Reign of Fire (2002) – Review

Hollywood has provided moviegoers with many post-apocalyptic movies, from the Planet of the Apes franchise to the Mad Max series – the aftermath of “The End of the World” has always been great cinema fodder – but with Disney’s Reign of Fire we get a rather odd entry as it tosses a fantasy element into the mix.

The movie opens with a young boy named Quinn Abercromby (Ben Thornton) stumbling upon a dragon that has just woken up from hibernation, this rude awakening caused by subway construction, and the creature flies up and away killing the poor kid’s mother in the process.  Maybe having a “take your kid to work day” in a dangerous underground construction site was a bad idea. This majestic creature then goes off to wreak havoc on the populace. Flash forward a couple of decades where we find a mostly destroyed Earth and humanity barely hanging by its collective fingernails. A now adult Quinn (Christian Bale) is amongst the survivors, hiding out in the ruins of an old castle, and while they seem to be living on the brink of starvation they are managing to hold on.  The true conflict kicks in when a group of American soldiers, led by the charismatic Van Zan (Mathew McConaughey), arrives at the castle claiming that they have the plan to kill the dragons and reclaim the world for humanity. Van Zan believes that there is a single male dragon that is the key to the species’ survival and if it is destroyed the dragon race will die off and mankind can take back the Earth.

Can his plan end this reign of fire?

The movie’s premise of dragons taking over the world is intriguing, and the special effects used to bring these mythical creatures to life is quite impressive, however, the dragons end up being more spectacle than substance and the story fails to explore their motivations or origins to any degree. Worst of all is the fact that the poster promised us helicopter gunships battling dragons over a burning London and none of that appears in this movie, instead, we get this quick explanation as to how mankind has been pushed to the brink of extinction by dragons “Who fill the sky like locusts” but the actual mechanics of humanity’s defeat is never properly explained. Later in the film, we see Van Zan take out a dragon using nothing more than a harpoon gun but if these things are susceptible to something as basic as a harpoon gun then how did the combined navies and air forces of the world lose to these things? Mathew McConaughey is amazing but are we to believe he’s more powerful than an United States Carrier Group?

“All right, all right, all right.”

Stray Observations:

• The movie opens with a male dragon waking up but where exactly did the females come from, was there Mail Order Bride service for dragons?
• The film posits an alternative history in which the dinosaurs were killed off by dragons, rather than the K-T asteroid, which I’ll admit is definitely a cooler theory but also rather silly.
• The “dragons” in this film are actually Wyverns because they only have two legs, whereas dragons have four.
• Gerard Butler and Christian Bale put on a stage play version of The Empire Strikes Back for the children and this is easily one of the best moments in this film.
• It’s never explained how Van Zan kept an armoured column of vehicles and a helicopter fuelled in a world that fell two decades ago. It is especially odd when you consider the fact that gasoline has a shelf-life between three months and three years.
• Van Zan is convinced there is only one male dragon on the entire planet, but as dragons are spread around the entire globe how does he know this? Does he subscribe to a Dragon newsletter?
• With one fly-by, a dragon wipes out Van Zan’s entire convoy and kills all of his men, which begs the question “How has he been surviving all these years if that is his casualty rate?”

“Now, shall you deal with ME, Van Zan, and all the powers of HELL!”

The acting is solid, with Christian Bale giving a strong performance as the stoic leader of a small group of survivors, but it’s Matthew McConaughey who steals the show as the charismatic and unhinged dragon hunter. He brings a lot of energy and intensity to the film and his scenes with Bale are some of the most memorable, which is odd considering the movie is about a war against dragons and not two angry dudes. Unfortunately, as good as McConaughy and Bale are as actors the characters they are portraying are somewhat underdeveloped, feeling like one-note stereotypes instead of fully-fledged individuals. Bale does his best to present a nuanced and emotional portrayal of a man who has lost everything and is fighting to protect what little he has left, while McConaughy gives us a cross between George S. Patton and Yosemite Sam.

“You rackin’ frackin’ varmint!”

The movie is visually impressive, with some of the most realistic dragon effects ever seen on screen, but it should be noted that these dragons are not portrayed as magical creatures, instead, there are depicted as biological beings that behave and move like animals.  Sadly, this does take away the majesty of these creatures and turns them into what can best be described as Jurassic Park knock-offs. The film’s pacing is also a bit uneven, with the first half feeling slow and ponderous at times, however, the film’s distinctive and striking visual style makes up for this with its desolate, apocalyptic landscape that perfectly captures the sense of hopelessness and despair that our protagonists feel. Of course, the biggest issue is the decision to give us “science-based” dragons and if one takes but a second’s thought about the “science” we are spoon fed it all falls apart.

The Dodgy Science of Dragons in Reign of Fire

• The movie depicts the dragons as being able to breathe fire due to a flammable liquid stored in a sac located in their throats, however, this is biologically implausible as it would require the dragons to be able to create and store an immense amount of flammable liquid without it causing harm to their own bodies.
• We are told the dragons survive by digesting ash, and while ash is a good source of potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium it is biologically implausible for such large animals to live on that kind of diet as something this huge would require a lot of food and water to survive and reproduce.
• The movie depicts dragons as being able to fly despite their size and weight.  This would not be possible as their wingspan would need to be disproportionately large to support their body mass, and their bones would need to be hollow to reduce weight.  For a dragon to fly it must be a creature of magic.
• We see dragon fire being able to cause massive destruction, even to steel structures like tanks and trucks, however, this is not scientifically accurate as steel has a very high melting point and is fairly resistant to heat damage.
• The movie suggests that there is but one male dragon that fertilizes all of the female dragon eggs, in reality, this would lead to a lack of genetic diversity and would then cause inbreeding and genetic disorders.

“It’s gonna be a great Easter with this egg.”

Overall, Reign of Fire is a flawed but entertaining movie that offers a unique and compelling take on the dragon mythos, one that abandoned the fantasy aspect of dragons and replaces it with testosterone-fuelled performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey.  This is not necessarily a bad thing and should satisfy anyone looking for a thrilling and visually stunning adventure, but I still prefer my dragons with a bit of magic, so my favourite dragon movie Dragonslayer and it remains the gold standard of the genre.