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In the absolutely bonkers Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013), monstrous Kaiju first attacked humanity between 10 and 15 August 2013, making 10 August “K-DAY” and providing a fantastic excuse to talk about giant monsters!

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Quick Facts:
Originally written in 1996, filmed at the Glendasan Valley Lead Mines in Ireland, and threatened by a foot-and-mouth outbreak, Reign of Fire’s dragons posed an anatomical challenge for visual effects studio Secret Lab. Christian Bale also suffered a minor head injury when co-star Matthew McConaughey (who insisted on staying in-character) accidentally headbutted him for real. Though accompanied by a lacklustre videogame, a poor box office and mixed reviews meant this under-rated film never got a sequel.

The Review:
Reign of Fire presents what, on paper, sounds like an exciting premise: dragons (well, wyverns, more accurately…) suddenly appear after millions of years in hibernation and go all scorched earth on humanity! The film even gets off to a strong start when young Quinn Abercromby (Ben Thornton) witnesses the awakening of the male dragon (“The Bull”) while visiting his mother (Alice Krige) while she’s working as a construction supervisor in London. It was her team’s digging that woke the ancient beats, which scrambled to the surface, killing Quinn’s mother and kick-starting a one-sided conflict with millions of dragons. Somewhat unfortunately, the entirety of humanity’s battle against the dragons is reduced to a series of photographs, snippets, and newspaper articles collected by the elder Quinn (Christian Bale), who delivers some exposition about how scientists discovered all-too late that the dragons destroyed the dinosaurs and became myth. Somehow, the Bull spawns millions of smaller (but still gigantic and no less deadly) females that decimate mankind’s cities and defences, leaving Paris and other landmarks burning, their relentless hunger for ash only encouraged when Earth’s military unleash nuclear weapons against the hoard, further devastating the world and all-but driving humanity to the brink of extinction. After eighteen years of off-camera strife and hardship, Quinn has established a close-knit community of stragglers, survivors, and (crucially) children, whom he leads alongside his best friend, Creedy (Gerard Butler), putting everyone to work digging deeper, building basic sanitary and living quarters, and establishing crops in and around Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. Believing the dragons are unbeatable, since hundreds rise when one falls and he’s witnessed the extent of their wrath, Quinn plans to outlast the increasingly volatile and starving remnants rather than fight back, fully intending on handing leadership over to Jared Wilke (Scott Moutter), a boy Quinn begrudgingly adopted during the time skip, once he’s old enough.

Quinn’s plan is solid and his community is fairly well maintained under his leadership. They had rudimentary electricity, plumbing, an early warning system consisting of a scout and morse code, and follow a strict, almost religious routine of indoctrinating the children to “keep one eye on the sky” and flee for shelter rather than fight the dragons. Quinn and Creedy entertain the youngsters, who idolise them, with nightly reenactments of popular movies (which Quinn amusingly claims to have written) and don’t stand for any slacking, needing everyone to pitch in to the daily grind. For Eddie Stax (David Kennedy), this has become unbearable. After losing his wife and two kids on the road, and fearing starvation for his remaining brood, he regularly challenges Quinn’s authority, eager to ransack their harvest to feed his kids despite the danger that could attract and the long-term ramifications of picking the crops too early. Though Quinn talks him down, Eddie steals the keys to the castle jeep and takes his kids harvesting, attracting a dragon and losing two children, and leading to half the crop being destroyed before Quinn, Creedy, and Jared rescue them in fireproof outfits and using water hoses. While Quinn is sympathetic towards Eddie’s losses, he’s shaken by the man’s foolishness and almost loses hope for their situation but, as ever, Creedy gets him back on track and he redoubles his efforts to feed and care for his people. The friendship between Quinn and Creedy is a highlight, as is Quinn’s desperate desire to shelter the children. Clearly traumatised by his mother’s death and the flaming end of humanity, Quinn believes it’s foolish to fight or antagonise the dragons, especially as he’s seen the Bull backtrack to outposts and obliterate them. While I would’ve loved to see a more action-packed film focusing on the doomed campaign against the dragons and humanity’s downfall, focusing on Quinn, a desperate man trying to protect his community, makes the film much more relatable and intense, especially during Quinn’s emotional outbursts.

Quinn’s relative peace is further disrupted by the second most dangerous and despicable creature on the planet: Americans. Soldiers, led by the physically imposing and unnervingly intense Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), roll into Bamburgh Castle looking to replenish their supplies and immediately clash with Quinn, who suspects them of being marauders. Though sceptical, Quinn’s won over by Van Zan’s talk of slaying dragons alongside Alex Jensen (Izabella Scorupco), a helicopter pilot who co-ordinates a death-defying team who sky dive to ensnare and kill dragons. Van Zan immediately captivates Quinn’s community, especially Eddie and Jared, with his enigmatic stature and persona. This is only exacerbated when Alex and her team successfully take down a passing dragon, only for Van Zan to chastise the celebrating community since the operation cost him two men. When confronted by Quinn, Van Zan immediately asserts his authority and recruits his people for an assault on the Bull in London. Thanks to Alex, the Americans have discovered that all dragons but the Bull are female and that the male flies over and fertilises thousands of eggs at a time. Therefore, Van Zan believes humanity’s only hope is to kill the Bull and therefore render the dragons extinct, a plan Quinn violently opposes since no one’s returned from London alive in years and the Bull is known to enact revenge. Despite his best efforts, Quinn is no match for the physically imposing and clearly insane Van Zan, who beats Quinn before his people and takes some of them for his plan. While Jared decides to bow out at the last minute, Eddie and the others aren’t so lucky, and Van Zan is left distraught when the Bull wipes his team out in a single pass. With only Alex left, he returns to the ransacked Bamburgh Castle in shame, deferring to Quinn’s authority and convincing Quinn to join them in bringing down the Bull. I’m no fan of Matthew McConaughey but he is excellent and almost unrecognisable in this role, depicted as a burly, surly, intimidating dragon slayer who wields an axe and has personal experience fighting dragons. Though he clearly has a death wish and a suicidal obsession with bringing the Bull down, Van Zan is framed as an honourable and formidable fighter, even if many of his methods and his gruff demeanour are questionable.

