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The Crow
Exactly one year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven, watched over by a hypnotic crow, returns from the grave to exact revenge.
1994 · Directed by Alex Proyas · 102 min · Fantasy · Action · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 16 frames
Tagline
Believe in angels.
Plot
On Devil's Night, in crime-ravaged, decrepit Detroit, a young woman, Shelly Webster, is raped and mortally wounded, while her rock musician fiancé, Eric Draven, is shot and thrown to his death from the window of their loft apartment. Police Sergeant Daryl Albrecht accompanies Shelly to the hospital, where she eventually dies from her injuries. A narration recounts the legend of a crow that carries souls to the land of the dead; if a person dies under tragic circumstances, the crow can resurrect their restless spirit to set things right.
One year later, Shelly and Eric's graves are visited by Sarah, a young girl the pair cared for due to her neglectful mother. A crow lands on Eric's gravestone and taps on it, resurrecting him. Disoriented and distressed, Eric returns to their ruined loft and experiences flashbacks of the murders: a gang of men—Tin Tin, Funboy, T-Bird, and Skank—attacked the couple because they were protesting forced evictions in their apartment building, which the gang’s leader, the ruthless crime boss Top Dollar, intended to seize. Realizing that any injury he suffers heals instantly, Eric dons black-and-white face paint and sets out to avenge himself and Shelly, guided by the crow.
The crow leads Eric to Tin Tin, whom he stabs to death. He next visits the pawn shop where Tin Tin had pawned Shelly's engagement ring. Eric recovers the ring and blows up the shop but spares the owner, Gideon, so he can alert Top Dollar's men that Eric is coming for them, only for Top Dollar to kill Gideon. Albrecht begins investigating the apparent vigilante disturbances, while Eric finds Funboy taking drugs with Sarah's estranged, addicted mother, Darla. He gives Funboy a fatal overdose and purges the drugs from Darla's body, telling her that Sarah needs her.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: David J. Schow, John Shirley
- Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski
- Edited by: Dov Hoenig, M. Scott Smith
- Music: Graeme Revell
- Production design: Alex McDowell
- Produced by: Jeff Most, Alex Proyas, Edward R. Pressman
Cast
- Brandon Lee as Eric
- Rochelle Davis as Sarah
- Ernie Hudson as Albrecht
- Michael Wincott as Top Dollar
- Bai Ling as Myca
- Sofia Shinas as Shelly
- Anna Thomson as Darla
- David Patrick Kelly as T-Bird
- Angel David as Skank
- Laurence Mason as Tin Tin
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Entertainment Media Investment, Jeff Most Productions, Pressman Film, Dimension Films
- Budget: $23,000,000
- Box office: $93,722,164
- Themes: martial arts, superhero, supernatural, halloween, crow, based on comic, revenge, arson, vigilante, tragic hero
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