The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)
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| The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | |
|---|---|
| Image:The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.jpg | |
| Directed by | Stephen Norrington |
| Produced by | Trevor Albert Rick Benattar Sean Connery Mark Gordon Don Murphy Michael Nelson |
| Written by | Comic Book: Alan Moore Kevin O'Neill Screenplay: James Dale Robinson |
| Starring | Sean Connery Naseeruddin Shah Peta Wilson Tony Curran Stuart Townsend Shane West Jason Flemyng Richard Roxburgh Max Ryan |
| Music by | Trevor Jones |
| Cinematography | Dan Laustsen |
| Editing by | Paul Rubell |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | July 11, 2003 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 film adaption of the comic book limited series. It was released on July 11, 2003 in the United States. It is an adventure film set late in the 19th century, featuring an assortment of literary characters appropriate to the period. However, the adaptation's plot and general atmosphere is very far from the original comic book.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
An emissary of the British government, Sanderson Reed, arrives in a gentlemen’s club in Kenya to recruit the legendary, but now aged, hunter and adventurer Allan Quatermain. However, Reed finds that Quatermain has no great patriotic concerns and refuses to return to London. At this moment, a group of armoured men armed with machine guns appear, killing several club members. Quatermain defeats the attackers single-handedly, but the club in destroyed by a bomb planted previously. Quatermain agrees to return to England, deciding that a full scale war between the nations of Europe will quickly spread to Africa
Quatermain arrives in London and meets the mysterious M, who explains his plan to recreate a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to combat the threat of The Fantom and ensure world peace, by stopping him from destroying Venice. Quartermain meets Captain Nemo, the invisible gentleman thief Rodney Skinner, and Mrs. Mina Harker, a chemist of some note. It is explained that Skinner had stolen an invisibility formula and is now helping the government so they will search for an antidote.
The group (minus M) meet up with Dorian Gray, who refuses to join. Once inside Gray’s home, Quatermain points out that a painting is missing from a wall. The Fantom and his men arrive, and the whole room erupts in a blazing gunfight, but one henchman reveals himself to be a friend of the group. During the fight, Dorian Gray's physical invulnerability is revealed, and The Fantom escapes. The fight ends with Mina being held with a knife at her throat. Mina's eyes suddenly turn red and she rips the throat from her assailant and feeds voraciously from his neck. It is revealed the henchman is an American, Secret Service Agent Tom Sawyer. Mina then explains her background from the events surrounding Dracula, and reveals the bite marks on her neck. The previously reluctant Dorian changes his mind and agrees to join the League.
The League takes Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, to France to round up the League’s last recruit.
In Paris, Quartermain and Sawyer capture Mr. Hyde who quickly reverts to the meek and haunted Dr. Jekyll. He is happy to help when he learns that the Queen will allow his return to London if he does so. With the team compleate, the Nautilus sets off for Venice. Hints are dropped that there is a traitor in their midst when flash powder is found in the wheel room of the Nautilus, and a vial of Jekyll’s serum is determined to be missing. Naturally, all think that the invisible thief, Skinner, is the culprit, but nothing can be done about it since Skinner is nowhere to be found.
The Nautilus sails up the narrow canals of Venice, stopping under a bridge where it can go no further. A series of bombs has been planted under the city, when they start to detonate and begin toppling buildings in a domino effect, one explosion after another. To stop the total destruction of Venice, the team decides that knocking one of the buildings out of the sequence is the only way to stop the chain of explosions. To achieve this, Nemo has a missile that can be fired from the Nautilus at the building in question, but only if a beacon can be set in place. So, since Nemo can track his "automobile," allowing it to serve as the beacon, the League piles in, with Sawyer at the wheel, and go racing along the streets of Venice.
Quatermain also bails from the vehicle to give chase to The Fantom on foot. The two fight in a graveyard where Quatermain dislodges The Fantom's mask. Before he makes his escape, The Fantom is revealed to be none other than the mysterious "M." At the same time, we see Sawyer crash the car into the target building, while firing a flare, which signals Nemo to launch his missile. The building is destroyed, the chain of explosions stops, and Venice is saved. Meanwhile, back at the Nautilus, the first mate is met by Dorian Gray and blames Skinner for their troubles, but is proven wrong when Gray shoots him.
