Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

The Disney Studio was built on innovation in animation, so it seems ironic that Atlantis is both a bold departure and highly derivative, borrowing heavily from anime, video games, and graphic novels. Instead of songs and fuzzy little animals, the artists offer an action-adventure set in 1914: nerdy linguist Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) believes he's found the location of the legendary Lost Continent. An eccentric zillionaire sends Milo out to test his hypothesis with an anachronistic crew that includes tough Puerto Rican mechanic Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors), demolition expert Vinnie (Don Novello), and butt-kicking blond adventurer Helga (Claudia Christian). When they find Atlantis, its culture is dying because the people can no longer read the runes that explain their mysterious power source--but Milo can. Nasty Commander Rourke (James Garner) attempts to steal that power source, leading to the requisite all-out battle. Atlantis offers some nifty battle scenes, including an attack on a Jules Verne-esque submarine by a giant robotic trilobite and fishlike flying cars. But the film suffers from major story problems. If Princess Kida (Cree Summer) remembers her civilization at its height, why can't she read the runes? Why doesn't Milo's crew notice that the Atlanteans live for centuries? The angular designs are based on the work of comic book artist Mike Mignola (Hellboy), and the artists struggle with the characters' stubby hands, skinny limbs, and pointed jaws. The result is a film that will appeal more to 10-year-old boys than to family audiences. Suitable for ages 8 and up: violence, scary imagery, tobacco use, and a difficult-to-follow story. --Charles Solomon

Production: Walt Disney Pictures
  2 wins & 14 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.8
Metacritic:
52
Rotten Tomatoes:
49%
PG
Year:
2001
95
$83,561,615
Website
10,967 Views
Atlantis is waiting...

[Milo goes in his cabin and lays on the bed, a pair of telescopic eyes looks at him]

Mole:
You...have disturbed...the dirt..

Milo:
Uh, pardon me?

Mole:
You disturbed the dirt! [Pulls off blanket, exposing clumps of dirt with little European flags] Dirt from around the globe, spanning the centuries! Ack! What have you done?! England must never merge with France!

Milo:
What's it doing in my bed?!

Mole:
You ask too many questions! Who are you?! Who sent you?! Speak up!

Milo:
Me, I'm, uh--

Mole:
Bah! I will know soon enough!

[Grabs Milo's hand]

Milo:
Hey, hey, hey! Let go!

Mole:
Do not be such a crybaby! Hold still!

[Mole take a tiny dirt sample from Milo's fingernail with tweezers]

Mole:
Aha! There you are! Now tell me your story, my little friend...

[Looks at dirt with his magnifying goggles]

Mole:
Parchment fibre from the Nile Delta circa 500 B.C., lead pencil No. 2, paint flecks of a type used in government buildings, you have a cat, short hair Persian, two years old, third in a litter of seven. These are all the microscopic fingerprints of the mapmaker... [licks dirt] and linguist.

Milo:
Hey, how'd you...

Mole:
[throws Milo's bags and jacket at him] This is an outrage! You must leave at once! Out-out-out-out-out! [tries to push Milo out of cabin until he runs into Sweet]

Sweet:
Uh-oh. Sat in the dirt, didn't you? Molière, now what have I told ya about playing nice with the other kids?! [holds up a bar of soap] Get back! I got soap, and I'm not afraid to use it! [Mole hisses at the soap bar and runs to his bed. Sweet whips his towel at him] Back, foul creature! Back into the pit from whence you came! The name's Sweet, Joshua Sweet. Medical officer.

Milo:
Yeah. Milo Thatch.

Sweet:
Milo Thatch, you're my three o'clock! [reaches into his back and pulls out a saw] Well, no time like the present.

Milo:
[stares at the saw] Oh, boy!

Sweet:
Nice, isn't it? The catalogue says that this little beauty can saw through a femur in 28 seconds. I'm betting I can cut that time in half! [puts the saw away and comes out with a tongue depresser] Now, stick out your tongue and say "Ah"!

Milo:
Oh, no really, I-- [Sweet puts toungue depresser in his mouth] Ahhgabla!

Sweet:
So where're you from? [Milo grunts something] Really? I have family up that way! Beautiful country up there! You do any fishing?

Milo:
Oh...a little...

