Black Lightning (2009 film)

Black Lightning
Directed by Alexandr Voitinsky
Dmitry Kiseilov
Produced by Timur Bekmambetov
Written by Dmitry Aleinikov
Aleksandr Talal
Aleksandr Voitinskiy
Mikhail Vrubel
Starring Grigoriy Dobrygin
Ekaterina Vilkova
Sergei Garmash
Viktor Verzhbitsky
Production
company
Bazelevs
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • December 26, 2009 (Moscow)
Running time
 100 minutes
Country Russia
Language Russian

Black Lightning (Russian: Чёрная Молния; translit. Chornaya Molniya) is a 2009 Russian superhero film directed by Alexandr Voitinsky and Dmitry Kiseliov, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov.

Plot

Dmitry "Dima" Maykov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), an average university student at Moscow State University, is given a car for his birthday by his father (Sergei Garmash), a black 1966 GAZ 21 Volga. However, this is not an ordinary car; it is a secret product of a Soviet defense contract, and is equipped with a rocket engine. Dima, however, suspects none of this. He's not even excited when he finds an old record and a photo of three scientists in the glove box of the car.

Dima is in love with his classmate Nastya Svetlova (Yekaterina Vilkova). Dima believes that the only way to achieve success is to be egotistical. This belief is strengthened when Dima sees the success of Nastya's friend, Max (Ivan Zhidkov), who also happens to have a Mercedes.

Dima begins working as a flower delivery man. He finds out about the special features of his car completely by accident, while Kuptsov's men are chasing him. Losing Dima of the flying car, Dima crash lands in an abandoned building. With Max's help, Dima is able to listen to the record from the glove box. From the record, he finds the scientists from the photo. Two of them, Pavel Perepelkin and Olga Romantseva turn out to be husband and wife. Dima, pretending to be a newspaper reporter, learns from them everything about the car. Romantsova gives Dima the car's manual, which the third scientist, Mikhail Yelizarov, wrote. At first, Dima enjoys his flights in his flying car and makes decent money flying to avoid the legendary Moscow traffic jams. But his egotism leads Dima to not help a stabbed man on the street, who turns out to be his own father.

The death of his father changes Dima's outlook on life. He decides to use his car to help people and becomes a superhero. Soon all the people of the city became his fans, and journalists give him the name "Black Lightning."

Meanwhile, Kuptsov starts a hunt for the nano-catalyzer, which can transform gasoline into the rocket fuel needed to power his underground drill. The drill will destroy the city, but allow Kuptsov to get to a layer of diamonds located under a tectonic plate. Kuptsov finds the scientists who worked on the flying Volga and forces them to make an armed version of "Black Lightning" using his armoured Mercedes. Kuptsov lures Dima to the roof of a skyscraper by letting Perepelkin, one of the scientists, escape. Kuptsov then hits "Black Lightning" with a rocket, before Dima even manages to enter the fight against the villain, taking away the nano-catalyzer and sending the Volga under the ice of the Moscow River.

A call from his girlfriend, Nastya, that says that she really loves him, brings the hero back to his senses. Dima remembers the emergency back-up nanofuel, flies out from under the ice, and flies to Kuptsov's lair where he saves the scientists and all Moscow by capturing the nano-catalyzer. He then rushes to celebrate the New Year with Nastya, but Kuptsov beats him and takes Nastya as a hostage, so he can trade her for the nano-catalyzer. Above Red Square Nastya jumps out of Kuptsov's car and Dima saves her. The final battle between the two flying cars in the sky above Moscow ends with Dima luring Kuptsov's car to the outer limits of the atmosphere, where the Mercedes runs out of nanofuel. Kuptsov floats in the Earth's orbit, left for dead.

Dima and Nastya meet on the ground and celebrate the New Year together.

Cast

References

External links