The League regroups at the Nautilus, where Quatermain reveals that "M" is behind the whole thing. The near-dead Ishmael denounces Gray as the traitor, not Skinner. At that moment, a small submersible vessel breaks from the Nautilus: it is Dorian, making his escape with a smile and a wave to the assembled team.Nemo sets the Nautilus in pursuit, but moments later, a record is found and played on a gramophone. The voice of "M" floods the room, and we see the recording session as black and white footage in flashback, as he reveals the scope of his plans. Everything leading up to this moment is revealed as a ruse so that "M" could steal elements from each of the League members to construct an army of super-powered soldiers; Jekyll's formula, Mina's blood, and a sample of Skinner's invisible skin. He also explains that he needed Quatermain only to capture Mr. Hyde. Dorian Gray also managed to photograph the control room of the Nautilus. After the tape is played, three bombs go off in the ship, but Mr. Hyde is able to stop the ship from sinking, earning the congratulations of Dr. Jekyll. The Nautilus breaks up from under the ice and the League travel across the frozen wastes to a cave overlooking M’s industrial fortress. Skinner approaches (he had fled when he learned of their suspicions of him), and tells them that M has a number of scientists and their families held as hostages and slaves in his munitions factory. The workers are constructing Nautili, while the scientists are working on an army of Hyde-like brutes, invisible spies, and vampire assassins.
Splitting up, the League infiltrates the factory. Nemo and Hyde attempt to free the scientists and their families, while Sawyer and Quatermain go after M. Mina goes in search of Dorian, while Skinner sets off to plant some explosives. Nemo and Hyde run up against M's right-hand man, Dante, who takes many jars of Jekyll's chemical and becomes a huge monster. leading yet another group of armoured machine-gun wielding men. The heroes make their escape from the factory moments before it explodes, the walls crushing the monster. Simultaneously, Mina has her showdown with Dorian, who decays before her eyes when she confronts him with his enchanted portrait. Quatermain confronts M in his lair and reveals his deduction that "M" is none other than the supposedly dead Professor James Moriarty. M seeks to profit by starting a world war and selling armaments and weapons based on the powers of the League to the combatant countries. Quatermain, holding Moriarty at gunpoint, sees in a reflection that an invisible man has Sawyer held at knife point behind him. He turns and shoots the invisible villain, only to be stabbed in the back by Moriarty, who makes another escape, fleeing across the ice. Quatermain is mortally wounded; Sawyer is forced to use the marksmanship skills that Quatermain had taught him. He shoots Moriarty before he can leave in his stolen submersible vessel. Moriarty's case, containing the secrets that Gray had stolen from the League, falls into the ocean.
The group assembles in Africa to bury Quatermain. As the group sadly departs, a tribal witch doctor takes handfuls of dirt from Quatermain's grave and begins a ritual chant. We are reminded of a witch doctor's pronouncement, recounted by Quatermain at the beginning of the movie, that "Africa would not let [Quatermain] die." The earth shakes violently, making the rifle shake that Sawyer had left on the grave. Lightning strikes Quatermain's grave right before the screen cuts to black.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Characters
[edit] Allan Quatermain
The character matches with his original storyline as we are informed that he had two wives and a son. Although he does die in the movie, the final sequence with the shaman indicates that Africa "won't let him die," and that he is being resurrected. Allan describes himself as "an old tiger sensing his end" who wants to "go down fighting."
[edit] Tom Sawyer
The Tom Sawyer character is taken from the novels by Mark Twain and only has a brief cameo in the comic book version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.(This would seem to contradict the actual record of U.S. history, which states that William McKinley was president during the period 1897-1901, during which the film is set; Roosevelt would not become president until after McKinley's assassination, two years after the events of the film.) Tom Sawyer is never directly mentioned by name in the film, instead referring to himself as "Special Agent Sawyer," while the end credits refer to him as "Tom." However in a deleted scene Dr. Jekyll calls him Tom, and he mentions his childhood friend whom M killed. This friend was, most likely, Huck Finn.
[edit] Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo is the Indian submariner from Jules Verne's 1870 novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, and Journey Through the Impossible.
He is very different from his comic-book counterpart, who is portrayed as a snobbish, world-weary, retired underwater terrorist with undertones of sexism, xenophobia, and misanthropy. In the comics he is also far more important to the League, realizing before the rest that their superiors cannot be trusted, and deducing both their identities and their plans. In the movie, the Nautilus does not bear any resemblance to the comic version (which has tentacles).
