Knight Rider 2000
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- For other articles see: Knight Rider (disambiguation)
| Knight Rider 2000 | |
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 Promotional poster for Knight Rider 2000 |
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| Directed by | Alan J. Levi |
| Produced by | Michele Brustin, Rob Hedden |
| Written by | Rob Hedden, Glen A. Larson |
| Starring | David Hasselhoff Edward Mulhare Susan Norman Carmen Argenziano Mitch Pileggi |
| Music by | Jan Hammer |
| Cinematography | Billy Dickson |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | May 19, 1991 |
| Running time | 91 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Knight Rider 2000 is a 1991 sequel movie to the television series Knight Rider. It is included in the Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4 versions of the Knight Rider Season One box set. The movie served as a pilot for a proposed new series, but despite high ratings, the plans fell through and were abandoned.
Another TV movie was planned in 1994, which ultimately was released as Knight Rider 2010 which was only very loosely based on the Knight Rider concept.
In 1997, a new series Team Knight Rider featuring a team of drivers with fantastic vehicles was released. Then, in 2007 a new Knight Rider was produced and aired on Sunday, February 17, 2008 on NBC and Global. The Knight Rider 2008 TV film was created as a backdoor pilot for a new Knight Rider series.
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[edit] Plot
The story takes place in an alternate year 2000 and set in an unspecified city that is never mentioned in dialog, (although indicated in the script as being Seattle, Washington. The production was actually filmed in parts of San Antonio, Texas and Corpus Christi, Texas according to the ending credits). In this city, handguns have been banned and law enforcement carry non-lethal microwave "stun" pistols. Criminals are sentenced to a high-tech cryonic suspension prison instead of conventional jail cells.
One such inmate, Thomas J. Watts (Mitch Pileggi) – a former cop turned psychotic killer, has just been released from the prison and assassinates a city official. The city's Mayor, Harold Abbey (Lou Beatty Jr.), demands the gunman be found, but his fellow councilmen reprimand him for his choice to disarm the police and setting up the meaningless cryo-prison where the inmates just "sleep away" their sentences and emerge the same person as they entered.
The Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG) steps in with a possible solution to help the police force and unveil the "Knight 4000" – a red custom car reminiscent of the Pontiac Banshee prototype that will become the next generation of the Knight Industries supercar previously called KITT. With the vehicle, law enforcement will have an edge on heavily armed criminals and will be better able to apprehend them safely. Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) and his partner, Russel Maddock (Carmen Argenziano), are green lighted on the idea, but the city wants to see a working prototype of the 4000 in three months. Maddock doesn't see a problem with the deadline, but Devon knows they will need help with an effective demonstration. He decides to bring in Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) as the test driver.
Elsewhere, Watts strikes again, this time shooting police officer Shawn McCormick (Susan Norman) in the head after she discovers that some of her fellow patrolmen are working with the assassin in a twisted conspiracy – to rearm the criminals so the city will have no choice but to give the police their "real" weapons back. Shawn survives the attack and is rushed to the hospital. There, doctors save her by installing a cybernetic microchip implant into her brain. She eventually recovers, but the vital details of the attack are gone and all that she remembers is that someone tried to kill her, but who or why elude her.
Meanwhile, Devon visits Michael, who has been "retired" for the past ten years and living in seclusion near a mountain lake. Devon convinces him to join the project, but Michael is furious to learn KITT has been reduced to a pile of scrap at Maddock's direction. Maddock sees no reason to restore the old KITT because the Knight 4000 already has a personality module designed after Maddock himself. He also disagrees with the idea to have Michael Knight brought back to the Foundation. Furious, Michael is ready to walk away, but later decides to rebuild KITT's AI unit, which he finds difficult since Maddock has sold most KITT's cybernetic technology to medical research. Eventually, Michael is able to reactivate KITT's logic module and temporarily installs him in the dashboard of his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. KITT protests his vintage look, but it is the best Michael can do for him under the circumstances. While parked in the garage, KITT tries to get to know the Knight 4000, but finds the vehicle is just as temperamental and arrogant as the man he's modeled after.
Elsewhere, Shawn quits the police force after she learns the police commissioner didn't want to authorize her brain chip implant, nor get involved in her case. She seeks employment with the Foundation where Michael learns one of KITT's missing cybernetic chips is now in her head. Because of this, KITT is able to link up with the chip through physical contact and he is able to extract her missing memories. Shawn now remembers that Watts is the one who shot her and her fellow officers were with him when he did it — including her partner whom she had trusted implicitly.
The plot thickens when Watts learns Shawn is still alive and involved in the new Foundation project and sends the crooked cops to eliminate her and Michael. The two are easily chased down by the police when they try to get away in KITT's classic car body which isn't the indestructible shell he once had. KITT decides to evade capture by driving off a pier into the harbor where he quickly sinks to the bottom. Michael and Shawn are momentarily kept safe inside the "air tight" driving compartment but KITT isn't so lucky as water seeps in and shorts out his circuitry. With Watts believing Michael and Shawn are dead, he captures Devon and uses mind scanning technology to discover what Devon knows. Afterward, he injects a lethal drug into an intravenous tube which kills Devon.
Michael and Shawn eventually swim to safety and secretly return to the Foundation where they learn of Devon's fate. Swearing to stop Watts at all costs, Michael goes against Maddock's orders and installs KITT's AI module into the Knight 4000 (though, the AI is still called "KITT" because the KIFT was the previous AI ). KITT gets used to his new body and the vehicle's advanced features, such as a heads up virtual reality display in the windshield. Michael and Shawn both go after Watts with a personal vendetta.
After Watt's defeat, Michael returns to retirement. KITT remains behind at the Knight Foundation with Shawn and Maddock. The trio continue their police work for the city.
