Ark (film)

Last updated

Ark
Ark FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed byHyo Sun Hwang
Written byJordan Itkowitz
Kwak Jae-yong,
David Weinstein
Starring Chiara Zanni
Kirby Morrow
James Woods
Kathleen Barr
Tabitha St. Germain
Lee Tockar
Richard Newman
Edited byBob Bender
Music by Dennis C. Brown
David Lowmiller
Production
company
Digital Dream Studios
Distributed byCreative Light Worldwide
Release dates
  • September 9, 2003 (2003-09-09)(South Korea)
  • June 2, 2005 (2005-06-02)(DVD)
Running time
84 minutes
CountriesUnited States
South Korea
LanguagesEnglish, Korean
Budget$7 million [1]

Ark is a 2003 [2] American-South Korean animated science fiction film directed by Subro Adonis, animated by Digital Rim. It is the flagship project for both the director and the studio.

Contents

Attempting to address the failures of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , the film merges anime-style visuals with a faster, action-oriented plot more palatable to Western audiences.

The film's plot features many archetypes taken from Final Fantasy -style Japanese console RPGs; a young male resistance fighter, a young girl with special powers who unknowingly is her planet's Messiah, an evil "right-hand man", and a small, cute pet mascot. It is the spiritual successor to Elysium (2003) which takes place in the same universe as the film. [3] [ unreliable source? ]

Plot

Ark takes place on a dying alien world in which a global war between two technologically advanced human civilizations has reduced the planet to a wasteland. The only way to escape the world is by activating the Ark, an ancient giant robot capable of supporting a human city as well as traveling through space.

James Woods plays Jallak, the military general of the reigning civilization, the Storrians, who captured the Ark from the Ceveans. But they are unable to get the Ark to work in order to save their people. The Ceveans, having been enslaved and with only the wasteland to roam free are constantly attacked and brutalised by the Storrians. A leader of their resistance movement is a young resistance fighter named Rogan. Rogan is arrested during a resistance uprising, but manages to escape. He bumps into the general's adopted daughter Amarinth, whom the general had secretly rescued from a Cevean hibernation pod cluster where they had hidden their children for safety. They then meet again during a civilian protest rally and she offers to help hide him and tend to his wounds. Rogan goes with her back to her apartment and meets her pet JuJu, but then vanishes when he discovers she's the Storrian general's daughter.

Baramanda, the Empress's manipulative right-hand man, arrives unexpectedly to take Amarinth into custody after discovering the truth of her lineage. Rogan helps her escape from Baramanda and takes her to the resistance base within the slave quarters of the Ark. There she meets with an elderly man who explains Amarinth's birthright with the help of JuJu, who turns out to have originally belonged to him. Unknown to Rogan, and to Amarinth herself, she turns out to be the daughter of the Cevean priestess who originally built the Ark, Amiel, who had disappeared 100 years earlier. Amiel helped construct not just the Ark the Storrians hold, but another known as The Ark of York. The plans for the Arks passed down from the Gods (another alien race). It took all her strength to create them, causing her to fall into a deep sleep and not awaken again. Before entering her eternal hibernation, she placed her very young daughter into the hidden hibernation pod. Then her body was secretly hidden by her people until discovered by the Storrians.

They find Amiel's molecular structure enables her body to generate a pulsing electronic field throughout her bloodstream. Not only does this make her body perfectly preserved despite how long she had been inactive, it is the reason the Arks will not work: she and Amarinth are descendants of the gods themselves and only they have the ability to pilot the Arks. A cell of her dead blood can supply power to an entire building, but it becomes apparent that no matter how much energy Amiel's body retains, since she is dead it's not enough to move the ark.

Both civilizations scramble to use Amiel's daughter, Amarinth, to activate their Ark and leave the other civilization behind to die. However, Amarinth, who has ties to both civilizations, wishes to try to find a way to use her power to save everyone. She is opposed by the lifeforce-stealing wraith Baramanda, who wishes to steal the power of the Ark for his own selfish purposes.

