YMMV / Pitch Black

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was Riddick really going to abandon Fry and the others in favor of saving himself? Or was he pretending to as a way of testing Fry's character to see if she was as selfish as he is by joining him in abandoning them? The fact that Riddick actually changes his mind and decides to help Fry and the others possibly suggest the latter.
  • There is also a much-debated alternative character interpretation of Riddick in the scene of Carolyn Fry's death.
    • The standard interpretation is that Fry went back to save Riddick, and then suddenly gets stabbed by one of the aliens, who then drags her off to her doom. This is re-enforced and toyed with in the Director's Cut of the film. When the stab happens, both Riddick and Carolyn react to it, as if both had been stabbed and making it seem like it could have been either one who had been stabbed. That is until Carolyn is finally pulled away.
    • The second interpretation is that it was in fact Riddick who stabbed her, sacrificing her to save himself. The alien then detected her wound (they go off on blood), and drags her off to her doom. Details that support this are Riddick's knife being in just the right spot for it, the remorseful look on his face after it happens, and his hardcore survival instincts.
    • However, the contradiction to this is his "not for me" response. Carolyn already stated she would die for the others (during Riddick's character test of her) and wasn't going to die for him (when she finds him injured and is trying to get him up). If he had stabbed her, even instinctively, he wouldn't have reacted the way he did.
    • The third one tapdances between the two ideas - Riddick's blood was attracting the creature, and he intentionally moved so that Fry was the one that got grabbed by it - but it was likely an instinctual tactic, as he does suffer a minor Heroic BSoD immediately afterward.
  • Riddick's comment at the end of the movie - "Tell them Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet." This could be his way of saying he plans to start with a clean slate, or (as mentioned on the Tear Jerker page) that the last of his humanity had gone bye-bye. Or he could simply be covering his ass so he's not a wanted man anymore.
• Badass Decay: Riddick himself notes that this resulted from his stint as the Necromongers' latest Lord Marshall, where scenes focus entirely on his life among the Deadly Decadent Court and suggest that his exposure to challenging conditions and action is being stifled. At one point he falls prey to an assassination attempt that only fails because the attacker missed his vitals, and later he's easily lured by the prospect of revisiting his birthworld, where he falls victim to an ambush and is left for dead at the bottom of a rock fall. This causes him to reflect that his life as an Evil Overlord has made him soft, leading him to decide he's better off on his own.
• Creepy Awesome: Riddick. He's a coldblooded, almost primal killer, extremely dangerous and possesses a disturbing sociopathic worldview. He's also an absolute badass who takes on elite mercenaries and monstrous alien creatures (and, in the sequel, supernatural demigods), and wins.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Awesome Aussie Shazza has proven to be quite a popular character with many wishing she hadn’t been killed off. Being played by genre icon Claudia Black certainly helps.
  • Keith David as Badass Preacher Imam has also proven to be rather popular.
• Fan Nickname: The flying nocturnal monsters are never named. "Bioraptor" and "Demon" are sometimes used by fans to identify them. Some old-school gamers like to call them "grues" (a deadly enemy from the Zork series that only attacks in complete darkness).
• Genius Bonus: Riddick-o-vision is in anaglyph 3d. Go get those red/blue 3d glasses. It's simply purple and blurred at the edges in all the other installments of the franchise, though.
• I Am Not Shazam: The flying alien monsters are never named throughout the course of the film. Sorry, "bio-raptor" and "demon" are just fanspeak.
• Moral Event Horizon: Johns already had a hefty mark against him with the revelation that he had kept his personal morphine stash hidden while Owens was dying in agony and Fry believed the ship's onboard morphine was all lost in the crash. However, a definitive crossing comes when he suggests Riddick kill Jack and drag her behind the sled as bait for the creatures while he keeps the others off Riddick's back in exchange.
• Nausea Fuel: The scene where Riddick escapes captivity by painfully dislocating both of his parms. The image combined with the harsh popping sound effects is quite painful to watch.
• Paranoia Fuel: In case the aforementioned Nightmare Fuel wasn't bad enough, imagine your only leaders, who your hope for survival depends on, are all untrustworthy and willing to kill you to save themselves at different points. And one of them is a wanted murderer who identifies with the monsters more than you.
• Retroactive Recognition: On deeper look, Power Rangers Mystic Force fans will recognize Ali, the boy who gets first mauled by the baby creatures as Firass Dirani, who played Nick Russel, the Red Ranger in the show.

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