Bright is a 2017 Americanurban fantasyaction film^[4][5] co-produced and directed byDavid Ayer and written byMax Landis. The film is set in an alternate present in which humans and mythical creatures co-exist and details anLAPD police officer (portrayed byWill Smith) and hisorc partner (Joel Edgerton) confrontingracism andpolice corruption while protecting amagic wand and theelf girl (Lucy Fry) who wields it.Noomi Rapace,Édgar Ramírez, andIke Barinholtz also star.

Bright
Official release poster
Directed by	David Ayer
Written by	Max Landis
Produced by	Eric Newman David Ayer Bryan Unkeless Ted Sarandos
Starring	Will Smith Joel Edgerton Noomi Rapace Lucy Fry Édgar Ramírez Ike Barinholtz
Cinematography	Roman Vasyanov
Edited by	Michael Tronick Geoffrey O'Brien
Music by	David Sardy
Production companies	Trigger Warning Entertainment[1] Grand Electric[1]
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	December 13, 2017 (2017-12-13) (Regency Village Theater) December 22, 2017 (2017-12-22) (United States)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$90–106.2 million[2][3]

Principal photography began in November 2016 inLos Angeles. The film was released worldwide onNetflix on December 22, 2017. While it has received largely negative reviews from critics,^[6][7] it was exceptionally popular with viewers. Netflix called it one of the company's most successful original programs as of January 2018.^[8][9]

Humans coexist with othersentient species, notablyorcs andelves. Whilemagic is real, its practice is illegal.Magic wands exist, but only a few individuals called "Brights" can wield them without dying.

InLos Angeles, veteran officer Daryl Ward is involuntarily partnered with Nick Jakoby, the first orc police officer ever in the US. Jakoby is detested by the other police officers for his species and by orcs for being a policeman. Ward's relationship with Jakoby is strained since Ward was shot by an orc robber whom Jakoby failed to apprehend;Internal Affairs suspects Jakoby deliberately let him go.

One night, Ward and Jakoby respond to a disturbance at asafe house for the Shield of Light, an extremist group that prophesies the return of theDark Lord, an ancient semi-mythical figure defeated millennia ago. The lone survivor is Tikka, an elf girl, who has a wand. Ward calls for backup, but when the four arriving officers see the wand, they try to coerce Ward into killing Jakoby and letting them steal it for themselves.

Ward goes outside, demanding the truth about the robber. Jakoby admits he lost sight of Ward's assailant and mistakenly apprehended a younger orc, whom he then helped flee, knowing that the police would probably kill the boy on sight. When the four officers appear behind Ward, planning to kill both him and Jakoby, Ward guns them down. The gunfire attracts the attention of a Hispanic gang, while rumors of the wand draw the attentions of both its owner Leilah, the leader of the radical elf sect the Inferni; and Kandomere, an elfFBI agent assigned to the federal Magic Task Force. The gangsters corner the trio in astrip club as their leader demands the wand to cure his paralysis. They are slaughtered by Leilah, allowing the trio to escape. At a service station, Ward contacts his friend, Deputy Sheriff Rodriguez, who contacts Kandomere, but Leilah intercepts their conversation. While attacking the service station, she kills Rodriguez.

Escaping again, the trio is captured by the Fogteeth Orcs, whose leader Dorghu also wants the wand. He orders his son Mikey to kill Jakoby. However, Mikey is the orc that Jakoby had saved, so Mikey refuses to kill him. Sending Mikey away, Dorghu kills Jakoby himself. As he prepares to kill Ward, Tikka uses the wand to resurrect Jakoby, showing she is a Bright. The Fogteeth'sshaman pronounces this to be part of aprophecy, causing the clan to kneel to them, setting them free. Tikka explains that the Inferni believe that assembling three wands will allow them to resurrect the Dark Lord. She was once a member of the Inferni but fled the group and was sheltered by the Shield of Light. Leilah loaned her wand to a Bright assassin to kill Tikka. Tikka killed the assassin, taking the wand.

