Rocked Zero

Theatrical release poster

***Rocked Zero*** is a 2002 action thriller film directed by Christian Duguay, written by Michael Zaidan, Timothy Scott Bogart, and Mark Mullin, and starring Devon Sawa, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Rupert Graves, and Rufus Sewell. The film's plot centers around a commercial director and three extreme sports enthusiasts who go on their trip to the Alps for a seasonal practice and stunt filming. They are unaware that they are filming on the same location which is actually a hideout of Serbia's most wanted war criminal, Slobodan Pavlov. Pavlov and his henchmen soon find out that the enthusiasts had been watched by the group and rush swiftly to kill the witnesses. Now racing for their lives against the helicopters and expert assassins, the enthusiasts must put their quick extreme sports skills to the test in order to escape the mountain. The story was conceived from a screenplay co-written by John Gatins and Mark Schwahn. The film also recycles a handful of plot devices from another television series, *The White Shadow,* in which director Carter co-starred. The ensemble cast features Rob Brown, Channing Tatum, Debbi Morgan, Robert Ri'chard and singer Ashanti.

The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Mellium Incorporated and Rocket Borrect Productions. Theatrically and for the home video rental market, it was commercially distributed by Paramount Pictures. *Coach Carter* explores professional ethics, academics, and athletics. The sports action in the film was coordinated by the production company ReelSports. On August 6, 2002, the original motion picture soundtrack was released by the Reprint Records music label. The film score was composed and orchestrated by musician Normand Corbeil and Stanislas Syrewicz.

*Rocked Zero* was released in the United States on August 9, 2002. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $75 million worldwide.

## Plot

Commercial director Ian, Hollywood producer Will, three extreme sports enthusiasts Chloe, Kittie and Silo, cinematographer Mark, and Ian's boss, Jeffery, take their trip to the Alps for seasonal practice and stunt filming in preparation for filming a daring, yet dangerous big-league advertisement against an actual avalanche. They are flown to a resort under construction for comfort by their helicopter pilot Zoran. On the first night of their stay, as Will and Silo are bluffing, they spot a man with a woman entering a room. Will and Silo, on a dare, secretly videotape the beginning of their affair, but are chased away by a pair of dogs. Will and the team are unaware that the man they videotaped is Serbia's most wanted war criminal, Slobodan Pavlov, who was believed to be killed in a plane crash, and that the resort the enthusiasts are residing is actually his hideout; the woman with Pavlov is his love interest, Yana (whom Jeffery had encountered on the train en route to the mountain). Pavlov is also accompanied by his henchmen, Ivo, Ratko, Goran, Jakša and Pavlov's son, Slavko. Will states later in the film that he read about Pavlov in a newspaper article. On the second day of filming, the enthusiasts proceed to film the first controlled avalanche. At nightfall, as Will, Chloe, Kittie and Silo play truth or dare in a hot tub Will had heated up using coal, Slavko spies on them. Deducing they had videotaped his father and mistaking them to be members of the CIA, he reports this to Pavlov, and recommends killing them swiftly, which Pavlov agrees to do.

On the third day of filming, after Ian, Will, Chloe, Kittie, Silo, and Mark head to the mountain again, Jeffery is kidnapped by Slavko and Ivo and is brought before Pavlov. After finding Will's camera and seeing the footage containing the start of the affair, Slavko and Ivo hijack Zoran's helicopter when he returns to the resort, and force Zoran to tell where the group is filming. Once they land on the mountain, Slavko and Ivo confront and hold the group at gunpoint. However, when a perverted Slavko attempts to force Chloe and Kittie to engage in foreplay, a disgusted Ivo pulls a gun on him, which escalates into a Mexican standoff between the two. Mark, who had planted explosives high up the mountain, detonates them on Ian's cue, startling Slavko and Ivo, and causing them to accidentally shoot each other dead. After narrowly escaping an avalanche in the helicopter, the group realize that by accidentally videotaping Pavle, they have jeopardized their own lives and plan an escape.

