Doom (film)

Plot

In the year 2046, a heavily populated research facility on Mars is suddenly attacked by an unknown assailant. Following a distress call sent by Dr. Todd Carmack, a group of marines, led by Asher "Sarge" Mahonin, is sent on a search-and-rescue mission. One of the marines, John "Reaper" Grimm, accompanies his sister, Dr. Samantha Grimm, to one of the labs within the devastated sector to retrieve data; here he learns that the dig site, where their parents were accidentally killed, was reopened and ancient skeletons of a genetically enhanced race were discovered.

While searching for survivors in the facility, the marines find Dr. Carmack, who is taken to a medical room for examination, but later disappears. The marines find a creature that leads them down to the facility's sewer. Marine Eric "Goat" Fantom is killed during their pursuit, along with the creature. The corpses of Goat and the creature are taken to the medical room. Marine Gregory "Duke" Schofield stays with Sam as she starts an autopsy, when they are attacked by a second creature. After trapping it, Sam continues the autopsy on the first creature, finding that its organs are human. Goat suddenly revives, and then kills himself by slamming his head against a glass window.

The squad tracks a third creature down into the dig site, where it kills three more marines. Sam and Reaper try to convince Sarge that the creatures are humans from the facility, mutated by the addition of a Martian chromosome (called C24) they found and synthesized from the bones discovered, and that not all of those infected will fully transform into creatures. Some of those infected develop superhuman abilities. Regardless, Sarge orders his team to sanitize the entire facility. Sarge kills the creature in the medical lab (revealed to be a mutated Dr. Carmack) and executes one of his marines for defying his commands. Sam and the surviving marines are then flanked by the infected, partly mutated, humans. Only Sam and a wounded Reaper escape. Sam injects Reaper with the C24 serum, enhancing his abilities so he is able to kill the infected humans and fully mutated creatures. Reaper then battles an infected Sarge and kills him. Having survived, Sam and Reaper enter the elevator to leave the facility.

Cast

Karl Urban as Staff Sgt. John "Reaper" Grimm

Dwayne Johnson as Gunnery Sgt. Asher "Sarge" Mahonin

Rosamund Pike as Dr. Samantha Grimm

Razaaq Adoti as Sgt. Gregory "Duke" Schofield

Richard Brake as Cpl. Dean Portman

Dexter Fletcher as Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski

Al Weaver as Pvt. Mark "The Kid" Dantalian

Ben Daniels as Cpl. Eric "Goat" Fantom

DeObia Oparei as Sgt. Gannon "Destroyer" Roark

Yao Chin as Pvt. 1st Class Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi

Robert Russell as Dr. Todd Carmack

Brian Steele as Hell Knight / Curtis Stahl

Doug Jones as Carmack Imp / Willits Imp

Production

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

On 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.

The Associated Press (AP) released a news article on May 15, 2004, regarding video game-to-movie adaptations that mentions the Doom movie. An excerpt mentions the Doom movie: "Soon, more blockbuster game franchises, such as Halo and Doom, are expected to become the basis of movies."

On June 2, 2004, Variety reported that Warner Bros. had lost the rights to Doom and Universal Studios has acquired them; the report confirmed that Doom would be based on Doom 3.

A Doom 3 article in the August 9, 2004, issue of Time mentioned that Universal is set to film the Doom movie in Prague in the winter of 2004–2005.

The next day, The Hollywood Reporter released an article that mentioned release dates for eight movies, and the third movie listed was the Doom movie. It stated that Doom will have a wide release on August 5, 2005.

Within the week, The Hollywood Reporter announced that John Wells Productions is currently in preproduction for the Doom movie.

On August 18, 2004, website Box Office Prophets made the Doom movie project their movie of the day and they listed the release date for the Doom movie, August 5, 2005. The article also confirmed 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.

Major news was revealed by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on the Doom movie on September 15, 2004. Karl Urban has been cast for the Doom movie as the star, John Grimm, a leader of a special ops team. He will be 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. Enda McCallion was announced to have dropped out of the project and Polish director Andrzej Bartkowiak had signed on to be the director. Production was slated to start in mid-October with an October 21, 2005, release date. Also noted, Universal Pictures is talking to The Rock regarding a role in the Doom movie.

The Hollywood Reporter stated that Universal Pictures has cast Rosamund Pike opposite of Karl Urban as a scientist named Samantha on September 22, 2004.

Reception

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 19% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 130 reviews, with the critical consensus "Sure to please fans of the video game, but lacking in plot and originality to please other moviegoers." Roger Ebert said, "Doom is like some kid came over and is using your computer and won't let you play." Rob Gonsalves gave it two stars, citing incoherent action sequences, flat and humorless characters, and poor acting: "Only Richard Brake, as the sleazy and duplicitous grunt Portman, gives a performance of any interest, and even that's on the level of caricature." In 2009, Time listed the film on its list of top-10 worst video games movies.

In a 2009 interview, Johnson described the film as an example of "trying and failing" to do a good video game adaptation, and that it was a cautionary tale of what "not to do".

Home media

Doom was released on DVD on February 7, 2006, HD DVD on April 26, 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.