Thanks to appearing sparingly, the dragons are pretty impressive when they appear, depicted as gigantic, winged terrors who swoop in and ignite people and the land with their saliva and feed on the ash left behind. Fast and massive, the dragons quickly dominate the skies and easily shrug off small-arms fire and, apparently, heavier ordinance. According to Van Zan, the dragons have excellent vision at all times except during “magic hour”, when the Sun is setting, though this doesn’t really factor into fighting them in a meaningful way. Van Zan prefers to risk his soldier’s lives by setting up three triangulation devices and having Alex air-drop men from a helicopter with a bola net to ensnare the beasts, a tactic that gives these “Archangels” a seventeen second life expectancy, but which has led to many dragon deaths. It’s not clear how there were any eggs for the Bull to fertilise when he first emerged, but it’s possible the previous generation laid eggs that went dormant over the years. Apparently, these eggs numbered in the millions as dragons quickly overwhelm humanity and appear endless, hinting towards an accelerated growth cycle or perhaps other dragons being in hibernation. Unfortunately for the dragons, they are far too efficient for their own good and, after eradicating most of humanity, turn to cannibalism to survive, their numbers severely dwindling, suggesting they have an overall short lifespan as they seem engineered only to wipe out populaces and then hibernate (a fact Quinn is counting on). While I can just about understand the biology and mechanics of the dragons, however, I still struggle to explain the Americans. Somehow, the Americans travelled across the Atlantic Ocean, travelled from God-knows where to Bamburgh Castle, then went from the castle to London (a 350-ish mile trip) and back again and the made the trip again all without encountering any significant dragon resistance and somehow finding enough supplies, fuel, and helicopter fuel up and down the fire-ravaged English countryside? Even worse, the trip from Bamburgh Castle to London seemingly takes no time at all, rather than the near six hours it would realistically take.

Full of piss and vinegar, Van Zan openly defies Quinn and first asks for and then forcibly recruits volunteers for his London campaign. Despite his hands-on experience with dragons, Van Zan is completely unprepared for the Bull, which decimates his team and then attacks Bamburgh Castle, killing Creedy and many others. When Alex and Van Zan return, humbled and desperate, Quinn leaves Jared in charge and agrees to help the Americans using his knowledge of the city (despite it being in ruins). Although they’re outnumbered hundreds to three, the trio’s luck somewhat improves when the Bull feeds upon its smaller brethren to survive. While Van Zan defers to Quinn’s leadership, he outlines the general plan for the three to split up and bait the Bull then fire an explosive arrow down its throat right as it prepares to breathe fire. This gives Van Zan the opportunity to realise his suicidal dream of confronting the Bull head-on as he scales a tower and takes a shot, only for the Bull to detonate the arrow in mid-air. Thus, to buy Alex and Quinn time, Zan Van makes a desperate a dramatic lead towards the Bull and is snatched out of the air and eaten, allowing Alex and Quinn to regroup. Thanks to Alex providing cover fire, Quinn recovers his dropped explosive and takes the shot, ending the Bull in one swift move without even utilising the blinding sunset. In the aftermath, Quinn and Alex return to Bamburgh Castle and continue to sow crops, with Quinn handing leadership over to Jared as talks of additional survivors coming in from across the globe. Having taken up Van Zan’s axe and developed a more optimistic outlook, Quinn focuses on building and sowing crops and preparing to tackle any remaining dragons should they show up, with the film ending on the uplifting hope that humanity can recover from the devastation they’ve suffered.

Final Thoughts:
I’ve always been a fan of this one, though even I must admit that Reign of Fire drags a bit in the middle and isn’t all it could be. On the one hand, the dragons look great. They’re very serpentine and ferocious and it’s clear a lot of work went into making them biologically possible. I also really like how grounded and gritty the story is, with Reign of Fire focusing on survival, desperation, obsession, and human nature rather than big, bombastic action. Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey deliver some of their best work here, being natural opposites who are constantly on the brink of tearing each other apart and yet finding common ground against a mutual enemy. Part of me is disappointed that all the best parts of the dragon uprising are reduced to that opening montage; this is a film that really needed a prequel to show humanity’s war with and decimation by the dragons. I also cannot get over how the Americans managed to drive and fly around England without any issue, especially in this world, and occasionally wonder if the finale isn’t a little anti-climactic. Yet, I like the visual of the Bull being brought down by a smaller projectile; it’s very thematically powerful. While this isn’t a film I watch all that often, I do believe Reign of Fire is unfairly forgotten and dismissed and deserves a bit more time in the spotlight. It’s certainly one of the best dragon-orientated movies out there and also works as a decent post-apocalypse story, despite some questionable flaws and plot holes.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Reign of Fire? Were you also disappointed that we didn’t get to see how the dragons decimated humanity or did you prefer the more grounded story? Do you agree that was better to outlast the dragons or would you have joined Van Zan’s crusade? Can you explain how the Americans had enough fuel to travel up and down England? Would you have liked to see a sequel or prequel? What’s your favourite kaiju movie, and how are you celebrating K-Day today? Whatever your thoughts on Reign of Fire, kaiju, or monster movies in general, leave a comment below and donate to my Ko-Fi to fund more giant monster content!