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For the novel on which this film is based see: The City of Ember

City of Ember
Release Date	October 10, 2008
Genre	Fantasy
Director	Gil Kenan
Screenwriter	Jeanne Duprau (novel) Caroline Thompson
Stars	Bill Murray Saoirse Ronan Tim Robbins Mackenzie Crook Toby Jones Martin Landau Mary Kay Place Marianne Jean-Baptiste Harry Treadaway Liz Smith
Studio	Universal Pictures (US theatres)

City of Ember is a 2008 fantasy film, directed by Gil Kenan. Bill Murray stars as the mayor of the city of Ember, a beautiful glittering city of lights. When the city's powerful generator begins to fail, the city's lights begin to flicker. Two teenagers, Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway) search for clues about the city's origin hoping to help the inhabitants escape before the lights go out permanently.

Plot

The City of Ember, built as the last refuge of humanity and powered by a large generator, was designed to sustain for only 200 years and its now failing. The lights of the city have begun to flicker and die. A generation of new graduates are poised to take on new roles in life. Necessity has become a rite of passage. The city's young graduates must choose, by lottery, how they will spend their lives working for the continued survival of their society.

Lina, desperately wants to be a messenger and is sorely disappointed when she is assigned to the Pipeworks, a vast series of pipes underneath the city. Her classmate, Doon, wants to work at the Generator but is assigned to be a messenger. Though pipeworks isn't quite what he wants, he nevertheless decides to switch assignments with Lina and the two form a close friendship.

Lina readily adapts to being a messenger, delivering important information to people all over the city, including the mayor. At home she must care for her aging and increasingly forgetful grandmother and her baby sister, Poppy. When a metal box is discovered in their closet, Lina's grandmother is happy and certain the box is of extreme importance but cannot remember why.

Lina and Jimmy manage to unlock the box and realize the information inside could be key to saving Ember. With time running out, the two must follow clues and outmaneuver corrupt politicians in order to bring the light back to Ember.

External Links

• City of Ember at Internet Movie Database
• City of Ember at MRQE.com

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