FAQ

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

When Night Watch was released in theaters in the US it was shown in its original Russian language with subtitles; the DVD includes both options: subtitles and a dubbed language audio track.

Yes it is. The UK and Germany both have releases of the director's cut (they are technically the same disc).

Beware, though, that these releases do not feature the inventive "interactive" subtitles, but only an English for the Hard of Hearing subtitle option.

The German director's cut release also features the cinema version (with the English dubbed version and English subtitles) on a second disc.

You can order the director's cut version from European DVD retailers, such as the British or German amazon.com domains, amazon.co.uk or amazon.de.

Please make sure that in either case your dvd player is compatible with other country's region codes.

Many times when films get subtitled by native speakers there can be issues with the translation. It's not that they got it wrong, it's because it's too literal. Sometimes certain words or phrases don't have a matching counterpart in other languages.

No! Anton is not a vampire. Have you ever heard the saying, "if you want to catch a rat, think like a rat" or maybe "To defeat the enemy, you must become the enemy"? Because of his powers as an Other Anton was able to "channel" vampirism by drinking blood thus making him more in tune with the two vampires he was tracking. Think of it like Rogue from the X-Men being able to touch someone and gain their powers for a short period of time afterwards.

"The Gloom," aka "The Twilight" or "The Dusk," is another plane of existence that overlaps our own. In the books it is explained as being like a sepia-toned photo, very old and worn. In it an Other can tap directly into his or her powers. However, the Gloom has its price. It drains all who enter it of their vital life energy: that is what it thrives on. Anyone who stays in the Gloom too long will not be able to return to the real world.

Because when they entered the Gloom, the door no longer "existed". Although time runs concurrently to our world, the surrounding environment is not always identical.

The more powerful an Other is the longer they can remain inside the Gloom without being physically drained of their life energy. Also an Other who is not prepared to enter (as was the case with Yegor) may be drained much more quickly than an experienced Other who has entered more frequently.

The mosquitos are inhabitants of The Gloom, parasites who feed off the life force (blood) of Others who enter. The director of Night Watch decided to use mosquitos to represent the Gloom because of his intense fear and hatred for them. He also stated that they are a sort of "real world vampire".

$4.2 Million (USD)

To date there hasn't been a Night Watch soundtrack produced, not even in Russia. The closest thing to it was a compilation of music "inspired by" Night Watch. Other than the one track from the closing credits (Russian version) the songs on this disc are not featured in the film.

Yes it is. Night Watch and its sequels are based on a series of four novels by the popular Russian sci-fi/fantasy author Sergei Lukyanenko.

As of 2009, all four books have been translated into English, German, Japanese, Korean, and Italian.

Olga was a woman and powerful sorceress who was imprisoned in the body of an owl.

Olga committed acts that were in direct violation of the treaty signed between the forces of Light and Dark. Her exact crimes are explained in more detail in the sequel Day Watch.

The character named Ignat was completely cut from the International version of the film. He is an Other and member of the Night Watch whose job was to coax Svetlana into telling him who cursed her - or at least relax her to weaken the vortex - but he was way too straightforward in his actions and made it grow instead. He was thus called away by Geser and spent the remainder of the movie locked inside the "Gorsvet" van, and Anton was later dispatched to Sveta's apartment to succeed where Ignat had failed. By the way, he is not long-haired but bald; he wears a wig when he comes to see Svetlana.

CLC (City Light Company) and the "Gorsvet" logo are based on common service names in Russia. All government and municipal organizations use the same three letter abreviation "Gor" ("Gorodskoy") or "city service" to describe their specific function.

The little doll is called Masha, a spider living inside a dolls body. Possibly Darya's familiar, similar to that of a black cat for most witches.

No, it was not. The warriors on the roof were the same who fought on the Bridge of Law during the film's opening. Switching back and forth between the warrior's street clothes and armor was not only a stylistic approach by the director, but also exemplified that this one-thousand year struggle had never really ended.

In order to maintain the balance between light and dark, each side must be monitored by the other. When an Other wants to perform a dark act, they must apply for a license to be issued by the Night Watch. If the dark Other were to commit this act without a license, he or she would be in violation of the treaty and arrested.

No. While it isn't fully explained in the films, Light Others also need to be licensed and have certain quotas for their activities as well. In the book, for example, there is a scene in which Anton passes a drug dealer on the streets and uses his powers to "suggest" he better himself. Subsequently, two Day Watch agents, whom were walking through the same train station and sensed what Anton had done, reprimanded him.

If your DVD player supports all regions and formats and your interest is mainly with supplemental material, then the best version available at the present time is the Region 2 PAL 2-disc Special Edition.

If you are interested in the differences between the director's cut and the cinematic cut, the Region 2 German director's cut version (two-disc) features both film versions with English subtitles (see above) plus a making of (39 min.) and trailers.

It is unknown at this point as director Timur Bekmambetov put the film on hold to direct 2008's "Wanted," and has since been attached to other films.