Using the wand to resurrect Jakoby has made Tikka gravely ill, and she can only be healed in a magical pool at the safe house. Returning there, they are ambushed by Leilah and her enforcers. In the confrontation, Leilah's guards are killed, but she holds Tikka helpless as Ward and Jakoby run out of ammunition. Ward grabs the wand, believing that the resulting explosion will kill all of them. To everyone's amazement, Ward does not die, revealing he is a Bright. He kills Leilah with the wand, triggering an explosion that sets the building on fire. Tikka disappears, and the injured Ward and Jakoby escape the building, with Jakoby leading the way. After exiting, he realizes Ward is not with him and is trapped inside. Casting asidefirst responders, Jakoby charges back into the building, pulling his partner from the flames and debris just in time. This act of bravery is witnessed by the Fogteeth clan, so Dorghu 'bloods' Jakoby (a mark of great respect within Orc society).

Ward and Jakoby know that the FBI want knowledge of magical activity kept secret. At a hospital, they give Kandomere a doctored account of the previous night's events. Kandomere understands the deception but accepts their tale regardless. In a public ceremony, Jakoby and Ward are celebrated as heroes, and Rodriguez's memory is honored. Ward smiles as he spots Tikka moving through the crowd in disguise.

• Will Smith as Daryl Ward, a human LAPD officer.
• Joel Edgerton as Nick Jakoby, the nation's firstorc police officer who is partnered with Daryl.
• Noomi Rapace as Leilah, an Infernielf seeking control of the magic wand.
• Lucy Fry as Tikka, a young Inferni elf who is in possession of the magic wand.
• Édgar Ramírez as Kandomere, a high ranking elvish federal agent with the US Department of Magic's Magic Task Force.
• Ike Barinholtz as Pollard, a corrupt human LAPD officer who seeks to steal the wand for himself.
• Happy Anderson as Hildebrandt Ulysses Montehugh, a human federal agent who works under Kandomere in the Magic Task Force.
• Dawn Olivieri as Sherri Ward, Daryl's human wife and Sophia's mother.
• Matt Gerald as Hicks, a corrupt human LAPD officer.
• Margaret Cho as Ching, a corrupt human LAPD sergeant.
• Brad William Henke as Dorghu, the imposing leader of the Fogteeth Orcs gang.
• Jay Hernandez as Rodriguez, a humanLASD deputy.
• Veronica Ngo as Tien, an Inferni elf enforcer working for Leilah.
• Alex Meraz as Serafin, an Inferni elf enforcer working for Leilah.
• Nadia Gray as Larika, an elf assassin working for Leilah.
• Joseph Piccuirro as Brown, a corrupt human LAPD officer.
• Enrique Murciano as Poison, the crippled leader of the human Altamira gang who uses a wheelchair.
• Scarlet Spencer as Sophia Ward, Daryl and Sherri's human daughter.
• Andrea Navedo as Perez, a human LAPD captain and Ward's superior.
• Kenneth Choi as Yamahara, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
• Bobby Naderi as Arkashian, a human LAPD internal affairs detective.
• Cle Shaheed Sloan as O.G. Mike, the Wards' human neighbor.
• Chris Browning as Serling, a human questioned by the US Department of Magic's Task Force.
• Joe Rogan as Himself, seen interviewing an orc about Jakoby.

Described as "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements", the film was directed byDavid Ayer and starsWill Smith andJoel Edgerton, with a script penned byMax Landis, which Ayer rewrote.^[10][11] Netflix officially picked up the film for a $90 million deal with filming beginning in fall 2016, making it the most expensive Netflix film to date.^[12]Noomi Rapace entered talks to join the cast in May 2016.^[13] Landis stated in an interview that official production was expected to begin in September 2016, but that they had already shot a small part in Los Angeles.^[14] Ayer's frequent cinematographer,Roman Vasyanov, was confirmed to be working on the project.^[15] On October 15, 2016,Lucy Fry was added to the cast.^[16] On October 17, 2016,Andrea Navedo was added to the cast.^[17] On October 20, 2016, actorBrad William Henke was cast in the film.^[18] On November 1, 2016,Kenneth Choi andDawn Olivieri were cast in an unnamed role and the role of Smith's wife, respectively.^[19] On November 9,Édgar Ramírez was confirmed to be added to the cast.^[20] That same month,Alex Meraz,Matt Gerald,Ike Barinholtz andEnrique Murciano joined the cast of the film in undisclosed roles.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Photos from the set were first published in November 2016.^[25] Filming was completed by February 4, 2017.^[26]

