Deconstructing Story - Edge of Darkness

The Premise

When Homicide detective Thomas Craven's daughter is gunned down outside his home the one thing he still holds precious has been taken from him. In hunting for her killer he discovers his daughter had a secret life as an activist - trying to expose a cover-up at a government contracted weapons manufacturer. As Craven begins to understand why she died a government agent is dispatched to clean up the mess.

The Appeal

In creating story there are few that resonate more than those with primal themes. There isn't much more primal than a father avenging the murder of his daughter. Likewise few do primal better than Mel Gibson.

Box Office

In 2010 Edge opened average and quickly fell off despite being highly anticipated. Worldwide takings of $81million barely covered the production budget of $80million.

Mel Gibson had not headlined a movie in eight years when Edge was released and hasn't headed a major production since (2013). He had directed two brutal movies though : the commercially successful Passion of Christ and the very violent but excellent Apocalypto. Passion had changed many peoples perceptions of Gibson away from a action movie star to someone with a religious agenda. His subsequent drunken and anti-semantic views further disengaged his core audience.

Trivia

Edge of Darkness was originally a British mini-TV series in 1985. Both the series and this movie (2010) were directed by Martin Campbell.

The role of Jedburgh was originally cast with Robert De Niro but he left after the script moved away from conspiracy thriller to revenge thriller. Ray Winstone was cast in his place. It is a small but significant role.

The original music score was composed around the movie originally being conspiracy based, which didn't suit the revised revenge theme. When the original conductor declined to re-compose the Lord of the Ring's Howard Shore was hired.

Disclaimer: Deconstructing Edge of Darkness means the whole plot will be revealed.

Full Synopsis (743 words)

Edge of Darkness is a thriller set in modern day America against a backdrop of three bodies floating to the surface of a lake next to a Nuclear Storage Facility.

Thomas Craven is a detective with a pedantic nature. He lives alone and is estranged from his daughter. His key relationship through the story is with his daughter who he loves so much he has driven her away. Her death seven minutes into the movie is the catalyst for everything Craven does. Her presence is retained throughout in Craven's mind.

Jedburgh is a government fixer who's job is to extradite solutions to national security threats. Craven's attempts to discover why his daughter died bring him into contention with Jedburgh. The two men have a common moral and bond despite Jedburgh being a constant threat.

The movie opens with a strong image of Craven dotting over his happy and loved daughter as a young child. Switching to the modern day and his grown daughter has made the 100 mile trip to see her father in Boston. Their strong bond is immediately re-established and we see there is still only one woman in Craven's life - his daughter. Emma though is ill, vomiting and suffering from nose bleeds. As they leave for the hospital a man wearing a ski-mask calls out 'Craven' and shoots Emma. She dies in Craven's arms.

Detectives work on the assumption Craven was the target. A disconnected call to Emma's mobile sends Craven in a different direction.

Haunted and comforted by his daughter's memory, a theme played to the very end, Craven unexpectedly finds a gun while sorting her things. He traces it back to her boyfriend who worked with Emma at Northmoor nuclear facility. The boyfriend won't talk in fear of  his life. In Emma's apartment Craven realises her laptop has been stolen and she has equipment for detecting radiation that goes wild when near a sample of her hair.

Craven is confronted by Jedburgh. The two men form a bond as Jedburgh reveals Emma was flagged as a terrorist for contravening security at Northmoor by working with activists. When Emma's boyfriend relents he confirms Emma went to a lawyer to help expose secrets at Northmoor but was turned away, only then helping the activists into Northmoor. They were killed on instruction of Bennett: the head of Northmoor. With Bennett culpable for Emma's death Craven cleverly evades his security and has a chance to kill him. He can't. He needs to know what his daughter was trying to expose.

Emma's boyfriend is killed and Jedburgh warns Craven away when asked what Bennett and Northmoor are hiding. Further bonding they talk about family and death, foreshadowing a key theme through the finale.

