Eclipse (film)

Eclipse is the third of the Twilight film series, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel of the same name. The film was released on June 30, 2010. It played at the Los Angeles Film Festival, one week ahead of its official release in the U.S.. The world premiere was June 24 at the Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles. The film follows 2008's Twilight and 2009's New Moon. Summit Entertainment officially greenlit the film in February 2009. Because New Moon director Chris Weitz was in post-production for New Moon, which was released only seven months before Eclipse, he did not direct the third film. Eclipse was directed by David Slade.

Principal photography began August 17, 2009 in Vancouver and ended on October 29, 2009.

Plot
It starts out with Riley coming out of a door while it is raining. Then he is attacked by Victoria and she bites him in his left hand. But in the book it starts out Bella reading Jacob Black's note and saying how much it hurts her and also how Victoria is set on destroying Edward's mate Bella Swan, is out creating an army of newborns, thirsty, premature vampires under the forceful and unruly control of Riley, who Victoria created. These newborns are extremely messy about their feeding needs, much to the growing dismay of the living locals in Seattle, the Forks police (including Bella's father, Charlie Swan), and the Cullen Family. Back in Forks, Edward and Bella discuss the complications of becoming an immortal vampire. With her dreaded 19th birthday coming, Bella will soon be two years older than Edward, and therefore, she wants to be changed. But because of the human events that she would be missing and her sudden disappearance, Edward refuses to change her immediately. Bella makes the effort to keep in touch with Jacob Black, but Jacob will not return her calls. Charlie Swan urges Bella to do this, allowing Bella the freedom (she had been grounded harshly for riding a motorcycle in New Moon) in return for her company with Jacob. Charlie is covering the disappearance of Riley Biers, who is from Forks himself. Edward suspects his disappearance to be the cause of newborn vampires. Furthering his suspicions is the intrusion of Riley in Bella's room, stealing a scarf with Bella's scent on it.

Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that Jacob and the rest of the werewolves would never harm her, but Edward is still not convinced. Bella escapes to La Push to see Jacob, and arrives afterwards at her house unharmed. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses that he loves Bella and forcibly kisses her. Bella punches him which sprains her hand. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella without her consent again. When Bella's father came out Jacob awkwardly explained that he kissed Bella and then she broke her hand punching him in the face.

A few days later Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into a vampire. Edward initially refuses, explaining to Bella that he could very easily kill her although also telling he wants to too. Eventually, upon realizing how much it means to Bella, he says that he is willing to try in the future as long as they are married first. Despite having an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending an eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.

Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by Victoria and the army of newborn vampires that she has created. The Cullen family join forces with the La Push werewolf pack in order to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, a young member of the werewolf pack, to wait out the fight. Bella, as a delicate human, starts to freeze in the harsh weather of the mountain. Jacob warms up Bella with his abnormal body heat, much to Edward's horror. During the night, Bella overhears a conversation between Edward and Jacob, in which they temporarily forget about their hatred towards each other.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and becomes very upset and angry. He runs off, which causes Bella to run after him although Edward disagrees. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because he feels that Bella doesn't love him and so he can make it easier for her. When Bella begs him not to, Jacob insists that he will unless she gives him a proper reason not to. Furious, she asks Jacob to kiss her, and while doing so, she realizes that she is in love with him as well. Edward finds out about this, but isn't angry, but Bella realizes that she loves Edward more than Jacob.

Victoria eventually finds Bella's hiding spot, and Edward kills her by pulling of her head while Seth kills her partner Riley by ripping him apart. The Cullens and the Quileute werewolves, meanwhile, destroy her "army", though Jacob is injured when saving Leah Clearwater from a newborn. Several members of the Volturi arrive to destroy Victoria's army, and end up only killing the one newborn who surrendered. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, the date for her transformation has been set.

Bella visits Jacob in his home to tell him that she has chosen to be with Edward. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between her and Edward. Bella and Edward go to Edward's meadow, where Edward says that they can make love before marrying if she wants to, but Bella has decided to do things his way: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. They then decide they need to tell Charlie about their engagement in which Bella says is highly dangerous. Edward responds to this with a smile on his face.

Marketing
On March 10, 2010, Summit Entertainment released a 10-second teaser trailer and announced that the full trailer would be released on March 11, 2010. The trailer also premiered before Robert Pattinson's other movie Remember Me on March 12, 2010.

Trailers
Both the teaser and full trailer can be viewed here. The song playing in the background of the first trailer is "Moving Mountains" by Two Steps From Hell. On April 23, 2010, Summit released one final trailer of Eclipse.

Soundtrack
On May 6, 2010, www.stepheniemeyer.com confirmed the first single to be featured in Eclipse original soundtrack: "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" by Muse, Stephenie Meyer's favorite band. The song was released on May 17, and the soundtrack is now available.

Score
Academy Award winner Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings) composed the score for Eclipse.