For obvious reasons, it is perfectly acceptable to label the 2002 post-apocalyptic scientific fantasy film Reign of Fire criminally underappreciated. To begin with, a film starring Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and Gerard Butler, as well as dragons, cannot possibly be awful!
Well, it is a different tale that a film that combines medieval mythology and the modern period can be critically panned or have mixed reviews, but a film that combines medieval mythology and the modern age serves more as an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
Rob Bowman’s Reign of Fire, which was released by Touchstone Pictures, earned the Festival de Cine de Sitges award for Best Visual Effects. The film was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, however, it was defeated by Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy adventure film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Only time and ardent aficionados of the genre can be credited with keeping a film like this from fading into obscurity.
Here’s a breakdown of the movie into its several components. First, there is the story, which appears to be rather straightforward. Dragons awaken from their hibernation and wreak havoc on the planet. That is not a spoiler; rather, it is the entire idea of the film. So there is this crumbling dystopian future populated by a few survivors in small pockets.
To keep their little pods of people alive, they rely on limited resources and weapons. In a head-to-head confrontation, they would have no chance against the huge overpowering forces. The characters are engaging, and the film does a good job of showing the difficulties of life.
But do not get me wrong: the movie is not sad in the least. It is an intriguing perspective on a dismal future in which everything is made of ash. Although it is hardly the smartest film ever made, it certainly gets a lot out of what it is given.
This film does the dragons justice when it comes to dragon-themed films. No, it does not put a stake through a dragon’s heart, but these monsters are terrifying! There are tens of thousands of them, each capable of annihilating tens of thousands of people.
We will not only look at the movie in detail in today’s film, but we will also look at the dragons that appear in it.
The Movie Plot
Post the beginning of the 21st century, during construction on the London Underground, a humongous dragon awakens from hibernation and instantaneously incinerates all the construction workers with its fiery breath. The sole survivor of the incident happens to be a young boy called Quinn Abercromby, whose mother, the project engineer of the construction crew, gets crushed to death while protecting him.
With the dragon making its way out of the Underground and flying away, many more begin to appear, multiplying at a rampant rate. Many years pass by and Quinn is now an adult, who has since his escape from the underground cave been storing records to keep track, and try and make sense of what had happened since that catastrophic day.
He, along with his best friend, Creedy, lead a small community of survivors in a medieval stone castle in Northumberland. They plan on outlasting the dragons till they go back into hibernation. While the community did manage to plant crops, they were literally starving whilst waiting impatiently for the crops to ripen.
With some renegade members of the community sneaking out to loot the crops early, they manage to capture the attention of a nearby dragon, who not only attacks the group but also burns down their entire food supply. This leaves the community without any resources to feed itself.
Soon enough, a heavily armed American group led by Denton Van Zan arrive there, in an armored convoy with a Chieftain tank and an AgustaWestland AW109 utility helicopter.
The squad happens to be The Kentucky Irregulars, who were some of the last surviving military dragon hunters, in quest of finding a safe haven. They were on their way to London. While initially doubtful that the group was nothing but pillagers, Van Zan eventually had to gain the trust Quinn by sharing with him the primary weakness of the dragon. He states that the creatures have a poor vision before sunset, something that has let Van Zan’s crew slay many of their kind.
And while Quinn was still hesitant to provide them shelter, he assessed their artillery and instead decided to take a diplomatic approach and allow them in. Together, they are able to kill the dragon that had destroyed the crops earlier.
The survivors celebrate their victory later at the castle that night, and Van Zan introduces his team’s helicopter pilot and intelligence officer, Alex Jensen, to Quinn. After slaying almost 200 dragons, Alex makes a startling discovery – all of the dragons were female.
Next, she predicates that the creatures reproduce rapidly because the species were dependent on a single male for populating the entire species. Having traced the spread of the dragons, they come to a conclusion that the male was nestled somewhere in London, and if they are able to kill it, it will efficaciously prevent the dragons from breeding.
Although Quinn harbors suspicion about the male dragon being the same creature that was responsible for his mother’s death, he refuses to aid them. He knew very well that London was a hotbed for the dragons, and if they failed in their mission, the dragons would trace them back to their shelter and wreak unthinkable havoc.
