''The Book of Eli'' is a 2010 American
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
neo-Western
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referre ...
action film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...
directed by the
Hughes Brothers
Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes (born April 1, 1972), known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors and producers. The pair, who are twins, are known for co-directing visceral, and often violent, movies, inclu ...
, written by
Gary Whitta, and starring
Denzel Washington,
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...
,
Mila Kunis
Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi and raised in Los Angeles, she began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) at the age of 14. Since ...
,
Ray Stevenson
George Raymond Stevenson (born 25 May 1964) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He is known for playing Dagonet in the film ''King Arthur'' (2004) and Titus Pullo in the BBC/ HBO television series ''Rome'' (2005–2007). He has portrayed two M ...
, and
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and former teen model. She made her film debut in '' My Bodyguard'' (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ''Flashdance'' (1983), for which she won NAACP Image A ...
. The story revolves around Eli, a nomad in a post-apocalyptic world who seeks to deliver his copy of a mysterious book to a safe location on the West Coast of the United States. Filming began in February 2009 and took place in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
.
''The Book of Eli'' was released in theaters on January 15, 2010, by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...
. It received mixed reviews from critics, but earned $157.1 million in the worldwide box office on a budget of $80 million.
Plot
Thirty years after a
nuclear holocaust
A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear Armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes globally widespread destruction and radioactive fallout. Such a scenar ...
,
Eli travels on foot across the wasteland of the former United States. He demonstrates uncanny survival and fighting skills, such as hunting wildlife and defeating a group of
highwaymen
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
. Searching for water, he arrives in a ramshackle town ruled by a warlord named Carnegie, who seeks to control the people through the power of a certain book, which his
henchmen have been unable to find.
Eli barters with a store owner, the Engineer, to recharge the battery of his portable music player. At the town bar, he is attacked by a gang of bikers but swiftly kills them all. Impressed, Carnegie invites Eli to join his employ, but Eli declines. Realizing Eli is a literate man like himself, Carnegie forces him to stay the night under guard. After Carnegie's blind mistress Claudia brings Eli food and water, Carnegie orders her daughter Solara to seduce Eli, but he rebuffs her. Solara sees Eli has a book, and he offers to share his food, saying
grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
before they eat. In the morning, Carnegie overhears Solara repeating the prayer to her mother and realizes Eli has the book he has been seeking: a
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
.
Eli sneaks away, but Carnegie and his henchmen confront him in the street. When Eli refuses to give up the book, Carnegie orders him killed; the ensuing battle leaves Eli untouched, but many henchmen dead and Carnegie shot in the leg. Solara catches up to Eli and leads him to the town's water supply, hoping to accompany him on his travels, but he traps her inside and continues alone. Solara escapes and is ambushed by two bandits who attempt to rape her, but Eli reappears and kills them. Continuing toward the West Coast, Eli explains his mission: His book is the last remaining copy of the Bible since all other copies were intentionally destroyed following the nuclear war. He says that he was led to the book by a voice in his head, directing him to travel westward to a place it would be safe, and assuring that he would be protected and guided on his journey.
At an isolated house, Eli and Solara fall into a trap but manage to allay the suspicions of the residents, George and Martha, who invite them in for tea. Realizing that George and Martha are
cannibals
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
, Eli and Solara attempt to leave just as Carnegie and his men arrive. In the ensuing shootout, George, Martha, and many of Carnegie's men are killed, and Eli and Solara are captured. Threatening to kill Solara, Carnegie forces Eli to surrender the Bible before shooting him and leaving him for dead, departing with his caravan. Solara escapes, destroying one truck with a hand grenade and driving back in another to find Eli. With his remaining vehicle low on fuel, Carnegie returns to town.
Solara finds Eli, and they drive until they reach the
Golden Gate Bridge and row to
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pri ...
, where they find a group intent on preserving what remains of literature and music. Eli tells the guards that he has a copy of the Bible. Taken inside, Eli dictates the
New King James Version of the Bible from memory to Lombardi, the sanctuary's leader.
In the town, the Engineer opens Eli's locked Bible, which Carnegie discovers is in
Braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...
, revealing Eli to be blind. Claudia, feigning ignorance of Braille, tells Carnegie that his leg wound has become
infected and the loss of his enforcers has led the people to
run amok Amok syndrome is an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern derived from Malaysia that led to the English phrase, running amok. The word derives from the Malay word , traditionally meaning "an episode of sudden mass assault against people or obj ...
. At the sanctuary, Eli has died, but not before reciting the entire book. A printing press begins producing copies of the Bible, and Lombardi places one on a bookshelf between the
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
. Offered sanctuary on Alcatraz, Solara chooses instead to return home, taking up Eli's machete and other possessions.
