Tomb Raider (2018)

Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug, with a screenplay by Geneva Robertson-Dworetand Alastair Siddons, from a story by Evan Daugherty and Robertson-Dworet. An American and British co-production,^[5]it is based largely, but loosely on the 2013 video game of the same name, with some elements of its sequel by Crystal Dynamics, and is a reboot of the Tomb Raider film series. The film stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, who embarks on a perilous journey to her father's last-known destination, hoping to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas appear in supporting roles.

Principal photography took place from January to June 2017 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, and in Cape Town, South Africa. The first Tomb Raider film not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, it was released in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2018, and in the United States on March 16, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures, in RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, IMAX and 4DX.^[8] The film grossed $274 million worldwide, equal to the Angelina Jolie's original film in 2001 and more than its 2003 sequel.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, with some describing the plot as "paint-by-numbers", and others praising the action sequences, tone, grittiness and realistic take on the franchise. Vikander's performance and the characterization of Croft drew a polarized response; some described her as a "capable, powerful, and unobjectified heroine", while others called her bland, and a "punching bag and onlooker."^[9]

On April 12, 2019, Deadline Hollywood reported that MGM and Warner Bros. had hired screenwriter Amy Jump to write the script for a potential sequel, which is currently in development.

Following the disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft, Lara Croft makes a living as a bike courier. When she is arrested after a bike accident involving a police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller posts her bail. After never claiming her inheritance for many years, believing her father to still be alive, Miller warns Lara that if she does not claim her vast inheritance, her father's country estate, Croft Manor, will be sold off. Lara reluctantly accepts and gains access to a secret chamber in her father's tomb. There she finds a pre-recorded video message from Richard detailing his research into Himiko, the mythical Queen of Yamatai who was said to command the power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy all of his research, but she ignores his warnings so that she can investigate further.

Lara travels to Hong Kong where she hires Lu Ren, captain of the ship Endurance, to sail into the Devil's Sea and the island of Yamatai. The ship capsizes in a violent storm and Lara is washed ashore where she is knocked unconscious. She awakens only to encounter Mathias Vogel, the leader of an expedition to locate Himiko's tomb. The expedition has been funded by a shadowy organization called Trinity, which seeks to harness and weaponize Himiko's power. Vogel takes Lara prisoner, claiming that he killed her father and revealing that he intends to use Richard's research to continue his expedition. He adds Lara and Lu Ren to his slave force; eventually, the two of them try to escape, and Lara is the only one successful.

After surviving rapids and narrowly avoiding getting thrown over a waterfall, Lara is forced to kill a Trinity guard after nightfall. She follows a mysterious figure through the jungle, and discovers that the figure is her father, who stayed on the island to prevent Trinity from finding Himiko's tomb. After Lara convinces him that she is real and not a figment of his imagination, Richard treats her injuries. Despite his protests, Lara sets off the next morning to recover his research from Vogel's camp. Lara makes contact with Lu Ren, and he, along with the other slaves, stage distractions that allow Lara to infiltrate the Trinity camp and recover her father's journal. In the ensuing chaos, Richard makes his way to Himiko's tomb and is captured by Vogel, who persuades Lara to open the tomb.

The party navigates a series of booby traps and locates Himiko's sarcophagus. When a Trinity soldier attempts to remove her corpse, he is infected by a highly infectious pathogen that reduces those infected to an aggressive zombie-like state. Lara realizes that Himiko was an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, who chose to entomb herself so that she could not infect others. Vogel concludes that he cannot remove Himiko's body and instead settles for detaching a finger, which he seals in a pouch. In the confusion, Lara and Richard overpower the remaining soldiers, though Vogel escapes and Richard becomes infected. Knowing there is no cure, Richard proposes destroying Himiko's tomb to prevent the disease from spreading across the world. Lara pursues Vogel as Richard sets off a bomb, killing himself and sealing the tomb. Lara confronts and kills Vogel by infecting him with the finger. She escapes the tomb as it collapses, regrouping with Lu Ren and the slaves; they commandeer a Trinity helicopter to escape Yamatai.

Lara returns to London, where she formally accepts her inheritance and inadvertently discovers that Trinity's front company, Patna, is actually a subsidiary of Croft Holdings. She proceeds to investigate Trinity further and begins to suspect that Ana is one of their agents who manipulated her into accepting her inheritance; this was to have Lara sign over control of Croft Holdings' business operations to her when Richard stopped cooperating with Trinity. Having witnessed Trinity's ruthlessness firsthand, she prepares for her next adventure.