Doom (film)

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Doom
Directed by	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura Laura Holstein John D. Schofield Jeremy Steckler John Wells (Executive Producer) id Software
Written by	Dave Callaham Wesley Strick
Starring	Karl Urban Rosamund Pike Deobia Oparei Ben Daniels Raz Adoti Richard Brake Dexter Fletcher Al Weaver Brian Steele Doug Jones and Dwayne Johnson Yao Chin Robert Russell
Music by	Clint Mansell
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Editing by	Derek Brechin
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	Greece & Israel October 20, 2005 United States October 21, 2005 Australia October 27, 2005 United Kingdom December 2, 2005
Running time	105 min.
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Gross revenue	Domestic: $28,212,337 Worldwide: $65,987,321

Doom is a 2005 science fiction horror film, loosely based on the popular Doom series of video games created by id Software. It was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak.

On February 7, 2006, the Unrated DVD version of Doom was released. The unrated DVD has a running time of 1 hour 53 minutes, 8 minutes longer than the rated release.^{[citation needed]} Doom was released on Blu-ray Disc on February 10, 2009.^[1]

After option deals with Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures lapsed,^[2] id Software signed a deal with Warner Bros. with the stipulation that the movie be greenlit within 12 months.^[3] Warner Bros. lost the rights, which were subsequently given back to Universal Pictures who started production in 2004.

In an interview with executive producer John Wells, he stated that a second film would be put into production if the first was a success at the box office. Ticket sales for the opening weekend totaled more than US$15.3 million, but promptly dropped to $4.2 million in its second weekend.

[edit] Plot

The film is set on Mars in the year 2046, in the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC)-owned Olduvai Research Facility where scientists are running for their lives. One by one, they are caught and pulled screaming into the darkness by some unseen monster. Carmack (Robert Russell), escapes into a sealed room and sends an SOS rescue signal warning about a Level 5 security breach in the top security lab. While he is saying this the door behind him is being torn open. He turns around and sees something through the gap in the door.

On Earth, a team of eight Marines have their leave interrupted by Sarge (Dwayne Johnson), who has received a call from Olduvai. The Mars station is immediately quarantined and the 85 UAC employees on Mars are not allowed to return to Earth. As the men suit up, Sarge pulls aside one of his men, John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban), and asks him not to go because his sister is on the station. Reaper suits up anyway, and their team is deployed to Mars via a teleportation device called the Ark, located at Area 51. The Ark was discovered in 2026 (as told by opening credits narrator Rosamund Pike), and for twenty years scientists have been trying to discover who built it, and why. Upon arriving at the Mars research facility of the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), they meet an early victim of the Ark system, Pinky (Dexter Fletcher), who "went to one galaxy while his ass went to another" (his lower torso now a 2-wheeled engine resembling a Segway) during an Ark teleportation event. They meet up with Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike), Reaper's sister, who explains the situation.

Their mission is simple: eliminate the threat, secure the facility, and retrieve UAC property. John converses with his sister and learns that they have discovered humanoid remains on Mars that contain a 24th chromosome that made the creatures superhuman, invulnerable to disease and with the ability to heal from injuries near-instantly. They set off and quickly locate Dr. Carmack, who is mentally deranged to the point of tearing off his own ear. They return him to the lab, and Dr. Grimm tries to sedate him. Meanwhile, the Marines continue to explore the facility, encountering strange creatures intent on killing them. One of the creatures, an Imp succeeds in slaying Goat (Ben Daniels). It is killed and brought to Dr. Grimm. From blood samples taken from two hostile creatures, it is revealed that the things used to be human. Dr. Grimm determines that their genetic makeup has been altered by the addition of the Martian 24th chromosome; however, the injected chromosome seems to "choose" whether it causes the person to be superhuman or a monster, apparently able to determine on a genetic level whether a person has the capability to be truly evil. Consequently, the chromosome is classified as an infection, which is later spread by the projectile tongues of those infected. The Marines discover that Dr. Carmack deliberately injected the chromosome into an "evil" subject (prisoner Curtis Stahl, a multiple murderer), who later transformed and broke loose.