Bright received criticism for its screenplay, cinematography, poor worldbuilding, and excessive focus onsocial commentary.^[6] OnRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 26% based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bright tries to blend fantasy, hard-hitting cop drama, and social commentary—and ends up falling painfully short of the mark on all three fronts."^[27] OnMetacritic the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[28]

Richard Roeper of theChicago Sun-Times gave a negative review of 1.5 stars out of 4. He said: "Bright is basically a tiredbuddy-cop movie dressed up in bizarre trappings ... It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s not nearly as self-deprecating and funny as it needed to be."^[29] Writing forRolling Stone, David Fear gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, criticizing the script and incoherent action scenes, writing: "This combo of gritty cop procedural and fantasy is a dark, dank, dumb-as-hell mess."^[30]

David Ehrlich ofIndieWire gave the film an "F" and called it the worst film of 2017, saying: "There's boring, there's bad, and then there'sBright ... from the director ofSuicide Squad and the writer ofVictor Frankenstein comes a fresh slice of hell that somehow represents new lows for them both—a dull and painfully derivative ordeal that often feels like it was made just to put those earlier misfires into perspective."^[31] Ayer responded enthusiastically to Ehrlich's review, claiming that he desired for the film to receive "a strong reaction either way."^[32]

NPR's Chris Klimek wrote: "Critics have already lined up to pilloryBright as among the year's worst releases. Don't believe the clickbait. Lazy but not boring, this Net-flick is perfectly, stubbornly mediocre, and less a chore to sit through than either of 2017'sVin Diesel vehicles," referring toXXX: Return of Xander Cage andThe Fate of the Furious.^[33]

Several publications noted that while critics were harsh in their assessment of the film, viewers liked it and gave positive reactions on social media.^{[34][35][36][37]} Netflix announced that the film had been viewed more times in its first week than any of its other releases.^[38] According toNielsen ratings, about 11 million American viewers streamedBright within the first three days of its release, with 56% of the audience being male and 7 million being between the ages of 18 and 49.^[39]

In January 2018 Netflix reported that the popularity ofBright gave "a major lift" to the company's revenue and number of new subscribers in the last quarter of 2017.^[8] CEOReed Hastings stated, "The critics are pretty disconnected from the mass appeal...[they] are an important part of the artistic process but are pretty disconnected from the commercial prospects of a film. If people are watching this movie and loving it, that's the measurement of success."^[40]

The soundtrack, titledBright: The Album, was released underAtlantic Records on December 15, 2017, just a week before the official release of the film on December 22, 2017. It features songs performed by various artists includingFuture,Camila Cabello,Logic,Marshmello,Ty Dolla Sign,Bebe Rexha,Lil Uzi Vert,Snoop Dogg, andX Ambassadors.

In December 2017, Netflix ordered a sequel.^[52] The following month, Netflix confirmed the sequel was moving ahead, with Smith and Edgerton reprising their roles and Ayer directing and writing the script withEvan Spiliotopoulos.^[38] In August 2018, it was announced the film would begin filming in March 2019 in Germany.^[53] In September 2019, Lucy Fry revealed that production had been delayed, citing Smith's busy schedule.^[54] In May 2020, it was reported that Netflix had entered negotiations withLouis Leterrier, director ofThe Incredible Hulk andNow You See Me, to direct the sequel.^[55] In April 2022, following Smith'saltercation withChris Rock at theAcademy Awards, Netflix scrapped the film.^[56]

In June 2021, Netflix announced that an anime spin-off film calledBright: Samurai Soul would be produced. It was announced thatKyōhei Ishiguro would direct the film, withMichiko Yokote writing the film's script, Atsushi Yamagata designing the characters, and Arect animating the film. The film premiered on October 12, 2021.^[57]

• Alien Nation
• A Gnome Named Gnorm
• District 9
• Cast a Deadly Spell
• Onward
• Shadowrun
• Special Unit 2
• Ugly Americans
• Witch Hunt
• Wishfart

• Bright onNetflix
• Bright atIMDb