Rogue (2007 film)

Rogue is a 2007 Australian horror film written and directed by Greg McLean. Starring Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington, it follows a group of tourists in Australia who fall prey to a giant, 25 ft man-eating saltwater crocodile.

The film was inspired by the true story of Sweetheart, a giant male saltwater crocodile that attacked boats in the late 1970s, although Sweetheart was never responsible for an attack on a human. Rogue received positive reviews from critics, but was a commercial failure.

It is the second and last film from Dimension Films to have the involvement of Village Roadshow Pictures, the other being 1992's Fortress.

Plot
American travel journalist Pete McKell joins a small group of tourists on a crocodile-watching river cruise in Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory, led by wildlife researcher Kate Ryan. Toward the end of the cruise, Everett spots a flare in the distance and the group head upriver to investigate. They eventually come across a half-sunken wreck when something crashes into their boat, splitting the side.

Kate manages to steer the boat ashore a small island in the middle of the river. Kate realizes they are in the territory of a large crocodile and explains they must leave the island by nightfall, as the tide will start to rise and the island will be submerged. Everett suddenly is killed, pulled into the water by an unseen predator. Two locals, Neil Kelly and Collin, arrive at the island but the beast upturns their boat; Neil swims to the island but Collin has been killed.

As night falls, Neil carefully swims to the riverbank in order to string a rope between two trees, creating a zip-line to allow the group to cross the river. Everett's wife Mary Ellen crosses first, only to freeze in fear halfway across. Allen, becoming impatient and hostile, takes matters into his own hands by attempting to get himself and his daughter Sherry across with Mary Ellen still on the line. While trying to secure the rope, Neil is attacked and killed by the beast. The tree holding the rope breaks and the three on the line fall into the water. They swim back to the island, but as Allen crawls up the shore, the beast lunges out of the water and throws him back into the river, where he is killed. The beast is revealed to be a rogue, 25 ft Saltwater crocodile.

Later that night, Pete suggests hooking the croc while everyone else swims to the riverbank; Neil's two dead birds replace Kate's dog named Kevin, the initial bait idea. After a long wait, the anchor is suddenly pulled and the group makes a break for the far shore. The croc eventually lets go of the bait, seizes Kate and drags her underwater. Pete hurries across the river with Kevin in tow and into the bush behind the others.

As day breaks, Pete is forced to chase Kevin into the bush after he runs off. He falls down a narrow chute into a large cave, where he discovers Neil's partial corpse. The cave is the croc's lair and the dog leads him to a severely injured Kate. Pete attempts to carry her out but Kevin runs off to the head of the cave, where it is heard being killed by the croc. After several attempts on them both, the croc takes a chunk out of Pete's hand while he grabs a piece of bone and stabs one of the croc's eyes. Pete eventually props a large broken log against a boulder, with the sharp end pointing outwards, so when the croc lunges at him, it is impaled and killed. Pete escapes from the cave with Kate and finds the tourists and paramedics.

A newspaper article later details Pete's heroic battle with the beast and rescue of Kate.

Cast

 * Michael Vartan as Pete McKell
 * Radha Mitchell as Kate Ryan
 * Sam Worthington as Neil Kelly
 * Stephen Curry as Simon
 * Celia Ireland as Gwen
 * John Jarratt as Russell
 * Damien Richardson as Collin
 * Robert Taylor as Everett Kennedy
 * Caroline Brazier as Mary Ellen
 * Heather Mitchell as Elizabeth Smith
 * Geoff Morrell as Allen Smith
 * Mia Wasikowska as Sherry Smith
 * Barry Otto as Merv

Home media
Rogue was released on DVD in Australia on 29 May 2008. The DVD's special features include "The Making of Rogue" documentary, four featurettes, and a theatrical trailer. The US and UK DVDs feature an additional audio commentary. As of 2013, Rogue has been released on Blu-ray in Canada and the UK. The Canadian disc features the film only, whilst the UK disc includes all of the aforementioned extras, bar the trailer.

Production
Filming took place on-location around Yellow Water Billabong, Katherine Gorge, and Arnhem Land.

Box office
Rogue debuted in the Australian box office on 11 November 2007 making A$667,194. After 11 weeks in the nation's cinemas, it left making A$1.8 million. It was released in the United States on 25 April 2008 to only 10 theaters. In its first weekend, it made US$7,711 and remained in theatres for four more days before exiting with a domestic total of US$10,452. As of 8 November 2009, Rogue has made A$5,984,448 worldwide.

Critical response
On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 89% approval rating, based on 18 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10.

Melbourne's Herald Sun critic Leigh Paatsch gave the film three out of five stars stating that, "If you must see at least one killer croc movie before you die, it may as well be this polished little Australian schlocker". Sydney Morning Herald critic Sandra Hall gave the movie three and a half out of five stars writing that, "[I]t's almost elegant. Its only disadvantage is it conjures up inevitable comparisons with Jaws...a benchmark the film has no hope of achieving". Variety's Richard Kuipers praised the film as a fairly formulaic but solid B-movie with good visual effects, "regular scares[,] and a monster worth the ticket price."