Rogue (film)

Rogue
Official poster for Rogue
Directed by	Greg McLean
Produced by	Matt Hearn David Lightfoot Greg McLean
Written by	Greg McLean
Starring	Michael Vartan Radha Mitchell Sam Worthington John Jarratt
Music by	Frank Tetaz
Cinematography	Will Gibson
Editing by	Jason Ballantine
Studio	Village Roadshow Pictures Emu Creek Pictures
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release dates	8 November 2007 (2007-11-08) (Australia) 25 April 2008 (2008-04-25) (North America)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	A$26 million
Box office	$4,620,096

Rogue is a 2007 Australian independent horror film about a group of tourists in Australia who fall prey to a giant, man-eating crocodile. Rogue was released in Australia on 8 November 2007.^[1]

The film stars Michael Vartan and Radha Mitchell and was directed, written, and produced by Greg McLean, who also directed the 2005 indie-Australian horror hit Wolf Creek. It was produced by David Lightfoot and Matt Hearn and made on a budget of A$26.9 million.^[2] The film was inspired by the true story of Sweetheart, a giant Australian crocodile that attacked boats in the late 1970s, although in real life, Sweetheart was never responsible for a fatal attack.

Plot

While carrying out his research as a travel journalist, cynical American Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) joins a group of tourists on a crocodile watching river cruise in Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory, led by a wildlife researcher named Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell). After a run-in with two locals, Neil (Sam Worthington) and Collin (Damien Richardson), the cruise winds to a close and Kate prepares to return the group to base.

Everett (Robert Taylor) spots a flare in the distance, and Kate tells the group that they must investigate to determine whether someone is being attacked. A few miles up river they come across a half-sunken boat when suddenly something crashes into the tourists' boat, creating a crack in the side. Kate's only choice is to run it ashore on a small island in the middle of the river. The group disembarks and begins discussion of what to do. Everett suddenly is killed, pulled into the water by an unseen predator. Kate comes to the conclusion that they are in the heart of a large crocodile's territory and that it will be more aggressive than usual. As darkness approaches, the tourists realize that the tide is rising: in a matter of hours their small island will be submerged.

Neil and Collin arrive soon after and as they near the island, the 23-foot crocodile smashes Neil and Collin's boat and sinks it. Neil manages to swim to the island safely, but Collin has been killed.

As night falls, Neil proposes that he swim to the mainland and string a rope between two trees, creating a zip-line to allow the group to cross above the river. Neil succeeds in setting up the rope and Mary Ellen (Caroline Brazier) crosses first only to freeze in fear halfway across. Allen (Geoff Morrell) becomes impatient and aggressive and attempts to get himself and his daughter Sherry (Mia Wasikowska) across with Mary Ellen still on the line. While trying to secure the rope, Neil is attacked by the crocodile and is killed. The tree holding the rope snaps and the three on the line fall into the water. They scurry back to the island, but as Allen crawls up the beach, the gigantic crocodile suddenly lunges out of the water, rips off his right arm, and throws him farther into the river where he is killed.

Later that night, Pete suggests they can delay the crocodile with a hook and bait on one side of the island while everyone escapes off the other side. Simon (Stephen Curry) is skeptical of the idea, but Russell (John Jarratt) agrees to try. Lacking bait, everyone suggests using Kate's dog, much to her disgust, but they decide to use two dead birds that Neil and Collin had shown earlier. Kate hooks the dead birds onto the boat's anchor while Pete secures the anchor rope to a boulder and throws the bait out into the river. After a long wait, the anchor is suddenly grabbed and pulled and the group makes a break for the far shore. Russell assists Sherry's mother, Elizabeth (Heather Mitchell), due to her inability to swim. Pete tries to stop the boulder from being pulled over as Kate swims across behind the group. The crocodile suddenly lets go of the hook and bait, seizes Kate, and drags her underwater. Pete hurriedly makes the swim across the river with Kevin in tow, and heads off into the bush to meet up with the others.

As day breaks, Pete is crossing a stream when Kevin runs away. Pete chases the dog into a cave and falls down a narrow chute into a larger cave, where he sees Neil's corpse. He quickly realizes that the cave is the crocodile's lair, and to his surprise, he finds Kate alive but badly injured and unconscious. He attempts to carry her out but has to hide when he hears the crocodile returning and Kevin is devoured. Finishing its meal of Kevin, the crocodile enters the cave and falls asleep. Trying to reach the entrance carrying Kate, Pete accidentally wakes the crocodile, and it makes several attempts to kill both him and Kate as he retreats into the narrow confines of the cave. Finally, after a long fight in which he gets tossed around and is bitten in the hand, Pete makes one last stand. He braces a broken log against a large boulder with the sharp end pointing out towards the crocodile. The crocodile lunges at him, and Pete successfully impales it through the head. He escapes from the cave with Kate to join the other tourists and waiting paramedics.

As the credits roll, the camera zooms in on a newspaper article detailing Pete's heroic battle with the crocodile and rescue of Kate.

Location

Rogue was partly filmed at Kakadu National Park and Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) in Australia's Northern Territory, and partly in Gilderoy in Victoria's Yarra Valley.^[3]

Cast

• Michael Vartan as Pete McKell
• Radha Mitchell as Kate Ryan
• Sam Worthington as Neil
• Stephen Curry as Simon
• Celia Ireland as Gwen
• John Jarratt as Russell
• Heather Mitchell as Elizabeth
• Geoff Morrell as Allen
• Mia Wasikowska as Sherry
• Caroline Brazier as Mary Ellen
• Robert Taylor as Everett Kennedy
• Damien Richardson as Collin

Reception

Box office

Rogue debuted in the Australian box office on 11 November 2007 making A$667,194. After 11 weeks in the nation's cinemas it left making A$1.8 million. It was released in the United States on 25 April 2008 and in its first weekend made US$7,711. It remained in theatres for three more days before making an exit on a low US$10,452. As of 8 August 2008, Rogue has made A$3,475,708 worldwide.

Reviews

Although the film was a box office failure, it received many positive reviews from critics, making it more critically successful than McLean's previous film, Wolf Creek. Melbourne's Herald Sun critic Leigh Paatsch gave the film three out of five stars stating that, "If you must see at least one killer croc movie before you die, it may as well be this polished little Australian schlocker".^[4] Sydney Morning Herald critic Sandra Hall gave the movie three and a half out of five stars writing that, "[I]t's almost elegant. Its only disadvantage is it conjures up inevitable comparisons with Jaws...a benchmark the film has no hope of achieving".^[5]

As of 2 November 2011 (2011-11-02) the film holds a rare 100% approval rating from 11 critics on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 7.7/10 rating.^[6]

DVD release

Rogue was released on DVD in Australia on 29 May 2008.^[7] The DVD's special features include "The Making of Rogue" documentary, four featurettes, and a theatrical trailer. The US and UK DVDs feature an additional audio commentary. As of 2013, Rogue has been released on Blu-ray in the US and UK. The US disc features the film only, whilst the UK disc includes all of the aforementioned extras, bar the trailer.^[8]

See also

• Cinema of Australia
• List of killer crocodile films
• Sweetheart

References

External links

• Rogue at the Internet Movie Database
• Rogue at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rogue at Metacritic
• Rogue at Box Office Mojo
• Rogue at allmovie