Through multiple attacks by the Imps the squad is reduced to just Sarge, Reaper, The Kid (Al Weaver), Duke (Raz Adoti) and Dr. Grimm. The surviving team members realize that despite their best efforts, a Hell Knight has escaped through the Ark to the Earth due to Pinky's refusal to trigger a grenade Mac left with him to destroy the Ark. Before leaving, Sarge takes the Bio Force Gun (a stylistic reincarnation of the BFG 9000 of Doom fame), dubbing it the "Big Fucking Gun," as an in-joke (the generally accepted meaning for the acronym in the Doom games).

On Earth, the group finds the UAC facility full of bodies. Sarge orders his men to kill anything alive in order to prevent the infection from spreading. The Kid finds a group of living, non-infected humans and reports this to Sarge. The Kid resists Sarge's order to kill the civilians and is promptly executed by Sarge for insubordination. Pinky reappears, aiming a pistol at Sarge, but is dragged off by a monster.

Zombies attack, killing Duke and dragging Sarge through a malfunctioning bulletproof screen. Reaper is hit by a ricochet. To save his life, Samantha injects Reaper with Chomosome 24. Instead of becoming a monster, Reaper awakens as a superhuman, with all the enhanced strength and healing abilities that come with it.

Following Reaper's transformation and the discovery that Samantha is missing, the movie takes on a first-person shooter perspective, reminiscent of the game on which the film is based. In a span of a few minutes, Reaper slays an array of monsters, including Pinky, who has mutated into, appropriately enough, a Demon, commonly referred to by fans as "pinkies".

Switching back to a standard camera angle, Reaper emerges at the exit of the facility. Bodies are scattered everywhere, and a melted blue hole in the wall, the mark of a BFG blast, is still cooling. Near this hole, Reaper encounters Sarge and an unconscious Dr. Grimm lying on the floor. Reaper asks Sarge what happened to the non-infected survivors, to which he casually replies that he "took care of that problem". Reaper then notices the same injury on Sarge that Dr. Carmack had before he turned into a Imp, something Sarge has been hiding up til this point. After a badly injured Dr. Grimm crawls to safety, the two Marines face off. After ineffectively using the last of their ammunition, the two engage in hand-to-hand combat, which favours Sarge. As Sarge holds Reaper by the neck against the wall, a closeup up of Sarge's eye shows it becoming blood-shot. When the camera zooms out, Sarge is shown further transformed, with demonic features such as prominent skull structure, sharp teeth and red eyes. Reaper prevails by throwing Sarge into the Ark, followed by a ST grenade. Sarge and the Ark are obliterated. Reaper then retrieves Sam, who is just visibly conscious but unable to stand or walk, and holds her in his arms as he uses the elevator to return to the Earth's surface.

[edit] Cast

The main Marine cast
From left to right: The Kid, Duke, Destroyer, Portman, Sarge, Reaper, Mac, Goat

