''Babylon A.D.'' is a 2008

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed and co-written by

Mathieu Kassovitz Mathieu Kassovitz () is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards: Most Promising Actor for '' See How They Fall'' (1994), and Best Film and Best Editing for '' La Haine'' (1995). He also re ...

, based on the 1999 novel '' Babylon Babies'' by Maurice Georges Dantec. It stars Vin Diesel,

Mélanie Thierry Mélanie Thierry (born 17 July 1981) is a French actress. Early life and career Mélanie Thierry began her career as a model in France, then moved into acting. She began with a series of roles in French productions, and at the age of 17 appeared ...

Michelle Yeoh Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, a ...

Lambert Wilson Lambert Nicolas Wilson (; né Willson, 3 August 1958) is a French actor and theatre director. He is a seven-time Cesar Award nominee, four for César Award for Best Actor, Best Actor and three for César Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Sup ...

Mark Strong Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963) is a British actor best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (200 ...

Jérôme Le Banner Jérôme Philippe Le Banner (; born December 26, 1972) is a French kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler. Le Banner fought for most of his career in K-1 and became known for his aggressive fighting style and knockout power. ...

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging London, Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film ''Georgy Girl'', which starred Lynn ...

, and

Gérard Depardieu Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor. An icon of French cinema, considered a world star in the same way as Alain Delon or Brigitte Bardot, he has completed over 250 films since 1967, most of which as ...

. It was an international co-production between

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and the United States. The film was released in France on August 29, 2008 by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

. It received generally negative reviews, and failed to meet commercial expectations. Mathieu Kassovitz disowned the finished film, claiming

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

had interfered throughout production and that the film did not represent his intended vision.

Plot

In a

dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...

near future, a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n mobster, Gorsky, hires the mercenary Toorop to bring a young woman known only as Aurora from Asia to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Gorsky gives Toorop a variety of weapons and a subdermally implanted UN passport. Toorop, the girl, and, her guardian, Sister Rebeka, travel from the Noelite

Convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

to reach New York via

. Unlike in the technologically-advanced

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, war and terrorist activity have transformed Russia's cities into dangerous, overpopulated slums. The stress of humanity's situation causes Aurora to act out in strange ways and display

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to h ...

abilities. On one such occasion, Aurora, seemingly for no reason, panics and runs from a crowded train station just before it explodes in a terrorist attack. The protagonists must also evade an unknown group of mercenaries claiming to have been sent by Aurora's supposedly dead father. Later, they board a submarine that carries refugees to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. To avoid satellite detection, the Captain of the submarine orders his crew to dive and he shoots some of the refugees still trying to get on board. Aurora, infuriated by the loss of life, operates the 30-year-old submarine without training. Sister Rebeka tells 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 began acting differently. This occurred after a Noelite doctor administered a pill. The doctor told her to go to

and arranged for Toorop to escort them. After arriving in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

with help from Toorop's associate, Finn, the protagonists are attacked by weaponized drones. Toorop manages to destroy all the drones, but also gets wounded. The perils cause Finn to betray the group and so Toorop shoots him dead. Once in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

, a news broadcast about the bombing of the Kyrgyzstan convent causes the group to realize 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 desires only power and uses invented miracles to court converts. Gorsky, working for the Noelites, had planted a tracking device in Toorop's passport and bombed the convent when he knew they were in the United States. The doctor who earlier saw Aurora examines her again in a hotel room. When he leaves, Aurora reveals (without being told) that she is pregnant with twins despite being a

virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

. Looking outside the hotel, Toorop sees Gorsky's men and the Noelite group heavily armed and waiting for them on the street. The High Priestess calls Toorop and asks him to bring Aurora outside. Just before they take her away, Toorop changes his mind and starts a firefight with the two groups to get the two women to safety. Gorsky's men fire guided missiles at Toorop that track his subdermal passport. Rebeka gets killed defending Aurora, who in turn shoots Toorop and says, "I need you to live". Toorop's

clinical death Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condit ...

causes the guided missile to go off target (missing Toorop) and explode near Aurora instead; she inexplicably survives. Dr. Arthur Darquandier revives Toorop using advanced medical techniques, but several of Toorop's body parts are replaced with

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

to undo the damage of being dead for over two hours. Darquandier explains that when Aurora was a fetus, he implanted a

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

into her brain. It is also implied that the Noelite group had him create Aurora to become pregnant at a certain time to use her as a " virgin birth". After she was born, the Noelites hired Gorsky to kill Darquandier, but Gorsky failed. Darquandier remained "dead" until he found his daughter in Russia with Toorop. Darquandier uses a machine to scan Toorop's memory to find out what Aurora said to him before and shortly after shooting him. In Toorop's memory, Aurora tells Toorop to "go home". Toorop and several of Darquandier's men leave the facility. En route to Darquandier's lab, Gorsky calls the High Priestess and demands payment; during the subsequent videocall the High Priestess kills Gorsky by

nuclear missile Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. All nine nuclear states have developed some form of medium- to long-range delivery system for their nuc ...

. The High Priestess confronts and kills Darquandier, but Toorop has already escaped. Toorop goes to his old house in the forest, finds Aurora, and takes her to a hospital. There, six months later, she dies after giving birth. Aurora was "designed to breed", not to live, and so her death after childbirth was preprogrammed. Toorop takes care of her two children, who are shown to be one that looks like Aurora and the other like Toorop.

Alternate ending

The "StudioCanal" cut of the film does not include the climactic chase scene between the Noelite soldiers and Toorop or the final scene of Toorop with Aurora's children.

