Ultraviolet (2006)

**tak sakaguchi** Qui Mar 12, 2009 11:03 am

Ultraviolet takes place in the year 2076, in the years following a global pandemic of a blood-borne, highly infectious disease known as hemoglophagia. Those afflicted with the disease are referred to as "hemophages", and have many super-human attributes similar to those of the vampires of legend. After the media began actually referring to carriers of the disease as "vampires" to increase ratings, superstition and fear began to rule the population. Using fear of the contagious disease to seize power and keep the population in check, a militant medical establishment known as the Arch-Ministry takes control of the government and begins rounding up and exterminating all infected citizens.

The heroine of the film is Violet Song jat Shariff (Milla Jovovich), a young woman who was infected with hemophagia, in the process losing both her husband and her unborn child. Violet is now an emotionally dead killing machine, a member of an underground resistance movement of hemophages waging a guerrilla war against the Arch-Ministry and its megalomaniacal, mysophobic leader, Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus (Nick Chinlund).

Infiltrating a government laboratory, Violet steals a weapon developed by the Arch-Ministry to exterminate all hemophages on the planet, only to discover the "weapon" is a child named "Six" (Cameron Bright), a young clone of Daxus (sixth out of a series of eight).

Violet's fellow hemophages attempt to kill Six, believing that his body contains cultured antigens developed to exterminate all hemophages. Violet breaks ranks with the hemophages and flees with the boy, believing that a cure for the disease can be reverse-engineered from his tissues. On the run from both the government and the hemophages, Violet's only ally is Garth (William Fichtner), a hemophage scientist who is secretly in love with Violet. However, Garth, upon analyzing a sample of Six's blood, tells Violet that the child has not been infected with anything that can kill or cure hemophages. The puzzled Violet starts to wonder exactly why she has been misled, what kind of antigen is inside Six, and why humans would want him if he does not have the power to destroy hemophages. Garth tells Violet that Six's infection is killing him, and that he has only hours to live.

At first Violet seems to regard the somewhat catatonic Six as merely a lab sample, but as Six begins to show increasing signs of personality a bond begins to form between the two. Her softer emotions begin to awaken once more as she grows fond of the boy, and he of her.

Daxus eventually gets in contact with Violet and gives her instructions to the Archministry Building. Recognizing that her maternal instincts have surfaced, Daxus offers to make her a duplicate of Six if she will give him the genuine article. She refuses and demands that Daxus give her the antidote for Six's disease. He refuses. Violet ultimately learns from Daxus that the disease in Six's body is designed not to kill hemophages, but rather to kill humans. With the hemophages nearly exterminated, the Arch-Ministry needs a new threat to supposedly "protect" the population so that they can maintain their hold on power. Daxus plans to infect the world with the antigen, then control the population by selectively distributing the only cure. He and hundreds of soldiers fire on Violet and her car but she somehow manages to dodge the thousands of bullets all aimed directly at her. After trying to shoot her and hitting what turns out to be a mirage, Daxus finds out that "Violet" was a projection and the real Violet was far away watching the events with Six.

Both Violet and Six are dying from their respective ailments, so rather than fight a futile battle against Daxus, Violet takes Six to a playground where the two spend the last few moments of Six's life in an idyllic setting. Daxus and his men arrive and he shoots Violet and orders that Six be taken to Daxus's stronghold, where he will be disassembled, and a portion of him used to create a new clone.

However, Garth manages to bring Violet back from the dead because of his feelings for her. But now that she is grief-stricken over Six's death, she has no desire to resume her life as an unthinking killing machine. However, she is alerted by Garth to a newscast showing the day's events, and when Violet sees the news footage of herself weeping over Six's body, and she recalls a tear dropping onto Six, she suddenly realizes that he may not be truly "dead" after all. She immediately rises from her bed and decides to launch a final assault against the Arch-Ministry's headquarters to retrieve Six's body. After loading her suit with enough ammunition to wage a small war, Violet enters the Archministry and forces her way deep in the building, just as Daxus and his men are about to dissect Six.

At first her victory seems sure, as she easily neutralizes Daxus' initial attack with a handheld flamethrower by extinguishing its pilot light with a spray of her own blood and deflecting the stream of fuel with her sword. However, Daxus draws a sword of his own and nearly matches Violet blow-for-blow in a vicious duel. He then shutters the windows, plunging the room into darkness. Although he lacks Violet's strength, Violet lacks his excellent night vision; he is also a hemophage. Daxus, smirking, explains himself - he was one of the original lab technicians researching the hemophage virus, and after an accidental exposure, used the enhancements he gained from the disease to aid in his rise to power. He inflicts several wounds before Violet ignites her fuel-soaked sword upon the stone floor, evening the odds once more. Violet and Daxus then duel once more with flaming swords. Daxus inflicts several flaming wounds on Violet. Finally, Violet manages to set him on fire with his own discarded flamethrower and finishes her enemy by slicing him in half.

In the end, Six is brought back to life, and Violet reveals that he was resurrected because one of the tears that she shed upon his "death" fell into his eye. It contained the hemoglophagic virus (which immunizes him from Daxus' anti-human virus). Six himself reveals that he knows the cure for hemoglophagia, which can save Violet's life. The two of them drive off into the sunset as the Arch-Ministry's headquarters burn. Violet states that she is uncertain if she will die from her wounds or her terminal-stage hemoglophagia, but that evil-doers had better beware if she does not.

Cast
Actor/Actress Role
Milla Jovovich Violet Song jat Shariff
Cameron Bright Six
Nick Chinlund Daxus
William Fichtner Garth
Sebastien Andrieu Nerva
Ida Martin Young Violet
Ricardo Mamood Violet's Husband (Shariff)
Jennifer Caputo Elizabeth P. Watkins
Katarina Jancula Shariff's New Wife (does not appear in the 88-minute version)
Duc Luu Kar Waia
Ryan Martin Detective Breeder
Digger Mesch Detective Endera