Doom (film)

Doom
Film poster
Directed by	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura Laura Holstein John D. Schofield Jeremy Steckler
Written by	David Callaham Wesley Strick
Based on	Doom  by id Software
Starring	Karl Urban Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Rosamund Pike Raz Adoti
Music by	Clint Mansell
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Editing by	Derek Brechin
Studio	John Wells Productions Di Bonaventura Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	October 20, 2005 (2005-10-20) (premiere) October 21, 2005 (2005-10-21) (United States) December 2, 2005 (2005-12-02) (United Kingdom)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Czech Republic Germany United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$55,987,321

Doom is a 2005 action and horror film written by David Callaham and Wesley Strick and directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. It is loosely based on the video game series of the same name created by id Software. The film follows a group of Rapid Response Tactical Squad Marines called on an emergency to Mars on a rescue and retrieval mission after communications with the Olduvai Research Facility on Mars ceased hours earlier. The Marines soon battle genetically engineered monsters plaguing the facility.

After movie rights deals with Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures expired, id Software signed a deal with Warner Bros. with the stipulation that the movie will be greenlit within 12 months. 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.

Plot

On Mars in the year 2046, in the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) Olduvai Research Facility, scientists are attacked and pulled into the darkness by an unseen monster. Doctor Carmack (Robert Russell) transmits a warning to quarantine the facility before the door behind him is torn open. He turns around and sees a large humanoid creature through the gap.

On Earth, a team of eight Marines - (Sarge, Reaper, Duke, Destroyer, The Kid, Portman, Goat and Mac) known as the RRTS Hellfighters (Rapid Response Tactical Squad) are preparing to go on leave. Their leave is cancelled when the squad leader, Sarge (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), receives new orders to investigate the situation at Olduvai. The Mars station is quarantined and the 85 UAC employees on Mars are not allowed to return to Earth. As the men suit up, Sarge pulls aside John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban) and asks him not to go because Olduvai is where Reaper's parents died and his sister is still on the station. Reaper suits up anyway, and their team is deployed to Mars via a teleportation device called the "Ark". The team meets two UAC personnel, Pinky (Dexter Fletcher), who is in a wheelchair due to an Ark accident. and Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike), Reaper's sister. She briefs the RRTS that Doctor Carmack's division of the facility focused on genetic research has been quarantined off, with Carmack and five other scientists sealed inside.

Sarge instructs his team that their mission is to eliminate the threat, secure the facility, and escort Dr. Grimm while she recovers Carmack's research data. Reaper converses with his sister and learns that they discovered humanoid remains on Mars, which, unlike humans, have an extra chromosome pair which granted them superhuman strength, intelligence and healing. The team locates Carmack, who has gone mad and they take him to the infirmary and sedate him. The Marines explore the facility, encountering two of the five remaining scientists only to discover that they have been transformed into zombies, forcing them to kill them. After spotting and chasing a large creature through the facility, the team follows it into the sewer system, discovering the bloodied lab coat of a 'Doctor Steve Willits'. Whilst the team is split up, an Imp ambushes Goat (Ben Daniels) and causes a mortal wound on his throat before being killed by Reaper and brought to Dr. Grimm, alongside the wounded Goat. Despite the best efforts of the RRTS, Goat dies in the lab. In response, Sarge orders the 85 workers in the facility to evacuate back to Earth through the Ark with the exception of Dr. Grimm and Pinky, the latter being left to guard the Ark.

After the evacuations are complete, Duke (Raz Adoti) remains with Dr. Grimm whilst she examines the remains of the Imp, and the two notice that Doctor Carmack has vanished from the infirmary. Moments later outside the lab they are attacked by an Imp, which Dr. Grimm traps alive in the infirmary nanowall (a wall that can be switched from passable to solid). Dr. Grimm conducts an autopsy of the other, deceased Imp and discovers that it was once human. Just then, Goat returns to life as a zombie and walks toward them. Retaining some of his humanity and aware that he is turning, Goat smashes his head into the observation room window to kill himself once again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the RRTS return to the genetics lab and begin exploring the archeological dig site in the facility. While searching the caverns, the team discovers the bodies of two more of Carmack's scientists, leaving only Doctor Willits still unaccounted for. While Sarge and Reaper examine the bodies, Mac (Yao Chin) is ambushed and immediately decapitated by the Hell Knight, the large humanoid monster seen prior. Convinced that the team is going to need some additional firepower to take on the creature, Sarge uses the severed hand of one of the scientists and takes the Bio Force Gun from the facility's weapons research lab, dubbing it the "Big Fucking Gun."