Sweet:
Me? I hate fishing, I hate fish, hate the taste, hate the smell and hate all them little bones. [as he speaks he does several things from putting the depresser away to taking Milo's pulse, then finally pulls up two bottles] Here, I'm gonna need you to fill these up.

Milo:
[spits out thermometer] With what?!

Packard:
[on PA] Would Milo Thatch please report to the bridge?

Milo:
Thank you...I mean, nice meeting you. [runs off]

Sweet:
[watching Milo run off] Uh-huh, nice meeting you too.

[Milo is confronted by Rourke and the others, who are holding guns]

Commander Rourke:
You have a nice swim?

Milo:
Uh, hey guys. What's going on? What's... What's with all the guns? [Notice that they are staring evilly at him] Guys? [Suddenly realizes; exhales] I'm such an idiot. This is another treasure hunt for you. You're after the crystal!

Commander Rourke:
Oh... [Reveals the missing page] Oh, you mean this?

Milo:
[Stunned] The Heart of Atlantis!

Commander Rourke:
Yeah, about that, I would've told you this sooner, but it was strictly on a need-to-know basis, and...Well, now you know. I had to make sure you were one of us. [Raises his hand to Milo] Welcome to the club, son.

Milo:
[Backs away in disgust] I'm no mercenary!

[Rourke's mercinaries grab Kida, resulting in a struggle which takes place, which ends with Kida restrained.]

Commander Rourke:
Mercenary? I prefer the term "adventure capitalist". Besides, you're the one who brought us here. You're the one who led us to the treasure chest.

Milo:
[Gets out of the water] You don't know what you're tampering with, Rourke!

Commander Rourke:
What's to know? It's big, it's shiny, it's gonna make us all rich.

Milo:
You think it's some kind of a diamond. I thought it was some kind of a battery, but we're both wrong. It's their life-force. That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive! You take that away, and they'll die!

Commander Rourke:
Well, that changes things. Helga, what do you think?

Helga Sinclair:
Knowing that, I'd double the price.

Commander Rourke:
I was thinking triple.

Milo:
Rourke, don't...do this!

Commander Rourke:
Academics. You never want to get your hands dirty. Think about it. If you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum you'd be left with an empty building. We're just providing a necessary service to the archeological community.

Milo:
Not interested.

Commander Rourke:
I got to admit, I'm disappointed. You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo. Don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing. [Milo silently stares at Rourke with anger] I really hate it when negotiations go sour. [Snap his fingers allowing his men to point the gun at Kida and c*cks] Let's try this again. [shows Milo the missing page on the Heart of Atlantis again]

[Rourke and the others destroy the door to the throne room with a bomb]

Vinny:
Knock, knock.

Cookie:
[Raises and aims shotgun] Room service!

[Nedakh's guards raise their spears]

Helga Sinclair:
[Holds Kida as hostage] Tell them to drop their weapons, now!

[Nedakh, in Atlantean, tells his guards to drop their spearts and they do so]

Helga Sinclair:
[Rourke's men search the room for the Heart of Atlantis] Spread out! Search everywhere!

Commander Rourke:
You're not applying yourself, son. There's got to be something else.

Milo:
Well, there isn't. It just says "The heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king".

Commander Rourke:
Well, then maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks. How about it, chief? Where's the crystal chamber?

King Kashekim Nedakh:
You will destroy yourselves.

Commander Rourke:
Maybe I'm not being clear.

[Rourke punches Nedakh hard in the chest, shocking everyone including Kida. Nedakh falls on the ground, wounded]

Kida:
[Angry Atlantean speaking]

Sweet:
Rourke, this was not a part of the plan!

Commander Rourke:
Plan's changed, doc. I'd suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary. [Sits on Nedakh's throne, knocking over a bowl of fruit and spilling its contents everywhere] Well, as usual, diplomacy has failed us. [To Nedakh] Now I'm going to count to 10 and you're going to tell me where the crystal is. One. [c*cks pistol] Two. [Aims at Nedakh, shocking everyone] Nine. Te- [breaks off as he looks at the water than back at the book]

[The presence of Heart of Atlantis has been revealed in the water]

Commander Rourke:
"The heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king"... This is it, we're in! [throws the Shepherd's Journal back at Milo and heads to the entrance to Heart of Atlantis]

Milo:
Rourke, for the last time, you've got to listen to me. You don't have the slightest idea what this power is capable of!