[edit] The Knight 4000's features
The Knight 4000 has most of KITT's original features including a few new and improved systems.
- Voice Activated Controls - The Knight 4000's dashboard is less "cluttered looking" than KITT's original dash with most of the controls now being completely voice activated rather than having to push a button.
- Virtual Reality Heads-up Display - Rather than dash-mounted CRT displays, the Knight 4000 utilizes a virtual reality heads-up display (VR-HUD) that makes use of the entire windshield as video monitor.
- Microwave Stunner - Much like the new non-lethal Seattle police sidearm, the Knight 4000 is equipped with a microwave stunner that can bring down a criminal by disrupting the central nervous system and rendering them immobilized.
- Thermal Expander - The Knight 4000 is equipped with an offensive weapon which consisted of a microwave projector that caused the temperatures of targeted objects to quickly rise and either ignite or explode.
- Fax Machine - The Knight 4000 can print out faxed messages from a dash mounted printer.
- Amphibious Mode - The Knight 4000 can float and maneuver on water much like a boat. The system was actually a major improvement over KITT's original hydroplane ability which during the original series was prone to malfunctions during its experimental phase.
[edit] Trivia
- The movie was executive produced by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., whose previous output includes numerous Sunn Classic films, Grizzly Adams, Greatest Heroes of the Bible, The Boogens, the original Silent Night, Deadly Night, and The Annihilators.
- While early versions of the script had the story set in Seattle (including a climax featuring the use of KITT's amphibious mode to intercept Watts on a Washington State Ferry), there is no dialogue on film to imply that the story occurs in any city in particular - much like the original Knight Rider TV series.
- Knight Rider 2000 was filmed in two Texas cities, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. In some scenes, characters are in San Antonio locations such as Paseo del Río and the Tower of the Americas one moment, and the next they are at the shoreline of Corpus Christi.
- The studio was unable to use a real Pontiac Banshee for the movie, so instead it hired Jay Ohrberg Star Cars Inc. to customize a 1991 Dodge Stealth for the Knight 4000. The custom car can also be seen, albeit briefly, as a stolen supercar in CHiPs '99.
- In several episodes of the TV series (one being season 3, episode 1 (Knight of the drones) there are pictures on the wall of the Knight semi trailer of what would seem to later become the Knight 4000 in Knight Rider 2000. This is evident in all the episodes from late season 2 up through 3.
- Actor James Doohan makes a cameo appearance as an innocent bystander that KITT mistakes for a criminal stealing money from an ATM. KITT zaps the suspect with a stun beam and the man collapses. When Michael and Maddock pick up the man to arrest him, they find Mr. Doohan, delirious (from being zapped), and mumbling various lines from his role of Scotty on Star Trek. In the scene, Maddock mentions that there have been ten Star Trek movies by 2000, and Doohan was in all ten. The script writers were somewhat close. However, Doohan's last appearance was in the crossover-movie, Star Trek Generations, his seventh Star Trek film. When he was asked by a fan at a Seattle Star Trek convention as to his motives for doing the cameo, Doohan humorously replied "Their money was green."
- In the ATM scene, the original script had football linebacker Brian Bosworth getting stunned by KITT. The scene was later rewritten to feature James Doohan instead of Bosworth.
- Dan Quayle, who was Vice President of the United States in 1991, had become President of the United States by 2000 in the Knight Rider universe.
- With the original KITT being the Knight 2000, and the new version being the Knight 4000, it is not made clear in the movie if there was ever a Knight 3000. However, the Knight 3000 is the car in the 2008 Knight Rider remake.
- No mention is made of Bonnie (or RC3) in the story.
- Watts is incarcerated in a cryogenic prison. The technicians who are carting Watts' cryogenic unit mention that they are also getting ready to release "some Manson guy" that's been there for a long time.
- The storyline and plot of this movie are completely disregarded in the 2008 Knight Rider Made-For-TV movie.
- During the movie when KITT was printing the fax you can see the original Pontiac Banshee behind it when the camera comes back up to Mike's face. It's blurred out so they wouldn't have to pay Pontiac for name use. That's why KITT wasn't the Pontiac Banshee in the movie.
[edit] Cast
- David Hasselhoff .... Michael Knight
- Edward Mulhare .... Devon Miles
- Susan Norman .... Officer Shawn McCormick
- Carmen Argenziano .... Russell Maddock/Voice of Knight 4000
- Eugene Clark .... Officer Kurt Miller
- Megan Butler .... Officer Marla Hedges
- Mitch Pileggi .... Thomas J. Watts
- Christine Healy .... Commissioner Ruth Daniels
- Lou Beatty Jr. .... Mayor Harold Abbey
- Francis Guinan .... Dr. Jeffrey Glassman
- John Cannon Nichols .... Lieutenant Justin Strand
- Chris Bonno .... Andrew
- Robert F. Cawley .... Prison Guard
- Ellis Posey .... Mayor Frank Cottam
- Philip Hafer .... Charlie (as Phillip Hafer)
- Carolyn G. Jackson .... Bag Lady
- Ron Jackson .... Highway Police Officer
- Stacy Lundgren .... Sandy
- Matthew Menger .... Shawn's Father (as Matt Menger)
- Paul Menzel .... Businessman
- J.W. Moore IV .... Medical Technician
- Edwin Neal .... Warehouse Clerk
- Marco Perella .... Police Sergeant
- Larry Roop .... Police Officer
- Lori Swierski .... Lori
- James Doohan .... Himself
- William Daniels .... KITT (voice) (uncredited)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Knight Rider 2000 Online - Comprehensive website about the movie
- Knight Rider 2000 at the Internet Movie Database
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