Knight Rider 2000 (1991 TV Movie)
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Knight Rider:
Knight Rider 2000 (1991 TV Movie)
Knight Rider 2000
On Feb. 19, 2000, a man named Thomas J. Watts is released from cryogenic freeze at Quayton State Prison. A short time later, rookie cop Shawn McCormick attends a conference for Mayor Frank Collins. Everything goes well until a masked man shows up and fires a "real" gun, killing the mayor and a few officers. The man (Watts) gets away, but not before dropping his gun.
A few weeks later, the new mayor (Abbey) attends a meeting with the heads of the Knight foundation. Devon is still in charge, and is partnered with a former D.A. named Russ Maddock. Maddock is the man who scrapped KITT a decade earlier and is planning to reveal a new car called the Knight 4000. Abbey gives the Foundation 30 days to meet the deadline for the car's completion. Unfortunately, with such a tight schedule, Devon realizes that he will need help. He visits an old friend - Michael Knight. Michael left the Foundation in 1990 and ran an unprofitable bass fishing charter before finally retiring a few years ago. Michael eventually agrees to help Devon complete the car, but on one condition - Michael wants KITT back. Unfortunately, KITT's body and most of his systems were sold off to varios research facilities to cut the Foundation's costs, but Devon is able to scrounge up KITT's main CPU and voice modulator, which Michael later fits into his old Chevy.
Meanwhile, McCormick has been concerned about the recent flood of handguns showing up around the city. Several years ago, the police started to switch to nonlethal weapons (ultrasound guns) and began freezing criminals rather than putting them into a real prison. In fact, several police officers (including McCormick's partner) have been smuggling the supposedly melted-down handguns to try and sell them on the black market, and Watts was released by Mayor Collins to head the illegal operations. After being set up by her fellow officers, McCormick is shot in the head. After conducting an "RNA probe" to try and find out if McCormick remembers her shooter and finding out she doesn't know, police commissioner Daniels decides to pull her plug. Daniels believes that any cop not at perfection is useless. Luckily for McCormick, a doctor decides to keep her alive anyway, and uses a chip to supplement her memory. McCormick quits the force and joins the Foundation instead, and it turns out that a certain chip needed to improve KITT's memory access is the one in McCormick's head.
McCormick is called away to have lunch with her old partner. Watts walks right up to McCormick and finds out that she doesn't remember him as the man who shot her in the head. Needing to find out about her shooter, McCormick turns to KITT for help. KITT lightly jolts the chip in McCormick's brain, after which her memories return. Michael comes up with a plan - he has KITT fake a dead battery on the road while McCormick breaks into police HQ and transmits KITT information on Watts and the gunn smuggling ring. Unfortunately, she is seen, and Watts plans to derail the Foundation's efforts to stop him.
Devon and Maddock conduct a trial in the Knight 4000 but find that it still doesn't have the programming to accurately protect others' lives. Still, the car is nearly ready to go into action. After the trial, however, Devon is kidnapped by Watts' men. Watts reads Devon's RNA and finds out that the Foundation still has no real proof about his involvement in the smuggling ring, so he kills both Devon and the doctor who saved McCormick earlier. Meanwhile, Michael and Shawn are spotted by Watts' men and chase away, but unfortunately there's nothing KITT can do but drive off a pier into the ocean. With Devon dead and the Foundation's contract pulled, Michael decides there's nothing left for him and leaves.
Maddock and McCormick, however, want justice to be done. They decide to continue to go after the smugglers, but Shawn knows she needs Michael's help. Michael blames himself for Devon's death, but Shawn convinces him that he needs to restore Devon's faith in that "one man can make a difference." Michael returns to the Foundation, where Maddock finds him underneath the Knight 4000. Suddenly, a scanning light appears and KITT is reintroduced in the Knight 4000 body! Michael and Shawn head out.
McCormick meets up with her old partner, who has decided to come clean. With KITT recording the conversation, Michael now knows about Watts' involvement, but McCormick's old partner is killed by Watts before he can completely confess. Michael has KITT read Watts' release papers and finds out they were forged to begin with - Mayor Abbey is in on the smuggling ring. With this new evidence, commissioner Daniels has no choice but to back Michael and Shawn up. Michael helps to speed things up by sending a scratched-out version of the release form to Watts. Watts's people try to escape with the guns, but it's a fake run - Watts is actually going to do the deal in a public mall. Once at the mall, Michael stops the corrupt cops and Shwan has the chance to shoot Watts, but Michael convinces her otherwise - still, Watts dies anyway when he pulls a gun on her and Mcihael flips him.
Mayor Abbey is frozen...though McCormick knows that by doing this, the city is only delaying it's influence over criminals. Maddock and Shwan decide to keep KITT in his current state, but Michael needs to leave this life behind once and for all. KITT's new driver will be Shawn McCormick.
THOUGHTS:
-Well, first off, like many KR fans, I was happy to see this movie but was disappointed by it's end result. Yes, it has Devon and Michael and KITT's voice, but the sum of the movie's parts don't really add up to a great KR experience.