Helga Sinclair:
True, but I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out.

Commander Rourke:
Hurry. Get on.

[Milo, Kida, Rourke and Helga get on the platform leading to find the Heart of Atlantis]

Commander Rourke:
Jackpot!

Milo:
[To the guys who are preparing to leave with the Heart of Atlantis] So... I guess this is how it ends, huh? Fine, you win. You're wiping out an entire civilization, but hey... [Coldly] you'll be rich. [To Audrey] Congratulations, Audrey, looks like you and your dad can probably start that second garage after all. [To Vinny] And Vinny, you can to start a whole chain of flower shops. I'm sure your family's gonna be very proud. [To everyone else] But that's what it's all about, right? [Angrily] Money.

Commander Rourke:
Get off your soapbox, Thatch. You've read Darwin. It's called natural selection. We're just helping it along.

Helga Sinclair:
Commander, we're ready.

Commander Rourke:
Yeah, give me a minute. I know I'm forgetting something. I got the cargo, the crystal, the crew... oh, yeah. [Punches Milo in the face, throwing him to the ground, causing him to lose the picture and the Atlanteans to gasp and be shocked as well] Look at it this way, son. You were the one who discovered Atlantis, and now you're part of the exhibit. [Catches Milo's glasses and breaks his picture of him and Thaddeus and then returns the glasses to Milo who’s wiping blood off his lip.]

Commander Rourke:
Let's move, people.

Helga Sinclair:
That was an order not a suggestion. Let's go!

[Audrey, Vinny, Mole and Cookie decide to switch to Milo's side]

Packard:
[Sighs] We're all gonna die. [Joins them]

Commander Rourke:
[Outraged] Aw, you can't be serious!

Audrey:
This is wrong, and you know it!

Commander Rourke:
We are this close to our biggest payday ever, you pick NOW, of all times, to grow a conscience?!

Vinny:
We've done a lot of thing's we're not proud of: [counting off fingers] robbing graves, eh, plundering tombs, double parking, but nobody got hurt. Well...maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody we knew.

Commander Rourke:
Well, if this is the way you want it...fine. [Turns to the car] MORE for me! [Gets in the car] P.T. Barnum was right.

[Rourke, Helga and their mercenaries drives away and departs Atlantis with Kida in it and causing the waterfall to be stop and the Atlanteans' crystals lose power]

Milo:
We can't let them do this!

Vinny:
Wait a second! [Holds Milo back]

[After crossing the bridge, Rourke presses a detonator and everybody dives for cover as the bridge is blown up]

Vinny:
Okay, now you can go.

Sweet:
[Off-screen] Milo, you better get up here!

Milo Thatch:
[Talking to a group of masks in his boiler room, pretending the masks are real people] Good afternoon, gentlemen. First off, I'd like to thank this board for taking the time to hear my proposal. Now, we've all heard of the legend of Atlantis, a continent somewhere in the mid-Atlantic that was home to an advanced civilization, possessing technology far beyond our own, that, according to our friend, Plato, here, was suddenly struck by some cataclysmic event that sank it beneath the sea. Now, some of you may ask, why Atlantis? It's just a myth, isn't it? Pure fantasy? Well, that is where you'd be wrong. 10,000 years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, Atlantis had electricity, advanced medicine, even the power of flight. Impossible, you say? Well, no, no, not for them. Numerous ancient cultures all over the globe agree that Atlantis possessed a power source of some kind, more powerful than steam, than, than coal. More powerful than our modern internal combustion engines. Gentlemen, I propose that we find Atlantis, find that power source, and bring it back to the surface. Now, this is a page from an illuminated text that describes a book called the Shepherd's Journal, said to have been a first-hand account of Atlantis and its exact whereabouts. Now, based on a centuries-old translation of a Norse text, historians have believed the Journal resides in Ireland. But after comparing the text to the runes on this Viking shield, I found that one of the letters have been mistranslated. So, by changing this letter and inserting the correct one, we find that the Shepherd's Journal, the key to Atlantis, lies not in Ireland, gentlemen, but in Iceland. [Pause] Pause for effect. Gentlemen, I'll take your questions now.


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