Doom (film)

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 Ben Daniels Rosamund Pike Yao Chin and The Rock
Music by	Clint Mansell
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Editing by	Derek Brechin
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	October 21, 2005 December 2, 2005
Running time	105 min.
Country	Czech Republic Germany UK USA
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Gross revenue	Domestic: $28,212,337 Worldwide: $55,987,321

Doom is a 2005 science fiction horror film adaptation of the popular Doom series of video games created by id Software. It was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and was released in the United States on October 21, 2005 and in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2005.

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

After option deals with Universal Pictures, 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 Brothers 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.

The film was rated R in the United States by the MPAA for strong violence/gore and language.

Contents 1 Plot overview 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Production history 4 Reception 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links

Plot overview

The film begins on Mars in 2046, in the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC)-owned Olduvai Research Facility where scientists are running for their lives. One by one, they are grabbed and pulled into the darkness by some unseen monster, screaming in terror. One, Dr. Carmack, 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 (The Rock), who has received a call from Olduvai. The Mars station is immediately quarantined and the 79 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, 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 a victim of the Ark travel, Pinky (Dexter Fletcher), who "went to one galaxy and 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 regenerate quickly. They set off and quickly locate Dr. Carmack, who is disturbed 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, but is promptly killed and brought to Dr. Grimm. From blood samples taken from two hostile creatures, it is determined that their genetic makeup has been altered by the addition of the 24th chromosome; however, the injected chromosome seems to "choose" whether or not the result causes the person to be superhuman or a monster, using what Dr. Grimm believes to be the unmapped 10% of the human genome, and latching onto what could be a gene that predestines people to be 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 involuntary subject (prisoner Curtis Stahl, a multiple murderer), who later broke loose.

Through multiple attacks by the imps, the squad is reduced to just Sarge, Reaper, The Kid (Al Weaver), Duke (Razaaq Adoti) and Dr. Grimm. They realize that despite their best efforts, a larger monster called "The Baron" (presumed to be the original infection) has escaped to Earth through the Ark. Before leaving, Sarge takes the Bio Force Gun (a stylistic reincarnation of the BFG9000 of Doom fame), dubbing it the "Big Fuckin' Gun," as an in-joke (the original meaning for the acronym in the Doom games).

On Earth, the group finds the UAC facility full of bodies. Sarge orders that everyone breathing must be killed to prevent the infection from spreading. The Kid finds a group of living, non-infected humans and reports this to Sarge. He argues that the order should be rescinded, but Sarge responds by saying that violating the CO's order is punishable by death and shoots The Kid for insubordination. The group continues through the facility until Duke is killed during a major assault by zombies. In addition to Duke's death, and Sarge being dragged away by the zombies, Reaper is hit by a ricocheting bullet. Consequently, to save his life, Dr. Grimm injects Reaper with Chromosome 24. Rather than becoming one of the monsters, Reaper is endowed with superhuman strength and speed, as well as near-instantaneous healing ability.

Following Reaper's change, the movie takes on its 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 the Baron, several imps, zombies, and Pinky (who has mutated into a Pink Demon, as a small tribute to the Doom 3 Pinkies, only with wheels instead of mechanical legs).

Switching back to a standard camera angle, Reaper emerges at the exit of the facility. Bodies are scattered everywhere, and a blue burning 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 replies that he took care of it: he has killed them. Reaper then notices the same injury on Sarge that Dr. Carmack had before he turned into an Imp. After a badly injured Dr. Grimm crawls to safety, the two Marines face off, Reaper having exhausted most of his current magazine and Sarge similarly limited to a single BFG round. After ineffectively using this ammunition, the two engage in hand-to-hand combat, which favors 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 potentially fully transformed, with demonic features such as prominescent skull structure, sharp teeth and red eyes. Reaper prevails by throwing Sarge into the Ark, followed by a grenade. The Ark locks down after this, preventing further travel and appearing to seal the fate of both Sarge and the UAC Mars facility. Reaper then retrieves Dr. Grimm, 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.

Cast

• Karl Urban as John "Reaper" Grimm/Doomguy
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Sergeant "Sarge" Mahonin
• Raz Adoti as Gregory "Duke" McGreevy
• Deobia Oparei as Gannon "Destroyer" Roark
• Yao Chin as Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi
• Al Weaver as Mark "The Kid" Dantalian
• Richard Brake as Corporal Dean Portman
• Ben Daniels as Eric "Goat" Fantom
• Rosamund Pike as Dr. Samantha Grimm: A scientist on Mars, and John Grimm's older 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. His name is a reference to Tim Willits, one of the owners of id Software and its current lead designer.
• Daniel York as Lt. 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.

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]

Production history

• November 27, 2003, Computer Gaming World printed an article on their website regarding the Doom movie. It states that Warner Brothers 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 Brothers) 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 Brothers 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]

Reception

Doom received negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes exhibiting a freshness rating of 20%.^[6] The film was nominated for a 2005 Golden Raspberry Award. This was primarily due to the fact that the film not only carried the stigma of an action release, but it also alienated the Doom fan community with the removal of some of the games' major plot devices from the storyline, opting for a virus situation as opposed to the game's hellish gateway opening and releasing the evil creatures.

See also

• List of films based on video games

Notes

External links

• Doom at the Internet Movie Database
• Doom at Rotten Tomatoes
• Doom at Box Office Mojo
• Movie Trailer
• A report from Comic-Con with information from a panel of the cast and crew
• An Interview with Karl Urban about the film
• An Interview with Doom Executive Producer John Wells
• The Doug Jones Experience - behind the scenes
• The Doug Jones Experience - DOOM Journal
• Detailed Comparison between Theatrical Cut and Unrated Extended Edition

Preceded by The Fog

Box office number-one films of 2005 (USA) October 23, 2005

Succeeded by Saw II

v • d • e The Doom series and related topics Main series Doom · Doom II: Hell on Earth · Final Doom · Doom 64 · Doom 3 (Resurrection of Evil) · Doom 4 Other games Doom: The Boardgame · Doom, the Roguelike · Chex Quest · Doom RPG Other media Novelizations · Doom film · Spin-offs and homages · Versions and ports Technology id Tech 1 · id Tech 4 · id Tech 5 · Making of Doom · Doom clone · WAD files Fiction & information BFG 9000 · Doomguy · Grabber · Union Aerospace Corporation · Enemies in Doom

v • d • e Films directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak Romeo Must Die (2000) · Exit Wounds (2001) · Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) · Doom (2005) · Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)

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