Some stuff that was missing (more below):
-Old KITT (the black Trans-Am) was only shown for a few seconds 3 times in the movie.
-No Bonnie, April, RC3, Semi or the old mansion.
-Michael doesn't wear a black leather jacket or those big glasses.
-The main theme from the series is missing, as are the "chase theme and other music.
-When this movie first ran back in 1991, it was originally planned for it to spin-off into a new series with just Maddock, Shawn and KITT. Of course, that never happened...I'm actually glad for that. The new series would have been pretty weak without turbo boosts or any of the cool stuff (like a BLACK car) that made the old series so fun!
-The "nearly a decade ago" comments made in this movie lead me to believe that Mcihael and KITT worked together for at least 4 more years after the series went off the air. This would account for some of the newer stuff we see when Michael is rummaging through some of KITT's old parts (see below).
-Keep in mind that in the movie, the red car with Maddock's voice is called the "Knight 4000." KIFT (Knight Industries Four Thousand) is just a name that fans gave to the car, to make it more in line with KITT and KARR.
-There's a fun comment by KITT about the fact that he can't even play "Pac-Man" on his current systems (in the Chevy). Fans of the old series will remember Michael playing that game in KITT back in season 1.
-James Doohan plays himself in this movie. It's pretty funny when KITT stuns him and he starts talking "Trek talk"!
-There's some nice interplay between Michael/KITT/Shawn in the movie, especially when KITT learns his old memory ship is in Shawn's brain!
-Speaking of interplay, I realize KITT must've been agitated after being dismantled but come on, he was NEVER this angry and sarcastic in the series! "There's nothing worse than a smarta** automobile" is one thing we never would have heard in the series!
-Devon's flashack is pretty nice, especially the last scene replayed from "Knight of the Phoenix" where he and Michael discuss their new working relationship.
Stuff that didn't happen in 2000 (or today):
-There were no ultrasound guns for cops.
-No cryogenics to freeze criminals.
-No RNA transfer.
-No "Phillippine War of 1993."
-Oil prices didn't drop to 10 cents a barrel!
-No algae farms.
-No video-transfer cell phones.
Stuff that may have changed on KITT from 1986-1990:
-We see a rround steering wheel rather than the "gull wing."
-Regular odometer rather than the red LED one.
-Different (upside down?! see below) voicemod with different mode indicators (with no text on any of them). BTW, the voicemod is in two pieces and doesn't line up at any time in the movie!
-Different scanner (flat red panels like on the KOTP KITT). The correct (flash bulb) scanner is seen once Michael puts KITT into the Knight 4000 body.
-Stun-fire (used to shoot Scotty!).
Features we see on the Knight 4000:
+Aromanometer (smell detector)
+Virtual Reality Mode
+Voice Sampler
+Infared Tracking
+Thermogaph
+Thermal Expander
+Thermal Sensor
+Sonic Disabler
+Amphibious Mode (KITT also used this back in "Return to Cadiz")
+Remove Target Assist
+New Watch for Michael
FAVORITE QUOTE:
"I gave up that life. I guess I'm on my third one now."
-Michael, when Devon comes to bring him back to the Foundation.
NITS:
-The Knight 4000 is red (really conspicuous there) and way too loud! How is that thing supposed to sneak up on the bad guys? Also, the car seems to be missing a lot of features (turbo boost, ski mode, oil slick). Also, it has an ugly interior (~_-).
-After KITT mistakenly shoots James Doohan, Maddock comments that Doohan was in all 10 Star Trek movies. Actually, he was only in 7 of them, and by 2000 there were only 9.
-The scanner shown in the box of stuff in the beginning of the movie (and on the Chevy) is not the one shown on KITT at the end of the movie.
-When KITT delivers the line "The analyzer indicated stress in his voice," his voice modulator doesn't light up all the way.
-When did Michael get the know-how as to connecting KITT's CPU together (first he puts it together, then into his Checy and finally into the Knight 4000)? Also, how does Michael suddenly know how to pilot the Knight 4000 at the end?
-In at least 2 old KR episodes, KITT doesn't like being the color red yet here he doesn't complain (not that I blame him...though the Knight 4000 DOES look like a tomato on wheels, or actually a pepper).
By Mike Ram on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - 11:38 pm:Check this excellent site out:
http://www.kr2k.com/index.html
It even has a list of edited-out scenes from the SciFi Channel's version.
By Brian Fitzgerald on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 4:51 pm:-The Knight 4000 is red (really conspicuous there) and way too loud! How is that thing supposed to sneak up on the bad guys? Also, the car seems to be missing a lot of features (turbo boost, ski mode, oil slick). Also, it has an ugly interior (~_-).
Who says he doesn't have that feature? Just because they didn't use it in this movie doesn't mean it doesn't exist on this car.
By Mike Ram on Thursday, August 28, 2003 - 9:43 pm: Still, if it exists then there'd probably be a button on the dash somewhere, right?
By Leanne on Sunday, October 07, 2007 - 12:23 pm:The section with James Doohan was great. In fact, that's the one and only reason I watched this movie!
Was Devon's death really needed to further the plot?