[edit] Wilhelmina Harker
She can stand in the sun (something that Dracula could also do, but resulted in his powers being vastly diminished), cross the ocean easily, is never shown to need to sleep in a coffin, and she freely entered Moriarty's lair without invitation. Her powers include rapid healing, immortality (she can survive being stabbed in the chest, though she did say the attacker missed her heart, and says at another point that it's possible she can't die), she can turn (completely or partially) into a flock of bats, she can fly and cling to walls like a bat, and she is strong enough to overpower one of Moriarty's men and jump large heights and distances.
She was once a lover of Dorian Gray's, but claims that their love died. They briefly rekindle their affair during the course of the film, which makes his later actions a very personal betrayal.
[edit] Rodney Skinner
While Dr. Hawley Griffin from the comic is a sociopath and a rapist, Rodney Skinner is merely mischievous. His heroic side shines through eventually, as he is the one to stow away on M's little sub with Gray, and he nearly dies in saving Sawyer from a horrible death, receiving some horrific injuries as a result.
[edit] Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The film retains the comic's idea of Hyde's size being proportionate to the amount of evil he has done. It is implied that Hyde is the actual murderer in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
[edit] Dorian Gray
Gray is the main character from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. A mistake in the reading of the cover of the collected edition of the original comic led to his more resembling Sir Francis Varney in the film; the cover depicted both the original portrait of Gray as depicted in Wilde's book, and a portrait of Varney, which became the basis for the movie Gray's character.[citation needed] Like Tom, Dorian only makes a cameo in the comic.
[edit] Other characters
- In a move reminiscent of the James Bond novels, the League is recruited by a character known as "M."
- The mysterious character that attacks military bases and banks is referred to as the "Fantom" who resembles the Phantom of the Opera or French master villain Fantômas. Upon first hearing that their adversary is known as the Fantom, Quatermain remarks, "How very operatic."
- When Quatermain arrives in London, he mentions Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg.
- In the library where Quatermain meets M, Nemo, and Mina, there are paintings meant to represent members of past generations of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Among those featured are Zorro, Doctor Syn, Robin Hood, Natty Bumpo, and the Three Musketeers.
- Captain Nemo's first mate is named Ishmael, suggesting the protagonist from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The character's first line of dialogue is "Call me Ishmael," the first line of Melville's novel.
- The key villain is Professor James Moriarty, enemy of Sherlock Holmes.
- After the battle in Gray's house, when Mina explains her power, she mentions her husband Jonathan Harker and Abraham Van Helsing from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
- Before entering Gray's house, Skinner mentions Jack the Ripper ("This is a charming spot. Does Jack the Ripper live here?").
- In Paris, while hunting for Mr. Hyde, Quatermain makes the observation that "this big monkey has terrorized the Rue Morgue for months." This is a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," in which an orangutan is responsible for a series of grisly murders; the implication is that the so-called monkey causing the deaths may really have been Mr. Hyde. In the comic book, however, Chevallier Dupin asserts that it was an orangutan, though several years in the past. Now, the present series of murders only resemble those of the monkey. Furthermore, references are made to Jack the Ripper.
- In a scene deleted from the film (but which can be viewed on the DVD), Sawyer informs the rest of the League that he joined them because the Fantom murdered his Secret Service partner — his childhood friend, Huckleberry Finn. This is also the only scene in which anyone uses Sawyer's first name, identifying him as Tom Sawyer.
[edit] Eva Draper
Intriguingly, there was a character cut from the release version of the film that was not removed from the promotional materials, and still appears in one of the trailers (“Trailer B”). Eva Draper, played by Winter Ave Zoli, is the daughter of the German scientist (named “Draper” and played by Rudolf Pellar) who shouts, “Are you crazy?” at The Fantom when he shoots down Zeppelins during the film’s opening.
She originally appeared twice in the movie. Her first scene was completely excised and no further details are available; her second scene actually remains in the finished film, however she has been digitally replaced by another character. The scene in question occurs at the film’s climax, where she attacks Quatermain and Sawyer in a moment that leads to Sawyer’s “Eyes open” rebuttal line.
“This sequence was originally shot with a young blonde woman coming in and hitting Shane West over the head and interfering with this apprehension of M,” said LXG producer Trevor Albert, on the DVD commentary. “We realised, because we’d cut out another little bit of the movie, it made no sense… [Through] the miracle of digital effects we basically totally removed the character and put another character in, which made it less complicated. We were afraid that having the girl introduced in that sequence would’ve confused the audience, and as I say we had removed a sequence where we sort of indicated who she was earlier.”
