolice: The bounty hunter leads the other crash-survivors to believe that he's a law-enforcement agent, although it's unclear whether he's pretending to be space police, or an officer of a planetary police force that sent him up to retrieve a fugitive.
210	* StaringDownCthulhu: Played with. Riddick realizes that the flying alien creatures have a "blind spot" right in the center of their echolocation-based vision. When he's confronted with one of them, he gets right up in its face so it can't see him. It does work, but then falls apart when a second one suddenly shows up.
211	* StrippedToTheBone: [[spoiler:Ali, one of the Imam's young companions, gets trapped in a dark room with a swarm of juvenile winged aliens. By the time the others break in, all that's left are his clothes and bloody bones.]]
212	* SurvivorGuilt: Riddick is briefly struck with this near the end [[spoiler:after Fry is killed when she goes back to save him]], if his screaming protests of "Not for me! Not for ME!" are any indication.
213	* SweetPollyOliver: [[spoiler:Jack/Kyra, though more to the characters than the audience.]]
214	* SympathyForTheHero: [[spoiler:This is the source of Riddick's redemption. He's a borderline sociopathic murderer who has been killing people, though we're never told if it's for pleasure or survival. Carolyn Fry starts out much the same way; while not being a criminal she's willing to jettison all the passengers in the opening and tries to cope with the guilt for the rest of the movie. Riddick initially admires Fry for her "strong survival instinct" and offers her at the end to leave the planet together by threatening to leave her behind to die if she doesn't. She eventually refuses and professes her willingness to die for the others. This declared intent of self-sacrifice intrigues Riddick enough to go back with her.]]
215	* TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath: The death of [[spoiler:the female lead at the end after she and Riddick survive a confrontation with two of the monsters when another lunges out of the dark and snatches her up.]]
216	* TitleDrop: In the [[TheBookOfTheFilm novelization]].
217	-->[''[[spoiler:After Fry's death]]''] No scream, Riddick thought numbly. No cry. No final words. Nothing but the rain -- and a pitch black universe.
218	* TooDumbToLive: Paris, in a fit of blind panic after a creature swoops on the group, [[spoiler:screws over ''everybody'' by scrambling away, pulling out the battery powering the glow-stick type lights... including the ONLY source of light around his own torso. KarmicDeath ensues.]]
219	* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: The prolonged eclipse allows the light-fearing monsters free rein to attack the heroes. Possibly justified since the occluding body is not the Earth's moon, but a nearby gas giant several times larger than the planet the protagonists are on. How long the eclipse ultimately lasts is unclear, but the characters conclude that it will last too long for them to wait it out.
220	* TriageTyrant: {{Discussed}} between Riddick and Johns as they see that it's still a long road to go to get to the escape vehicle and the possibility of being torn apart by bio-raptors is just increasing. Johns' discussion is an attempt to try to convince Riddick to [[WouldHurtAChild kill Jack and use her corpse to distract the bio-raptors]]. Riddick, who is a FriendToAllChildren [[EvenEvilHasStandards even if he is an unrepentant criminal]], decides Johns is better off dead right then and there.
221	-->'''Johns''': Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It's called 'triage'.\
222	'''Riddick''': [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord They kept calling it 'murder' when I did it]].
223	* {{Tuckerization}}: The Hunter-Gratzner is named after effects technicians Ian Hunter & Matthew Gratzner, founders of Creator/NewDealStudios (Who would go on to do [[Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick the sequel]]).
224	%%* UnresolvedSexualTension: Riddick and Fry.
225	* VerbalBusinessCard: There are two in the same scene.
226	-->'''Paris:''' Paris P. Ogilvie. Antiquities dealer. Entrepreneur.
227	-->'''Riddick:''' Richard B. Riddick. Escaped convict. Murderer.
228	* VillainProtagonist: Riddick is a much darker character in this film than in subsequent movies (where he's more of an AntiHero), partly because ''Pitch Black'' is the story of his redemption. While the first half treats him more as an antagonist, Riddick's opening monologue and the increasing focus on him for the latter half make it quite clear that it's as much his story as Carolyn's. He's introduced as a murderous criminal, and does little to dispel it. He's utterly opportunistic throughout the story, sociopathically indifferent to all the death around him, and [[spoiler:is fully ready to leave the other survivors behind on the alien planet when they're no longer of use to him.]] He even tries to corrupt Carolyn to make the selfish choice [[spoiler:to join him and forget about the others, threatening to leave her to die if she doesn't.]] It's Carolyn's quest to ultimately be a better person that motivates his HeelFaceTurn by the end.