Elsewhere, Portman (Richard Brake) leaves his post to use the restroom, leaving Destroyer (Deobia Oparei) alone. Destroyer is attacked by the Hell Knight and thrown into a pit with electrified walls used as a prison cell. The two fight hand-to-hand and Destroyer nearly escapes, but the Hell Knight kills him. Portman is then attacked by the Hell Knight and is also killed.

After being brought the bodies of Portman and Destroyer, Dr. Grimm determines that the creatures are humans that have been altered by the addition of the 24th Martian chromosome. She also reveals that the Imp trapped in the nanowall is in fact Doctor Carmack, identified by injuries incurred earlier. She theorizes that the Imp killed in the sewers is the missing Doctor Willits. Losing patience, Sarge executes the transformed Carmack and demands to see the research data Dr. Grimm was recovering. Video footage is discovered that shows Carmack and his team injected Chromosome 24 into a condemned prisoner as a test, and that the prisoner mutated in to the Hell Knight that escaped and killed and infected the research team.

With four men KIA, the squad is reduced to Sarge, Reaper, The Kid (Al Weaver), and Duke. Pinky reports that the Hell Knight is cutting through the door to the Ark to escape to Earth. Sarge orders Pinky to destroy the Ark but Pinky instead retreats through the Ark back to Earth and the Hell Knight follows him. Sarge orders the RRTS to head back to Earth to eliminate the Hell Knight. Reaper returns to the lab to bring Dr. Grimm, who reveals that the ovipositor of the creatures are selectively choosing which humans to infect. Reaper and Dr. Grimm theorize that the creatures pick up on genetic markers to make their decision, trying to infect people with "evil" tendencies (as demonstrated using brain matter from Portman) while ignoring those with more of a "good" personality (as shown using Destroyer's brain matter). Dr. Grimm explains that the 24th chromosome would turn "good" people into super humans like the remains found on Mars, while those who are "evil" are turned into monsters.

The RRTS travel through the Ark to the UAC facility on Earth and find it full of corpses, the researchers from Olduvai and the base staff having been slaughtered by the Hell Knight when it came through. The facility is on automatic lock down and the RRTS have one hour before the creatures can escape the facility. Sarge orders his men to kill anything alive in order to prevent the infection from spreading, leading them on a cleanup operation through the facility that leads them to kill a considerable number of UAC employees transformed into zombies. However, Sarge shows no distinction between targets and also kills survivors who do not show signs of infection.

While confirming the bodies in the facility are really dead, Duke discovers Pinky hiding and brings him back to the Ark chamber where Reaper and Dr. Grimm are trying to convince Sarge that not everyone is capable of being infected due to their "good" genes. Sarge doesn't heed them and prepares to execute Pinky before The Kid rushes into the room, stating that he found a large group of non-infected humans. Sarge orders him to return and kill them but The Kid refuses, resulting in Sarge executing him for insubordination. Reaper, Sarge and Pinky enter a stand-off, which is abruptly cut short when the Hell Knight attacks and grabs Pinky, followed by a horde of zombies attacking.

The RRTS retreat and make their stand at a nanowall that malfunctions and fails to shut. Duke is suddenly pulled through a vent in the floor while the zombies drag Sarge through the nanowall. Just then, the nanowall shuts and Reaper is hit in the gut by a ricochet from his own rifle. Reaper and Dr. Grimm flee and barricade themselves in a storage room. To save Reaper's life, Dr. Grimm injects him with Chomosome 24. Reaper fears he will become a monster because he isn't "good", but his sister assures him he is. Reaper awakens as a superhuman with his gunshot wound and other injuries fully healed.

