Babylon A.D.

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Biography

Babylon A.D. is a 2008 science fiction film|science fiction action film based on the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice Georges Dantec . The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel , Mélanie Thierry , Michelle Yeoh and Lambert Wilson . It was released on August 29, 2008 in the United States.

Plot

In the year 2059, an American people|American mercenary named Toorop ( Vin Diesel ) is living in Serbia|New Serbia , Eastern Europe. Branded as a terrorist, he is forbidden from returning to the United States . One day, he is offered a courier contract by a Russian mobster, Gorsky ( Gerard Depardieu ). Toorop accepts in return for a chance to return to the United States, as he will be given an unfakeable United Nations|U.N. passport that must be Subdermal implant|injected subdermally and half a million dollars. Gorsky instructs him to bring a young woman, an orphan known only as Aurora ( Mélanie Thierry ) to New York City. He is provided with weapons, maps, and money to secure passage.

Toorop travels by a reinforced car on an industrial lifting electromagnet hoisted by an Mil Mi-24 gunship. The helicopter drops the car off near a thousand-year old convent in Kyrgyzstan , now occupied by a Christian sect known as the Noelites. There he picks up a Noelite nun named Sister Rebeka ( Michelle Yeoh ) and her charge, Aurora. They travel by car to Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast|Troitsk in the border between Russia and Kazakhstan .

In Troitsk, Toorop purchases tickets of a train to Vladivostok . When trying to board the train, Aurora inexplicably starts to panic and flees from the crowd. Toorop and Rebeka try to bring her back despite her continued pleading not to. Seconds later, a bomb explodes in the crowd, sparing them as they had gone after Aurora. Shaken, they board the train and Toorop demands an explanation for Aurora's apparent clairvoyance. Rebeka shrugs it off as coincidence and explains that Aurora was probably just scared as it was her first time out of the convent. The train continues on to Vladivostok, passing a nuclear blast crater on the way.

They arrive in a refugee camp in Vladivostok. Toorop contacts a smuggler named Finn ( Mark Strong ) in a nightclub and secures passage by submarine through the Bering Strait to Canada . An unknown group suddenly intercepts them and tries to offer Toorop more money to relinquish Aurora to their custody. When this fails, they try to abduct her. After a fight the leader of the group tells Aurora that they knew her father. With this revelation, Aurora agrees to go with them but Toorop stops her.

In the morning they go with refugees across the frozen sea to board the submarine. However, to avoid satellite detection, the submarine can only surface for a limited amount of time, leaving some refugees behind and even resorting to shooting them. Aurora, infuriated by the loss of life, starts to operate the 30-year-old submarine, without having ever learned about it. She states that she can 'feel them dying' and threatens the submarine crew with a gun but is eventually subdued by Toorop and the submarine continues diving.

Rebeka and Toorop are both mystified by Aurora's outburst and her apparent knowledge of the submarine controls. Sister Rebeka explains to Toorop that Aurora could speak nineteen different languages by the age of two, and always seems to know things she has never learned. Three months before leaving with Toorop, she has begun acting in ways she never had before. This occurred after a visit by a Noelite doctor who had administered a pill to Aurora. The doctor tells her to go to New York City and arranges for Toorop to take them. Finn tells Toorop that he suspects Aurora was carrying a viral bomb.

On landing in Canada, they cross the border to the United States with snowbikes. Along the way they are spotted and attacked by two Unmanned aerial vehicle|aerial drones , wounding Toorop. Aurora again displays extraordinary medical knowledge as she pulls out a piece of metal from Toorop's wounds. Finn attempts to kill Toorop and Rebeka and take the passport and Aurora, but Toorop shoots him first. They cross the border safely and leave for New York by plane.

In New York they learn from a news broadcast that the Noelite convent they were from had been hit by a missile the moment they crossed the Canadian border. This causes the group to realize that there is more going on than they know. The Noelites have become a major new salvationist religion, which vast numbers of people cling to as the world spirals out of control. However, in private meetings, it is seen that their High Priestess is really just after power, and tries to use various invented miracles to get more people to believe in the truth of her religion. Gorsky, working for the Noelites, had planted a tracking device in Toorop's passport, and then bombed the convent when he knew they were in the United States . The doctor who earlier saw Aurora in the convent then appears to examine her again. When he leaves, Aurora reveals to both Rebeka and Toorop that she is pregnant with twins , even though she is a virgin .

Looking outside, Toorop sees Gorsky's men as well as the Noelite group, heavily armed and waiting for them. The High Priestess then calls Toorop and asks him to bring Aurora outside. As they were letting Aurora into the limousine, Rebeka warns Toorop with a glance. One of the guards had a gun pointed at them, ready to kill them once Aurora was handed over. Toorop changes his mind and starts a firefight with the two groups with the ultimate goal of getting the two women to safety. However, because of the tracking devices, Gorsky's men can lock onto Toorop with tracking rockets. Rebeka is shot and killed defending Aurora, who in turn shoots Toorop saying the words, "I need you to live." By dying, the rocket goes off target and explodes near Aurora instead. Aurora survives the rocket explosion apparently with seemingly supernatural powers.

Toorop's body is revived by Dr. Arthur Darquandier ( Lambert Wilson ), using advanced medical techniques, but Toorop's right arm and left leg are replaced with cybernetics to undo the damage of being dead for over two hours. Darquandier explains that when Aurora was a fetus , he enhanced her by using a supercomputer to 'implant' intelligence into her brain. The Noelite group had him create Aurora to become pregnant at a certain time in order to use her as a vessel for twin babies with almost supernatural intelligence, designed to be the next step in human evolution. The apparent ' Miraculous births|virgin birth ' and the powers of her children were supposed to provide a manufactured 'miracle' to boost membership of the Noelites.