• Karl Urban as Staff Sergeant John "Reaper" Grimm: Grimm is the son of UAC scientists who were killed in an accident during the early excavation of a Martian dig site. He abandoned his scientific heritage and joined the military to forget about this personal disaster. He is the twin brother (younger by two minutes) of Dr. Samantha Grimm and the only squad member to survive the film.
• Dwayne Johnson as Gunnery Sergeant Asher "Sarge" Mahonin: The leader of the squad.
• Raz Adoti as Sergeant Gregory "Duke" Schofield: Sergeant Schofield is obsessed with two things - girls and games. He is the best friend of Destroyer and seems to be a big hit for the ladies & immediately develops a crush on Sam.
• Deobia Oparei as Sergeant Gannon "Destroyer" Roark: The heavy weapons specialist of the squad. His best friend is Duke. He uses a minigun.
• Yao Chin as Private First Class Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi: The squad's technical expert, he left university to join RRTS.
• Al Weaver as Private Mark "The Kid" Dantalian: The youngest member of the squad, on his first mission.
• Richard Brake as Corporal Dean Portman: Portman is the trash talker of the squad.
• Ben Daniels as Corporal Eric "Goat" Fantom: A senior member of the squad. Fiercely religious, he is prone to quoting scripture and acts of self-harm in response to his own sins.
• Rosamund Pike as Dr. Samantha Grimm: A scientist on Mars, and John Grimm's twin sister.
• Dexter Fletcher as Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski : A technician on Mars assigned to coordinate the squad's communications. Becomes involved with the action against his will.
• Robert Russell as Dr. Todd Carmack: The base's chief scientist.
• Vladislav Dyntera as Dr. Steve Willits: Another scientist.
• Daniel York as Lieutenant Hunegs: The leader of Mars security.
• Sara Houghton as Dr. Jenna Willits: Dr. Willits' wife.
• Brian Steele as Hell Knight (Baron of Hell)/Curtis Stahl.
• Doug Jones as Carmack Imp: Dr. Carmack in his transformed state.
• Ian Hughes as Sanford Crosby, UAC's public relations representative.

[edit] Production

The film's producer, John Wells, admitted in an interview that "many" video game movie adaptations had "sucked." He revealed that the crew was able to get "a lot of financial support from Universal" and that it wasn't "done on the cheap." Wells also revealed that the Doom movie would have a sequence shot in a first-person perspective because "Doom without that would be a miscarriage of justice!"

Wells also revealed that "we were all very concerned that we make sure that it was exactly the kind of experience that we [the crew] remembered so fondly from the game: turning the lights off at midnight, cranking it up and scaring the hell out of yourself!"

Wells further stated that there is a balance between CGI and prosthetics in the Doom movie, and he, for the first time as a producer, admitted that "we didn't wanna rely on the CGI. Those effects still haven't quite got to the level where you fully believe it — certainly not for long periods of time," and that the crew used Stan Winston's Creature Shop and that his work is only "enhanced with CGI." He also admitted that "if you rely too much on CGI it can look cheesy: it doesn't quite work. It'll get there, but it's not there yet."

Wells also stated that the crew insisted that the Doom movie be made into an R-rated movie and that he didn't "think it was possible to do a PG-13 version—and that's been the mistake made by a couple of other computer game movies," and that "a lot of studios that didn't want to do it. But we made a conscious decision that we'd prefer not to make it any other way."

Wells also revealed that if this first Doom film is successful, a second one could be made, and he revealed that "we certainly have some ideas for the next one, if there is gonna be one. We'll have to wait and see: the audience will have to tell us ..."

One of the most noteworthy aspects of the film is a short sequence near the end of the film where the camera follows the progress of Grimm from a first-person perspective in homage to the original game. In the words of Karl Urban, the actor who plays Reaper:

"In some ways, it makes cinematic history in that, for the first time, the audience becomes the hero of the film."

"When we go into FPS, the audience is doing the rampage, the audience is doing the work and that is so cool. It’s insane!"^[4]