Cast
*
Denzel Washington as Eli
*
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...
as Bill Carnegie
*
Mila Kunis
Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi and raised in Los Angeles, she began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) at the age of 14. Since ...
as Solara
*
Ray Stevenson
George Raymond Stevenson (born 25 May 1964) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He is known for playing Dagonet in the film ''King Arthur'' (2004) and Titus Pullo in the BBC/ HBO television series ''Rome'' (2005–2007). He has portrayed two M ...
as Redridge
*
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and former teen model. She made her film debut in '' My Bodyguard'' (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ''Flashdance'' (1983), for which she won NAACP Image A ...
as Claudia
*
Evan Jones as Martz
*
Joe Pingue as Hoyt
*
Frances de la Tour as Martha
*
Michael Gambon as George
*
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...
as Engineer
*
Chris Browning as Hijack Leader
*
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised i ...
as Lombardi (uncredited)
Production
In May 2007,
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
and
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
signed the Hughes brothers to direct ''The Book of Eli'', based on a script by
Gary Whitta. (The brothers had last directed the 2001 film ''
From Hell
''From Hell'' is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions.
Set during the Whitechapel murders of ...
''.) Subsequently,
Anthony Peckham rewrote the script, and in September 2008 Denzel Washington won the lead role. The following October, Gary Oldman was cast to star alongside Washington.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
began in February 2009 and took place in New Mexico. Alcon Entertainment financed the film and co-produced with Silver Pictures.
Jeff Imada
Jeff Imada (born June 17, 1955) is an American martial artist, stuntman, and actor. He has performed stunts in over 100 films and television programs and authored one of the first books published in the US about the balisong. Jeff Imada is traine ...
choreographed the complex fight scenes, which feature the
Filipino martial art of
Kali
Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In this tra ...
. Washington trained for months with
Dan Inosanto
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...
and Imada for his role.
Release
''The Book of Eli'' was released in theaters in January 15, 2010, by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...
in the United States; international sales were handled by
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment is an American film production and distribution company. It is a label of Lionsgate Films, owned by Lionsgate Entertainment and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
History Independent era (1991–2012)
Summit ...
,
with
Sony Pictures Releasing International distributing in a large number of international territories.
The film was released on home media (DVD and
Blu-ray Disc) in the United States on June 15, 2010, by
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Reception
Box office
The film was released in North America on January 15, 2010, in 3,111 theaters. It took in $11,672,970—$3,752 per theater, its opening day. By the end of its opening
four-day holiday weekend it grossed $38,437,553—$12,355 per theater. It ranked number two, behind ''
Avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...
''. On its second weekend, it placed third with ''
Legion
Legion may refer to:
Military
* Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army
* Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army
* Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...
'' taking its number two place and grossed $15,732,493—$5,057 per theater. By its third weekend it dropped down to number five and made $8,908,286—$2,897 per theater. The film has come to gross $94,835,059 in the United States and Canada, and $62,256,659 in other markets, with an estimated worldwide total of $157,091,718, over an estimated budget of $80 million.
Critical reception
Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports that 47% of 208 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The site's consensus is that "It's certainly uneven, and many viewers will find that its reach exceeds its grasp, but ''The Book of Eli'' finds the Hughes brothers injecting some fresh stylish fun into the kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland filmgoers have seen more than enough of lately." Based on 33 critic reviews,
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
(another review aggregator) has assigned the film a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 53 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Todd McCarthy of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' predicted "this will not be one of ... Denzel Washington's bigger grossers." ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' critic
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, stating: "You won't be sorry you went. It grips your attention, and then at the end throws in several WTF! moments, which are a bonus." Reviewing the film for ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', Scott Tobias graded the film a B, and wrote "At a time when theaters are experiencing a glut of doomsday scenarios, the Hughes' ashen, bombed-out future world looks a little too familiar, no matter how crisply they present it. But the showdown between Washington and a deliciously hammy Oldman complicates the film's overt religiosity...".
Owen Gleiberman of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the film a D, calling it "a ponderous
dystopian bummer that might be described as ''
The Road Warrior'' without car chases, or ''
The Road
''The Road'' is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that ha ...
'' without humanity.
Home media
The film was released on DVD and
Blu-ray Disc on May 31, 2010, in the UK and on June 15, 2010, in the United States and Canada. The DVD took the top spot on all three national home video market charts in its first week. It premiered No. 1 on ''
Home Media Magazine
''Home Media Magazine'' was a trade publication that covered various aspects of the home entertainment industry, most notably home video distribution via VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital copy. The magazine also covered news relating to consumer el ...
s Rental Chart, the
Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray chart, and the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Sales Chart, where it outdistanced its nearest competitor in sales by a 3 to 1 margin.
See also
*
List of black films of the 2010s
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Eli, The
2010 films
2010 action thriller films
2010s English-language films
Alcatraz Island in fiction
Alcon Entertainment films
American action thriller films
American post-apocalyptic films
Bible in popular culture
D-Box motion-enhanced films
Films about blind people
Films about cannibalism
Films directed by the Hughes brothers
Films produced by Joel Silver
Films produced by Denzel Washington
Films scored by Atticus Ross
Films set in 2043
Films set in San Francisco
Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
Films shot in New Mexico
Religious action films
Silver Pictures films
Summit Entertainment films
Warner Bros. films
2010s American films