“You want to know what I know? I know about war.”
As Underworld: Evolution begins, Selene is trying to come to terms with what’s troubling her. The memory of her family’s massacre has always haunted her, but now that she knows it was Viktor who murdered them, Selene’s world is in tatters. How many Lycans have died at her hands because she believed they were responsible? How many more would she have slain if Kraven had not revealed this shameful secret? And how many more lives will be lost before the past can be righted?
“The beginning of the movie is a very shaky place for Selene,” says Kate Beckinsale, who reprises her character for the sequel. “Everything she thought for hundreds of years to be true, is not. She’s killed a lot of werewolves in a revenge that was completely misplaced. And now, having killed Viktor and alienated herself completely from the vampires, her only ally is Michael, who himself is struggling with the fact that he’s just become a hybrid.”
Selene’s only hope is to enlighten final elder Marcus upon his awakening. Once he, too, knows of Viktor and Kraven’s surreptitiousness, surely he will forgive her for slaying an elder, yes? But what Selene — or anyone else, for that matter — hasn’t bargained for is that Marcus has also become a hybrid, thanks to the blood of the Lycan Singe spilled by Viktor. Now, with Amelia and Viktor both dead, there is no one strong enough to challenge this powerful, new breed. Or so Marcus thinks.
“Marcus has become extremely powerful and he’s definitely got ideas above his station now,” explains Tony Curran, who brings the megalomaniac hybrid to life. “He sees himself as this godlike figure. There’s a moment where he says, ‘A true god has no father.’ He’s got this wild plan in his head to free his brother, William, the first and most dangerous werewolf, and take over the world with him. Marcus is a serious threat because the only other hybrid that exists on the planet is Michael. No other vampire, human, or Lycan can stand up to him. They wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Kraven is the first to learn this, when he tries to kill Marcus before the full awakening, only to become a victim instead. As he takes his final breath, Kraven’s memories course through Marcus, revealing the location of a pendant that once hung from the neck of Lucian. Now Michael has the pendant and Selene, unknowingly, is the key to its use.
Selene and Michael become aware of the new terror in their midst when Marcus descends on Michael, intent on killing him and claiming the pendant for himself. In doing so Marcus reveals its value, but its significance remains a mystery. What Marcus knows that Selene does not is that she “is the last piece of the puzzle,” explains Curran. “The strong house was built by her father; Viktor killed her family to keep the secret safe, so William would never be released.” With Viktor’s death, Selene alone now holds the knowledge of William’s whereabouts.
Selene and Michael survive the first battle with Marcus, but with dawn fast approaching, there’s little time to ferret out the pendant’s meaning. Michael takes control, finding cover for Selene and finally taking his rightful place alongside her. No longer a casualty in need of Selene’s heroics, Michael is coming to terms with his own power, with the role fate has thrust upon him, and with his feelings for Selene. “They’re falling in love and he’s there for her. He’s her support,” says Scott Speedman who returns to the role of Michael. “He’s still figuring out what he is, but he’s no longer a victim. Instead of just watching and reacting, a pedestrian to all the action, his is now a much more dynamic character.”
The escalation in Selene and Michael’s relationship answers the question often asked after the success of Underworld. “I intended for the first film to end with the relationship beginning,” admits director Len Wiseman. “There was this Romeo and Juliet aspect in the story of Lucian and his vampire love, Sonja, and then with Michael and Selene. Selene hates humans, so that relationship was not really given a chance until the film was closing. So at the end people speculated, ‘Will there be a relationship? What will that relationship be like? Will it build?’”
Beckinsale had a close-up view in the development of her character for the new film, and a special chance at providing input. “In terms of story and the mapping of my character, I was very much consulted,” recalls Beckinsale. Both she and Wiseman wanted more extensive character development of Selene, something they felt was missing in the first film.
“Selene was more enigmatic than we had hoped,” explains Beckinsale, “and whilst that was all very cool and action heroine-ish, we really relished the opportunity this time to show a few more sides of her. She’s really fighting her fight this time. She’s much more clear about why she’s fighting, a lot more passionate. And she and Michael definitely share a vulnerability between them, too.”
Adds Wiseman, “She’s starting to get a little bit more in touch with her human side. She’s gotten out of this cold robot killer mode, and that was very exciting, to see different sides to her.
Under the cover of night, Selene and Michael seek out Adrian Tanis, Historian of the Covens, who can explain the pendant’s enigmatic past. Banished for allegedly spreading malicious rumors, Tanis passes his exile engaging in either orgiastic bloodletting or arms brokering with the Lycans. His double-dealing exposed, Tanis quickly discovers he has little bargaining power when Selene demands answers. “They’re interested in information and I’m interested in surviving,” shrugs Steven Mackintosh, who plays Tanis. “So it’s a deal. Selene’s quite formidable so I have to spill the beans: the pendant is the key to Marcus’s twin brother’s cell, the location of which is locked away in Selene’s memories, and the first Immortal was not Viktor as always declared but the father of Marcus, Alexander Corvinus.”
