Line #31 Film/EdgeOfDarkness2010


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edge_of_darkness_poster_9543.jpg]]
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3	->'''Craven''': You had better decide if you're hanging on the cross, or banging on the nails.
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5	''Edge of Darkness'' is the Hollywood [[TheFilmOfTheSeries film adaptation]] of the [[Series/EdgeOfDarkness BBC television series]] of the same name. It was directed by Creator/MartinCampbell (''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro''), and stars Creator/MelGibson and Bojana Novakovic (''Film/DragMeToHell''). The film was released by Creator/WarnerBros in 2010 to mixed critical reception.
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7	Widowed detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) lived only for his career with the UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} PD and his daughter, Emma (Novakovic). During an unexpected visit at Craven's home, Emma suddenly becomes violently ill at the dinner table... and, in a panic, urges her father to take her to the hospital, telling Craven that there was something important she needed to tell him as they prepared to leave. Before he could find out what that was, Emma is fatally shot in the chest by a masked assailant on Craven's front porch... a shot that the Boston Police believed was meant for Craven himself.
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9	However, his daughter's strange behavior before her death gives Craven reason to doubt that assumption. And the deeper he digs into Emma's past and the secretive nature of her work, the more reason he has to believe that the assassin's bullet was, in fact, meant for her. Soon Craven finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy involving powerful corporations, ruthless killers, and some of the highest levels of the United States government. Unwilling to let his daughter's death be in vain, Craven vows to pursue the truth no matter the cost to his career, or even his own life.
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11	Not to be confused with the 1943 World War II film, [[SimilarlyNamedWorks also titled]] ''Edge of Darkness''.
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13	----
14	!''Edge of Darkness'' contains examples of:
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16	* CantStopTheSignal: Craven sends his daughter's confessional/whistleblowing video to the press.
17	* CatapultNightmare: Craven waking up after a dream of his daughter's murder.
18	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The radioactive milk]]
19	* ConvenientTerminalIllness: It is revealed that [[spoiler:Jedburgh]] has a terminal illness which probably explains why he [[spoiler:kills the rest of the major villains and allows himself to be killed by the state trooper at the ending]]
20	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Jack Bennett, the CEO of Northmoor.
21	* CowboyCop: Take one ByTheBookCop. Kill his only child. [[spoiler:Frame him for murder. Give him terminal radiation poisoning.]] You know that old saying, "when someone has nothing to lose, they tend to quietly give up and leave you alone"? No, me neither.
22	%%* DaddysGirl: Emma.
23	* DoubleAgent: Jedburgh, a British national and "consultant" for the CIA who serves to clean-up politically damaging messes. Throughout the film, it is hard to pin down [[EnigmaticMinion just where his loyalties truly lie]].
24	-->'''Jedburgh''': Now, you know better than anyone, cases like these are never solved. They're simply too complicated, too much hard work. There's a lot going on out there in this world, and you can just never connect A to B.\
25	'''Craven''': How do you know that?\
26	'''Jedburgh''': Because I'm usually the guy that stops you connecting A to B. ItsWhatIDo.
27	%%* EnigmaticMinion: Jedburgh
28	* EveryoneHasStandards: [[spoiler:His terminal illness causes Jedburgh]] to reevaluate his life's actions, to decide how he'll deal with the people that he ostensibly works for, and to see Craven's mission as righteous.
29	* FadeToWhite: The movie ends with one of these.
30	* TheFilmOfTheSeries: While Campbell also directed the original television series, the film adaptation received some major changes both to make it more US-centric, and to give it more of a modern-day revenge thriller feel.
31	* {{Fingore}}: Craven kills one mook by shooting him when he tries to hold him up. The bullet end up blasting off his finger and [[EyeScream going through his eye.]]
32	* AGlassOfChianti: Jedburgh is drinking a glass of wine in a park bench when Craven meets him.
33	* GratuitousLatin: At their first meeting, Jedburgh tells Craven the motto of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) - which Northmoor is involved in - "Scientia est Potentia", which means "Knowledge is power". In response, Craven tells Jedburgh, "Stile Sursum," or "Stand the fuck up." Jedburgh obeys.
34	* HappierHomeMovie: Craven watching his daughter as a child.
35	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Interesting twist: Craven tells Jedburgh he didn't tell anyone, and ''because of that'' [[EnigmaticMinion Hard to say...]], the latter lets the former live.
36	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Craven gains a measure of symbolic revenge when he [[spoiler:forces Bennett, the man who ordered the radioactive thallium poisoning of both Craven and Emma, to drink a jar filled with thallium-tainted milk.]]
37	* HollywoodNewEngland: Gibson uses the traditional Boston accent and portrays the classic working class Bostonian roots, the Senator could probably trace his ancestory back to the ''Mayflower'' if you asked him.
38	* IHaveAFamily: a couple of interesting variations;
39	** Jedburgh asks this of a PunchClockVillain state trooper who [[spoiler:catches him executing the senator.]] When he says he does, [[spoiler:Jedburgh (who's dying anyway) lowers his gun and lets the guy shoot him.]]
40	** Bill uses this as his excuse for [[spoiler:betraying Craven to the bad guys. Craven replies "I don't."]]
41	* InstantDeathBullet: In standard movie form, {{mooks}} tend to get these while major characters {except for [[spoiler:Jedburgh]]) take slightly longer to die.
42	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Bill Whitehouse, Craven's friend and partner, who sold him to Bennett]].
43	* TheLastDance: [[spoiler:Jedburgh, Craven]].
44	* {{Mangst}}: Craven after the first day dealing with his daughter's murder turns all his potential angst into manly ass-kicking, murder investigating, conspiracy uncovering, prowess.
45	* NewscasterCameo: Lisa Hughes, a real anchor for the Boston CBS affiliate WBZ4, appears early in the movie to report the murder.
46	%%* PapaWolf: '''Craven'''
47	* PerfectPoison: [[spoiler: Using radioactive thallium to kill both Cravens, as the thallium is tasteless, odorless and deadly after a few days. Furthermore, Emma worked with radioactive material so there's plausible deniability.]]
48	* PreMortemOneLiner: Two of them, one by Craven and the other by Jedburgh.
49	-->'''Craven:''' "Deep down... ...you know you deserve this."\
50	'''[[spoiler:Senator]]:''' "I am a [[spoiler:United States Senator]]."\
51	'''Jedburgh:''' "By what standard?" (Guns him down.)
52	* RevealingCoverup: Emma's murder is the start of it. Repeated attempts to shut Craven up just make things worse.
53	* SawedOffShotgun: The weapon used to murder Craven's daughter.
54	* SayMyName: Craven forces a mook to yell his name [[spoiler:so he can confirm that he's the guy who killed his daughter.]]
55	* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: [[http://www.viz4u.net/v3/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Edge-of-Darkness.jpg Mel Gibson is about to shoot you]].
56	* SearchingTheStalls: When Craven lost two henchman by hiding and escaping from a bathroom.
57	* TheStoic: Craven, a former Vietnam vet who can't understand why others "make such a big deal" out of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, shows little outward signs of his emotions aside from a brief breakdown after Emma's death.
58	* StormingTheCastle: The climax.
59	* TogetherInDeath: The final scene has Craven's daughter come to collect him from the hospital, before a FadeToWhite.
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Context Film / EdgeOfDarkness2010