DARK ANGEL: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot in this series about Max Guevera, a genetically engineered soldier prototype; Logan Cale, an underground cyber-journalist; and their struggles to uncover Max's mysterious past and bring justice to the post-apocalyptic world of 2019.
In this episode, young Max flees across a snowy terrain with a number of other children, including Zack, all of whom are branded with barcodes. Lydecker gives the order to kill the children if necessary, and the adult Max explains that she does not know how many, if any, of the others escaped successfully. She takes pills to ward off a seizure and heads out to her job at Jam Pony bike messenger service, leaving behind her co-worker and neighbor Theo, who says that he is still sick. She explains about "the pulse," an electromagnetic terrorist attack that damaged the world's computer and sent society into a depression. At work, she encounters her annoying boss normal and her friend "Original" Cindy, and they hear a TV broadcast from "Eyes Only," an anonymous cyber-journalist who reports on corruption and conspiracy, naming businessman Edward Sonrisa as a criminal. Later, at a bar, Max shows off her skills at identifying phone numbers by sound with Original Cindy's help and wards off her ex-boyfriend, Darren. She visits her associate Dan, who is helping her in her attempt to search for the other missing kids, and she recalls the woman, Hannah, who helped her to escape that night. At night, Max breaks into a high-security building and finds Eyes Only recording his broadcast. She steals a statue of the Egyptian goddess Bast and then encounters a woman, Lauren, and her young daughter Sophy. Eyes Only catches her, but she easily evades his bodyguard and escapes.
Back at home, she flashes back to her childhood training at the lab with the other children, some of whom suffered seizures as she still does. Max and her roommate Kendra pay off policeman Walter so that they may continue squatting in their apartment building, and Max learns that Theo is still ill, apparently unaffected by his medication. He says that Eyes Only has reported that certain drugs for veterans have been replaced by placebos so that the real drugs may be sold on the black market, but Max tells him to ignore the report. Eyes Only searches for Max and eventually finds her at the bar, where he introduces himself as Logan Cale and explains that Lauren is his source and that her husband was murdered by Sonrisa. He explains that he exposes corruption on his show to better the world, but Max suggests that things cannot be fixed and vanishes. Later, Dan is assaulted by a robber and Max returns home to find the Bast statue in her bedroom. She confronts Logan, who says that he needed to see her and appears to make romantic advances, but then reveals that he knows all about Project Manticore, in which Max and the other "chimeras" were created as superhuman warriors at a genetic lab. Max plays dumb, though is shocked when Logan reveals that twelve of them escaped that night. He explains that Lauren knows about the placebo pills and asks Max to protect her in exchange for his help in tracking down the other kids, but she refuses, saying that she is already in enough danger.
Max sells the statue of Bast for a profit and then meets with Dan, who tells her that his office has been bugged by people presumably looking for her. She then returns home and learns that Theo has died, and upon arriving at work the following morning, sees a news report in which Sophy is kidnapped and Logan shot as he attempts to protect Lauren. Elsewhere, Lydecker learns that Dan is indeed searching for the missing kids and decides to allow him to continue, and Max visits an unconscious Logan in the hospital, declaring that she does not feel guilty for not assisting with his dangerous mission. However, she spots a sniper preparing to finish Logan off, and she takes him to safety before the room explodes. She discovers that the shooter, Bruno, works for Sonrisa, and she finds Lauren and agrees to help recover Sophy. Disguising herself as a call girl, she sneaks into Sonrisa's mansion and tells him that she will hand over Lauren for $50,000. Sonrisa agrees and allows Lauren to speak to Sophy on the phone, and when she takes Bruno to retrieve Lauren, she fools him into thinking that Sonrisa wants him dead because he failed to kill Logan. He shoots at her, and she sinks into a pool, feigning death, but then emerges and calls Dan to trace the phone number of Sophy's location, which she memorized aurally. Lydecker listens in and sends his men to capture Max at the address, but she hides from them by donning similar SWAT gear and rescues Sophy, narrowing escaping Lydecker's clutches. Max later learns that Bruno killed Sonrisa, and Theo's ashes are delivered to Jam Pony and all of the messengers pitch in to pay for it. She then visits Logan, who is now paralyzed from having been shot. He gives her the Bast statue and asks for her help in catching another criminal, and thought she again refuses, he gives her a file about an escaped convict, and she is shocked to realize that it is Zach, realizing that she must work with Logan after all. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Fox
- DATE: October 3, 2000 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:76571
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Action/adventure
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 2000-2002
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- James Cameron … Executive Producer, Writer
- Charles H. Eglee … Executive Producer, Writer
- Rae Sanchini … Producer
- Steve Sassen … Producer
- Ron French … Co-Producer
- Janace Tashjian … Co-Producer
- Paul Patrick Quinn … Visual Effects Producer
- David Nutter … Director
- Joel McNeely … Music by
- Chuck D … Theme Music by
- Gary G-Wiz … Theme Music by
- Jessica Alba … Cast, Max Guevera
- Michael Weatherly … Cast, Logan Cale
- John Savage … Cast, Donald Lydecker
- Alimi Ballard … Cast, Herbal Thought
- Jennifer Blanc … Cast, Kendra Maibaum
- Richard Gunn … Cast, Calvin 'Sketchy' Theodore
- J.C. MacKenzie … Cast, Reagan 'Normal' Ronald
- Valarie Rae Miller … Cast, Cynthia 'Original Cindy' McEachin
- Stanley Kamel … Cast, Edgar Sonrisa
- Kristin Bauer … Cast, Lydia Meyerson
- Paul Popowich … Cast, Darren McKennon
- Kim Hawthorne … Cast, Jacinda Katsuno
- Douglas O'Keefe … Cast, Bruno Anselmo
- Sarah-Jane Redmond … Cast, Lauren Braganza
- Lauren Smith … Cast, Natalie
- Stephen Lee … Cast, Dan Vogelsang
- Geneva Locke … Cast, Young Max
- Chris Lazar … Cast, Young Zack
- Kyley Statham … Cast, Young Jondy
- Kent O'Connor … Cast, Struggling Child
- Emy Aneke … Cast, Watch Captain
- Bob Wilde … Cast, Silhouetted Figure
- Rob Freeman … Cast, Lieutenant
- Hiro Kanagawa … Cast, Theo
- Marcus Moldowan … Cast, Omar
- Brad Loree … Cast, Young Soldier
- Storma T. McDonald … Cast, Ultra Cool Secretary
- Dee Jay Jackson … Cast, Lamar the Bartender
- Eileen Pedde … Cast, Hannah
- Peter H. Kent … Cast, Security Guard Peter
- Taylor-Anne Reed … Cast, Sophy
- Dylan Pearson … Cast, Blonde Boy
- Ron Blecker … Cast, Drill Instructor
- Garry Chalk … Cast, Lt. Walter Eastep
- Jim Dunn … Cast, Intruder
- Jenna Marie Gooch … Cast, Young Eva
- Catherine Lough Haggquist … Cast, News Anchor
- Fulvio Cecere … Cast, Sandoval
- Robert Lewis … Cast, Dochnovich
- Ty Olsson … Cast, Driver
- Alexander Pervakov … Cast, Steroid Case Guard
- Kate Luyben … Cast, Blonde at Party
- Lina Teal … Cast, Redhead at Party
- Sylvesta Stuart … Cast, TAC Leader
- Steve Makaj … Cast, Lead Thug
- Scott Heindl … Cast, Thug #2
- Suleka Mathew … Cast, News Reporter
- Tyler Labine … Cast, Messenger #2