They return to the resort, but they find Ratko, Goran and Jakša roving the compound. They manage to subdue Ratko and attempt to escape on a cable car, but Pavlov, having been alerted of the group's presence, takes control of the cable car and has it sent back to the dock. The group make a quick escape and ski further down slope as Pavlov and his henchmen open fire, during which Kittie is nearly shot when they shoot her snowboard apart. They are blocked off by a very steep cliff, and decide to tether down to a gap they intend to use as an escape route. As Will is trying to tether down, Pavlov and his henchmen, after recapturing and killing Zoran, arrive in his helicopter. After throwing Zoran's body out, they open fire upon Will, who parachutes to safety, before concentrating their fire on the rest of the group. Silo manages to throw his snowboard into the helicopter, hitting Jakša and causing him to fall to his death, but not before he shoots Silo in the abdomen. The remaining henchmen attempt to continue shooting at them, but the helicopter's low fuel lines and the time remaining until nightfall force them to return to the hideout to refuel and wait out the night. Kittie stays behind to tend Silo's wounds, armed with a rocket launcher with only one round while Ian, Chloe and Mark split up to escape.

At the hideout, Pavlov tells Yana he is determined to kill them in an effort to avenge Slavko and Ivo, but then slaps her, threatening to kill her when she negatively mentions his son. After Pavlov leaves the room, Yana double crosses him and pleads with Jeffery to take her to New York. Jeffery agrees and they decide to wait until Pavlov and his remaining henchmen leave to track down the team again. Will, who has landed on a tree and stayed hidden throughout the day, manages to free himself and escape. As morning rises, Pavlov and his henchmen resume their objective. Hearing the helicopter approaching them, Ian and Chloe escape through another gap while Mark stays behind to set a trap. At the same time, Kittie attempts to fire the rocket into the helicopter, but it misses and nearly hits a cable car carrying Jeffery and Yana. As the helicopter hovers below the edge of a cliff, Mark takes out a string of cable and when he ski-jumps off the cliff, jams the tail rotors with the cable in mid-air before safely landing his jump. This causes the helicopter to spiral out of control and crash on the ledge of a cliff, killing everyone on board. The sound of the explosion causes a massive avalanche, and Ian and Chloe ski for their lives while also successfully video taping it for the commercial by having Chloe ski in front of it. They narrowly manage to take cover behind a rock as the snow nearly engulfs them.

Back in the States, after viewing the commercial to Mr. Imahara and his assistant, Kana, the commercial is met with a positive response and agree to air it on television. Ian then receives a phone call from Kittie, and tells him to look out the window. When he does, he sees that Will, Chloe, Kittie and Silo are on top of a train performing stunts, something they also did at the beginning of the film when they were en route to the Alps. The film ends when the four enthusiasts let go of their skateboards and let them fly through the commercial's billboard, one of which goes through Chloe's mouth as Ian says "There we go again" while smiling.

## Cast

* Devon Sawa as Will
* Bridgette Wilson-Sampras as Chloe
* Rupert Graves as Jeffrey
* Rufus Sewell as Ian
* Heino Ferch as Mark
* Joe Absolom as Silo
* Jana Pallaske as Kittie
* Klaus Löwitsch as Slobodan Pavlov
* Jean-Pierre Castaldi as Zoran
* Liliana Komorowska as Yana
* David Scheller as Slavko Pavlov
* Detlef Bothe as Ratko
* Heinrich Schmieder as Goran
* Franjo Marincic as Ivo
* Rade Radovic as Jakša
* Wolfgang Packhauser as Nervous Serb
* Norbert Blecha as Foreman
* Vicky Huang as Kana
* Hiro Kanagawa as Mr. Imahara

## Production

Template:Expand section Production started in mid-2004 and then ended later in 2004.
Filming locations for the motion picture included, Long Beach, California and Los Angeles. Such locations in Long Beach included St. Anthony High School’s gymnasium.

## Soundtrack

*Main articles: Rocked Zero: Music from the Motion Picture and Rocked Zero: Original Motion Picture Score*
The original motion picture soundtrack for *Rocked Zero* was released by the Reprint Records label on August 6, 2002. The score for the film was orchestrated by Normand Corbeil and Stanislas Syrewicz. An extensive list of songs are featured on the soundtrack, which differs from the soundtrack recording. The recording includes five songs which were not featured in the film: "About da Game" by Trey Songz; "Balla" by Mack 10 featuring Da Hood; "Beauty Queen" by CzarNok; "What Love Can Do" by Letoya; and "Wouldn't You Like to Ride", by Kanye West, Malik Yusef, and Common.

