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Richard B. Riddick
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Real name Riddick
Richard B. Riddick, more commonly known as Riddick, is a fictional character and the antihero of four films in the Riddick series (Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, the animated movie The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, and Riddick), as well as the two video games The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Actor Vin Diesel has played the title role in all of the Riddick-based films and video games so far.
Within the canon of the series, Riddick is shown to be a highly skilled predator—he is extremely mobile and stealthy - especially for someone of his size, has a vast knowledge of how to kill almost any humanoid in a variety of ways, is an extreme survivalist, and is notoriously hard to contain. He is also self-admittedly a dangerous convict and murderer—yet despite this, he is sometimes shown to perform moral or even atypically heroic actions, usually against his own better judgment and survivalist nature.
Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a military campaign that left Furya desolate, and is one of the last of his kind. One of his most defining features are his eyes, a characteristic inherent in a certain caste of his species (The Alpha-Furyans), although he implies in Pitch Black that they were "shined" by a back-alley surgical operation. This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, but also renders his eyes incredibly sensitive to concentrated light, therefore he wears tinted welding goggles for protection.
Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot.
Biography
Early lifeRiddick was born on Furya. Before Riddick's birth, a Necromonger officer named Zhylaw (who would eventually become the Lord Marshall) consulted an Elemental seer, who told him that a Furyan male would be born that would be responsible for his downfall. As a prevention, Zhylaw attacked Furya in an attempt to massacre all male children, going so far as to personally strangle newborn infants with their own umbilical cords. Riddick was among those presumably strangled to death, but he actually survived.
In later life, Riddick repressed all of his memories of Furya, including the massacre, and came to believe that when he was born, his mother attempted to kill him by strangling him with his umbilical cord and dumping him in a trash bin behind a liquor store. Despite this, he periodically received visions and messages from a Furyan survivor named Shirah, which he believed to be signs of mental instability.
Little is known about Riddick's childhood, save that he had no formal education and seems to have been in trouble with the law from an early age, claiming to have been "educated" in the penal system.
Pitch Black
In the premiere installment in the franchise, Riddick is introduced as notorious convict who is en route to a penal institution with his captor, a Bounty Hunter named William J. Johns. By impersonating a cop and traveling with a group of settlers aboard the nondescript transport cruiser Hunter Gratzner, Johns hopes to safely convey Riddick back to a prison colony and collect on the outlaw's enormous bounty. However the ship inadvertently passes through a comet's tail while on auto-pilot, forcing it to crash land on an unknown planet with three suns. Soon the survivors all find themselves fighting for their lives against a predatory species called Bio-Raptors and by the end of the film there are only three survivors: Riddick, a young girl called Jack, and Imam.
The Chronicles of Riddick
Five years later, Riddick has remained in hiding on an Arctic planet called U.V. for its harsh Ultraviolet light, but when Imam learns that his planet will be invaded by the twisted religious crusade of the Necromongers, he betrays Riddick's location after hearing that the Necromongers fear only the Furyan warriors, descriptions of the Furyans' deaths reminding him of a tale Riddick told him about his birth. Initially, Riddick is reluctant to become involved in the struggle between the Necromongers and the world they seek to conquer, but the killing of Imam sets Riddick on a mission to avenge him, which sparks a series of events that eventually leads to him overthrowing the Lord Marshal (this is done with help from Jack, who dies in the process).
Riddick
Dissatisfied with his role as Lord Marshall, Riddick attempts to find Furya, but is instead abandoned on a desolate planet. After spending some time on this world, Riddick finds that he will soon be overtaken by a vicious storm that provides cover for countless predators. Using the communication system from a mercenary outpost, Riddick lures two ships to the planet, intending to take one of their ships, but the plan is complicated when one of the arriving mercenaries turns out to be the father of his old enemy, Johns (Johns was the bounty hunter who hunted Riddick earlier).
Best films
(2013)Played by the actors
Filmography of Richard B. Riddick (4 films)
Add to a movie listRiddick (2013)
, 1h59Directed by David Twohy
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Monde imaginaire, Dans l'espace, Sur une planète fictive, Films set in the future, Space opera
Actors Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Mollá, Nolan Gerard Funk, Bokeem Woodbine
Rating63%
Five years after Kyra's death, Riddick has become increasingly uneasy in his role as Lord Marshall of the Necromonger fleet. His refusal to swear into the Necromonger faith has caused dissent among his subjects and assassination attempts by his subordinate commanders. Riddick strikes a deal with Commander Vaako: the location of Furya and a ship to take him there, in exchange for Vaako becoming the next Lord Marshall, so that he can achieve what he calls transcendence. Led by Vaako's aide, Krone, Riddick and a group of Necromongers arrive on a desolate planet. Recognizing that it is not Furya, Riddick kills most of his escort when they attempt to assassinate him. In the chaos, Krone causes a landslide and buries Riddick alive.
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
, 1h59Directed by David Twohy
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Monde imaginaire, Dans l'espace, Sur une planète fictive, Films set in the future, Space opera, Films about extraterrestrial life
Actors Karl Urban, Judi Dench, Thandie Newton, Nick Chinlund, Colm Feore, Alexa Davalos
Rating65%
After escaping the dark planet, Richard B. Riddick has been in hiding for five years, evading most of the bounty hunters and mercenaries that are set to capture him because of his high price on his head. His latest hideout is a Planet U.V., a world lit only by ultraviolet light.
, 35minutesDirected by Peter Chung
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Fantastic, Action, Animation
Themes Space adventure films, Monde imaginaire, Dans l'espace, Sur une planète fictive, Films set in the future, Space opera
Actors Vin Diesel, Rhiana Griffith, Keith David, Nick Chinlund, Tress MacNeille, Roger L. Jackson
Rating65%
Shortly after escaping the planet from Pitch Black, Riddick, Jack, and the Imam are picked up by a Mercenary spacecraft. Although Riddick attempts to conceal his identity from the mercenaries by impersonating William J. Johns (in Pitch Black) over the intercom, they quickly voice-print and identify him.
Pitch Black (2000)
, 1h49Directed by David Twohy, Carolynne Cunningham
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Monde imaginaire, Dans l'espace, Sur une planète fictive, Films set in the future, Space opera, Films about extraterrestrial life
Actors Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Keith David
Rating69%
In the distant future, the civilian transport ship Hunter-Gratzner passes near a desert planet while on autopilot with its crew and passengers in cryostasis chambers. The passengers mostly consist of nomadic settlers who are relocating to other planets, a Muslim priest who goes by the title "Imam", with his followers traveling to New Mecca, a young boy named Jack, a pair of Bushwhackers named Shazza and Zeke, a merchant named Paris, and a law enforcement officer, William J. Johns, who is transporting a notorious criminal, Richard B. Riddick, who is chained in a special chamber and is the only one awake while in cryostasis. Riddick has illegally surgically-modified eyes, called Shiners, that give him extra-sensitive vision that allows him to see in the dark.