The Darwin Awards (film)

Infobox_Film
name = The Darwin Awards

---

caption = Promotional poster for "The Darwin Awards"
imdb_id = 0428446
director = Finn Taylor
producer = Jason Blum
Debbie Brubaker
Dieter Busch
Frank Capra III
Charles Hsiao
Laurie Miller
Peter Naish
Steven Siebert
Jane Sindell
Johnny Wow
writer = Finn Taylor
starring = Joseph Fiennes
Winona Ryder
David Arquette
Juliette Lewis
Wilmer Valderrama
Chris Penn
Julianna Margulies
Robin Tunney
Brad Hunt
Josh Charles
Judah Friedlander
Lukas Haas
D.B. Sweeney
music = David Kitay
cinematography = Hiro Narita
editing = Rick LeCompte
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = January 25, 2006 (Sundance)
runtime = 93 min.
budget =
language = English

"The Darwin Awards" is a comedy film based on the website of the same name.

Written and directed by Finn Taylor, the film premiered January 25, 2006, at the Sundance Film Festival. The film features Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, David Arquette, Juliette Lewis, Wilmer Valderrama, Chris Penn, Julianna Margulies, Robin Tunney, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Brad Hunt, Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Metallica. This was Chris Penn's last movie before his death on January 24, 2006, the day before the movie's premiere. The film includes several full and partial re-enactments of "Darwin Awards", most of which are actually urban legends, most notably the debunked JATO Rocket Car story.

Cast

Joseph Fiennes stars as Michael Burrows, a detective hired "pro tempore" by an insurance company to profile Darwin Award candidates who accidentally kill themselves, in order to save the insurance company's money.

Winona Ryder plays Siri, a work-hardened yet sweetly authentic insurance investigator working with Burrows.

Wilmer Valderrama plays a film director who is coincidentially the main point-of-view of the movie. He records Burrows during the final police call that ended his work prematurely, and follows him through his pursuit of a job with the insurance company.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, the hosts of the TV show "MythBusters", play two army-junk sellers. They appear during the story of the rocket car, which they effectively reproduced in their show's pilot episode.

Plot

The movie opens with a shot of a man in a car with a JATO rocket strapped to it. The relevance of the opening isn't explained for some time as the movie shifts gears to a detailed look into the life of Michael Burrows, a criminal profiler for the San Francisco Police Department. Much of the film is shot in a documentary style, ostensibly as a part of a dissertation by a film school grad that follows Michael through the movie. Fired from the force after his hemophobia lets a murderer get away, he drifts about in a deep depression for several weeks before coming up with a way to combine his obsession with the Darwin Awards with his talent for profiling: Help insurance companies detect people that are likely to accidentally end their own lives before they're sold insurance policies. After impressing a manager at the insurance company with his talent for profiling, he's paired up with Siri, a specialist in 'weird' insurance cases.

Siri and Michael travel the country investigating several legendary examples of stupidity on behalf of the insurance company, such as the above mentioned JATO rocket car, not all of which would qualify as 'Darwin Awards'. For example, a pair of men who are attempting to ice fish get frustrated and try to use a stick of dynamite to blast a hole in the ice only to have their trusty black lab fetch the stick of dynamite, run back to their brand-new SUV, and sink it to the bottom of the lake without either man being killed. As they investigate those and other cases, Michael tries to find a common factor in these people; the closest the movie gets to an explanation is a confused monologue by Siri about insurance companies always denying claims and driving people insane. Ironically, Michael narrowly avoids becoming a Darwin Award winner throughout the movie. In one instance, he and Siri are stranded out in the middle of nowhere on a cold winter night. Desperate for warmth, he attempts to set a fire with gasoline to get warm only to blow up his own car. In a later scene, Siri confronts Michael, accusing him of being so obsessed with the Darwin Award winners because he suspects he's one of them.

A twist of fate leads to Michael finding out where the murder suspect he let get away lives. As he attempts to videotape the man in his home by rappelling down the side of his building, the film school student is seen for the first time. He, too, is hanging on the side of the building by a rope- with the other end of the same rope Michael is dangling by. The stone vase the pair is anchored by inches closer to the edge as the serial killer taunts them from the roof, slicing open his own hand in an effort to trigger Michael's hemophobia. Michael is able to overcome his hemophobia, defeat the serial killer, and live happily ever after with Siri.

External links

* [http://movie.darwinawards.com Official Movie Site]
* [http://www.darwinawards.com Official Darwin Awards Site]
*