Amarinth after going to the Ark of York, refuses to pilot it and leave the Storrians behind. Despite her lineage as a Cevean, she was raised as a Storrian. When she finds out her father, Jallak, had been arrested for high treason and was to be executed for hiding her, she demands that Rogan and the others help her rescue him if they want her help. They agree and return to save him.

After freeing Jallak, Baramunda tries to drain Amarith's blood but is stopped by Amiel who awakens momentarily to stop him. All escape but Jallak remains behind to save his people, as the Ark starts to fall apart. Rogan takes Amarinth back to The Ark of York as Baramanda merges with the core of the other Ark and awakens it. Amarinth discovers that, just as her mother Amiel died in constructing the Arks, so she would perish to pilot one. Rogan and Amarinth kiss for the first and final time as she merges with the core of York just as The Ark comes stomping up to it. The Arks clash in a giant battle with the earth breaking down beneath their feet. Amarinth grabs the city plate off of SidArk as Jallak and his friend set the self-destruct mechanism. They perish in the explosion as the planet begins to crumble.

Rogan narrates at the end as it shows The Ark of York kneeling with the SidArk city plate on another planet flourishing with vegetation. He states that no one knew both civilizations would make it and neither does anyone think it would work out, living together, sharing the planet. He continues saying that it was hard to imagine that their old world, which was now no more, might have looked like this before the war. So the Storrians and Ceveans are going to try to coexist, to preserve this planet and Amarinth's sacrifice. It's difficult at times, and Rogan wishes that Amarinth was there to bridge the gap between the two civilizations. He states that they could have learned so much from her, but that they already had.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Heretics of Dune</i> 1984 novel by Frank Herbert

Heretics of Dune is a 1984 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, the fifth in his Dune series of six novels.

<i>Earth: Final Conflict</i> American-Canadian television series

Earth: Final Conflict is a science fiction television series based on ideas developed by Gene Roddenberry. The series was produced under the guidance of his widow, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who possessed notes kept by Roddenberry that would provide the conceptual basis for the series. It ran for five seasons between October 6, 1997, and May 20, 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Skywalker</span> Character in Star Wars

Luke Skywalker is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He was introduced in the original film trilogy as the main protagonist and also appears in the sequel trilogy. Raised as a moisture farmer on the planet Tatooine, Luke joins the Rebel Alliance and becomes a pivotal figure in the struggle against the Galactic Empire. He trains as a Jedi under Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and eventually confronts his father, the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Years later, Luke trains his nephew Ben Solo and mentors the scavenger Rey. Luke is the twin brother of Leia Organa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obi-Wan Kenobi</span> Fictional character in the Star Wars franchise

Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi is a character in the Star Wars franchise. In the original film trilogy, he is a Jedi Master who trains Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force. In the prequel trilogy, he mentors Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan is portrayed by Alec Guinness in the original trilogy and by Ewan McGregor in the prequel films. McGregor also plays the character in the television series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Guinness's performance in Star Wars (1977) earned him the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C-3PO</span> Robot character from the Star Wars universe

C-3PO or See-Threepio is a humanoid robot character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a protocol droid designed to assist in etiquette and translation, and is fluent in over six million forms of communication. The character appears in all nine films of the Skywalker Saga—which includes the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Anthony Daniels portrays C-3PO in all the Skywalker Saga films and the standalone film Rogue One, and voices the droid in the animated film The Clone Wars. In addition to films, C-3PO appears in television series, novels, comics, and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction</span> Genre of fiction

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronomical, an impact event; destructive, nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, a pandemic, whether natural or human-caused; end time, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or any other scenario in which the outcome is apocalyptic, such as a zombie apocalypse, AI takeover, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion.

<i>Space Runaway Ideon</i> Japanese anime television series

Space Runaway Ideon is a 1980 anime television series produced by Sunrise, created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, produced immediately following his signature work, Mobile Suit Gundam. It first premiered on TV Tokyo from 1980 to 1981, followed by two feature films in 1982, and was later broadcast in Japan by the satellite TV network Animax from September 2006.

