The Crow: Salvation was the third movie based on The Crow comic by James O'Barr. It was directed by Bharat Nalluri and released direct to video in 2000 after its distributor cancelled the intended theatrical release.
Plot summary
Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius) is framed for the murder of his girlfriend Lauren Randall (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), who was brutally stabbed 53 times. Three years later, he is executed in the electric chair for it. A mysterious man containing a scar on his left arm made a point of revealing that scar to Corvis as he was strapped in the Electric Chair and being electrocuted. Soon after the execution, Alex is resurrected by a crow, so Alex can clear his name and get revenge. He peels off the burnt flesh from his face, revealing his crow appearance.
Alex follows the crow to the Salt Lake City police department's evidence room, where he discovers that Lauren was killed by a group of corrupt cops. Alex has a vision of one of the killers, who had a scarred arm matching the one at his execution.
Alex finds the knife that was used on Lauren, and then goes to Lauren's grave. There, he meets with Lauren's sister Erin (Kirsten Dunst), who does not believe he is who he says he is. He tells her that he'll prove it somehow, and disappears.
Alex finds Tommy Leonard (David Stevens), the man who was paid to lie about Alex at the trial. Tommy tells Alex which cops killed Lauren—Madden (Bruce McCarthy), Martin Toomey (Tim DeKay), Vince Erlich (Dale Midkiff), Stan Roberts (Walton Goggins), and Phillip Dutton (Bill Mondy). Alex spares Tommy's life.
Later, Dutton pulls over two women, and tries to sexually assault the driver. Suddenly, he sees Alex sitting where the passenger was. Alex looks for the scar, and doesn't find it. Alex shoots Dutton in the head, and stabs him fifty-three times, killing him.
Later, Erin watches the news and sees Dutton's dead body on the screen, with the name "Daisy" cut into his head. This is Alex's sign to Erin, because Daisy was Lauren's nickname for Erin.
Alex finds Erlich leaving an apartment in his Corvette. Alex kicks through Erlich's window, drives the Corvette very fast, searches Erlich's arm for the scar, and doesn't find it. Alex drives the Corvette into the side of an abandoned bus, and blows it up with Erlich laying bloodied on the hood of the car. Alex inadvertently drops the list of names of the cops he's after, and Roberts and Toomey find it.
Later, Alex gives Erin a piece of paper found in Erlich's car, and Erin now believes that Alex is innocent. She then finds out that her father, Nathan Randall (William Atherton) is in business with the corrupt cops who killed Lauren, and was thus indirectly responsible for her death. Nathan says that he never wanted Lauren to die, but Erin leaves the house. At the same time, Roberts and Madden kill Tommy and his family.
Alex meets with his lawyer, Peter Walsh (Grant Shaud), and they talk about Lauren's death. Alex goes to the place where Lauren died and talks to her. Erin goes home, and finds Nathan dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Later, Walsh tells Alex that Nathan owns a company called Westwind Building, which owns DERT, a company that owns about a dozen other companies.
Tommy used to make daily deliveries to the Key Club, a strip bar owned by DERT, and Walsh tells Alex that a place like that is about unreported cash; things like money from drugs. Lauren discovered what they were doing when she witnessed John, the police captain (Fred Ward), killing a man at the Key Club. John had his men kill Lauren. Erin barges into Walsh's apartment, telling Alex that Nathan is dead.
Alex goes to the Key Club. Madden and John meet Erin at Walsh's apartment, and explain to her about Nathan. Erin gets John's gun and aims it at him, but John gets his gun back. Madden kills Walsh, and John kidnaps Erin.
Later, Alex starts a big shootout at the Key Club and fatally impales Roberts with a pipe he breaks off the ceiling, kills the remaining police, then grabs Tommy and checks his arm for the scar, but doesn't find it. Madden shows up, and tries to kill Alex. Madden accidentally shoots a pipe, which ignites a gas leak; the explosion kills Tommy. Alex walks out of the fire and sees an arm hanging out of the rubble with the scar on it. Alex then leaves the rubble and watches a woman while having a flashback. Her jealous boyfriend hits Alex.
Alex goes back to Walsh's apartment. It's empty, but he finds a hint placed by Walsh which leads him to John. He goes to the police station and confronts John. After a few words, Alex brandishes the knife responsible for killing Lauren, preparing to kill John. However, his regeneration ability is apparently not working anymore, as he "fulfilled his duty" after finding the arm with the scar (i.e. the arm of the one he is after), and he is no match for the Captain, who stabs Alex several times with the knife, while verbally abusing him and attempting to convince Alex that Alex alone murdered his own girlfriend. Before Alex dies, he does believe he is the one who murdered Lauren.
Madden, the Captain, and the Captain's demented secretary (Kelly Harren) pull Alex into John's taxidermy room, where Erin is tied up with her mouth stitched shut, wearing the locket that connects her to Alex. The crow picks the locket up and drops it next to Alex, who comes back to life again. Alex sets Erin free, and she runs out with John in pursuit. Alex kills Madden by throwing him into a glass trophy case that cuts his neck. Alex then sees Walsh's body hanging from the ceiling, his arm cut off. Alex kills John's secretary by throwing her against the wall, impaling her on a set of mounted antlers hanging on the wall.
The Captain gets Erin into a car and drives away, and Alex reaches the roof of the police building and jumps off onto the car. Alex punches through the car's glass roof, grabs John's arm, and rolls up the sleeve. Confirming his suspicion, Alex notices the scar on the Captain's left arm.
Alex and Erin then take the Captain to the prison's death chamber and strap John into the same electric chair that Alex died in. John says he'll come back like Alex and vows to kill them both. Erin pulls the switch, and they leave John to suffer in the chair, burning long after he is dead. Alex and Erin walk outside, and Alex disappears in a whirlwind.
Later, Erin, who apparently came to visit the graves of both Alex and her sister, puts the necklace that bonded her and Alex on his headstone before leaving as she explains her renewed sense of mortality in a voice-over.
Original Soundtrack
Tracklist:
Cast
Trivia
- In the movie Alex has just turn 21, Eric Mabius was in fact 29
- The main character's surname, "Corvis", in Latin means "to the crows".
- According to an interview, Rob Zombie, musician and horror director, wrote a script for a third Crow film called The Crow: 2037 which was about a boy and his mother being murdered by a Satanic Priest in the year 2010. The boy is resurrected by the crow a year later and forgets everything until twenty-seven years later, also included is a link to the script (PDF format).[1][2]
- James O'Barr, creator of the original comic, designed some promotional sketches for the film. They are included as bonus material on the film's musical score CD. He also says he liked Eric Mabius' performance, but stated the overall film suffered greatly for other reasons.
- This film marks Kirsten Dunst's first foray into the role of a character inspired by a comic book; she would later come to fame in the role of Mary Jane Watson for the "Spider-Man" films.
- The German version is missing more than 6 minutes (including the final scene - the movie ends with the Crow discovering the scars on the captain's arm). The absence of these scenes results in many plot holes and incoherences.
External links
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