Meeting with a terrified friend of Emma's, Craven is given DVDs Emma made for him. When the woman is mown down by a car, Craven narrowly escapes and kills the driver. The threat of Northmoor grows.

The DVDs reveal Northmoor are contracted by the US Government to secretly make weapons using foreign specifications and materials. The previously estranged Emma tells Craven how much she loves her dad. All seems lost for Craven now he knows what he's up against and it quickly gets darker. He has been contaminated with radiation just as his daughter was - a plan created by Bennett and the government officials to ensure Craven dies and is discredited by Emma's terrorist label. We discover Jedburgh's fascination with death and family comes from his own terminal illness. Having leveraged a meeting with the Senator, Craven tells him everything and implores him to do the right thing.

Moving into the finale Craven outwits Northmoor again but he is now seriously ill. He is captured and taken to Northmoor. Without much time to live Craven wants justice, escaping and going to Bennett's house. He kills the Northmoor agents who shot Emma and then Bennett.

The senator is part of the Northmoor cover-up and Jedburgh helps put a lid on the deaths. When they mock Craven who is now dying in hospital, Jedburgh has a change of heart and kills the government officials and the senator. He is killed by a young cop when he lowers his weapon after learning the cop has a young family.

The movie ends with Emma's DVDs arriving at a TV station. As Craven dies in hospital Emma comes to him and they both walk into the light together.

Fifteen beats that make the story

Running Time 110 minutes

Characters
Thomas Craven - Mel Gibson
Jedburgh - Ray Winstone
Bennett - Danny Huston
Emma Craven - Bojana Novakovic
Whitehouse - Jay O. Sanders

Disclaimer: Deconstructing Edge of Darkness means the whole plot will be revealed. 

One - Opening Images

The story opens with two distinctive images. We start with a moonlit river in the dead of night, a distant riverside building like a power plant. We hear bubbling and then three bodies float to the surface.

Second we have video footage of a very young Emma Craven happily playing on the beech with the loving voice of her father urging her on. A date of 1990 is listed at the bottom to establish the video was taken some time in the past.

Two - Introducing the characters (2-13 minutes)

Thomas Craven meets his grown up daughter at the train station. Immediately Thomas is set-up as a pedant. This is repeatedly reinforced through interactions with his daughter in this section. There is a strong bond between father and daughter but we get a sense she has been gone a while and his obsessive nature might have been the reason. There is no mention of a mother at any stage in the film.

While shopping Craven sees his daughter vomiting outside the car. A brief discussion about whether she is pregnant turns to why he doesn't have a women in his life. He states she is the only girl for him.

The bond between the two, the length of time she has been away and his pedantic ways are re-stated back at the house. We also learn for the first time Craven is a detective. When Emma's nose starts bleeding and she vomits again, the daughter starts to panic. She tells Craven there is something she needs to tell him. Heading to the hospital they step outside and a man in a ski-mask calls from the road 'Craven', and fires a shotgun. The daughter takes the hit and dies trying to speak to her father. Craven weeps over her body.

In the following hours police are wrapping up forensics and we are given a real hard look at the mindset of Craven. He is practically catatonic with a blank faced, vengeful countenance familiar to anyone who's watched Mel Gibson's films. His boss, referred to as Whitehouse, tries to get him out of the house for a while. On being reminded the bad guys are armed and dangerous, Craven responds with a classic Gibson line: 'What do you think I am.'

Alone Craven washes Emma's blood from his face. Her mobile phone rings but when Craven answers the caller disconnects. Getting ready for bed he hears her voice, which soothes and guides in a theme that re-occurs to the very end of the film. He dreams of Emma as a child and wakes to the sound of the gunshot, his gun at the ready, adding substance to his capability. By casting Mel Gibson in the lead role capability can largely be assumed.

With the key characters in place and a premise set-up the story is good to go. There are however two key moments during this last section we need to take a closer look at.

Three - You are my girl (@4:35)

During the initial conversation in the car Emma askes Craven why he hasn't got a woman in his life. Craven tells Emma: 'You're my girl.' This sets in place the theme and driving force behind everything Craven does through the film. The theme is a father's love for his daughter.

