Day Watch

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This article is about the 2006 film. For the sequel to the Night Watch novel, see Day Watch (novel).
Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor)
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Produced by Konstantin Ernst
Anatoli Maksimov
Written by Novel:
Sergei Lukyanenko
Screenplay:
Timur Bekmambetov
Starring Konstantin Khabensky
Aleksei Chadov
Gosha Kutsenko
Igor Lifanov
Zhanna Friske
Distributed by Flag of Russia Gemini Film
Flag of United States Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s) Flag of Russia January 1, 2006
Flag of United States June 1, 2007
Running time 140 min.
Country Flag of Russia Russia
Language Russian
English
Budget USD$4,200,000.
Preceded by Night Watch
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Day Watch (Russian: Дневно́й дозо́р, Dnevnoi Dozor), a Russian fantasy action blockbuster marketed as "the first film of the year", opened in theatres across Russia on January 1, 2006 and will open in the U.S. on June 1, 2007. It is a sequel to the hugely popular 2004 film Night Watch, featuring the same cast. It is based on the second and the third part of Sergey Lukyanenko's novel Night Watch rather than its follow-up novel Day Watch. The film's budget was USD$4.2 million and was expected to gross $40 million in Russia alone.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It is New Year's Eve of 2006, more than one year after the events of Night Watch. Anton Gorodetsky, the protagonist of the first film, finds himself in the middle of an approaching conflict between the Light and Dark Others, who are still bound with an uneasy truce. Anton is still a Night Watch operative, now working with his trainee and romantic interest, Svetlana (the healer from the first film, now a Light Other). As his son Yegor has now become a Dark Other, Anton is forced to secretly destroy evidence of Yegor's attacks on normal people, which violate the treaty, leaving the Night Watch unable to sentence Yegor.

To redeem for his previous mistake, an attempt to use a witch's service to kill the unborn Yegor (shown in the beginning of the first film), Anton seeks the legendary Chalk of Fate, a magical chalk that could rewrite history, which was once Tamerlan's property and one of the main reasons of his numerous military successes.

Meanwhile, Zabulon, the leader of the Dark Others and their Day Watch, is waiting for Yegor's birthday. At the birthday, Yegor would become a Great Other and acquire the power that would allow the Dark Others to break the treaty (which is only supported because the Others fear that the two sides will destroy each other). Being grateful to Anton for his covering of Yegor doesn't stop the Day Watch from trying to frame Anton and get him sentenced for murder. They succeed, despite the efforts made by Boris Ivanovich Geser (the head of the Night Watch) to protect Anton from the Dark Others by switching his body with that of Olga the sorceress (in this form, his relationship with Svetlana suddenly gains a boost, as Svetlana confesses to the false Olga that she actually loves Anton).

Finally Anton gets hold of the Chalk of Fate, but it is soon stolen by Yegor. Zabulon cannot use or even touch the Chalk (it would be a direct violation of the treaty), and it ends up being used by Alisa Donnikova, Zabulon's minion, for her personal desires. Yegor's birthday party begins soon after that; the guests are Dark Others (some of them are Russian pop stars), although Anton makes his way to the party as Yegor's father and pretends to be drunk to expose the real committer of the murder he has been charged with - his neighbor vampire, Kostia's father. He is unable, however, to avert a disaster: as Svetlana rushes to the party to find Anton, she pushes Yegor and accidentally spills his blood, prompting Zabulon to break the treaty.

Yegor, now a Great Other, unleashes an apocalypse upon Moscow. The city is nearly destroyed, starting with the Ostankino Tower; a fierce battle between the Light and Dark Others follows, with few survivors on each side. One of them, however, is Anton, who manages to reclaim the Chalk of Fate from Alisa and runs through the ruins of Moscow to the house where he, thirteen years ago, made his visit to the witch — the visit that caused the entire sequence of events, starting Anton's own initiation into the Night Watch. Anton writes "NO" on a wall in this house; Moscow reverts to normal, and time is thrown back to 1992.

Zhanna Friske as Alisa in Day Watch
Zhanna Friske as Alisa in Day Watch

In the epilogue, as a result of the Chalk's influence, Anton rethinks his intent to kill his unborn child and decides not to strike a deal with the witch. He walks out of the house, into the street, where he meets Svetlana, and where Zabulon and Geser are sitting on a bench, without any signs of hostility, wondering whether Anton will recognize her or not. Eventually Geser's prediction that he will recognize her come true, and the film ends with Anton and Svetlana walking together under an umbrella — down the street and away.

[edit] Response

According to Channel One (producer of film), by January 4, 2006 about two million people in Russia and CIS had already watched the movie. The release of the film across Russia was timed for the long holiday period (from January 1 through January 9) and created demand among the ticket-buying public unprecedented in the post-Soviet period. Gemini Film states that preliminary assessment for Day Watch box office by June 25, 2006 is $31,965,087.

[edit] Trivia

  • The murderer of the Dark Others is revealed to be Kostia's father, Anton's vampire neighbor. Zabulon promised him to help Kostia in return for the murders. After Anton unmasks him in front of everybody, the Inquisitors take him away for sentencing ("defleshing", most likely). In the novel, the murderer is an uninitiated Light Other - Maxim - who believes he is destroying evil. For some reason, he can only see Dark auras, believing himself to be unique. After learning of the Others, Maxim joins the Inquisition. He is later shown in the novel as the official Inquisition observer during the Chalk of Fate ritual.
  • The murder weapon in the movie is a bone, possibly a relic of some sort. In the book, Maxim uses an enchanted wooden dagger, given to him by a childhood friend.
  • Yegor is shown as Anton's son and a Great Other. In the novels, Yegor is a neutral low-level Other and is not related to Anton. He refused to join either side after finding out that he was a pawn in both sides' intrigues.
  • The Chalk of Fate is described as allowing anyone to change their own (and only their own) history. In the novel, the Chalk is used to rewrite someone's Fate Book (not limited to the user), but only applies to current and future events, not the past. It was also an artifact that could only be used by Light Sorceresses. Svetlana attempts to use it to rewrite Yegor's fate but fails. Anton later finds out that the entire chain of events has been set up by Geser to get permission from the Inquisition to use the Chalk. While Svetlana was attempting to alter Yegor's fate (diverting Zabulon's attention), Olga used a piece of the Chalk to rewrite Svetlana's.
Spoilers end here.

[edit] External links

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