Lightyears in space, the space transport shuttle 'Hunter-Gratzner' is met with a deadly meteor shower and crash lands on a baron wasteland with absolutely no life in sight. After their captain dies from a 'fatal impact' upon crash landing, second-in-command Carolyn Fry assumes responsibility of the ten survivors who managed to escape the wreck with their lives, but the death of her captain has her mind deeply troubled and she lacks the will to help the people in need of her assistance. Among these survivors is Richard B. Riddick, a dangerous criminal who was being transported to another prison colony by bounty hunter William Johns but managed to escape after the wreck. After Riddick is recaptured, following the mutilation of colonist Zeke, everyone assumes that he's responsible and after doing a little more investigating, the survivors realize that the colonists who lived on the planet didn't leave or vanish at all: they were eaten by a pack of carnivorous (sometimes cannibalistic) raptors, nocturnal creatures who can't stand the light and so must stay below the surface to avoid getting scorched. Johns assumes that if the raptors are phobic about the daylight, then all they have to do is stick to three suns shining their light on the planet and they'll be fine until an 'evac' arrives. That's easier said than done when Fry examines a solar system model and discovers that the planet they're on falls into a total eclipse every twenty two years and when the lights go out, the raptors will come to surface to feast on whoever is on their homeworld. With tensions mounting, trust dwindling and people dying left and right, Fry and the others launch a plan to find an escape shuttle to try and escape the planet in one piece: but to do so, they'll need Riddick's surgically enhanced eyes to see and guide them through the darkness. But the question is, can Riddick be trusted? And can they hold together long enough to avoid becoming the raptors' next meal?

The spaceship is called Hunter/Gratzner - also the name of the visual effects company that designed and built the actual model of the ship.

Johns:
He just escaped from a maximum security prison.


Fry:
Should he just stay locked up forever?


Johns:
That would be my choice.


Fry:
Is he really that dangerous?


Johns:
Only around humans.

Crew or equipment visible: In the darkened hallway immediately after the eclipse, the shadow of a camera is visible (at least in the wide-screen version) on the left third of the screen.