Four - Emma's ringing phone  (@12 minutes)

Although the murder of Emma is the catalyst for the story it is Emma's ringing phone, disconnected when Craven answers, that sets him off on a different path to the official investigation and to her actual killers.

Five - Confronting Death (13 - 24)

Craven hands over Emma's phone to a colleague at the station and requests a list of all the contacts. At this early stage the police believe he was the target and Emma killed by accident. He is told he can't work the case but easily talks around this. 'Since it's me who's got to figure out who'd want to kill me for reasons only I would know about, I figured I might as well get paid for it.' All in the room agree.

Craven goes to identify his daughters body in the morgue where her death is confirmed as injuries arising from gunshot wounds. No mention of the vomiting. Craven cuts some of Emma's hair to keep and in a park he breaks down and tells his dead daughter he can't go on. She tells him he has to. Scattering her ashes on the same beech from the opening image we get another emotional scene and he talks to Emma again, this time as a child while she plays in the sea.

In searching Emma's room he finds ID stating she was an intern at Northmoor as a nuclear engineer. Craven finds a gun in the bedside draw and wondering why is daughter would need a gun, uses the serial number to trace the owners address. Whitehouse tells Craven a ski mask has been found with hair samples five doors from Craven's house with traced DNA. No opinion is stated but we and Craven think that sounds awfully convenient.

Through this section there were two occasions when Craven could have walked away from everything that subsequently happens. He is first told he cannot work the case but argues he needs to and later in the park he states he can't go on but is urged on by his daughter's voice.

Six - No Stopping Craven (@25)

Act Two gets underway with a twenty second montage taking him the 100 miles from Boston to Northampton. At the gun owners apartment there is a brutal fight further demonstrating Craven's ability. We discover Emma's boyfriend is the gun owner and gave it to her. He is very scared and refuses to talk, showing Craven he is being watched.

Craven takes Emma's personal possession and at her apartment discovers her laptop has been stolen. Craven discovers a meter for detecting radiation which goes wild when placed next to the sample of her hair Craven kept.

Seven - Jedburgh sub-plot (@33 minutes)

In a deserted underground parking lot we meet a government official and Jedburgh, who is immediately set up as deadly. His job is to mitigate national security issues by whatever means he sees fit. We learn Northmoor is a government weapons contractor and we get confirmation Emma was the target of the shooting, not Craven, because she helped three activists enter the Northmoor complex. Something highly classified is going on at Northmoor and Jedburgh will ensure the government's interests are protected. We get the first indication Jedburgh and Craven are on parallel paths destined to collide.

Eight - Finding Emma's Killer (35 - 55) 

Craven ensures detail of his investigation into his daughters life does not get back to Whitehouse in Boston. Working through the list of contacts from Emma's mobile he reaches a very scared woman who works in a luggage shop. She gives Craven his first lead that Emma's death is linked to her job as an intern at Northmoor.

Craven meets the head of Northmoor in the plush penthouse office at the high-tech facility. The smooth executive is called Jack Bennett who offers the usual platitudes about Craven's dead daughter and we learn Northmoor is 'officially' home to a nuclear stockpile and key to local economy. Bennett's smooth exterior drops and we get a sense of something slippery beneath the surface.

Craven gets news from Whitehouse the Ski mask DNA has been matched but when they raid the suspects house they find him executed. Investigating the scene Craven briefly considers this might be her murderer, but quickly realises there is a discrepancy in the hair length of the dead assassin and the sample found in the ski mask. This sets him against Whitehouse who seems too willing for the case to be closed.

Now believing he can't trust Whitehouse Craven burns the evidence of his own investigation and is surprised by Jedburgh. We quickly realise they have a lot in common as they discuss that Emma had been flagged as a potential terrorist threat as she helped three activists breach security at Northmoor. While smoking a cigar Jedburgh discovers Craven knows more than he should but sees merit in him continuing his investigation. Jedburgh tells him the activists were part of a group called 'nightflower'. At the end of the scene we get these two great lines and confirmation Craven thought he was about to be killed:
Craven: 'You going to arrest me?'
Jedburgh: 'I never arrest anyone.'

