Kate Beckinsale's Kevo

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Directed by Len Wiseman
Produced by Lakeshore Entertainment Sony
Written by Danny McBride Len Wiseman
Starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran, Michael Sheen, Sir Derek Jacobi, Bill Nighy
Music by Marco Beltrami
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release date(s) January 19, 2006 (Aus) January 20, 2006 (USA)
Running time 106 minutes (Australia Cinema release)
Language English
Budget $50,000,000
Preceded by Underworld
Followed by Underworld 3
IMDb profile

Underworld: Evolution is a 2006 action/horror film, directed by Len Wiseman. It is a sequel to the 2003 film Underworld, and follows on from the plot of the first film, continuing the conflict between vampires and Lycans, also highlighting the beginnings of the feud.

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Underworld Evolution is an immediate followup to Underworld (2003). Therefore, the events of Evolution take place during the same night of the first film's finale, and the next few days after.

The film begins with a flashback scene that brings revelation to the nature of the relationship between Marcus and the other Elders, which was not established in Underworld. It is revealed that Marcus is cheated in his deal with Viktor, the leading Elder, to capture his brother, William, who is the first and most powerful Lycan. Against Marcus' wishes, William is ambushed and captured to be locked away for all time. Viktor's betrayal earns Marcus' hatred towards him and all those loyal to him, and as a result, Marcus swears revenge.

In present day, Kraven immediately executes his final bid for power, as he returns to the Orghodaz mansion to attempt to assassinate the last remaining Elder, Marcus, after witnessing the death of Viktor, the foremost threat to his plans. Unknown to Kraven, the blood of the Lycan, Singe, has dripped into Marcus' resting chamber, and has not only awakened him with full knowledge of Kraven's treachery, but also granting him newfound powers as a Hybrid. As Kraven enters the Elder Room with his soldiers, Marcus breaks through the floor and effortlessly kills all of Kraven's men, leaving Kraven, himself, for last. However, before killing Kraven, Marcus drinks his blood, thereby absorbing his memories and learning of the operation to lock up William, in addition to Selene's ties to a mortal family that was murdered under Viktor's order, in connection with the construction of William's prison, which was unilaterally kept a secret from him. As the final piece of the puzzle, he discovers that the key to William's cell is now in the hands of Selene. The opportunity for Marcus to reap his revenge has come, and he uses his new powers to destroy Viktor's entire coven. Immediately afterwards, Marcus engages to find Selene and the key to ultimately free his imprisoned brother, the first and most powerful lycan, with an infinite capacity and insatiable appetite for destruction. Meanwhile, hours before sunrise, Selene and Michael head for a Vampire safehouse in the mountains. In the safehouse, they find a dead Lycan and new ammunition. Selene tells Michael to stay while she goes to the mansion to plead for sanctuary; they do not know yet that Marcus destroyed the coven. Selene explains to Michael that his life has changed and can never go back to his human ways. Selene leaves the hideout while Michael stays to drink the cloned blood.

Marcus at this time then goes to the hideout used by Michael and Selene in the first movie where Singe was shot and captured, and uses the computer system, complete with knowledge of how to use one from Kraven's memories, and locates the hideout being used by Michael. Michael, at this time, is unnerved about the idea of himself actually consuming blood, and so he places the packet on the counter and goes to a bar not far away. Inside, two police officers are seen talking to each other at their table and a television is playing the news. Getting his order, Michael is shown at first relatively enjoying the meal, until his body begins to react, causing him to vomit the food back up while the TV plays a segment saying that he is wanted by the police. The two officers usher everybody but Michael out of the tavern and the first officer radios for backup, which the signal is intercepted by Lorenz Macaro who in turn sends out his Cleaner teams to the scene. Michael then leapt at the remaining cop in the tavern, knocking him down, and bolted through a door, then proceeded to run through the woods with four police officers chasing him firing weapons, injuring Corvin. Selene is seen, having eyed Marcus flying overhead towards the Mine, and when she returns and sees that Michael is gone and hears the gunshots, she goes after him. Selene then fights and incapacitates the four cops after taking a shotgun blast to the stomach and not even flinching, then gives Michael some of her blood so he can regenerate from the bullet wounds.

Marcus then flies in and confronts Selene, who testifies that "Viktor deserved his fate and Kraven was no better," while Marcus replies with "Kraven has already reaped the rewards of his own misdeeds, and Viktor deserved his fate many times over. A shame, the slaying of your family, and so much effort was put into keeping this matter from me. What do you suppose Viktor had to hide, or is it you, Selene, as the last of your wretched family, who has something to hide?" Marcus then attacks Selene and attempts to bite her, but Michael fires Selene's dropped pistol at Marcus, stunning him long enough for the two to escape. Running onto a road, Michael steps in front of a truck, forcing it to stop, and then changes into his Hybrid form. Selene then forces the driver out and climbs in while Michael jumps onto the open bed of the truck as Marcus flies after them. After a fight on the truck bed with Michael, Marcus takes and then drops the amulet that Lucian kept with him, and attempts to attack and bite Selene once more, but fails and is rammed between a rock wall and the truck, wounding him. During this, a Cleaner team lead by Samuel returns to a converted Frigate used by Lorenz Macaro, and reports that the Old World Coven was burned down by Marcus, and brought back the bodies of Lucian, Viktor, and Amelia. Macaro then goes to the bodies, and checks beneath Lucian's jacket for the amulet, but since Selene has it, it is not there to his surprise. He then cuts open Viktor's chest and pulls out a metallic disk.