In removing Eva, the filmmakers actually integrated a brief fight scene between Sawyer and the replacement character by rotoscoping footage of him from another scene, which completely took Shane West (the actor portraying Sawyer) by surprise when he saw the finished film. “There was a girl that was supposed to be the daughter of one of the kidnapped scientists,” said West, “and it just did not make sense throwing her into this and not having some sort of backstory, so they decided to cut her out. They replaced her successfully with some sort of soldier who’s creeping up behind me as Sean and I walk into this scene. And somehow, even though I never made the move, I butt him in the head with the butt of my rifle, and somehow I’m able to knock him out when it’s – I mean, it was just amazing. I didn’t know – I’d forgotten. I was sitting there with my eyes, my mouth was open wide, and Trevor [Albert, LXG producer] was just laughing, and I was like, ‘What happened to the girl? And how did I kick some guy’s butt when I never really did that?’”
Despite her appearance in the trailer, Winter Ave Zoli remains uncredited for her excised role, which is standard practice for characters omitted from the release prints of films.
[edit] Planned sequels
According to IMDb, all of the main actors save Townsend signed for a three-movie deal. The possible sequels were to have resurrected Quatermain (as hinted by the movie's ending); introduced Campion Bond, possibly played by Roger Moore; and, according to Shane West, have placed Tom Sawyer as the head of the League[1][2]. However, given Connery's retirement from acting and the critical and relative financial panning of the movie, any sequels are unlikely.
[edit] Novelization
A novelization of the movie was written by Kevin J. Anderson and released shortly before the movie. Anderson would later go on to write The Martian War, a book with several similarities to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II.
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- During the scene on the London docks just before the appearance of Dorian Gray, a poster appears on a wall with a headline describing the sighting of "mysterious explosions on the planet Mars, may be volcanoes," an allusion to H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, which provided the major backdrop for the second comic series.
- In the original graphic novel Alan Quatermain had written himself out of public life and become an opium addict. At the start of the story he is rescued from an opium den by Mina Harker and enlisted as a member of the League. In the film adaptation, Sean Connery reportedly refused to play an opium addict, so the writers changed his story so he was merely hiding from the public.
- Alan Moore, the author of the original graphic novel, was reportedly unhappy with the adaptation of his story, with it being vastly different from his original story — a complaint he has had with other movies derived from his writing.
- The film's creators were sued in 2003 by Martin Poll and Larry Cohen. Poll and Cohen claimed that they had pitched a similar idea to Fox between 1993 and 1996, under the title Cast of Characters. They alleged that Fox hired screenwriters to adapt Alan Moore's comic long before it was finished, and instead used ideas from their screenplay to make up the story. The case was settled out of court.
- In the scene at the docks before we first see Dorian, there are newspapers on the wall. Two of them read the names: "Alan Moore" and "Kevin O'Neill," the writers of the comic book.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the Internet Movie Database
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at Rotten Tomatoes
- Article at FilmForce about the film
- Comics2Film entry
- Official movie website
| The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | |
|---|---|
| Creators | Alan Moore • Kevin O'Neill • Benedict Dimagmaliw • William Oakley |
| Volumes | Volume I • Volume II • The Black Dossier • Volume III: Century • Tales |
| Other Stories | Allan and the Sundered Veil • The New Traveller's Almanac • |
| Main League Members | Thomas Carnacki • Professor George Edward Challenger • Hawley Griffin • Fanny Hill • Mr. Edward Hyde/Dr. Henry Jekyll • Miss Mina Murray • Captain Nemo • Orlando • Prospero • Allan Quatermain • Allan Quatermain, Jr. • A.J. Raffles |
| Associated Individuals | Campion Bond • Jimmy Bond • John Carter of Mars • Randolph Carter • Mycroft Holmes • Ishmael • Lt. Gullivar Jones • Fu Manchu • Martians • Professor James Moriarty • Sal Paradise • The Time Traveller |
| Adaptation | The Film • The Novel • Stephen Norrington • James Dale Robinson • Kevin J. Anderson • Dorian Gray • Tom Sawyer • Rodney Skinner |
| Miscellaneous | Jess Nevins • The Timeline • The World • Nautilus • British Museum Secret Annexe • M |
es:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (película) fr:La Ligue des gentlemen extraordinaires (film) it:La leggenda degli uomini straordinari ja:リーグ・オブ・レジェンド/時空を超えた戦い nl:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen pl:Liga niezwykłych dżentelmenów pt:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fi:Herrasmiesliiga sv:The League
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