Craven revisits Emma's scared boyfriend and spots one of Jedburgh's cigars in the ashtray. Craven manages to bond with the boyfriend over their love of Emma, that she had worked with Nightflower to get the activists into Northmoor but didn't go in herself. That she only did this after trying every other course of action including going to a lawyer called Sanderman who told her he couldn't help. The boyfriend explains the activists we saw at the very opening were killed by radiated steam in the tunnels on Jack Bennetts orders. As we reach the mid-point of the movie Craven realises Jack Bennett was responsible for Emma's death but doesn't know how or why?

Nine - Mid-Point (@55 minutes)

After disabling Jack Bennett's personal security as he drives from Northmoor, Craven pulls Bennett over and has an opportunity to kill him in the sure knowledge he ordered Emma's death. What seems like a victory for Craven though quickly turns inside out  when Craven's sense for right and wrong and no hard evidence, prevents him from pulling the trigger.

Killing Bennett might actually have been the best result at this half way stage and possibly the one Jedburgh was looking for when he told Craven about Nightflower. Discovering who killed Emma is over, the second half of the film will be about why.

Ten - Northmoor closes in (60 - 85)

How high the stakes now are is immediately revealed with clever intercutting of footage between Emma's boyfriend and Jedburgh, both separately watching a smooth Senator talk about funding from Northmoor on TV. We see Emma's boyfriend has been shot in the head and it is implied Jedburgh was the assassin.

Jedburgh and Craven meet by a docks and talk about death and family that cleverly foreshadows the coming reveal of Jedburgh's illness. Craven wants to know what Emma was trying to help expose at Northmoor and Jedburgh warns him away. He has sympathy for Craven but may have to stop him if he continues. That these two men get on and that Craven fears Jedburgh is restated. An excellent scene.

When a young female reporter chases a story on Emma's death Craven is reminded of his daughter and takes the reporters card. He then confronts the lawyer named Sanderman who his daughter went to about blowing the whistle on Northmoor. We learn Sanderman represents Northmoor and never told Emma, tried to find out what she knew and had been twice put up for district judge by the senator we saw on TV. Craven now wants to talk with the Senator.

After more dreams of his daughter which remind us just why Craven is doing this he meets the scared luggage woman from Emma's phone contacts. She is terrified but gives him a package of DVD's from Emma after confirming a man called Robinson is the head of Nightflower. As the woman leaves she is violently mown down by a car that turns around and comes back for Craven. In a classic Gibson moment he takes out the car and driver which crashes into the river.

The DVD's are a video message from Emma explaining Northmoor is manufacturing foreign branded nuclear weapons, presumably so America can blame other countries for their misdeeds. At the end of the video, the now dead Emma addresses her father, and states her love for him.

Craven is quickly at the river shack Emma recorded the message, watching Northmoor from the same POV we saw the bodies bubble to the surface in the opening image. He is going to bring them down.

With an increasing number of loose ends around the deaths and requirement for cover-ups government officials put pressure on Bennett to put a lid on the problem. We learn Northmoor are actually creating dirty bombs that could be used to discredit Jihadist movements. Somehow.

Craven tracks down Robinson, the leader of the activist movement called Nightflower and while brutally beating him discovers the man has been paid off by Northmoor. Craven forces Robinson to tell him everything. Immediately after we see Craven checking his own fridge and discovering the milk is radiated.

Bennett and the government agents, realising there's an 'unsurvivable' and immediate risk of Craven talking, plot how to kill him while blaming it on Emma's involvement with the activists

As Craven heads to talk with the Senator it is revealed Jedburgh has a terminal illness. The Senator admits to Craven that Emma came to him blowing the whistle on Northmoor but the senator is very much locked into national security - she was in violation of 'classified' information. Northmoor is a major contributor to his campaign. Craven shows him just how much he knows believing the Senator can still do the right thing and expose Northmoor.

