Knight Rider 2000
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Knight Rider 2000 is a 1991 sequel movie to the television series Knight Rider. It is available on DVD, included in the Knight Rider Season One box set.
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[edit] Plot
In the year 2000, Seattle, Washington is the model city of the next millennium. Handguns have been banned, and even law enforcement carry non-lethal microwave "stun" pistols. Criminals are sentenced to cryonic suspension prison instead of conventional jail cells.
One such inmate, Thomas J. Watts (Mitch Pileggi), a former cop turned psychotic killer, has just been released from the cryo-prison. He then assassinates a city official and escapes the scene. Seattle's Mayor, Harold Abbey, demands the gunman be found. But his fellow councilmen reprimand him for his choice to disarm the police, and setting up the meaningless cryo-prison where the inmates just "sleep away" their sentences and emerge from incarceration the same person as they entered.
The Foundation For Law and Government steps in with a possible solution to help the police force; the "Knight 4000", a red Pontiac Banshee that will become the next generation of the KITT supercar. With the vehicle, law enforcement will have an edge on heavily armed criminals and will be better able to apprehend them safely. Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare) and his partner, Russel Maddock (Carmen Argenziano), are green lighted on the idea, but the city wants to see a working prototype of the 4000 in three months. Maddock doesn't see a problem with the deadline, but Devon knows they will need help with an effective demonstration. He decides to bring in Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) as the test driver.
Elsewhere, Watts strikes again; this time shooting police officer Shawn McCormick (Susan Norman) in the head after she discovers her fellow patrolmen are working with the assassin in a twisted conspiracy; to sell handguns back to the criminals so the police force can get their "real" weapons back. Shawn survives the attack and is rushed to the hospital. Doctors save her by installing a cybernetic microchip implant into her brain. She finally recovers, but the details of the attack are gone and all she knows is that someone tried to kill her, but she doesn't remember who or why.
Soon Devon visits Michael, who has been "retired" for the past ten years and living in seclusion near a mountain lake. Devon convinces him to join the project, but Michael is furious to learn KITT has been reduced to a pile of scrap. Maddock sees no reason to restore him, or even to have Michael brought back to the Foundation. Michael is ready to walk but decides to secretly rebuild KITT's AI unit, which is difficult since Maddock has sold most of his chips to medical research. He manages to reactivate KITT's logic module and temporarily installs him in the dashboard of his classic 1957 Chevy. KITT protests his "new look" but it is the best Michael can do for him under the circumstances. The Knight 4000 already has an AI unit whose voice and personality are modeled after Maddock. In the garage, KITT tries to get to know the Knight 4000, but finds the vehicle is just as temperamental and arrogant as the man he's modeled after.
Elsewhere, Shawn quits the police force after she learns the police commissioner didn't want to authorize her brain chip implant and refuses to get involved in her case. She seeks employment with the Foundation where Michael learns one of KITT's missing cybernetic chips is now in her head. Because of this, KITT is able to link up with the chip and he is able to extract her missing memories. She now remembers Watts is the one who shot her, and her fellow officers were with him when he did it, including her partner who she though she could always trust.
The plot thickens when Watts learns Shawn is still alive and involved in the new Foundation project. He sends the cops to eliminate her and Michael. They are easily chased down by the police and KITT realizes his classic car body isn't the indestructible shell he once had. He decides to evade capture by driving off a pier into the Seattle harbor where he quickly sinks to the bottom. Michael and Shawn are kept safe inside the "air tight" driving compartment but KITT isn't so lucky as water seeps in and destroys his circuitry. With Watts believing Michael and Shawn are dead he captures Devon and uses the mind scanning technology used to save Shawn to discover what Devon knows. Afterward he injects a lethal drug into the fluid tubing, which kills Devon.
Michael and Shawn eventually swim to safety and secretly return to the Foundation where they learn of Devon's fate. Swearing to stop Watts at all costs, Michael goes against Maddock's orders and installs KITT's AI module into the Knight 4000 (though, the AI is still called "KITT" after install). KITT gets used to his new body and the vehicle's advanced features, such as a heads up virtual reality display in the windshield. Michael and Shawn both go after Watts, knowing this time, it's personal.
After Watt's defeat, Michael returns to retirement. KITT remains behind in Seattle with Shawn and Maddock. The trio continue their police work for the city.
[edit] The Knight 4000's features
The Knight 4000 has most of KITT's original features including a few new and improved systems.