In spite of Quinn’s objections and a physical fight, Van Zan enlists the best defenders of the castle including Jared, an orphan that the former had saved as a child and the one he was preparing to lead the community. Van Zan departs with some of the castle’s men but as Quinn had feared, their convoy gets ambushed by the dragon while on their way to London. Everyone except Van Zan and Alex gets killed in action.
The male dragon follows their trail back, finds the castle, destroys it, and kills many unsuspecting inhabitants in the process. Quinn manages to get the survivors into a bunker, one that is designed to survive the intense heat but somehow, they get trapped when the dragon returns. It is during the dragon’s final attack that Creedy also gets killed.
Fueled in equal parts by the memory of his mother’s death at the hands of the male dragon in his youth and the hatred stemming from the destruction and death of the people he had been trying to save all this while, Quinn puts Jared in charge of the community and makes up his mind to aid Van Zan and Alex in hunting down the dragon and destroying him once and for all.
They fly to London and are shocked to discover a countless number of small dragons, one of which is devoured by the male dragon. This disperses the smaller ones and leaves the male dragon unguarded. Van Zan comes up with a simple plan – split up, lure the male dragon into attacking, and then fire explosives down his throat.
While the plan initially works in their favor, the dragon manages to ignite the explosives early. Seeing no other option left, Van Zan sacrifices himself as a distraction. Quinn and Alex manage to assemble the last remaining explosives and together, they are able to tempt the dragon to ground level. Luckily for the duo, it’s the magical hour when the dragon’s vision is weak. That’s when Quinn shoots another explosive right into the very mouth of the dragon, killing the beast.
Three months later, Quinn and Alex are seen setting up a radio tower. There have been no dragon sightings since the male dragon was slain. Jared arrives to inform them that they have contacted a group of French survivors who wish to speak to their leader. Quinn publicly makes Jared the leader of the community and commits himself to reconstruct civilization with Alex.
The film stars a pretty good cast; there are two primary characters of Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey and two very good supporting characters essayed by Gerard Butler and Isabella Scorupco. The characters are easy to root for. Bale is incredible at playing a solemn down-on-his-luck kind of guy. McConaughey on the other hand plays on the surface a very happy-go-lucky American army guy; one who wades into the situation and seems to be the human villain in the movie. It is great to see him play that role and he looks the part.
He has no hair, a big beard, and looks gritty and grimy, a total badass. Initially, it is assumed that he and his men were the antagonists but with the movie unfolding, one understands that they just seem to have a different approach towards things. Bowman’s Reign of Fire is a surprisingly exciting and thoroughly entertaining post-apocalyptic flick that had slipped under the radar during its initial release, primarily due to the mixed reviews that it received.
Featuring an incredible cast prior to their A-list status, we highly recommend that you check this film out if you still haven’t. If you are someone who is a fan of dragons, gothic and dilapidated imagery, and dystopian future kind of films, this flick is definitely for you!
Dragons From Reign of Fire Explored
Right in the very beginning of the film, it is explained that the dragons that we had once thought of as myths fabricated by our ancestors, were actually real. In fact, they were accountable for wiping out the dinosaurs as well as the majority of plant life on the planet.
After the Earth was covered in ash, thanks to these creatures razing it with fire, they went into hibernation waiting for their food source to replenish, repeating the cycle over a period of millions of years. For years, they lay deep beneath the surface of the earth until a construction crew dug a little too deep, awakening the prehistoric predator and releasing their kind into our world once again.
The dragons on display were essentially exceedingly evolved prehistoric creatures that rested dormant beneath the surface of the earth for millions of years. These dragons were large four-limbed behemoths with extremely powerful wings, allowing them to fly in the air with speed and precision.
They also had a unique gland in their mouth that was capable of producing an inflammable substance that could instantly be ignited. The method by which the dragons emitted fire in the movie was actually inspired by two real animals, the spitting cobra, and the bombardier beetle.
Now, the fire that the dragons could breathe was their primary weapon, produced in the two glands located at the back of their mouths and on either side of their tongues. When mixed together, the liquid proved to be highly combustible. Though the creatures were driven by instinct, they also displayed a measure of intelligence, which coupled with their flight and fire breathing abilities re-solidified their title as the apex predator on earth.