As we come to the end of Act Two there are two key moments we need to go back and look at.

Eleven - Dirty Bombs (@ 74 minutes)

At seventy four minutes Craven saw Emma's video message from the grave, that revealed Northmoor were illegally making foreign branded nuclear weapons. This is the first time we realise just how bad Northmoor are, what they and the government will do to cover it up. We realise how dire the consequences are for Craven. This moment echoes the mid-point where he could have killed Bennett without having to face off against both Northmoor and the government. He is now way out of his depth and the message of love from his dead daughter is testament all seems lost.

Twelve - Darkest hour (@ 82 minutes) 

At eighty two minutes we got three brief scenes.
First we assume Craven is ahead of the game when he discovers the milk in his fridge is radioactive, but the look of resignation is probably more a realisation he has drunk the milk and is going to die.
Bennett, who is on the verge of an unsurvivable scandal, decides with the government officials Craven needs to die via a 'radioactive element' passed on by his daughter.
Finally we discover Jedburgh has a terminal illness.
Everybody including Bennett is at their lowest point in the movie.

Thirteen - Act Three (@88 minutes)

We are launched into Act Three with another rise in the stakes when Craven outsmarts Northmoor agents by crashing into their car. Police attending the scene find automatic weapons in their boot. An ill Jedburgh watches it on the news. With increased exposure the government wants out from killing Craven but Bennett tells them it is already done.

Fourteen - A violent finale (90 - 108)

At ninety minutes a very touching scene with Craven and his young daughter reminds us what this movie is all about. Soon after we see Craven coughing and fear the worst.

Whitehouse comes to talk Craven into stopping after his own family have been threatened. In a strong scene between two men who have shared a past, Whitehouse reveals Craven will be set-up for the murder of Emma's boyfriend. Craven refuses to back down as Whitehouse knew he would and we see how ill Craven is as he vomits into the kitchen sink. The Northmoor agents capture Craven in his own kitchen having used Whitehouse as a decoy.

Locked up in Northmoor Craven immediately escapes and heads home to get his gun and to Bennett's guarded home. This capture and immediate escape is one of only a few odd notes in the whole movie. You get a sense the original script called for Craven to hunt down Bennett through Northmoor's high security complex but this would have been a costly and complicated set-up, so the face-off is moved to the more manageable and cheaper location of Bennett's home. I could of course be mistaken. Having Craven captured is however important - we have already been reminded Craven is doing this all for his daughter, we are now reminded Northmoor are the bad guys, which makes what Craven does next justifiable.

At ninety-nine minutes Craven approaches Bennett's home and we immediately know this isn't going to be a talky conclusion when Craven shoots dead one of the agents as Howard Shore's music rises with a sinister but triumphant edge. Craven kills the agent who shot his daughter and has a brief fight with Bennett. He pours the radiated milk over Bennett who goes wild with panic, proving one more time his culpability. 'Deep down you know you deserve this.' And bennett is shot through the throat. Craven who has been shot at least once collapses.

The senator and government officials struggle to create a press release explaining why Craven has killed Jack Bennett the head of Northmoor. We realise the Senator has been complicit all the time.

Jedburgh supplies a solution and at this moment he is on-board with the Senator. But the bond he had with Craven is invoked when they joke about Craven who is now waiting to die in hospital. Jedburgh kills the government officials and following these excellent lines as the Senator pleads for his life, kills the senator:

'I'm a united states senator.'
'By what standard?'

Jedburgh is then confronted by a young cop. In an echo of the family theme that he and Craven shared, he lets the young cop live because he has family, lowers his weapon and is shot dead by the cop.

The reporter we saw briefly earlier opens her post and finds Craven has posted her Emma Craven's expose CD's. She runs into her editors office with them.

Fifteen - Closing Image (@107 minutes)

As the movie comes to an end the dying Craven is visited by Emma. In a moving scene he dies and they walk away together into the light, providing a poignant closing image that beautifully contrasts the opening image of them together when she was a child.