dncorp
Should have been Everybody that ever lived on Earth is Resurrected naked and virgins incapable of procreating on the shores of a River. They have a metal container attached to them named a Grail, only the owner can open the "Grail".Large flashes of what appeared to be lighting strikes at only one location are seen, the Resurrected go to investigate, there they discovered a mushroom shaped "Grailstone". Using the Grails, the person that opened the Grail had food that was familiar to them (not like in the TV Series Pilot, baby food), and many other items bits of cloth, cigarettes, narcotic gum. Three times a day (breakfast, lunch, supper) the flashes occur coming from the Mushroom shaped Grailstones after the Grail Owners place their Grails on top of the mushroom shaped Grailstones. Rarely a "Open by Anybody" Grail appears on top of the Grailstones.Language was the biggest barrier, there was no Universal Translator (like in the TV Series and Movie), everybody learns Esperanto.Explorer Richard Burton wakes up naked on the Shore of the River. Being an Explorer he starts to travel, he gets killed and ends up further down stream hundreds of Miles away from where he died. Instead of walking Explorer Richard Burton commits suicide repeatedly traveling hundreds of miles downstream each time to areas occupied by Races, Cultures, Empires, of different time periods of Earth History.During his numerous times of committing suicide and being resurrected, something happened, he woke up before ending up on the shore naked. He observed a chamber of countless people in clear pods (coffins) still not resurrected.Richard Burton commits suicide and is Resurrected again, this time he is visited by a cloaked figure that warns him that by committing suicide so many times (hundreds) he has become noticed, and that the next time he might not be Resurrected. The cloaked figure tells Explorer Richard Burton if he wants answers he must go to the Polar Sea to a Tower.Explorer Richard Burton meets Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. They compare what the had seen, there is almost no metal to make anything at "Riverworld". No Animals were Resurrected so travel by foot is the only current means or committing suicide. Riverworld has the River going north to south completely around the Entire Planet to the Polar Sea. Samuel Clemens is searching for his Wife Livy. It took a very long time for Samuel Clemens to build the Riverboat, the cloaked figure that Samuel Clements named "X" arranged a metal rich meteor to strike near where Samuel Clemens was at, causing widespread destruction and over 300,000 deaths, among the dead is his Wife Livy. Samuel Clemens starts Mining the metal, and for protection made a deal to be Allied with King John, they then formed a Nation. Samuel Clements Riverboat is built.They encountered other Explorers, one group had actually saw The Dark Tower (Stephen King must have read Riverworld), a very large black tower located in the center of the polar sea, while searching for the source of the River. Some died after seeing The Dark Tower, and were Resurrected all over Riverworld, as to how word spread so quickly.The Nation created by Samuel Clemens starts construction of an Airship, the size of the Hindenburg Airship. Built airplanes and a helicopter launched from and recovered by the Airship.They fly to The Dark Tower in the Airship. Only to discover the entrances are protected by a force field. One of the Explorers makes it into The Dark Tower, Explorer Richard Burton and Samuel Clemens suspect he was an Agent for the Creators of Riverworld they named "Ethicals", and that they have been infiltrated.Samuel Clemens and King John become Enemies.A Battle occurs between King John and Samuel Clemens, two Riverboats destroyed each other. King John is killed during aerial combat fighting Samuel Clemens, Samuel Clemens airplane crashes into the River and dies of a heart attack.Explorer Richard Burton uses a remaining ship and gets to the Polar Sea."X" is called to The Dark Tower to Stand Trial. "X" kills everybody in The Dark Tower to end the Resurrections, this also stopped the Grailstones from providing food, in the Chaos half the population of Riverworld gets killed fighting for food.Also damaged at The Dark Tower, the Computer that holds everybody's Souls that died at Riverworld, and will not be Resurrected if not repaired, their Souls will be forever lost to the Universe."X" starts killing the other Creators "Ethicals" and Agents of the Creators outside The Dark Tower.Now Pacifist Herman Goering of the Church of the Second Chance attempts to repair the Computer and is immediately killed. Alice bypasses the security and Loga repairs the Computer."X" reveals that he is not a Creator of Riverworld and had been Resurrected Centuries ago, trained by the Creators "Ethicals", and that Riverworld is a Moral Test for Humanity to become "Enlightened", those that have not become Enlightened after the Test will have their Souls released to be lost to the Universe forever.The Survivors must now figure out what to do with The Dark Tower, capabilities of the Creators of Riverworld.
leonidus1956
Absolutely one of the worst book-to-film adaptations I have ever seen. Alex Proyas has been involved in some works ( Dark City, The Crow ) that I really enjoyed but this was awful...there was so much potential in the novels and perhaps even the attempt to condense them into a 2 hour movie was doomed to fail but, seriously, horses ?!?!? There were no animals (other than fish and worms) mentioned in the books but the addition of horses obviously dramatically changed the dynamics of the human societies that evolved after the "resurrections" and not in ways that are even remotely faithful to Mr. Farmers original vision. I always admired the concept of the Riverworld both from the point of view of the author, being able to script interactions between all my favorite characters from all of human history, as well as the pure joy of reading these works and unraveling the mysteries of the Riverworld.
CAL FORD
I don't understand the Sci Fi channel, somehow these idiots have money, production studios, staff - yet they produce trash. I've seen college productions that had more depth and quality. The worst part of Sci Fi is that they absorb the sci fi world on cable, not leaving room for actual quality productions.River World is a good example of a production that had good actors and lots of money yet the product is a pure waste of time. Either the management of Sci Fi Channel are incompetent or the Sci Fi is actively dumbing down the population. That would be a great Sci Fi show, how a cable channel is in conspiracy with some invisible group to turn society into drooling robots who never ask questions and only follow the Sci Fi channel's programming.
chazzchezz
I re-watched this today, and still like it. Phillip Jose Farmer's works were always fun but no great classics, so I don't mind that the movie deviated a lot from any of the books. Books is books, movies is movies. The scenery of New Zealand is almost worth watching just to see it - it is truly spectacular. The story is the expected thud and blunder of folks showing up nekkid on a new world, so I was willing to put up with that just to get the riverboat launched. Hale, Sam Clements, and Nero seem interesting enough and good enough; with this kind of movie, the plot and the effects are mostly what matters. Of course, with Sam Clements on board, we could expect more inventions with the flavor of the "Connecticut Yankee ...". I hope that they make more of these -- c
