The Darkest Hour (2011)

 ●  English ● 1 hr 30 mins

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The American software designers Sean and Ben travel to Moscow to sell their software to investors. However, their Swedish partner Skyler pulls a fast one on Sean and Ben, and they are out of the business. They go to a nightclub, where they meet American Natalie and Australian Anne and they flirt with the girls and see Skyler in the club. Out of the blue, the population is surprised by lights, which they mistake for natural phenomena. But soon, they learn that the lights are aliens invading Earth and using power supply to annihilate mankind. Sean, Ben, Natalie, Anne and Skyler hide in the kitchen and when they leave the place, they seek out survivors on the street. Are they the last people on Earth?
See Storyline (May Contain Spoilers)

Cast: Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella, Olivia Thirlby

Crew: Chris Gorak (Director), Scott Kevan (Director of Photography), Tyler Bates (Music Director)

Rating: U/A (India)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Horror

Release Dates: 25 Dec 2011 (India)

Tagline: The Invasion Begins Christmas Day

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Did you know? The boat the refugees use to try to reach the submarine is named "Orca" (spelled "orka" in Cyrillic). Read More
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Actor
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Supporting Actress

Direction

Director

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Screenplay Writer

Camera and Electrical

Director of Photography

Music

Music Director
Music Label

Sound

Sound Designer
Sound Effects Editor
Sound Re-recording Mixer

Art

Art Director

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Editorial

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Special Effects Coordinator
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital, DTS
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.39:1 (Scope)
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
The Invasion Begins Christmas Day
Survive The Holidays
Movie Connection(s):
Referenced in: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (English)
Reference: Jaws (English)
Dubbed into: The Darkest Hour (Hindi)
Goofs:
Revealing Mistakes
When they are floating down the river on the boat to get to the submarine, you can clearly see the footage is reversed to make it look like the boat is floating down the stream. The sailing route is clearly visible, and the boat is "floating" backwards along it.

Miscellaneous
01:21:17, a man is visible on the balcony in the background.

Factual Mistake
The radio that the group finds in the US embassy works because it was protected from the EMP strike inside the bird cage which acted like a Faraday cage. A Faraday cage blocks EM waves, including microwaves. The radio works in the bird cage because the antenna is connected to a wire leading outside of the cage; but it would not have worked in Sergei's apartment.

Factual Mistake
In the mall, Sean discovers that the aliens cant see them through glass since they are reading the human bio-electrical pulses and glass does not conduct electricity. So the bulb on Sean's neck shouldn't be lighting up either.

Continuity
In the opening scene, the plane externally is a Boeing 737-700 and when the camera zooms into the windows looking in, you can see that the seating arrangement is 3 seats an aisle and 3 more seats - the normal configuration for this aircraft. However when the camera zooms inside the aircraft, the cabin layout is much bigger with a 3-3-3 seat layout and dual aisles. The only twin engine aircraft that Boeing has that could match this seat configuration is the Boeing 777. At the end of the scene just as the plane is landing in the sunset, a completely different aircraft - a Boeing 767 is shown landing.

Continuity
Toward the end of the movie when the main characters are boarding the submarine, there are people walking on the balcony of an apartment highrise in the background.

Continuity
When Sergei dies, he drops the microwave gun right underneath the alien that 'dusted' him, however, just a moment later, Ben picks it up as it is now laying at his own feet and now has a blue, a red, a green and a yellow light on it. Towards the end, just before jumping into the river, the original microwave gun with the timer dial on the side returns.

Continuity
When they are floating down the river on the boat to get to the submarine, you can see traffic in the background just as they go under a bridge.

Continuity
When Natalie is driving the bus she disappears from and reappears in the driver's seat in successive shots over Sean's Shoulder.
Trivia:
Production was suspended for a planned two weeks due to the extraordinary air pollution caused by heavy smoke from the wild fires surrounding Moscow in August 2010. It eventually resumed three weeks later. Even with this precaution, smoke still made it into a lot of shots and had to be digitally removed in post production.

Not screened in advance for North American critics.

Shot in 3D as opposed to post-conversion.

The involvement of Timur Bekmambetov as producer afforded the production the opportunity of using Russia as a backdrop instead of the usual USA locations. Bekmambetov owns a film production company in Moscow called Bazelevs where most of the movie was made.

The boat the refugees use to try to reach the submarine is named "Orca" (spelled "orka" in Cyrillic).