- Voice Activated Controls - The Knight 4000's dashboard is less "cluttered looking" than KITT's original dash with most of the controls now being completely voice activated rather than having to push a button.
- Virtual Reality Heads-up Display - Rather than dash-mounted CRT displays, the Knight 4000 utilizes a virtual reality heads-up display (VR-HUD) that makes use of the entire windshield as video monitor.
- Microwave Stunner - Much like the new non-lethal Seattle police sidearm, the Knight 4000 is equipped with a microwave stunner than can bring down a criminal by disrupting the central nervous system and rendering them immobilized.
- Thermal Expander - The Knight 4000 is equipped with an offensive weapon which consisted of a microwave projector that caused the temperatures of targeted objects to quickly rise and either ignite or explode.
- Fax Machine - The Knight 4000 can print out faxed messages from a dash mounted printer. (A technology misconception of the late '80s is that fax machines would be in common use everywhere by the 21st Century, including automobiles).
- Amphibious Mode - The Knight 4000 can float and maneuver on water much like a boat. The system was actually a major improvement over KITT's original hydroplane ability which during the original series was prone to malfunctions during its experimental phase.
[edit] Trivia
- Actor James Doohan makes a cameo appearance as an innocent bystander that KITT mistakes for a criminal stealing money from an ATM. KITT zaps the suspect with a stun beam and the man collapses. When Michael and Maddock pick up the man to arrest him, they find Mr. Doohan, delirious (from being zapped), and mumbling various lines from his role of Scotty on Star Trek. In the scene, Maddock mentions that there have been ten Star Trek movies by 2000, and Doohan was in all ten. The script writers were somewhat close. However, Doohan's last appearance was in the crossover-movie, Star Trek: Generations. His seventh Star Trek film.
- In the ATM scene, the original script had football linebacker Brian Bosworth getting stunned by KITT. But they later rewrote the scene and used James Doohan instead of Bosworth.
- The studio was unable to use a real Pontiac Banshee for the movie, so instead it hired Jay Ohrberg Star Cars Inc. to customize a 1991 Dodge Stealth for the Knight 4000. The custom car can also be seen, albeit briefly, as a stolen supercar in CHiPs '99.
- Knight Rider 2000 was filmed in two Texas cities, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. In some scenes, characters are in San Antonio locations such as Paseo del Rio and the Tower of the Americas one moment, and the next they are at the shoreline of Corpus Christi. This was met with a great deal of amusement by native Texans.
- Dan Quayle, who was Vice President of the United States in 1991, had become President of the United States by 2000 in the Knight Rider universe.
- In the eyes of some fans of the original series, although the Knight 4000 was supposed to be a more advanced version of the Knight 2000, the lack of a Turbo Boost function (a symbolic part of the original series) and the lengthened nose made it seem inferior to the original black car.
[edit] Cast
- David Hasselhoff .... Michael Knight
- Edward Mulhare .... Devon Miles
- Susan Norman .... Officer Shawn McCormick
- Carmen Argenziano .... Russell Maddock/Voice of Knight 4000
- Eugene Clark .... Officer Kurt Miller
- Megan Butler .... Officer Marla Hedges
- Mitch Pileggi .... Thomas J. Watts
- Christine Healy .... Commissioner Ruth Daniels
- Lou Beatty Jr. .... Mayor Harold Abbey
- Francis Guinan .... Dr. Jeffrey Glassman
- John Cannon Nichols .... Lieutenant Justin Strand
- Chris Bonno .... Andrew
- Robert F. Cawley .... Prison Guard
- Ellis Posey .... Mayor Frank Cottam
- Philip Hafer .... Charlie (as Phillip Hafer)
- Carolyn G. Jackson .... Bag Lady
- Ron Jackson .... Highway Police Officer
- Stacy Lundgren .... Sandy
- Matthew Menger .... Shawn's Father (as Matt Menger)
- Paul Menzel .... Businessman
- J.W. Moore IV .... Medical Technician
- Edwin Neal .... Warehouse Clerk
- Marco Perella .... Police Sergeant
- Larry Roop .... Police Officer
- Lori Swierski .... Lori
- James Doohan .... James 'Scotty' Doohan
- William Daniels .... K.I.T.T. (voice) (uncredited)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Knight Rider 2000 at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.kr2k.com/ - Knight Rider 2000 Online - Comprehensive Website about the Movie
- http://www.teamknightrider.com/ - American Site of the movie
