Three (2006 film)

Three
Poster for Three
Directed by	Robby Henson
Produced by	Joe Goodman Bobby Neutz Ralph Winter Wojtek Frykowski
Screenplay by	Alan B. McElroy
Based on	Three  by Ted Dekker
Starring	Marc Blucas Justine Waddell Laura Jordan Bill Moseley Priscilla Barnes
Music by	David Bergeaud
Distributed by	The Bigger Picture FoxFaith
Release dates	January 5, 2007 (U.S.) December 1, 2006 (Poland)
Running time	101 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$2.4 million

Three (sometimes stylized Thr3e) is a 2006 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ted Dekker.

Synopsis

Jennifer Peters (Justine Waddell) attempts to save her brother Roy, who has been abducted by a serial killer. The murderer is known as the Riddle Killer, or R.K., because of how he ties in riddles with his murders. Jennifer has recently written a book about the nature of serial killers, to which R.K. has taken offense. Jennifer follows R.K.'s clues and finds Roy, but fails to save him as the car in which he is trapped explodes.

Kevin Parson (Marc Blucas) is a seminary theology student. Kevin has recently completed the third draft of his thesis about the nature of good and evil. One day, he receives a phone call from R.K., demanding that he confess some unspecified sin, or his car will explode. He also tells Kevin a riddle: "What falls but never breaks? What breaks but never falls?" (The answer is night and day.) Puzzled at what sin he means and the riddle, Kevin quickly escapes from the car before the explosion. He informs the police, among them Jennifer, but leaves out the part about the sin the killer demanded he confess, believing that the sin is what he did some time ago.

Back at his home, he meets up with his friend since childhood, Samantha Sheer (Laura Jordan). They decide to try to figure out the mystery of the Riddle Killer, who continues to target him, and who appears to be somehow able to monitor Kevin in his own home. Kevin receives a threat against his childhood dog, and goes to the house of his Aunt Balinda (Priscilla Barnes), who abused him when he was a child. He fails to save his dog from a bomb. Kevin and Sam also find that his home has been broken into, and the papers of his thesis scattered around. They find a clue left by R.K. that a bus would be destroyed, and luckily manage to get everyone off in time.

Sam and Kevin theorize who might have a grudge against him. Kevin remembers a boy from when they were children who tried to kill him. In self-defense, Kevin had locked him in a warehouse and left him to die. They conclude that he escaped, and is now R.K. Kevin confesses leaving him in the warehouse on television and apologizes, hoping to satisfy him and that he would now be left alone. However, R.K. insists that it is not sufficient and does not relent.

Jennifer tries to research who the boy might have been, but she finds nothing. She also visits Kevin's Aunt Balinda, and finds that she has been keeping her husband and son Bobby in the dark about the entire world outside their home, and had done so to Kevin as well. R.K. leaves a bomb in another warehouse and lures Kevin and Sam in to try to stop it. He locks Sam in a room while her back is turned, and Kevin gets her out, but they do not have time to stop the bomb. Jennifer and the police arrive and investigate. Sam leaves, and Kevin insists on not cooperating with Jennifer, as the killer insisted on no police involvement, under threat of killing more people. Jennifer declares her resignation, saying that as she is no longer officially involved, she no longer counts. However, Kevin ignores her.

Kevin finds another threat, this time to his Aunt Balinda. He rushes to try to save her. He finds Balinda tied up, and the Riddle Killer introduces himself as Slater (Bill Moseley).^[1] Sam finds a note by R.K. and is startled to see he has the same handwriting as Kevin. In a phone conversation, Jennifer and Sam talk about it, and how there was only one pair of footprints in the warehouse, and how Sam had never actually seen R.K. They realize that all the riddles were about opposites, like nightfall and daybreak, and R.K. might actually be essentially Kevin's "evil half."

There is another threat, Kevin is told some clues that help him to know that a library building will be exploded as well, so Kevin and Samantha try to stop this incident from happening. Kevin almost died this time.

After finding where Kevin went, Sam rushes to Balinda's house, and finds that the Riddle Killer, Slater, is real after all when she looks under the door and sees two pairs of shoes. Slater explains that he will have Kevin kill Balinda, then leave him to take the blame, as everyone will believe Kevin is the Riddle Killer. Jennifer arrives to find Kevin pointing a gun at himself. As it turns out, Slater and Sam are both figments of Kevin's imagination. Kevin had been traumatized by the treatment by Balinda, had imagined his friend Samantha and the boy with whom he had fought, and had subconsciously imitated the real Riddle Killer. Jennifer convinces Kevin of this, and his visions of Slater and Sam vanish.^[2]

Kevin had said that the real Riddle Killer was right in front of their eyes, and Jennifer discovers while examining his wall of clippings that the hot dog vendor who had supposedly been given a book by the killer to give to her is at the front of the crowd in a photo, holding a camera. When captured, he confesses that he hates copycats and had meant to kill Kevin for copying him.

Kevin is sent to an institution, and Jennifer visits him there.

Cast

Critical reception

The film received poor reviews from most film critics in the days leading up to and after its January release. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "rotten" 6% cumulative score.^[3] The film also has a noticeable resemblance to the plot of a movie script created by the character Donald Kaufmann in the movie Adaptation.^[4]

Rotten Tomatoes ranked Thr3e #84 on its "The 100 Worst Reviewed Films of All Time: 2000-2009" list ^[5]

Box office

Three opened in just over 450 theaters, and drew in US$700,000 its first weekend. The movie had officially left the box office 17 days after it opened, with just over a million dollars in U.S. gross.^[6]

References

External links

• Thr3e at AllMovie
• Thr3e at the Internet Movie Database