the killer is still out there, unaware that he is actually dead. Cast Production The film was shot mainly on location in the British Columbia interior. While the opening scenes were filmed in Reno, Nevada, the rest of the film was shot in Keremeos, Princeton, Hedley, Merritt and Lytton, all in British Columbia. Tom Noonan recounts that, when Battlefield Earth flopped, the film's backers "were so freaked out... that they got on Sean [Penn] about finishing on time and finishing under budget, which wasn't really possible, because they were shooting in the mountains, and there were four or five scenes that I still had to shoot, which they never shot, which explain who I am in that film. Because I'm not the guy who killed the kids. I'm not the bad guy in the film." He has repeated this assertion: "There's another guy who's in a Mercedes that gets burned at the end. And people tell me I look like the guy in the Mercedes but that's not me. I'm the nice guy in that movie. At least in the script I am." Home video The film was released on DVD and VHS on June 19, 2001. Reception Box office The Pledge did not perform well at the box office. The film opened in 1,275 theaters and grossed $5,765,347, with an average of $4,521 per theater and ranking #11 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $19,733,089 domestically and $9,686,202 internationally for a total of $29,419,291, below its $35 million production budget. Critical response The Pledge received mainly positive reviews from critics. The film has a "certified fresh" score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 124 reviews, with an average rating of 6.88/10. The critical consensus states: "Though its subject matter is grim and may make viewers queasy, The Pledge features an excellent, subtle performance by Jack Nicholson." The film also has a score of 71 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 33 critics indicating "Generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore graded the film "D" on a scale of A+ to F. James Berardinelli gave The Pledge three stars, calling it "clever in the way that it gradually reveals things, but never gives us too much information at one time." Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, and in 2012 upgraded it to four stars and added it to his