Michael grabs the amulet and then steers the truck to an abandoned warehouse after the sun has started to come up, burning Selene's hand and part of her face. Once inside the warehouse, Michael covers the truck cabin, with Selene inside, with a large tarp while he closes some of the windows and doors so that Selene could get inside a large cargo container inside the building. After doing so, Michael attempted to use a Medkit to treat Selene's burns, only to see that they've already regenerated. After spending the day intimately having sex inside the container, Michael goes to fix a Land Rover SUV in the warehouse while Selene awakes only to have a flashback of Sonja's amulet and showing herself holding it as a child, before she became a vampire. Michael returns and the two drive to a Monastery built inside of a cliff face, where Andreas Tanis is exiled to. After a brief fight, they corner Tanis and find out that the Corvinus legend is entirely true, and that Selene's father and family were slain because her father built the prison that William Corvinus is imprisoned in. They also learned that William is unable to ever take human form again, and that he created the First-Generation Lycans, able to turn even after death and never able to take human form again. Tanis then arranges a meeting between Selene, Michael, and 'someone who could help stop Marcus.' in exchange for Selene's 'discretion'. Agreeing, Michael and Selene leave the Monastery and Tanis and head to the docks of Budapest. Marcus then arrives at the Monastery and questions Tanis, leaving after biting Tanis, absorbing his memories, and killing him.

Arriving at the docks, Selene and Michael are taken to Macaro, who looks over the Amulet, and is then discovered to be Alexander Corvinus. Despite Selene's efforts to persuade Alexander to help her kill Marcus, Alexander says he couldn't kill his own son, no matter what he's become. Their debate is broken when a body crashes through the skyline and Marcus' talon comes through the window and impales Michael, then drags him out the window. Selene then grabs a SMG from the guard's body that had crashed down through the skyline, and jumps out the very same window. Marcus fought Michael, ramming his body down on a wooden stake, impaling and seemingly killing him while Marcus claimed the Amulet. Selene arrives at the fight after Michael was impaled, and after a very brief gunfight, she is pinned down and Marcus drinks some of her blood, taking from her the location of William's prison. Selene frees herself while Marcus flies off and confronts Alexander, and after a conversation in which Alexander declares "We are oddities of nature, you and I. Nothing more. This is a world for Humanity." Marcus rejects his father's sentiment, and spears Alexander, and then drives a nearby sword into him, declaring that "A true god has no father." Marcus then searched Alexander and found Viktor's key, and combined it with Sonja's amulet to make the full key to William's prison.

Marcus then leaves as Samuel and his Cleaner team arrive, and bring Selene to Alexander while they also place Michael in a body bag and place him on their Helicopter. Alexander tells Selene that he still couldn't kill Marcus and that she is the only one left that can defeat him. Taking a knife, Corvinus then cut open his own wrist and told Selene to drink from his blood. Resistant, she asks what she would become, to which Alexander replies 'The Future', and then she drinks some of his blood, becoming a 'true immortal'. Selene and the Cleaners leave on the Helicopter while Alexander destroys the ship, knowing he was about to die from his wounds and performing 'one last clean up.'

Arriving at Viktor's dungeon, Selene and the Cleaners find out that they're too late and that William has already been freed. As the Cleaners move off to fight William inside the dungeon, Marcus comes out of the shadows and fights Selene. Marcus is also surprised to smell the scent of his father's blood within Selene, as she then traps him behind an immense stone door using the Key. The Cleaners are all killed by William and turn into First-Gen Lycans, while Selene uses two devices to blow open a hole in the ceiling, letting the Helicopter outside cover her in the dungeon. Unable to kill all the First-Gen Lycans by herself, Selene is surprised to see Michael suddenly appear from the hole in the ceiling and kill some of the Lycans. Temporarily lost to the battle, the duo are stunned to see William attack Michael, and Marcus pull the helicopter, by a repelling rope, to crash inside the dungeon, blades still spinning. Selene was placated fighting Marcus, and Michael fighting William. Soon enough, Michael rips off William's head, killing the Corvinus heir. In rage both from his brother's demise, and his own hand being ripped off, Marcus uses his Talon to impale Selene. But, due to her new power and strength, she survived the blow, and ripped off the talon, leaving the spike in her chest that she pulled out and rammed up into Marcus' head, and then shoved him into the helicopter blades.

After the fights were over, the sun is shown rising through the hole in the ceiling, striking Selene's hand. Due to the Corvinus blood inside her now, she was rendered immune to the sun's rays, and an ending sequence says that the lines between the clans have been blurred and that infighting and dark days are ahead...
Spoilers end here.

Cast
Actor/Actress Role
Kate Beckinsale Selene
Scott Speedman Michael Corvin
Tony Curran Marcus Corvinus
Derek Jacobi Alexander Corvinus
Bill Nighy Viktor
Shane Brolly Kraven
Michael Sheen Lucian
Zita Görög Amelia
Scott McElroy Soren
Steven Mackintosh Andreas Tanis
Brian Steele William Corvinus
Sophia Myles Erika
John Mann Samuel

Production

Filming took place in Vancouver, Canada, and is a departure from the setting of Underworld, which was filmed in Budapest, Hungary, and also had a much larger budget than the first film. It was originally set to be released in late 2005, however it was delayed until January 19, 2006.

Response

The film was pre-viewed in a panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, in July of 2005. It was well received as hundreds of fans waited hours to see a clip of the film as well as Kate Beckinsale and the other stars of the movie.

The film opened with a weekend box office (January 19th - 21 2006) intake $27.6M.

As of March 12, 2006, the film grossed a total of $62.3 million dollars in the domestic box office and $111.3 million worldwide.