The Dark Tower (2017)
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A gunslinger and a boy with psychic visions must team up to protect a mythical structure that supports all realities from a ruthless sorcerer.
The story
Eleven-year-old Jake Chambers experiences visions of a mysterious warlock, the 'Man in Black', who seeks to destroy a 'Tower' and bring ruin to the 'Universe' while a lone 'Gunslinger' opposes him. Jake's visions are dismissed by his family as nightmares from his father's death. After a team from a psychiatric facility arrives to pick him up, Jake recognizes them as monsters and flees into an abandoned house. There, he discovers a high-tech portal leading to a post-apocalyptic landscape called Mid-World. In this realm, he encounters the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, who is pursuing the Man in Black, Walter Padick, to stop him from using Jake's psychic 'shine' to destroy the Dark Tower.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Jake Chambers, a boy experiencing visions of a warlock and a gunslinger, flees a psychiatric team through a portal to Mid-World. There, he meets Roland Deschain, a gunslinger seeking to stop Walter Padick, the Man in Black. Padick seeks to use Jake's 'shine' to destroy the Dark Tower, a structure supporting all reality. After a seer identifies the threat, Padick murders Jake's parents in New York. Roland and Jake travel between worlds, eventually facing Padick in a final confrontation. Roland defeats Padick and destroys the machine intended to destroy the Tower. The film ends with Roland and Jake leaving New York for Mid-World to continue their journey together.
- First release year
- 2017
- Runtime (minutes)
- 95
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Nikolaj Arcel
- Writers
- Akiva Goldsman · screenplay; Jeff Pinkner · screenplay; Anders Thomas Jensen · screenplay; Nikolaj Arcel · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Idris Elba · Roland Deschain; Matthew McConaughey · Walter Padick; Tom Taylor · Jake Chambers; Claudia Kim · Arra; Fran Kranz · Pimli; Abbey Lee · Tirana; Jackie Earle Haley · Sayre
- Genres
- neo-Western; science fantasy
- Themes
- sacrifice; mentorship
- Tone and mood
- epic; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- multiverse; fantasy adventure
- Source material / true-story basis
- Stephen King's novel series of the same name
- Franchise connections
- The Dark Tower
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 16% · scale: percentage · review count: 278; Metacritic · score: 34 · scale: 100 · review count: 46; CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 69% · scale: percentage
- Production trivia
- The production was complex, with development starting ten years before release.; The film includes a television spot with Easter eggs from other Stephen King stories.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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