Ultraviolet (film)



""Hello. My name is Violet and I was born into a world you may not understand.""

Ultraviolet is a 2006 Science Fiction / Action film starring Milla Jovovich as the eponymous Violet, fighting in a guerrilla war against the oppressive Arch-Ministry government in a dystopian future.

Violet is a hemophage, a person infected with a virus that produces symptoms similar to traditional vampirism. The infection confers superhuman senses, strength and agility, but is ultimately fatal. Violet became infected while pregnant, and lost her unborn child as a result of experiments performed on her in a concentration-camp for hemophages. She is in the terminal stages of the disease, and her latest mission is also expected to be her last.

Violet infiltrates an Arch-Ministry stronghold disguised as a courier, and escapes with what is supposed to be an ultimate weapon, something which will kill the few remaining hemophages with a single blow. But the "weapon" turns out to be a child named Six, prompting Violet to defy both her own kind, who want him dead, and the Ministry, who want him back.

Ultraviolet was deliberately created to stylistically resemble a comic book, with brilliantly colored outfits and hair, and an airbrushed appearance to close-ups. As with many comic books, the action scenes are deliberately over the top. It was not well-received, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 9%, but some find it So Bad Its Good or a Guilty Pleasure. It can now be streamed for free via a collaboration between YouTube and the Hulu competitor Crackle, here and here, so you can watch it for yourself and make your own opinion.

In 2008, the studio Madhouse produced a 12 episode anime series loosely based on the film titled Ultraviolet: Code 044.

Not to be confused with Ultraviolet the British television series, which was also a modern take on vampires, but which could otherwise not be more different in story, style and tone.

This film provides examples of:

 * Action Girl: Violet, of course.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Daxus. It helps that
 * Bare Your Midriff: Violet's entire wardrobe is an example of this.
 * In fact, the real star of the movie is probably Milla Jovovich's abs.
 * Bottomless Magazines: People do run out of ammo. Occasionally. Semi-justified with the whole idea of "flat-space technology".
 * Car Fu: Violet uses a sedan to crush a large group of mooks against a wall.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Daxus's flamethrower pistol, which actually fires twice. The first time is in squirting flammable gel, which provides Violet with her Flaming Sword. The second is when she then uses the flamethrower itself during the ensuing battle.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Daxus openly admits that he couldn't beat Violet in a straight fight, so he tries to use a flamethrower.
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu: And how!
 * Cool Sword: Violet's sword, as seen on the movie poster above.
 * Cosmic Deadline: Which seems to set about twenty minutes in.
 * Deadly Dodging: Violet kills most of a group of gunmen mooks this way. It helps that they were stupid enough to stand in a circle around her with guns pointed inwards...
 * Death By Cameo: Director Kurt Wimmer.
 * Dueling Movies: With Underworld Evolution or Blade Trinity or possibly both and maybe even with Thirty Days of Night, which would explain why the vampire subtext seemed a little buried.
 * Elite Mooks: The guys with katanas... maybe. You'd have to be either crazy-good or just plain crazy to be armed with a sword when everyone else has access to guns.
 * Executive Meddling: The original cut of this film clocked in at about 120 minutes. The version shown in theaters? 88. And apparently, both Milla and Kurt were locked out of the editing process. The extended cut on home video clocks in at 97 or so minutes and is better, but unavailable on Blu-Ray because Sony refused at the time to allow unrated or NC-17 content on the format. Double whammy. The Novelization, however, uses the unedited story.
 * Extended Disarming: The computer attempts to tally all the weapons in Violet's Hyperspace Arsenal. It finally gives up and just says "many" in a very surprised-sounding voice.
 * Faceless Goons: The Ministry's Mooks.
 * Faux Symbolism: The prologue shows hemophage victims wearing black hats and clothing, being harassed by skinheads, and herded into camps. This sequence serves no narrative purpose and is never referenced again.
 * Possibly because after the opening sequence, almost all the hemophages were executed? As Violet herself says "The ones that survived... started fighting back."
 * Fictional Document: The opening credits show that the movie is supposed to be based on a series of comic books or manga.
 * Flaming Sword: In Violet and Daxus' Final Battle, they both wield one.
 * Gas Mask Mooks: One of the flavors of Faceless Goons. Considering how paranoid everyone is about disease in this era, it's probably semi-justified.
 * Government Conspiracy: Daxus isn't looking to wipe out the hemophages; he's pretty much already done that. He's
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language: The Blood Chinois speak (very formal) Vietnamese. Violet speaks it badly.
 * Gravity Screw: Violet wears a gravity leveller on her belt that allows her to use this trope to great effect. Her motorcycle has such a device as well, allowing her to flee from her foes along the sides of skyscrapers.
 * Gun Kata: And lots of it.
 * Hammerspace: Used liberally. The hemophage strike team in the opening has shoulder-mounted ones that holds swords, Violet has her wrist-mounted Hyperspace Arsenal, Garth has an entire Mad Scientist Laboratory in a semi, and Daxus keeps Six.
 * Heal It With Fire: In the final battle, Violet's hands are cut up pretty badly, so she fires her SMG's so she can use the muzzle heat to cauterize the wounds.
 * Hollywood Darkness: Averted. When the hemophages shoot out the lights, it actually gets too dark to see what happens. Given the amount of bodies on the ground when the lights come back on, we can guess, though.
 * Hot Chick With a Sword: Pretty much the whole point of the film really.
 * How Many All of Them
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Violet caries a ridiculously large number of guns and her sword in a pocket dimension. This leads to a Crowning Moment of Funny when the computer in the Arch-Ministry building scans her for hidden weapons.
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Violet routinely takes out hordes of submachine-gun-toting mooks with her sword.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: Violet's wardrobe even changes color.
 * Invincible Hero: Violet isn't really challenged by any of the enemies she meets. As a hemophage, she's far more powerful than mere humans. Even when confronted by a dozen hemophages, she
 * Kaleidoscope Hair: Violet, again.
 * Knight Templar: Daxus.
 * Mama Bear: Violet.
 * Mad Scientist Laboratory: Garth's semi trailer is a modern version of one, anyway.
 * The Man Behind the Curtain: Subverted. Daxus is a great deal more dangerous than he looks. Unlike DuPont, it's made clear halfway through the film instead of foreshadowed.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Due to coming out during a spate of vampire action films there was no mention of the characters' "condition".
 * No Paper Future: Violet has a bracelet that's actually a bendy credit card... which she uses to buy disposable cell phones, printed on paper.
 * Non Action Guy: Garth.
 * Not Using the Z Word: The movie only mentions the word "vampire" twice, first in the exposition dump when Violet notes that it's a slur used for hemophages, and a second time (in Vietnamese) when Violet is confronted by the Blood Chinois.
 * Novelization: A book version of the film was written by Yvonne Navarro, which is based and expands upon the original, uncut screenplay.
 * Oblivious to Love: Violet seems completely unaware that Garth has feelings for her.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: The hemophages are infected with a disease that's been around since ancient times, creating the myth of vampires. This virus, however, has been modified in an attempt to create Super Soldiers.
 * Phlebotinum Rebel: All of the hemophages, but especially Violet. Six can be seen this way as well.
 * Pieta Plagiarism: At the end.
 * The Power of Love:
 * Pro Human Transhuman: Subverted.
 * Rule of Cool: The movie practically runs on it.
 * Same Story Different Names: The basic structure of the story is rehashed from Wimmer's previous film, Equilibrium, with the colors ramped Up to Eleven.
 * She Fu: Need you ask?
 * Short Range Long Range Weapon: The mooks are so very guilty of this.
 * Shout Out: One near-archetypical shot in particular may be a reference to Ghost in The Shell, to The Matrix, or to both.
 * Slouch of Villainy: Nerva does this.
 * Smug Snake: Daxus
 * Straw Hypocrite: Daxus. Turns out that
 * Swiss Army Tears: Violet's tears
 * Sword Sparks: Used to light the Flaming Sword.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Daxus ordering his entire army of mooks to open fire on Violet.... or so he thinks.
 * Transhuman Treachery: The hemophages. To be fair, the humans locked them in concentration camps, experimented on them, and tried to wipe them out.
 * Unorthodox Reload: Violet reloads her guns via tiny portals to her Hyperspace Arsenal above her wrists.
 * Vampire Refugee: Violet, for the last part of the movie.
 * You Are Already Checked In
 * You Are Number Six: Literally true for the boy whom Violet abducts from the Arch-Ministry.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: And red, and purple, and white, and...