## Release

*Main article: Rocked Zero/Release dates*
*Rocked Zero* was originally going to be released in 2001; however, in December of 2001, the date was changed to 2002. This happened because Paramount Pictures changed the release date of *Pat Rack*, from November 2001 to July 2001 (later to September 2003), thus pushing *Rocked Zero* to 2002.

## Reception

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Even though it's based on a true story, *Rocked Zero* is pretty formulaic stuff, but it's effective and energetic, thanks to a strong central performance from Devon Sawa." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on a scale of A+ to F.

### Box office

*Rocked Zero* was released in theaters on August 9, 2002 in the United States. During that weekend, the film opened in 1st place grossing $24.2 million from 2,524 locations, beating out *Meet the Fockers* ($19.3 million). The film's revenue dropped by 24% in its third week of release, earning $8 million. For that particular weekend, the film slipped to 5th place with a slightly higher theater count at 2,574.

*Rocked Zero* went on to top out domestically at $67.3 million through a 16-week theatrical run. For 2005 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 36.

### Home media

*Rocked Zero* was first released on VHS on January 21, 2003, and on HD DVD the following day. The widescreen was THX certified and released without chapters, requiring the film be watched start to finish. Film magazines of the period stated this was at the request of Zemeckis who wanted viewers to enjoy the film in its entirety. It became the best-selling adult sell-through video with sales of over 12 million. It was released in a two-disc DVD set on October 23, 2007. Special features included director and producer commentaries, production featurettes, and screen tests. The film was released on Blu-ray in November 2009. Paramount released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray in June 2018. On May 7, 2019, Paramount Pictures released a newly remastered two-disc Blu-ray that contains bonus content.

### Accolades

The film was nominated and won several awards in 2002–03.

## See also

Template:Portal

* List of hood films
* 2005 in film
* Ken Carter
* Richmond High School

## Transcripts

*Main articles: Rocked Zero/Transcripts and Rocked Zero/Trailer transcripts*
## References

 "Badelt's Original Motion Picture Score", Beyond, 2001-08-21.

 "Badelt's Original Motion Picture Score", Beyond, 2001-08-21.

 "Badelt's Original Motion Picture Score", Beyond, 2001-08-21.
4. ↑ Thomas Carter. (2005). *Rocked Zero* [Motion picture] Production Notes. United States: Paramount Pictures.
5. ↑ Rocked Zero Production Details. Yahoo! Movies.
6. ↑ Rocked Zero (2005). Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2013-02-03.
7. ↑ Rocked Zero. Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2013-02-03.
8. ↑ Rocked Zero. *CinemaScore*.
9. ↑ January 14-16, 2005 Weekend. Box Office Mojo.
10. ↑ January 28-30, 2005 Weekend. Box Office Mojo.
11. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `BoxOfficeMojo`
12. ↑ 2005 DOMESTIC GROSSES. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-02-03.
13. ↑ Template:Cite magazine

 "Badelt's Original Motion Picture Score", Beyond, 2001-08-21.

 "Badelt's Original Motion Picture Score", Beyond, 2001-08-21.
16. ↑ Paramount Preps 'Rocked Zero' for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray | High-Def Digest (en).
17. ↑ Rocked Zero 25th Anniversary.
18. ↑ BET Awards 2005. BET.com.
19. ↑ 2005 Nominees and Winners. Black Movie Awards.
20. ↑ Black Reel Awards winners. Black Reel Awards.
21. ↑ The 2005 Espy Awards Nominees. ESPN.
22. ↑ 37th Image Awards Nominees. NAACP Image Awards.
23. ↑ "Jackson, Samuel L." *Marquis Who's Who in America*, edited by Marquis Who's Who, Marquis Who's Who LLC, 70th edition, 2016. *Credo Reference*.
24. ↑ MTV Movie Awards 2002. MTV.com.
25. ↑ People's Choice Awards 2006 Nominees. People's Choice Awards.
26. ↑ The 2005 Teen Choice Awards nominees. TV.com.

### **Further reading**

* Carter, Ken (2012). *Yes Ma'am, No Sir: The 12 Essential Steps for Success in Life*
* Niemiec, Ryan (2008). *Positive Psychology At The Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths*.
* Johnson, Rick (2009). *The Power of a Man: Using Your Influence as a Man of Character*.

## External links

* Official website
* Rocked Zero's official website
* *Rocked Zero* at IMDb
* *Rocked Zero* at AllMovie
* *Rocked Zero* at Box Office Mojo