The Skulls (film)

Not to be confused with The Skull (film).

The Skulls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Written by	John Pogue
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz John Pogue
Starring	Joshua Jackson Paul Walker Hill Harper Leslie Bibb Christopher McDonald Steve Harris William Petersen Craig T. Nelson
Cinematography	Shane Hurlbut
Edited by	Peter Amundson
Music by	Randy Edelman
Production company	Original Film
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (United States and United Kingdom) Summit Entertainment (international)
Release date	March 31, 2000 (2000-03-31) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$50.8 million

The Skulls is a 2000 American thriller film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker and Leslie Bibb. The film's plot is inspired by conspiracy theories surrounding the Skull and Bones society at Yale University. Although The Skulls was widely panned by critics, it performed modestly at the box office and led to two direct-to-video sequels: The Skulls II (2002) and The Skulls III (2004).

Plot

Luke McNamara is a working-class college student and accomplished rower aspiring to attend law school. Orphaned and raised in modest circumstances, he attends a prestigious university on a scholarship. His closest friends are Chloe, his romantic interest, and Will, the coxswain of the university's rowing team. Luke's life changes when he is invited to join a secret society known as the Skulls.

As part of the initiation process, Luke, along with fellow initiate Caleb Mandrake, is instructed to steal an artifact from a rival society. Upon completing the task, the two are declared "soulmates" by the society. The pair is brought into the Skulls' headquarters, where they are told that membership requires proving themselves "in war." This causes tension between Luke and Will, who has long been suspicious of the Skulls.

Luke develops a rapport with Caleb’s father, Judge Litten Mandrake, a prominent member of the Skulls and a Supreme Court hopeful. Alongside U.S. Senator Ames Levritt, Litten takes an interest in mentoring Luke. Meanwhile, Will discovers the Skulls' ritual chamber but is caught and knocked unconscious during a confrontation with Caleb. Litten instructs Provost Martin Lombard to kill Will and stage his death as a suicide.

Devastated by Will’s death, Luke begins to suspect foul play. He recovers a security tape from the Skulls’ headquarters that implicates Lombard. Caleb also begins to question what happened. However, the Skulls' council declares Luke disloyal and expels him. When Luke attempts to present the evidence to the authorities, the tape is switched by a corrupt detective, and he is institutionalized.

With the help of Chloe and Senator Levritt—who is secretly manipulating events—Luke escapes the hospital. After surviving an attack by Lombard, who is killed by Detective Sparrow, Luke challenges Caleb to a traditional duel under Skull Rule 119. Though Litten attempts to fight in his son's place, he is denied. During the duel, Luke refuses to shoot, urging Caleb to recognize the truth. When Litten intervenes and attempts to kill Luke, Caleb shoots his father. Caleb then tries to take his own life but is stopped by Luke.

In the aftermath, Luke realizes that Senator Levritt orchestrated much of the conflict to remove Litten from power. Disillusioned, Luke refuses to join the Skulls, despite Levritt insisting that he has earned his place. As Luke walks away, Levritt quietly remarks, “Well done, son, well done.”

Cast

• Joshua Jackson as Lucas John "Luke" McNamara, the new Skulls member.
• Paul Walker as Caleb Mandrake, one of the new Skulls members along with Luke.
• Hill Harper as Will Beckford, Luke's classmate and best friend.
• Leslie Bibb as Chloe Whitfield, Luke's classmate and love interest.
• Christopher McDonald as Martin Lombard, a provost at Yale University.
• Steve Harris as Detective Sparrow, a police detective who investigates the Skulls.
• William Petersen as Senator Ames Levritt, member of 1972 Skulls class, and one of the leaders of the organization.
• Craig T. Nelson as Judge Litten Mandrake, Caleb's father, member of 1972 Skulls class.
• Derek Aasland as Sullivan, one of Luke's townie friends who come to the rescue.
• David Asman as Jason Pitcairn
• Scott Gibson as Travis Wheeler
• Nigel Bennett as Dr. Rupert Whitney, the member of 1973 Skulls class. He is now head of protocol.
• Noah Danby as Hugh Mauberson
• Steven McCarthy as Sweeney

Setting

The Skulls was primarily shot in Toronto, Ontario, with the University of Toronto standing in for Yale University, the fictional setting of the plot. Several of the university's notable buildings were used, including University College, which served as the exterior for the Skulls' headquarters, and Trinity College, which represented the office of the society’s leader. The rival society was portrayed as being based in the student council building, while the protagonists’ residence and dining hall scenes were filmed at Burwash Hall. Additional scenes were filmed in the suburban neighborhood of Guildwood, particularly at Guild Park and Gardens. The opening rowing sequence was shot in St. Catharines, Ontario, at Henley Island, a well-known rowing venue. Portions of the film were also shot on Dark Island in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Production

In March 1999, Universal Pictures acquired the distribution rights for the United States and the United Kingdom as part of its strategic expansion into teen-oriented genre films. Summit Entertainment was responsible for handling international sales, while financing for the film was provided by Newmarket Films. The film was produced by Original Film as part of a joint venture with Newmarket.

Reception

Box office

The Skulls opened at #3 at the North American box office, grossing $11,034,885 in its opening weekend. It ranked behind The Road to El Dorado and Erin Brockovich.

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Skulls holds an approval rating of 9% based on 85 reviews, with the site's consensus reading: "The Skulls is full of nonsense and empty of a good script and plot." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 24 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, stating that it was "so ludicrous in so many different ways it achieves a kind of forlorn grandeur."

In a retrospective interview, director Rob Cohen defended the film and the intentions behind it. He remarked:

"It was a very intense set because I had in my mind that I was telling the story of George Senior and George W. Bush. I had gone to Harvard that had the dining clubs but not the Skull and Bones, the secret societies. But I knew a lot about the secret societies, and I thought this is how the elite functions. This is how the elite knits together these bonds that take them through life and keep them in the elite heights of any society, and I was very excited about portraying that with Paul and Josh and all the cast. To create this secret world of power elites… that was very exciting to me and I got the cast excited about that idea. It's interesting how many of the critics missed this and didn't understand it and blowed it off as silly. Skull and Bones is a reality and the film got very close to how that reality works at Yale."

See also

• The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970 film)

External links

• The Skulls at IMDb
• The Skulls at Rotten Tomatoes