With forty passengers on board, technical problems force the spaceship Hunter-Gratzner to crash land on a distant planet. The passengers were heading for other worlds and only ten have managed to survive, but one of them, Riddick (Vin Diesel), is an armed and dangerous convict determined to take control of events. The planet at first seems barren, with no evidence of water or living creatures, but when the sun sets the survivors discover they have the planet's terrifying nightlife to contend with.