Bringing a classy regality to the role of Corvinus is a legitimately legendary acting patriarch, celebrated British actor Sir Derek Jacobi. “Yes, it’s true,” admits Jacobi, “I’m afraid I am the daddy of them all. I’m responsible for the whole thing.” A twelfth-century nobleman, Corvinus had survived a devastating plague which mutated his genes, creating the first Immortal. He later had three sons: Marcus, bitten by bat; William, bitten by wolf; and one who walked the lonely path of mortality. (Michael, as a descendant of this last son, remained a pure-blood until a Lycan bite changed his destiny. His mortal-plus genetic makeup, however, prevented him from death, so when Selene later bit him after a violent battle with Viktor, Michael’s fate was sealed: the world’s first hybrid was born.)
Twisting the myth into something more scientific was a conscious decision of Wiseman’s. “I’m not a huge fan of the older films and legends,” the director explains. “I’m not into the religious vampires where you hold up a cross and they cower. I see that as ‘fantasy’ vampires, while in my world there’s ‘reality’ vampires; it’s more based in science. It’s about a rare blood disease, a plague, rather than anything too fantastic. I wanted to see something different, so I approached Underworld as a straightforward action film that happens to have these horror characters in it.”
It’s a view that allowed for more complex emotions. It meant someone like Corvinus, faced with a curse he unleashed upon the world, would be incapable of killing his two monster sons and destroying the lines before they had the chance to evolve. Instead, explains Jacobi, he elected “to contain the war, to clean up the mess, and to try and hide the history of his family.”
It also means that Viktor, who is played by Bill Nighy in a flashback sequence that begins the new film, was merely a usurper. “I was the first,” declares Tony Curran of Marcus, “but it doesn’t mean I was the most powerful. I was an arrogant young vampire; Viktor was a powerful man and when he became a vampire, being older and more experienced, he took over the leadership.” Viktor then used his power to wage war on the werewolves who at the time were far more destructive and uncontrollable than their later progeny.
But why wouldn’t Viktor just kill Marcus and William? Viktor believed the myth that if the two brothers were destroyed all their descendents would die as well. So he kept the war alive and, to ensure his own power, prevented a merging of the lines even at the cost of his own daughter’s life. And it didn’t hurt that Corvinus was prepared to clean up after the despot vampire.
Corvinus thus became as much a prisoner as his werewolf son, condemned to roam the globe in an enormous stealth ship from which he observes all earthly activity and, when necessary, sends out his army of “Cleaners” to erase any evidence of a preternatural world. “The ship is ‘NASA’ control really,” says Derek Jacobi. “It’s the hub of everything from where Alexander can keep an eye on things and contain what is happening so things don’t ever get too far out of hand.” But Corvinus’ efforts are doomed to failure. “Things are going wrong and Alexander’s powers are in jeopardy.
Intent on finding Selene and the keys to his brother’s cell, Marcus seeks out Tanis for information but is far less generous and forgiving than Selene. Marcus sucks Tanis dry of his memories before ending him for good, then heads out after Selene, the key, and his own father.
When Selene and Michael arrive at Corvinus’ ship, Marcus is hot on their heels. Marcus takes out Michael first, impaling him on the dock the ship is tethered to. Believing the wound fatal, Selene explodes in tears of loss and fury, but in the ensuing fight with Marcus her wounds feed him memories, including the location of William’s prison.
His confidence and arrogance on a dangerous rise, Marcus confronts his father. When the son’s monstrous presence is summarily rejected, Marcus tears his father to shreds and leaves him for dead. The calculation proves shortsighted, however: a seriously wounded Corvinus bequeaths his powers to Selene in the hope of stemming the tide of blood.
Then, in what appears to be his final act, Corvinus destroys his ship. But, as Derek Jacobi slyly points out, “Although you see me fade away with an ecstatic look on my face, where exactly I’ve gone is a bit of a mystery.”
Meanwhile, Marcus, key in hand, has found his brother’s cell. Marcus places the key in the intricate medieval lock, and hell on earth is released. But Corvinus’ Cleaners and Selene are close behind. An apocalyptic battle ensues and, true to its promise, a son arises from the ashes: Michael!
Our heroes have little time for a reunion, though: William and Marcus are still hell-bent on victory. A final confrontation leaves William dead from Michael’s fangs, and Marcus reduced to a tornado of flesh and blood. Daylight nears. But to our vanquishers’ amazement, the rays of light that emerge are no longer harmful to Selene. “600 summers. 600 falls. And finally, again… the sun.
Underworld: Evolution (2006)
Directed by: Len Wiseman
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, Tony Curran, Scott Speedman, Derek Jacobi, Steven Mackintosh, Shane Brolly, Zita Görög, Sophia Myles, Richard Cetrone, Mike Mukatis
Screenplay by: Danny McBride, Len Wiseman
Production Design by: Patrick Tatopoulos
Cinematography by: Simon Duggan
Film Editing by: Nicolas De Toth
Costume Design by: Wendy Partridge
Set Decoration by: Lin MacDonald
Art Direction by: Chris August
Music by: Marco Beltrami
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, sexuality and nudity.
Distribuuted by: Sony ScreenGems
Release Date: January 20, 2006
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