After she was born, the Noelites hired Gorsky to kill Darquandier, but Darquandier survived. Darquandier remained 'dead' until he found his daughter in Russia with Toorop.

Doctor Darquandier uses a machine to go through Toorop's memory to find what Aurora said to him before Toorop 'died.' In Toorop's memory, Aurora tells Toorop to "go home." Toorop, as well as several of Darquandier's men, leave the facility. En route to Darquandier's lab, the High Priestess calls Gorsky, at which point he is killed by a nuclear missile sent to him by the High Priestess. Darquandier is later killed by the High Priestess, but it is too late, since Toorop has already escaped. Toorop goes to his old house in the forest and finds Aurora. Six months later Aurora gives birth to the children. Aurora was "designed to breed," not to live, so her death at childbirth was preprogrammed. Toorop is left to take care of the two children who are implied to eventually become the successors of the human race.

Cast

Vin Diesel as Toorop, a mercenary (full name is "Hugo Cornelius Toorop" in Babylon Babies novel)

Mélanie Thierry as Aurora, a young woman who has been genetically engineered

Michelle Yeoh as Sister Rebeka, a Mongolian Noelite nun and refugee

Lambert Wilson as Dr. Arthur Darquandier, Aurora's father thought to be dead

Mark Strong as Finn

Gerard Depardieu as Gorsky, a wealthy Russian mobster who hired Toorop to transport Aurora

Charlotte Rampling as the Noelite High Priestess and CEO of the Noelite church who does not care or believe in religion, only power, fame, and fortune. She pays scientists to produce fake miracles in order to make hers the dominant religion, one of these miracles was for Aurora to be created as a female for a virgin birth and the focus of the Noelite's 'miracle day'.

David Gasman as Noelite Researcher

David Belle as Kid with tattoos.

Production

Mathieu Kassovitz developed an English-language film adaptation of Maurice Georges Dantec 's French novel Babylon Babies for five years; Variety (magazine)|Variety in June 2005, this project got financed from StudioCanal and Twentieth Century Fox . The adapted screenplay was written by Kassovitz and screenwriter Éric Besnard . Production was initially slated to begin in February 2006 in Canada and Eastern Europe. French actor Vincent Cassel was initially sought to be cast in the lead role. In February 2006, actor Vin Diesel entered negotiations to star in the film, titled Babylon A.D. , dropping out of the lead role of Hitman (2007 film)|Hitman in the process. Production of the futuristic thriller about genetic manipulation was slated to begin in June 2006. By February 2007, filming was slated to wrap in April to release Babylon A.D. in time for the coming Thanksgiving. In February, filming took place at Barrandov Studios . In March 2007, the filming crew, having shot in the Czech Republic, took a two-week hiatus to deal with uncooperative weather, such as the lack of snow, and problems with set construction. Crew members scouted Iceland for locations with snow to shoot six to eight days of footage, which was supposed to be done in February. Filming was also done with the leads Diesel, Michelle Yeoh , and Mélanie Thierry in Ostrava in March. The French visual effects company BUF Compagnie was contracted to develop the film's effects under the supervision of Stephane Ceretti.

In April 2007, Babylon A.D. was reported to be over-budget and three weeks behind schedule. A lack of snow meant a skiing sequence to be shot in Eastern Europe had to be moved to Sweden. Later in the month, actor Lambert Wilson was cast into the film. Filming was completed in May 2007.

American artist Khem Caigan designed the sigil (magic)|sigil that appears as a tattoo on the right side of Toorop's neck – an emblem which originally appeared in the Schlangekraft Simonomicon| Necronomicon in 1977.

Mathieu Kassovitz said that 20th Century Fox interfered throughout production, and he never had a chance to shoot a scene the way it was scripted, or the way he wanted it to be.

Music

The music of Babylon A.D. was written by Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson . The musical alliance Achozen , represented by Shavo Odadjian and RZA (rapper)|RZA performed the score for the film. Music producer Hans Zimmer described the intended style: "Musically, our objective was to merge the sounds and energies of hip hop with classical music, seamlessly melting them into an unusual soundscape."

Release

Babylon A.D. was originally stated to be released in the United States on February 29, 2008, but its release was postponed to August 29, 2008. As of January 31, 2009, the film grossed $22,532,572 in the United States and $49,573,118 in foreign countries totaling a worldwide gross of $72,105,690 . The film was placed #2 behind Tropic Thunder with $9,484,267 in 3,390 theaters with a $2,798 average. The film has the eighth-highest 4-day Labor Day gross since 1982. Despite its box office gross of over $71 million, the film is considered a very minor success considering its production budget of $70 million.

Reception

The film was almost universally panned by critics. Metacritic compiles a 26% rating based on 15 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 7% approval rating based on 98 reviews (91 negative, 7 positive).

Blu-ray Disc and DVD

Babylon A.D. was released on January 6, 2009 on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The single disc included no features but contained the theatrical version and (on the reverse side) the unrated version. The two-disc unrated edition contained only the unrated version, which ran ten minutes longer than the theatrical cut. It also included four behind-the-scenes featurettes, a digital graphic novel prequel to the film, a still gallery, and a digital copy. The two-disc Blu-ray Disc edition contained all of that plus an exclusive picture-in-picture feature. In Europe only the unrated version has been released.

The unrated version differed greatly from the theatrical version. The ending was cut short and did not show the full-length ending that was in the theatrical version, followed by more expletives. Other short scenes were put in as well.

Copyright Citations

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