The Skulls (film)


The Skulls is a 2000 American thriller film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker and Leslie Bibb. Its plot is based upon some of the conspiracy theories surrounding Yale University's Skull and Bones student society.
The film was critically panned, but successful enough to spawn two direct-to-video sequels, The Skulls II and The Skulls III, released in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

Plot

Luke McNamara is a student with aspirations to become a lawyer. A "townie" who grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks", he did well enough in school to attend college on a scholarship where he is a champion rower. His best friends at college are his love interest Chloe, and Will. Will is the coxswain of the Bulldog 8's rowing team and Luke is the captain. At the victory party for the 8's, Chloe is revealed to come from a wealthy family, and this is why Luke is reluctant to reveal his feelings for her. Luke's friendships become strained when he is invited to join a secret society known as "The Skulls". Luke passes the first part of the initiation process by stealing an artifact from a rival secret society. He does this with boxing prodigy Caleb Mandrake who The Skulls declare his co-conspirator and "soulmate". Luke and Caleb are then lectured in the secret ritual room by a senior Skull who is standing in front of a wall with the word "WAR" engraved into it in huge capital letters. A senior Skull explains that the Skulls require their members to prove themselves in war. Luke has a falling out with Will when Will realizes that Luke has become a Skull.
Luke quickly strikes up a friendship with Caleb's father, Litten Mandrake. Litten is the current Chairman of the Skulls and a Federal Court Judge who is pushing for a position in the Supreme Court. Litten and his partner Senator Ames Levritt take an interest in Luke. Will, who has been conducting research on the Skulls for some time, discovers their secret ritual room. Will gets caught in the room by Caleb and in the ensuing struggle he falls and is knocked unconscious. Caleb is ordered to leave the room by his father, who then orders Skulls member and the University's provost Martin Lombard to break Will's neck. The Skulls manage to move the body and make it look like Will committed suicide in his dorm room by hanging himself.
Luke is greatly troubled by the death of his best friend. Luke's parents supposedly died when he was young, and Will's family is the only family he had. Stricken with grief, Luke begins to suspect Will was in fact murdered by Caleb. Caleb also believes that he is guilty, suspecting Will died as a direct consequence of Caleb hitting him. Luke enlists his 'townie' friends from childhood to help solve the mystery. His friends are first unwilling to work with him, as he missed one of their birthday parties, so as an apology and a bribe he gives them a 1963 Ford Thunderbird. With their help, Luke obtains the Skulls security tapes that prove Lombard committed the murder. In trying to convince Caleb of the truth, Luke realizes how scared Caleb is of his father. Before Luke can show the evidence to police, the Skulls council, who know Luke has stolen the tapes, vote that he is no longer loyal. Ames Levritt is blackmailed into voting against Luke by Litten Mandrake, who has pictures of him with his much younger mistress. When Luke does go to the police, the tape is switched by Detective Sparrow and Luke is confined to a mental hospital under the control of the Skulls.
With the help of Ames and Chloe, Luke manages to escape the hospital and he and Chloe survive an attempt on his life by Martin Lombard, who is shot and killed by Detective Sparrow. Luke decides that his only option is to fight the Skulls by their own rules, and "bring war to them". He challenges Caleb to a duel at the Skulls' private island, by invoking rule 119. Litten tries to take his son's place in the duel but is denied the opportunity due to another Skull rule. After Luke and Caleb take their ten paces and turn around, Luke drops his gun and tries to convince Caleb of the truth and that he is not responsible for Will's murder. Despite being pressured by Litten to kill Luke, Caleb cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. At this point, Litten grabs a pistol and attempts to shoot Luke himself, but before he can fire, Caleb shoots his own father. Caleb, mortified at what he has done, tries to kill himself but is stopped by Luke.
The film ends with Luke's realization that Senator Levritt manipulated Luke and others to bring about Litten's death. Luke becomes disgusted with The Skulls and refuses to participate further, despite threats from Levritt that he will be tracked down someday, and despite, or even because of, Levritt's offer that The Skulls will accept him because he has proven himself in war. As Luke walks away Levritt says to himself, "Well done son, well done".
The final shot of the film shows Luke reuniting with Chloe.

Cast

The film was shot in Toronto with the University of Toronto disguised as Yale University, the plot's setting. Scenes were also filmed in the city's suburban neighbourhood of Guildwood.
Many of University of Toronto's most notable buildings are featured in the film. A part of University College stands in for the Skulls' headquarters, while the office of the Skulls' leader shown as being in Trinity College. The rival society is headquartered in the student council building. The protagonists live and eat in Burwash Hall. The opening rowing scene was shot in St. Catharines, Ontario. Several scenes were shot on Dark Island in the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Reception

The Skulls earned extremely negative reviews from critics, as it holds a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 85 reviews with the consensus stating: "The Skulls is full of nonsense and empty of a good script and plot".

Box office

The film opened at #3 at the North American box office, making US$11,034,885 in its opening weekend, behind The Road to El Dorado and Erin Brockovich.