229	* WeakenedByTheLight: The creatures are actually ''burned'' by any exposure to light. Additionally, Riddick's eyeshine treatment leaves him easily blinded by bright lights.
230	* WeaponizedExhaust: Richard B. Riddick does this to the alien monsters as the survivors make their getaway at the end.
231	* WhamLine: "Not her... ''[[Main/SweetPollyOliver Her]]''."
232	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Both literally and figuratively; Once the lights go out, the survivors start showing their true character. Several times choices are presented to them and who they really are inside shows through.
233	** [[spoiler:During the intro, Fry refuses to risk her life for others, and, after ditching the last of the survivors and reaching the shuttle alone, Riddick offers her the option to come with him or go back for Imam and Jack to die. Surprisingly, she not only goes back for Imam and Jack, but for Riddick when presented the choice.]]
234	** Johns and Riddick walk ahead of the group, discussing the best way to get through the canyon up ahead. [[spoiler:Johns suggests gutting Jack and dragging her corpse as bait to distract the creatures, showing what a truly amoral DirtyCoward he is. It is ''Riddick'' that finds this idea reprehensible and he attacks Johns instead, showing there is some sort of humanity and compassion still inside of him.]]
235	* WhereIsYourXNow: Throughout the movie, devout Muslim Imam insists that God will provide for them. So [[HopeSpot when a sudden rain begins extinguishing the torches]] they've been using to keep the photosensitive [[HordeOfAlienLocusts alien locusts]] at bay, [[AntiHero decidedly nihilistic]] [[SatisfiedStreetRat career criminal]] Riddick mockingly asks him, "Where the hell's your God now?" [[spoiler:This leads to an [[IronicEcho ironic]] {{inversion}} a few scenes later, when Riddick goes scouting ahead, returning with halogen lights and a clear path to a shuttle that can take them off the planet, Imam triumphantly retorts, "'''There''' is my God now, Mr. Riddick."]]
236	* WouldntHurtAChild: Riddick likes children quite a lot, and they in turn seem fascinated by him - not just Jack, but Imam's younger acolyte as well. In fact he likes them enough that he refuses to kill Jack [[spoiler:even though she's actually a girl on her period and attracting the monsters. He doesn't have any qualms about leaving them to save himself, though]].
237	* YouAreInCommandNow: The captain of the ship is the first casualty of the film, killed by shrapnel at the very start of the crisis. The ship's pilot, Fry, does her best to save the ship, but attempts to save herself and Owens by jettisoning the passenger compartment (Owens stops her before dying in the resulting crash). For the duration of the film, [[{{Irony}} the passengers look to Fry for leadership]], and she also has to deal with the compounding problems of Riddick and the planet's deadly wildlife.
238	* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Riddick uses this twice.
239	** First when Fry tries to convince him to come back to save the other survivors, and he suggests [[CorruptTheCutie she abandon them and come with him instead]].
240	--->'''Fry:''' You're fucking with me, I know you are.\
241	'''Riddick:''' You know I am? You don't know anything about me. [[SincerityMode I WILL leave you here]].
242	** And a second time, retroactively, after killing a vicious alien in hand-to-hand combat:
243	--->'''Riddick:''' Did ''not'' know who he was fuckin' with!
244	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Riddick cooperates with most of the group's plan until they reach the canyon and he can't protect the group as well as himself any longer. However, he does end up overriding this notion after offering to save only Fry when she reaches the skiff alone but convinces him to return with her]].
245	* YouOweMe: Used a little differently with Johns and Riddick. Johns spares Riddick's life when there was an argument over whether he should live or die and Riddick suggests that killing him is their best option.
246	--> ''(Johns fires at Riddick, who flinches, and his chains drop)''\
247	'''Johns:''' I want you to remember this moment. The ways it could have gone, and didn't. Here. ''(Johns goes to give Riddick back his goggles. Riddick grabs Johns' gun instead and aims at him, ready to fire)'' Take it easy...\
248	'''Riddick:''' Fuck you!\
249	'''Johns:''' Do we have a deal?\
250	'''Riddick:''' ''(beat, and he gives Johns back his gun)'' I want you to remember this moment.
251	** Riddick was clearly smart enough to know that Johns thought he could use Riddick in some way. By not killing him, Riddick (in his own personal code, at least) instantly absolved himself of any favours he might owe Johns.
252	----
253	->In ''Pitch Black'', [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} you are likely to be eaten by Grues]].

Context Film / PitchBlack