Reaper finds that Dr. Grimm is missing, and the movie then takes on a first-person shooter perspective. Within a few minutes, Reaper moves through the facility and slays an array of zombies and Imps, eventually having a showdown with the Hell Knight after severely burning it. Reaper kills the Hell Knight and is then attacked by Pinky, who has now transformed into a Demon. Reaper kills Pinky and the film switches back to a standard camera angle.

Reaper reaches the facility's exit. Bodies are scattered everywhere, and a melted blue hole in the wall, the mark of a BFG blast, is still cooling. Reaper finds Dr. Grimm lying on the floor, injured but alive. Sarge then appears, seemingly none the worse for wear, but Reaper notices an injury on Sarge's neck that signifies he has been infected. When asked what happened to the non-infected survivors, Sarge replies that he "took care of that problem"- he has killed them. The lock down has minutes to go and Reaper tells Dr. Grimm to crawl to the elevator to the surface while he faces off with the infected Sarge. The two expend their last ammunition and then battle hand to hand in the Ark chamber with their superhuman abilities. As Sarge has Reaper pinned against a wall, he begins transforming, developing features such as a prominent skull structure, sharp teeth and yellow eyes. Reaper manages to activate the Ark and throws Sarge through, followed by a grenade. Sarge lands back in the Mars facility along with the grenade, which detonates, destroying him and the Ark. Reaper retrieves Dr. Grimm, and carries her to the lift to the surface.

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.
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Gunnery Sergeant Asher "Sarge" Mahonin: The leader of the squad.
• Rosamund Pike as Dr. Samantha Grimm: A scientist on Mars, and John Grimm's twin sister.
• Deobia Oparei as Sergeant Roark "Destroyer" Gannon: The heavy weapons specialist 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 performing acts of self-harm in response to his own sins.
• Raz Adoti as Sergeant Gregory "Duke" Schofield: Sergeant Schofield is obsessed with two things - girls and games.
• Richard Brake as Corporal Dean Portman: Portman is amoral, and frequently voices his inner thoughts and desires.
• Al Weaver as Private Mark "The Kid" Dantalian: The youngest member of the squad, on his first mission.
• Dexter Fletcher as Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski : A technician on Mars assigned to coordinate the squad's communications.
• Brian Steele as Hell Knight (Baron of Hell)/Curtis Stahl.
• Yao Chin as Private First Class Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi: The squad's technical expert, he left university to join RRTS.
• Robert Russell as Dr. Todd Carmack: The base's chief scientist.
• Daniel York as Lieutenant Hunegs: The leader of Mars security.
• Ian Hughes as Sanford Crosby, UAC's public relations representative.
• Sara Houghton as Dr. Jenna Willits: Dr. Willits' wife.
• Vladislav Dyntera as Dr. Steve Willits: Another scientist.
• Doug Jones as Carmack Imp and Sewer Imp: Dr. Carmack in his transformed state. He also portrayed the Imp encountered within the sewers.

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 has 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 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 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!"

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 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 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 October 21, 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.

Reception

Doom received mostly negative reviews by critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 20% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 130 reviews. Roger Ebert says, "Doom is like some kid came over and is using your computer and won't let you play." 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 the 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.

The response from fans of the video game was mixed. Many expressed disappointment 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. It did well on its opening weekend, taking in $15.5 million. However, it quickly dropped in its second week in theaters and the final gross of the film was only $28.2 million domestically and almost $56 million worldwide, with a budget of $60 million. The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Dwayne Johnson), but lost to Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (Rob Schneider).

Home media

Doom was released on DVD on February 7, 2006 and on Blu-ray Disc on February 10, 2009.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Clint Mansell, upon which he produced a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "You Know What You Are?", which was used in the film's ending credits. The song "Switchback" by Celldweller was licensed to be used for marketing and media purposes, such as the theatrical trailer and TV spots.

See also

• List of films based on video games

External links

• Doom
• Doom at AllRovi
• Doom at the Internet Movie Database
• Doom at Metacritic
• Doom at Rotten Tomatoes