Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Simon West
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Colin Wilson
Screenplay by	Patrick Massett John Zinman
Story by	Sara B. Cooper Mike Werb Michael Colleary Simon West
Based on	Tomb Raider by Core Design
Starring	Angelina Jolie Jon Voight Daniel Craig Iain Glen Noah Taylor Chris Barrie
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	Dallas Puett Glen Scantlebury Eric Strand Mark Warner
Production company	Mutual Film Company BBC Lawrence Gordon Productions Marubeni Corporation Eidos Entertainment KFP Produktions GmbH & Co. KG Tele München Gruppe Toho-Towa
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	June 15, 2001 (2001-06-15TUS)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States United Kingdom Japan Germany
Language	English
Budget	$115 million
Box office	$274.7 million

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (also known as simply Tomb Raider) is a 2001 action-adventure film based on the popular Tomb Raider video game series featuring the character Lara Croft portrayed by Angelina Jolie. The film was directed by Simon West and was released during the summer of 2001. The film revolves around Lara Croft trying to obtain ancient artifacts from the enemy, the Illuminati. The film received generally negative reviews for its stylized action and bland plot, although Angelina Jolie was praised for her performance as Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was the highest-grossing film on its opening weekend. A sequel, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, was released in 2003.

The film opens with Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) in an Egyptian tomb, seeking a diamond at one end of a chamber. As she approaches she is attacked by a large robot. After an intense chase and battle, she disables it by ripping out its motivational circuits. She takes the diamond, which is revealed to be a memory card labeled "Lara's Party Mix", and inserts it into a laptop computer inside the robot, whereupon it plays music. Now it is revealed that the scene took place in a practice arena in her home, and that her assistant Bryce (Noah Taylor) programmed the robot, SIMON, to challenge her in combat.

It is the day of the first phase of a planetary alignment, culminating in a solar eclipse, which (in the film) happens once every 5,000 years. In Venice, the Illuminati search for a key to rejoin halves of "the triangle", which must be done by the final phase of the alignment. Mr. Powell (Iain Glen), an Illuminati member, makes assurances that they are almost ready, but in reality he has no idea where to find the key.