Cast

* Vin Diesel as Hugo Toorop, a

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

and a former Marine. He is a professional smuggler originally from

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

, who has been deported to

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, where he does mercenary jobs as a smuggler. He is an expert in advanced weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, tactics, and culinary. *

as Sister Rebeka, a nun from an ascetic branch of the Noelites. She is originally from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. When she was 17 years old, she joined the Noelites to escape an abusive relationship. She ended up in their

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

n convent, where she became Aurora's guardian. *

as Aurora, a young woman who has been given shelter by the Noelite nuns. Since when she was a child, she showed supernatural knowledge in all kind of fields and by the age of two could speak 19 languages. She can also sense danger. *

as Gorsky, a wealthy Russian mobster who hires Toorop to transport Aurora to the United States on behalf of the Noelite Church. He owns a private army and lives inside an APC fitted like a limo that is constantly surrounded by a convoy of his soldiers. *

as the High Priestess of the Noelite Church. She does not really care about the religion and seeks only power and wealth. She plans to use science to produce miracles to extend the popularity and the reach of her church. *

as Finn, a Russian smuggler who is an old associate of Toorop. He is ready to help transport Aurora across borders, yet Toorop does not entirely trust him. *

as Dr. Arthur Darquandier, Aurora's disabled father, who was presumed to be dead. * David Belle as Hacker Kid, the leader of Darquandier's henchmen who follow Toorop and Aurora to America. *

as Killa, an underground fighter.

Production

Development

worked on an English-language film adaptation of Maurice Georges Dantec's French novel '' Babylon Babies'' for five years; in June 2005, this project got financing from

and

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. 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.

Casting

French actor

Vincent Cassel Vincent Cassel (; ; born 23 November 1966) is a French actor. He has earned a César Awards, César Award and a Canadian Screen Awards, Canadian Screen Award as well as nominations for a European Film Awards, European Film Award and a Screen Ac ...

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 Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

'' in the process.

Filming

The shooting schedule 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 Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

. In February, filming took place at

Barrandov Studios Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Barrandov has made several major Hollywood productions, including ''Mission: Impossible (film), ...

. In March 2007, the filming crew, having shot in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, 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 Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

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,

, and

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

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, actor

was cast into the film. Filming was completed in May 2007. American artist Khem Caigan designed the sigil that appears as a tattoo on the right side of Toorop's neck – an emblem which originally appeared in the Schlangekraft ''Necronomicon'' in 1977.

Music

The music of ''Babylon A.D.'' was written by Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson. The music supervisor of the movie was Jérôme Hadey. The musical alliance Achozen, represented by

Shavo Odadjian Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian (; born April 22, 1974) is an Armenian-American musician, best known as the bassist of nu metal band System of a Down. He also plays bass in a Trap music, trap group called North Kingsley and in the metal band Seven Hou ...

and RZA performed the score for the film. Music producer

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

described the intended style: "Musically, our objective was to merge the sounds and energies of

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

with

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

, seamlessly melting them into an unusual soundscape."

Re-editing

Two different cuts of the film were prepared for release. The version by

, released in France and Germany, runs 101 minutes. The version by 20th Century Fox, released in the United States and the United Kingdom, runs 90 minutes. The longer version was later released on English-language home video as a "Raw and Uncut" version.

Release

''Babylon A.D.'' was originally stated to be released in the

on 29 February 2008, but its release was postponed to 29 August 2008. As of 31 January 2009, the film had grossed $72,105,690 worldwide. In the US the film was placed #2 behind ''

Tropic Thunder ''Tropic Thunder'' is a 2008 Satire (film and television), satirical Action comedy, action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., ...

'' with $9,484,627 in 3,390 cinemas with a $2,798 average.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a 7% approval rating based on 105 reviews and an average rating of 3.20/10, with the consensus calling it "a poorly constructed, derivative sci-fi stinker with a weak script and poor action sequences." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

it has a score of 26% based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a grade D+ on scale of A to F. Jordan Mintzer of ''Variety'' called it "A noisier, costlier version of '' Children of Men'', yet lacking that film's social-political significance and jaw-dropping direction."

Kassovitz's response

disowned the final film, likening it to a "bad episode of ''24''". He stated that

interfered throughout production and that he never had a chance to shoot a scene the way that it was scripted or the way that he wanted it to be. A French-language documentary of the troubled creation of the film, ''Fucking Kassovitz'', was released in 2011.

Home media

''Babylon A.D.'' was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in Europe ( Region 2) on 29 December 2008, and in the United States ( Region 1) on 6 January 2009. At the same time, the French 101-minute version was released on Blu-ray in the US as ''Babylon A.D. – Raw and Uncut''.

References

External links

* *
''Babylon A.D.''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

* * {{Mathieu Kassovitz 2008 films 2008 science fiction action films American science fiction action films British science fiction action films French science fiction action films 2000s English-language films Films based on Canadian novels Films based on science fiction novels 20th Century Fox films Dune Entertainment films One Race Films films StudioCanal films Films set in Serbia Films set in Russia Films set in New York City Films set in slums Films set in 2027 Films directed by Mathieu Kassovitz Films scored by Atli Örvarsson Films shot in the Czech Republic American dystopian films 2000s dystopian films English-language French films Films set in Belgrade Films shot in Belgrade Films about the Russian Mafia Films shot at Barrandov Studios Films about mercenaries 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films English-language science fiction action films Films based on French novels Films based on works by Maurice G. Dantec