<i>Iceberg</i> (Banks novel) 1993 novel by David Banks

Iceberg is an original novel written by David Banks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was number 18 in the Virgin New Adventures range and featured the Cybermen, being a sequel to the serials The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. The events of the novel run concurrently with those of Birthright. Banks as an actor portrayed the Cyber Leader in several Doctor Who serials. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Banks, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #204.

<i>Battle for Terra</i> 2007 American film

Battle for Terra, originally screened as Terra, is a 2007 American animated action-adventure science fiction film, based on the short film Terra, about a race of beings on a peaceful alien planet who face destruction from colonization by the displaced remainder of the human race. The film was directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas who conceived it as a hard-edged live action feature with photo-real Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) environments. The close collaboration with producing partner and investor Snoot Entertainment redirected the project to become fully animated and appeal to younger audiences. The film features the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, Brian Cox and James Garner among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asajj Ventress</span> Character in the Star Wars franchise

Asajj Ventress is a character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. She was introduced in Genndy Tartakovsky's 2003 animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars. The character later appeared in the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the 2008 television series of the same name, and the 2021 Disney+ series Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Han Solo</span> Star Wars character

Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars, and later appeared in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019); Harrison Ford portrays Solo in all five films. In Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), a younger version of the character is played by Alden Ehrenreich. In the animated web series Forces of Destiny (2017–2018), Solo is voiced by A.J. LoCascio and Kiff VandenHeuvel. Ford was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Solo in Star Wars, and won the award for his performance in The Force Awakens.

<i>Chaos on Deponia</i> 2012 video game

Chaos on Deponia is a graphic adventure video game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment. A sequel to Deponia, it continues the story of the main character Rufus as he attempts to escape from his home planet Deponia.

<i>Goodbye Deponia</i> 2013 video game

Goodbye Deponia is a graphic adventure video game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment. It is the sequel to Chaos on Deponia.

<i>The Dark Forest</i> 2008 Chinese science fiction novel

The Dark Forest is a 2008 science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the sequel to the Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem in the trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth's Past, but Chinese readers generally refer to the series by the title of the first novel. The English version, translated by Joel Martinsen, was published in 2015. The novel is about the dark forest hypothesis, a possible solution to the Fermi paradox, though similar theories have been described as early as 1983.

Finn (<i>Star Wars</i>) Star Wars character

Finn is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He first appeared in the 2015 film The Force Awakens as a First Order stormtrooper. Disturbed by the Order's cruelty during his first combat mission, he flees and joins forces with the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron and the scavenger Rey. Finn is portrayed by John Boyega in The Force Awakens,The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Boyega won the BAFTA Rising Star Award for his performance in The Force Awakens. He was also nominated for a Saturn Award for the same performance.

<i>Galaxy Express 999</i> (film) 1979 Japanese film

Galaxy Express 999 is a 1979 Japanese animated science fiction film directed by Rintaro, based on the manga and anime television series of the same name originally created by Leiji Matsumoto.

<i>Deaths End</i> 2010 science fiction novel by Liu Cixin

Death's End is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the third novel in the trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth's Past, following the Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem and its sequel, The Dark Forest. The original Chinese version was published in 2010. Ken Liu translated the English edition in 2016. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel and winner of the 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

<i>Star Wars: Bloodline</i> Star Wars novel by Claudia Gray

Star Wars: Bloodline is a Star Wars novel by Claudia Gray, published by Del Rey Books on May 3, 2016. Set twenty-five years after the events of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi and six years before 2015's The Force Awakens, it follows Leia Organa as she navigates troubles brewing in the Galactic Senate.

<i>Deponia Doomsday</i> 2016 video game

Deponia Doomsday is a graphic adventure video game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment. It is the sequel to Goodbye Deponia. The first three parts are considered a trilogy. This installment is "paralellic."

References

  1. ↑ "Ark: 'The Heavenly Behemoth". Korean Cinema 2002. Korean Film Commission(KO FIC). 2002. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Ark (2003) - Rotten Tomatoes". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "ELYSIUM'S SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR!". 29 December 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.