There are three probable possibilities for how the dragon numbers were able to spread so quickly. The first theory is that the female dragons had also been hibernating and were awakened by either the sole male dragon through the blaze of destruction or by the people, in their continuous efforts to destroy the beast.
The second theory is that the male dragon went around fertilizing the eggs that had been laid by the female dragons during the prehistoric era. The third and the last theory might sound a little crazy, but it is quite possible that the male dragon is actually the progenitor of the species. It may be capable of creating female offspring, that he could then mate with to produce further dragons.
As the dragons continued to take over the earth, this gave them time to grow into adults, allowing the male dragon to procreate at a rapid pace. This elusive dragon was extremely large, and many times the size of the female dragons that were responsible for the near-extinction of humankind.
Their hunting strategy was very simple – either burn their prey and eat the toasty remains or simply swoop down with tremendous speed and agility, to take a bite. Over time, as their human and animal food sources became scarcer, the creatures were actually seen resorting to cannibalism, as they grew more and more desperate.
As this was the catalyst that sent them into deep hibernation many times before, it can be predicted that the dragons were just a few years away from restarting the very same cycle to ensure their survival.
The dragons on display don’t have personalities, they are pure killing machines. The film is set in a dystopian future after dragons rise from under the earth and basically cause the end of the majority of humanity. This is entirely believable, considering that a dragon is an ultimate predator.
As far as the overall visuals, look of the film, and of course the special effects are concerned, they do pull it off. The fact that the dragons are for the most part CGI, very good CGI to be precise, they look fantastic, especially in the scenes where they utilize fire. It just goes without saying that these creatures steal the film and the movie is about them.
Reign of Fire could have been one of the greatest Trilogies
Well, there were a lot of questions surrounding the movie that were left unanswered. To begin with, how did the character of Bale survive the initial days of the dragon outbreak?
How did society fall apart? How did they first come up with the survival community? How did the Americans learn to fight? What is Denton Van Zan’s backstory? What are the other communities out there? The film was quite vague in reference to this set of questions.
According to fans, here is what they think should have happened:
Episode one could have begun just like the movie did, but took place in the following days of the dragons burning down London. Here is where the viewers could get to see how the survivors endured and formed a community that helped them keep their members safe.
Episode two could have taken us to America. The dragons are seen traveling across the Atlantic and while the military does its best to fight them, of course, it is not easy. They win some battles and lose many more. Their strategies become more and more desperate.
A wayward thrill seeker who is self-centered but has a knack for sky diving offers to jump out of a plane and tackle a dragon using a net. He is successful, and they continue to hone in on this particular method to fight other dragons.
Meanwhile, researchers in some underground lab, discover that the dragons are all female and soon begin developing their thesis on how to take it down. The film climaxes when a low-ranking Matthew McConaughey and his crew try to leave the port and travel to England. As for the rebellious skydiver, he dies during a mission, where he ensures that they leave the port safely.
Episode three has us catching up with our British community and checking in on what they are doing. We also follow the Americans grappling to travel from the US. Dragons try attacking, but the surrounding water keeps them safe.
The two groups eventually meet and struggle to get along but finally work together to kill the male. Ultimately, the movie ends with a tableau of cultures fighting a common enemy and successfully killing the dragons in deserts, cold climates, and islands.
Reign of Fire Sequel
In spite of being a commercial failure, Rob Bowman’s Reign of Fire in due course developed a huge cult following. So much so that the fans of the movie literally petitioned for a part two, we kid you not!
Sharing a clip of his character, Denton Van Zan from the original film, Matthew McConaughey took to Twitter last year in December, hinting at the fair possibility of a movie sequel. Even his tweet was captioned ‘2021’. This can only point towards two things, either a sequel that is set a year later or the possibility of a sequel filming this year. Both ways, fans of the movie are absolutely thrilled.
While no official announcements have been made so far, it would be amazing to see the world of dragons explored once again in the follow-up. After all, there is so much left to discover. In fact, we don’t even mind a television series. Fans of the movie just want to know more!