[edit] Production history

• November 27, 2003 — Computer Gaming World printed an article on their website regarding the Doom movie. It states that Warner Bros. is indeed working on the Doom movie and has placed it on the fast track. A revised script was submitted to id Software and approved; John Wells (producer of ER) and Lorenzo di Bonaventura (who introduced The Matrix to Warner Bros.) have signed on to work on the Doom movie. Concept art and storyboards have been drawn by Federico D'Alessandro, who has worked on various movies, music videos, and video game covers and advertisements.
• May 15, 2004 — the Associated Press (AP) released a news article regarding video game to movie adaptations that can be found here: Hollywood Interest in Video Games Grows that mentions the Doom movie. Here's an excerpt that mentions the Doom movie: "Soon, more blockbuster game franchises, such as Halo and Doom, are expected to become the basis of movies."
• June 2, 2004 — Variety reported that Warner Bros. has lost the rights to Doom and Universal Studios has acquired rights to Doom and Variety confirms that Doom will be based on Doom 3.
• August 9, 2004 — A Doom 3 article in an issue of Time Magazine mentions that Universal is set to film the Doom movie in Prague in the winter of 2004–2005.
• August 10, 2004 — The Hollywood Reporter released an article that mentioned release dates for 8 movies and the third movie listed was the Doom movie. It states that Doom will have a wide release on August 5, 2005.
• August 15, 2004 — The Hollywood Reporter reported that John Wells Productions is currently in pre-production for the Doom movie.
• August 18, 2004 — a website, Box Office Prophets, made the Doom movie project their movie of the day and they list the release date for the Doom movie, August 5, 2005. The article also confirms that Universal has Doom on a production schedule of Winter 2004–2005 in Prague's Barrandov Studios. The article can be found here: Doom. The planned release date was mentioned as August 5, 2005.
• September 15, 2004 — major news has been revealed by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on the Doom movie. Karl Urban has been cast for the Doom movie as the star, John Grimm, a leader of a special ops team. It has been revealed that he will dealing not only with alien demons but also the organization known as the United Aerospace Corp that is responsible for the death of his parents. It has also been revealed that Enda McCallion has dropped out of the project and Polish director Andrzej Bartkowiak has signed on to be the director. It has also been revealed that production will start in mid-October with an August 5, 2005 release date. Also noted is that Universal Pictures is talking to The Rock regarding a role in the Doom movie.
• September 22, 2004 — The Hollywood Reporter reported that Universal Pictures has cast Rosamund Pike opposite of Karl Urban as a scientist named Samantha.^[5]

[edit] Reception

Doom received mostly negative reviews by critics. It has a 20% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and 17% in the Top Critics section. Roger Ebert says, "Doom is like some kid came over and is using your computer and won't let you play."^[6] Richard Roeper has also stated, "The performances are awful, the action sequences are impossible to follow, the violence is gratuitous, the lighting is bad and I have my doubts that catering truck was even up to snuff on this project." One apparently good review came from Richard James Havis from The Hollywood Reporter, stating, "There's so little to go wrong that those who like their entertainment mindless and violent will find little fault." In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies.^[7]

The movie was reviewed by Gametrailers on its "Top Ten Countdown of the Worst Video Game Movies", the said review reads:

"Doom was one of the most controversial video games ever released. The only controversy surrounding the movie was thanks to scathing comments from critics.

The New York Times called it "...a claustrophobic mess of a movie...", while Reelviews called it "... a dreadful hackneyed piece of cinema..." Both were correct.

Starring "The Rock" of professional wrestling fame, the story follows his band of mercenaries as they answer a distress signal from Mars. If only moviegoers had a button they could push to get their money back.

It's low on this list because some parts of it are so bad that they're funny; not the least of which is the end of he dreadful flick which attempts to mimic the game with its first-person perspective... nice try!"

The response from fans of the video game was lukewarm. Some expressed disappointment and outrage because the film did not follow the plot of the game, as the games dealt with an invasion from hell instead of a virus, and over the movie's failure to reproduce the game's most essential quality: the killing of large numbers of enemies. The film has a rating of 5.2/10 on IMDb. It did well on its opening weekend, taking in $15.5 million. However, the final gross of the film was only $28.2 million domestically and almost $65.9 million worldwide, with a budget of $60 million.

[edit] Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Clint Mansell. A remix of the Nine Inch Nails song You Know What You Are? appears at the beginning of the first person shooter ending credits. Switchback by Celldweller was used in the trailer.

[edit] Possible Sequel

With the new game Doom 4 in production, the creators of Doom 4 want to make another Doom film based on the new game. But it will depend on the success and anticipation of Doom 4. Universal still has the film rights to Doom and its possible future film sequels.

[edit] See also

• List of films based on video games

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Doom at Allmovie
• Doom at the Internet Movie Database
• Doom at Metacritic
• Doom at Rotten Tomatoes