| Lara Croft:Tomb Raider | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Simon West |
| Produced by | Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Colin Wilson |
| Written by | Story By: Sara B. Cooper Mike Werb Michael Colleary Simon West Screenplay by: Patrick Massett & John Zinman |
| Starring | Angelina Jolie Jon Voight Iain Glen Noah Taylor Daniel Craig |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Peter Menzies Jr. |
| Editing by | Dallas Puett Glen Scantlebury Eric Strand Mark Warner Stuart Baird |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures United International Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  15 June 2001 6 July 2001 |
| Running time | 101 mins |
| Country | Cambodia United Kingdom United States of America China Iceland |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 115,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $ 274,703,340 |
| Followed by | The Cradle of Life |
| IMDb • Allmovie | |
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a film adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on 15 June 2001.
A sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, was released in 2003.
Contents |
Plot
The film opens with Croft in an Egyptian tomb, seeking a diamond at one end of a chamber. As she approaches she is attacked by a large robot. After an intense chase and battle, she disables it by ripping out its motivational circuits. She takes the diamond, which is revealed to be a memory card labeled 'Lara's Party Mix,' and inserts it into a laptop computer inside the robot, whereupon it plays music. Now it is revealed that the scene took place in a practice arena in Croft's home, and that her assistant, Bryce, programmed the robot, to challenge her in combat.
It is the day of the first phase of a planetary alignment, or syzygy, culminating in a solar eclipse on the Earth, which happens once every 5,000 years. In Venice, the Illuminati search for a key to rejoin halves of "the triangle," which must be done by the final phase of the alignment. Mr. Powell, an Illuminati, assures that they are almost ready, but in reality he has no idea where to find the key.
Croft's butler, Hillary, tries to interest her in several projects, but she ignores them. 15 May, as Hillary is aware, is the day that Croft's father disappeared many years earlier. She has not recovered from his loss.
Later that night, Croft has a dream reminding her what her father said about the alignment, and an object linked to it called the Triangle of Light. Waking, she is aware of a clock ticking. Searching for it, she discovers a secret chamber with a carriage clock that had spontaneously begun ticking. Bryce probes it and discovers a strange device hidden inside the clock.
Since the device resembles a clock, Croft consults a clock expert friend of her father's, Mr. Wilson. She believes it is connected to the "Triangle of Light," but Wilson disavows knowledge of the clock or the Triangle. Croft encounters Alex West, a fellow tomb raider with unscrupulous methods. They are attracted to each other, but Croft cannot abide his for-profit attitude. That night, Croft is contacted by Wilson, who tells her that he gave her name to a man named Manfred Powell in regards of the clock. In reality, Wilson is also a member of the Illuminati.
The next day, Croft sees Powell in his home, and shows him photographs of the clock. Later, while discussing it with Bryce, she points out that Powell was lying about his knowledge. That night, armed commando troops invade the house and steal the clock despite Croft's attempts to fend them off.
The next morning, Croft receives a letter from her father, arranged to arrive after the beginning of the alignment, where he explains that the clock is the key to retrieve two halves of the mystic Triangle of Light, which was split into two halves; one was hidden in a tomb in Cambodia, the other half in the ruined city itself, in modern-day Siberia. Her father urges her to find and destroy both halves before the Illuminati can find it.
In Cambodia, West figures out part of the puzzle on how to retrieve the triangle half, but Croft manages to successfully grab the piece and escape the temple after fighting off and destroying a huge six-armed Brahman guardian statue.
She and Powell arrange to meet in Venice, since each of them has what the other needs to finish the Triangle. Powell proposes a partnership to find the Triangle, and informs Lara that her father was a member of the Illuminati, which she vehemently denies. Though hesitant at first, she, along with Bryce, meets with Powell for the trip to Siberia. Inside the tomb, there is a giant model of the solar system, which activates as the alignment nears completion. Croft retrieves the last half of the Triangle, but when Powell tries to complete it, the halves will not fuse. He realizes that Croft knows the solution to the puzzle, and kills West in order to induce her into completing the Triangle to save both West’s life and her father's. Croft reluctantly complies, and they then struggle for control of the Triangle, with Croft prevailing.
