Pitch Black

A commercial transport is struck by a meteor shower in deep space, killing most of the crew in cryosleep. The pilot, Carolyn Fry, manages a crash landing on an uncharted desert planet lit by three suns. The handful of survivors include Imam (a pious passenger traveling with three young protégés), Jack (a teenager pretending to be a boy), Paris (a wealthy collector), the couple Shazza and Zeke, the bounty hunter Johns, and Johns' prisoner — Richard B. Riddick, a notorious criminal with shaved head, dark goggles, and surgically modified eyes that see in the dark.

The planet is in perpetual sunlight. The survivors scavenge for water and search for signs of life. They find skeletal remains of large unknown creatures, and an abandoned settlement that was wiped out long ago. Riddick escapes early and circles the group at the periphery. Tensions rise. Johns is revealed to be a morphine-addicted ex-cop who needs Riddick alive to collect the bounty.

Inside the abandoned settlement they find an old orrery of the planetary system. The settlement was wiped out during a once-in-22-years eclipse — when all three suns align and block out, plunging the planet into total darkness for an extended period. The eclipse is happening today.

Light fails. From the rock beneath the surface emerge thousands of nocturnal predators — eyeless, fast, hunting by sound, allergic to light. They attack en masse. Shazza, Paris, and others are killed in the opening minutes.

Riddick, the only one who can see in the dark, becomes the survivors' unwilling guide. They scrape together flares and improvised torches and start the long walk toward a small skiff at the original crash site, using whatever light they can keep alive. Johns, paranoid Riddick will abandon them, plots to drug Jack and use her body as creature-bait. Riddick refuses and turns on him. Johns is killed by the creatures.

The remaining group — Carolyn, Riddick, Jack, and Imam — make a final run through swarms of predators. Riddick reaches the skiff first. He could leave them all. He starts to. Then he comes back for Jack. Carolyn helps Riddick to the skiff but is grabbed by a creature and killed in front of him.