Edge of Darkness (2010 film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Edge of Darkness is the Hollywood film adaptation of the BBC television series of the same name. It was directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro), and stars Mel Gibson and Bojana Novakovic (Drag Me to Hell). The film was released by Warner Brothers in 2010 to mixed critical reception.

Widowed detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) lived only for his career with the Boston PD and his daughter, Elle (Novakovic). During an unexpected visit at Craven's home, Elle suddenly became violently ill at the dinner table... and, in a panic, urged her father to take her to the hospital, telling Craven that there was something important she needed to tell him as they prepared to leave. Before he could find out what that was, Elle was fatally shot in the chest by a masked assailant on Craven's front porch... a shot that the Boston Police believed was meant for Craven himself.

However, his daughter's strange behavior before her death gave Craven reason to doubt that assumption. And the deeper he dug into Elle's past and the secretive nature of her work, the more reason he had to believe that the assassin's bullet was, in fact, meant for her. Soon Craven found himself in the midst of a conspiracy involving powerful corporations, ruthless killers, and some of the highest levels of the United States government. Unwilling to let his daughter's death be in vain, Craven vowed to pursue the truth no matter the cost to his career, or even his own life.

Not to be confused with the 1943 World War II film, also titled Edge of Darkness.

Tropes used in Edge of Darkness include:
  • A Glass of Chianti: Jedburgh is drinking a glass of wine in a park bench when Craven meets him.
  • Can't Stop the Signal: Craven sends his daughter's confessional/whistleblowing video to the press.
  • Catapult Nightmare -- Craven waking up after a dream of his daughter's murder.
  • Convenient Terminal Illness: It is revealed that Jedburgh has a terminal illness which probably explains why he kills the rest of the major villains and allows himself to be killed by the security guard at the ending
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive -- Jack Bennett, the CEO of Northmoor.
  • Daddy's Girl -- Elle.
  • Double Agent -- Jedburgh, a British national and "consultant" for the CIA who serves to clean-up politically damaging messes. Throughout the film, it is hard to pin down just where his loyalties truly lie.
  • Fade to White -- The ending.
  • The Film of the Series -- While Campbell also directed the original television series, the film adaptation received some major changes both to make it more US-centric, and to give it more of a modern-day revenge thriller feel.
  • Fingore: Craven kills one mook by shooting him when he tries to hold him up. The bullet end up blasting off his finger and going through his eye.
  • Happier Home Movie -- Craven watching his daughter as a child.
  • Have You Told Anyone Else? -- interesting twist: Craven tells Jedburgh he didn't tell anyone, and because of that Hard to say...), the latter lets the former live.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard -- Craven gains a measure of symbolic revenge when he forces Bennett, the man who ordered the radioactive thallium poisoning of both Craven and Elle, to drink a jar filled with thallium-tainted milk.
  • Hollywood New England -- Gibson uses the traditional Boston accent and portrays the classic working class Bostonian roots, the Senator could probably trace his ancestory back to the mayflower if you asked him.
  • Karma Houdini -- Bill Whitehouse, Craven's friend and partner, who sold him to Bennett.
  • The Last Dance -- Jedburgh, Craven.
  • Mangst -- Craven after the first day dealing with his daughter's murder turns all his potential angst into manly ass-kicking, murder investigating, conspiracy uncovering, prowess.
  • Papa Wolf: Craven
  • Perfect Poison -- Using radioactive thallium to kill both Cravens, as the thallium is tasteless ordorless and deadly after a few days.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Two of them, one by Craven and the other by Jedburgh.

Craven: "Deep down... ...you know you deserve this."
Senator: "I am a United States Senator."
Jedburgh: "By what standard?" (Guns him down.)

  • Sawed-Off Shotgun: The weapon used to murder Craven's daughter.
  • Say My Name: Craven forces a mook to yell his name so he can confirm that he's the guy who killed his daughter.
  • Searching the Stalls: When Craven lost two henchman by hiding and escaping from a bathroom.
  • The Stoic -- Craven, a former Vietnam vet who can't understand why others "make such a big deal" out of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, shows little outward signs of his emotions aside from a brief breakdown after Elle's death.
  • Storming the Castle: The climax.
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