REIGN OF FIRE
UK/US, 2002, 101 minutes, Colour.
Christian Bale, Matthew Mc Connaughhey, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler, Alice Kriege, Alexander Siddig.
Directed by Rob Bowman.
After all the holiday films with space heroes, spidermen and crocodile hunters comes a more serious action adventure for older children and their parents. It is set in 2020 in an isolated survival community in Northumbria who are being besieged by dragons. When we unexpectedly glimpse the first dragon in a tunnel below London, we jump out of our seats as it flame-throws.
According to the screenwriters and the director, Rob Bowman, who directed The X Files, from time immemorial, earth has been inhabited by dragons. It was they who wiped out the dinosaurs. But succeeding generations of St George's, Hercules and other mythological heroes have always driven them underground - where they live as archetypes, anyway. When humans in recurring eras become weak, the dragons emerge and assert themselves. The screenplay tells us that only one species can dominate the earth, so the dragons continue to try to destroy us humans.
Dragons are evil. Biblical evidence in the Book of Daniel, chapter 14:23-30, which offers Daniel as a predecessor of St George except that he feeds the dragon, the 'big dragon' who was worshipped in Babylon, balls of pitch, fat and hair which the dragon swallowed and burst asunder; and the Book of Revelation, chapter 12:1-17, especially verse 9 where the red dragon is described as 'the great dragon, the serpent, known as the devil or Satan. These stories have condemned dragons to being seen as perennially evil.
They serve as symbols of indiscriminate evil (like The Birds or Jaws. According to our movie, the reign of dragons' fire is to begin any minute.
Borrowing the isolated community trying to survive from the Mad Max movies, Reign of Fire has a small English group besieged in castle ruins and living like medieval monks. They are led by Quinn (Christian Bale) who discovered the dragon's lair in London tunnels when he was a boy in late 2002. Suddenly, the Yanks arrive, with a helicopter, tanks and computer wizardry. They are led by Van Zan (Matthew Mc Connaughey) who said he studied General Patton for his performance.
Van Zan sees himself as a leader with manifest destiny. He put it simply and straightforwardly to Quinn, "I lead, you follow". He is a strategy man, big picture, calculated target, a range of weaponry to draw on. His strategy and assessment of the situation were correct, a march on London to destroy the sole male dragon - but he had to turn back, his forces victims of the dragons' literal scorched earth policy.
Van Zan needs a practical tactician, Quinn. He graciously (for him) acknowledged this with a blunt direction to Quinn, "You lead. I follow". Quinn knew the route to London, where the lair was, the way to get into the tunnels and out of them. While Van Zan makes the supreme (and rather spectacular) self-sacrifice, it is Quinn who kills the dragon and survives to live another day (without, one hopes, another dragon).
Star Wars and other adventures can easily be seen as fables about human existence and struggles. Reign of Fire is a more sombre fable of humans beset by evil and trying to conquer it.
1. A fable with overtones of fairytales and epics? An apocalyptic story?
2. The title, the role of the dragons, their traditions of fire, sweeping through the air, destroying humans, destroying cities? Oppression and the need for a revolution?
3. The settings, a British story, ordinary London in the 21st century? The excavations for tunnels? The tunnel with the Dragon, fire? The excavations and lifts? The transition to Northumberland, the isolation, the countryside, the castle, the interiors, the shelters from the dragons, the fields and the crops? The musical score?
4. London, the millennium, ordinary life, Quinn and his coming from school, coming to the excavation, friendship with the workers, the encounter with mother, the note, his failure to get a scholarship, the financial difficulties, his going down the hole, the opening, his going through, the encounter with the Dragon, the fire, his mother rescuing him, going up in the lift, her death?
5. The transition to 2020, Northumberland, the isolation? The collage of images of the destruction of the cities, Time magazine? A post-apocalyptic setting?
6. Quinn, the leader, his strength, Creedy as his offsider, the adults, their work, the teenagers in future leadership, the children, Quinn and Creedy entertaining them with the play of Star Wars? Ordinary life and survival? Hunger?
7. The dragons, flying the skies, the Dragon eggs? Discovering that there was only one male, the rest female, the male passing over the females and creating all the eggs and more dragons?
8. Eddie, his group, wanting to move out, Quinn forbidding it, this surreptitious leaving, with the crops, the tomatoes, their hunger? The Dragon, breathing fire, destruction,
Quinn and Creedy coming to the rescue, fireproof clothes, the water wagons?
9. The tanks, the lookout, the guards, the operator with the radio? Quinn and suspicions, questioning?
10. Van Zan, the Americans, their presence in England, hunting the dragons? Alex and her presence, scientific knowledge?
11. Van Zan, his character, tough, American dominance, he leading and everybody following? The presence of the helicopter?
12. His plan, to track down the dragons, taking the men, Quinn unwilling? The volunteers? Out in the countryside, the travel, trying to evade the dragons? The attack of the dragons, the fire and the deaths?
13. Van Zan returning, Quinn and his dismay? Quinn and his knowledge of London, agreeing to go with Van Sant and Alex? The helicopter, the return to London, the dragons in the air, Quinn knowing the ground? Going back to the lair? The strategies for getting to the Dragon, the weapons, the arrow? Pursuit, Quinn losing his arrow, Alex acting as a decoy?
14. Van Zan, going to the top of the buildings, with his weapons, the attack of the Dragon – and his desperate leap to vanquish the Dragon, his death? Quinn, the ultimate confrontation, the Dragon, looming, Quinn firing, destruction?
15. A more secure future – and the possibility of rebuilding?