Croft then finds herself in a strange alternate existence facing her father. He explains that it is a “crossing” of time and space, and urges her to destroy the Triangle instead of using it to save his life. She leaves her father and returns to the chamber, where time is slowly running backwards from the point where Powell killed West. Croft takes the knife he threw into West’s chest and reverses it, then destroys the Triangle, which returns time to its normal flow and directs the knife into Powell’s shoulder. The chamber begins to self-destruct, Everyone turns to leave, but Powell tells Croft that he killed her father and retrieved his pocket watch with a picture of Lara's mother inside. Croft fights him to retrieve it, killing him and escaping as the chamber comes down around her.
At the mansion, Hillary and Bryce are shocked to see Croft wearing a dress. She goes into the garden to her father's memorial, then returns inside, where Bryce has a reprogrammed SIMON, ready to challenge Croft once again. Hillary reveals a silver tray holding Croft's pistols, which she takes with a smile.
Cast
- Angelina Jolie - Lara Croft
- Daniel Craig - Alex West
- Jon Voight - Lord Richard Croft
- Iain Glen - Manfred Powell
- Noah Taylor - Bryce
- Richard Johnson - Distinguished Gentleman
- Chris Barrie - Hillary
- Julian Rhind-Tutt - Mr. Pimms
- Leslie Phillips - Wilson
- Henry Wyndham - Boothby's Auctioneer
Production
Financing
Lara Croft was financed through Tele-MĂĽnchen Gruppe (TMG), a German tax shelter. The tax law of Germany allowed investors to take an instant tax deduction even on non-German productions and even if the film has not gone into production. By selling them the copyright for $94 million and then buying it back for $83.8 million, Paramount Pictures made $10.2 million. The copyright was then sold again Lombard Bank, a British investment group and a further $12 million was made. However, to qualify for Section 48 tax relief, the production must include some UK filming and British actors, which was acceptable for a film partially set in the United Kingdom. Presales to distributors in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain made a further $65 million. Showtime payed $6.8 million for premium cable TV rights. In total, $94 million put together.
The deal between Eidos, Tomb Raider's publisher, and Paramount Pictures was structured so Eidos received a single fee, but no royalties.1
Additional information
Tomb Raider went through many drafts and several writers, which resulted in production delays. In 1998, writer Brent V. Friedman, who had co-written Mortal Kombat: Annihilation the year before, penned an unproduced Tomb Raider script. Producer and screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who wrote and directed the 1994 video game movie Street Fighter, penned an early draft of the Tomb Raider script in 1999, but it was rejected by Paramount. However, it was partially resuscitated for the 2003 sequel Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The final draft of the script was attributed to five writers, including director Simon West.
The picture marked the feature film debut of television actor Christopher Barrie (Hillary), known for his role of "Arnold Rimmer" in the BBC sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf. Iain Glen, a Scot, adopted an English accent as Powell, whilst English actor Daniel Craig adopts an American accent for the role of Alex West. Angelina, being American herself, takes on an English accent.
Reaction
Box office performance
Tomb Raider debuted at number one with $48.2 million, giving Paramount its second-best debut and the fourth-highest debut of 2001. It beat the opening record for a film featuring a female protagonist ($40.1 million for Charlie's Angels), and is the most successful video game adaptation to date, grossing $300,000,000 worldwide.2
Critical reception
The film was panned by film critics, rottentomatos stated that only 18% of the critics gave the film positive reviews. Angelina Jolie's performance as Croft was both praised and criticized, as was the overall story.
Nomination
- Golden Raspberry Award:
- Worst Actress (Angelina Jolie)
Soundtrack
References
External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider |
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at the Internet Movie Database
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at the TCM Movie Database
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at Rotten Tomatoes
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at Box Office Mojo
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at Metacritic
| Preceded by Swordfish |
Box office number-one films of 2001 (USA) 17 June 2001 |
Succeeded by The Fast and the Furious |
| Preceded by Shrek |
Box office number-one films of 2001 (UK) 8 July 2001 |
Succeeded by Jurassic Park III |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||