Eclipse (film)

Eclipse is the third installment of the Twilight Saga movies, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel with the same name. The movie was released on June 30th,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 24th, 2010 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 was released only seven months before Eclipse, and director Chris Weitz was still committed to the movie's post-production, though he did not direct the third film. Eclipse was directed by David Slade.

Principal photography started on August 17th, 2009 in Vancouver and ended on October 29th, 2009. The movie was rated PG-13 in the US and PG-12A in the UK.



Plot
The movie begins with Riley Biers (though his last name is not mentioned in the book) coming out of a bar in the pouring rain. As he slowly enters an alleyway, he is knocked to the ground several times by a shimmering figure and starts running until he reaches a pier, unable to jump into the water. Then Victoria bites his right hand, causing him to transform into a vampire. It is later explained that Victoria chose Riley because he is originally from Forks, therefore knows the area better and could guide the other newborns. Victoria is determined on destroying Bella, in order to take revenge on Edward for killing her mate, James, who was killed in Twilight, therefore creating an army of newborn vampires under the forceful and unruly control of Riley, whom she also seduces to win his loyalty and devotion.

Edward Cullen and Bella Swan appear in their meadow, while Bella is reading aloud the poem Fire and Ice (included in the novel), and is also negotiating with Edward, asking him to change her into a vampire, but Edward continually asks her to marry him first. She endlessly turns him down, because of her issue with teen marriages: her parents married right after high school, and ended in divorce.

As the army grows, the newborns are extremely careless in their feeding, much to the growing dismay of the people of Seattle, the Forks police (including Bella's father, Charlie), and the Olympic Coven/Cullen family. Back in Forks, Edward and Bella discuss a couple of complications of becoming an immortal vampire. Also, Bella makes the effort to keep in touch with Jacob Black, her werewolf friend, but he refuses to return her calls. Charlie urges Bella to do it, allowing her the freedom (she had been grounded for leaving Forks for three days to secretly save Edward from killing himself in New Moon) in return for her company with Jacob and her other friends, which is also the only condition for her freedom.

Charlie is covering the disappearance of Riley, while Edward suspects his disappearance to be associated with newborn vampires in Seattle. Further proving his suspicions is the intrusion of Riley in Bella's room, stealing a red blouse with Bella's scent on it. On one occasion, Alice has a vision of Victoria's return and Edward takes Bella to Jacksonville to keep her safe while the Cullens and the wolves chase her. Bella finds out about this and goes down to La Push for a visit. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella convinces him that Jacob and the werewolves would not harm her. When Edward catches Riley's scent, he suspects that someone is making a plan and agrees to ally with the werewolves to protect Bella and Charlie. From then on, Bella begins to spend more down on La Push. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses his love for her and forcibly kisses her. Bella punches him angrily in the face and sprains her hand. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella again. When Charlie came out to stop the tension (not knowing what happened), Jacob awkwardly explains that he kissed Bella without permission and that she broke her hand while punching his face.

A few days later, Bella, Jasper, Edward and Alice graduate Forks High School and Alice invites the seniors to a party at their house. Jacob and his friends, Embry and Quil crash the party, and Jacob gives Bella a handmade bracelet as graduation present moments before Alice catches a vision of the newborn army coming to end them. Jacob and Sam agree to join forces with the Cullens to fight off their threat. Eventually, Bella realizes that the newborn army has been under the secret control of Victoria. The Volturi have also been aware of this, but they decide to stay put and let them do what they were created for, i.e. end the Cullen family, before the Volturi end them.

Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into an immortal. Edward initially refuses, explaining that he could very easily kill her, although he tells her that he wants to. 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 an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending an eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.

As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, to wait out the fight. Bella, being human, starts to freeze in the harsh weather of the mountain. Jacob warms up Bella, much to Edward's chagrin. During the night, Bella overhears a conversation between Edward and Jacob, in which they temporarily forget their mutual hatred.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and discussing Bella their engagement, and becomes distraught. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because he feels that Bella doesn't love him, and that him being dead would it be easier for her. When Bella begs him not to, Jacob demands a proper reason not to. Fear-stricken of his death, she asks Jacob to kiss her, and while doing so, she realizes that she loves him as well. However, she also realizes that her feelings for Jacob are not to be compared with her love for Edward. Edward finds out about this via Jacob's mind, but is not angry. Before they have to discuss more of this, the battle commences and Edward observes the fight through Seth's mind. The Cullens and the Quileute werewolves, meanwhile, destroy her "army", though Jacob is injured saving Leah Clearwater from a newborn she was attacking.

Victoria finds Bella's hiding spot, and Edward manages to upset her to the point that she resists her survival instincts and eventually kills her by pulling off her head, while Seth kills her partner Riley by ripping him apart. Bella distracts them by cutting herself, using her blood to catch their attention, as in the Quileute legend "The Third Wife." Several members of the Volturi arrive to destroy what is left of Victoria's army, only to kill the one newborn who surrendered, Bree. The Cullens ask for mercy for Bree, but that doesn't stop Felix from killing her. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, the date for her transformation has been set.



When Bella goes to visit the injured Jacob, she is welcomed by loud screams coming from the house, as Billy and the rest of the wolf pack (other than Sam, who is inside with Carlisle and Jacob) wait patiently outside. After the treatment, Bella walks in to tell an agonized Jacob that she has chosen Edward instead of him. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between them, since he also has a feeling that Edward passed his tests.

Bella and Edward meet in the meadow, where she tells him the wedding has been handed to the care of Alice. Then Edward asks why she is trying to make everyone else happy by having a wedding, and Bella answers that she has decided to do things responsibly and tie herself to him in every human way: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. They decide to inform Charlie about their engagement, which Bella declares as highly dangerous, and that it's a good thing he is bulletproof. Edward responds to this with a smile and gives her his mother's ring. The movie ends with Bella and Edward embracing each other.

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

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

In the second trailer, the song "Underworld" by Two Steps From Hell is used as well.



Music
The Eclipse soundtrack was released June 8th, 2010 and includes "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" by Muse, Stephenie Meyer's favorite band. She was very excited knowing that Muse would be on the Eclipse soundtrack.

The Eclipse score was composed by Academy Award winner Howard Shore from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.