Dark City: 24 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know

Dark City is a 1998 Science Fiction film directed by Alex Proyas (the director of 1994’s The Crow and 2004’s I. Robot). It’s one of my favourite Science Fiction films of all time.

The film takes place in a mysterious city where the sun never rises, and the inhabitants have no memory of their past. The plot revolves around a man named John Murdoch, who wakes up in a hotel room with no recollection of who he is or how he got there.

Dark City features performances by Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, Colin Friels, John Bluthal and Melissa George.

There’s probably a lot that you don’t know about this film (which has become quite a cult classic over the years), but today my aim is to change that.

Here are 24 Interesting Facts you might not have known about Dark City

1. In the production of Dark City, New Line Cinema insisted on adding an opening narration by Kiefer Sutherland, revealing key plot details. However, director Alex Proyas opposed this addition, deeming it unnecessary. Consequently, in his director’s cut, Proyas made the decision to remove the narration altogether.

2. The film has one of the shortest Average shot lengths (ASL) of any modern narrative production at 1.8 seconds. This means there is a cut almost every 2 seconds.

3. An over-sized version of Dr. Schreber’s syringe (roughly a yard long) was built for the close up shots of the needle being extended so that its surface details could be seen clearly.

4. Alex Proyas got the idea for the buildings changing and growing while the crew was moving pieces of the set around during filming of The Crow.

5. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert called this movie the Best Film of 1998. He recorded a special audio commentary track for the DVD release of Dark City.

6. Mr. Sleep is played by twins, a girl (Satya Gumbert) and her brother (Noah Gumbert). Both were fond of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and they (and the rest of the cast and crew) were frequently entertained by Richard O’Brien, who played Mr. Hand in this film and Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with recitations from that film.

7. The Strangers have created a world that is very generic. Naming the location Murdoch is trying to get to Shell Beach adds to that. As Alex Proyas has pointed out, every city in the world must have a location called Shell Beach. Likewise, all the stores and restaurants in Dark City are named simply by description. There is no identity to any of them.

8. This move was the film debut of Australian actress Melissa George (Lauren Reed in the Alias TV show).

9. Every set in the city was a built set. Nothing was filmed on location. Alex Proyas has mentioned that this was very important. This gave him free range to play with angles or make walls or ceilings slightly off skew. The sets were also designed to affect the audience psychologically.

This director finds it far more effective when a set is subtle rather than grand sets with thousands of extras. He takes the same stance on computer effects, how effects work better if they’re part of a whole, not the entire thing.

10. Alex Proyas recollected that he had the idea for Dark City in his head while filming The Crow. He later stated, in an unrelated moment, that he and Brandon Lee would often take breaks from filming (to a local cinema).

They would talk about future projects that they would have liked to have done together after filming on The Crow was complete. One can then assume that Brandon Lee would have played the lead character of John Murdoch in Dark City, if not for his fatal accident.

11. According to Alex Proyas, all of the actors, at least the main ones, did fully understand what was going on in Dark City while they were shooting it. The director mentions William Hurt, in particular, understood the story and the ideas within better than even he did.

12. The metallic cage Dr. Schreber is wearing near the end of the film was inspired, as was the character’s name, by “Memoirs of My Nervous Illness” by a German judge, Daniel Paul Schreber, who suffered from dementia praecox.

13. American heavy metal band Iced Earth wrote a song titled “Dark City” that is directly inspired from the movie. The song is from their 2011 release Dystopia and features the lyrics, “Experimenting to understand the human soul, endangered they’ll fade away” and “Fill our heads with false identity, synchronizing our confusion”.

14. The number of the motel room in which John Murdoch wakes up at the start of the film is 614. In the Bible, John Chapter 6, Verse 14 talks about the coming of the Savior.

15. The film was primarily shot inside the Commemorative Pavillion at Sydney Showgrounds in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. The showgrounds site are now home to Fox Studios Australia; the Commemorative Pavillion is now Fox’s Stage 7.

16. The budget for Dark City was $27 million, which was financed by New Line and costs were kept down by filming in Australia. The film made $27.2 million at the box office.

17. Situated beneath the surface, the Strangers’ lair is an expansive underground amphitheater featuring a sculpture of a human face concealing a substantial clock, and a spiraling device that alters the configuration of the city above. This unique set, erected on a fairground in Sydney, Australia, reached an impressive height of 15 metres (50 feet), surpassing the standard 11 m (36 feet) of an average set.

18. The film’s soundtrack, released on February 24, 1998, by TVT Records, includes the original score by Trevor Jones, along with performances of “Sway” and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” by Anita Kelsey. Additionally, it features music by Hughes Hall from the trailer, a song by Echo & the Bunnymen during the final credits, and tracks by Gary Numan and Course of Empire not featured in the film. The soundtrack was edited by Simon Leadley and Jim Harrison.

19. In the United States, Dark City received generally positive reviews from mainstream critics. According to the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 75% approval rating based on 85 reviews, with an average score of 6.8/10.

The site’s “critics consensus” describes it as “stylishly gloomy,” offering a captivating blend of arresting visuals and noirish action. On Metacritic, the film achieved a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics.

20. Released a year after Dark City, The Matrix was also filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney and incorporated some of Dark City‘s sets. Observers have drawn comparisons between the two films, highlighting similarities in cinematography, atmosphere, and plot.

21. Dark City has one of the shortest Average shot lengths (ASL) of any modern narrative production at 1.8 seconds. This means there is a cut almost every 2 seconds.

22. Kiefer Sutherland’s eccentric, wheezing performance as Dr. Schreber is one of the most memorable parts of the film. He actually based the character’s voice and mannerisms on William Powell in The Thin Man (but a much more nervous, “broken” version) and a bit of Peter Lorre. He wanted the character to sound like he was constantly out of breath because he was so overwhelmed by the secrets he was carrying.

23. The spiral motif (seen on the tuning machine and the fingerprints) was inspired by director Alex Proyas’ interest in sacred geometry. He wanted a symbol that represented both evolution and a trap. If you look closely, the city’s layout itself is designed to look like a labyrinth or a spiral, reinforcing the idea that the citizens are like rats in a circular maze with no exit.

24. Unlike many actors who are dubbed in musical scenes, Jennifer Connelly actually sang her own lounge songs (“Sway” and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”) for the film. However, in the theatrical release, her voice was actually dubbed by singer Anita Kelsey. It wasn’t until the Director’s Cut was released years later that fans finally got to hear Connelly’s real singing voice in those scenes.

Well, there you have it, 24 Interesting facts you might not have known about Dark City. If I’ve left out something important, feel free to comment below.

Check out the trailer for Dark City below: