| Doom | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by | David Callaham[1] |
| Based on | Doom byid Software |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
| Edited by | Derek Brechin |
| Music by | Clint Mansell |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 104 minutes[3] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60–70 million[6][7] |
| Box office | $58.7 million[7] |
Doom is a 2005science fictionactionhorror film directed byAndrzej Bartkowiak. Loosely based on thevideo game series of the same name byid Software, the film starsKarl Urban,Rosamund Pike,Razaaq Adoti, andDwayne Johnson (credited as The Rock). In the film, marines are sent on a rescue mission to a facility on Mars, where they encounter demon-like creatures.
Afterfilm rights deals withUniversal Pictures andColumbia Pictures expired, id Software signed a deal withWarner Bros. with the stipulation that the film would begreenlit within a year.[8] Warner Bros. lost the rights, which were subsequently given back to Universal, which started production in 2004. The film was an internationalco-production of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
Doom was theatrically released in the United States on October 21, 2005 to negative reviews.[9] The film was abox office bomb, grossing $58.7 million worldwide against a production budget between $60–70 million. In 2019, Universal released a second live-action filmdirect-to-video titledDoom: Annihilation.
In 2026, awormhole portal, the Ark, to an ancient city onMars is discovered deep below theNevada desert. Twenty years later, the 85 personnel at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility on Mars are attacked by an unknown assailant. Following a distress call sent by Dr. Carmack, a squad of eightmarines are sent to the research facility. The team includessquad leader Sgt. Asher "Sarge" Mahonin, "Duke", "Goat", "Destroyer", Portman, "Mac", "Kid", and John "Reaper" Grimm. They are sent on a search-and-destroy mission to Mars, with UAC only concerned with the retrieval of computer data from their anthropology, archeology, andgenetics experiments.
The team uses the Ark to reach Mars, ordering the Earth site on lockdown. Arriving on Mars, they are met by UAC employee "Pinky". Reaper finds his twin sister, Dr. Sam Grimm, and escorts her to retrieve the data. He learns that a dig site, where their parents were accidentally killed years earlier, was reopened and ancient skeletons of ahumanoid race genetically enhanced with an artificial24th chromosome pair were discovered.
While searching for survivors in the facility, the marines find a traumatized and injured Dr. Carmack and escort him to the medical lab for treatment, but he later disappears. The marines shoot at an unknown creature in the genetics lab that leads them down into the facility's sewer, where it attacks and kills Goat. They kill the creature and take it to the medical lab, where Sam performs anautopsy and discovers that its organs are human. She and Duke witness Goat resurrecting and killing himself by smashing his head against a reinforced window. The two are attacked by a creature which they soon deduce is a mutated Dr. Carmack.
The squad methodically tracks down and destroys several of the creatures, though Mac, Destroyer, and Portman die in the process. An angered Sarge kills the mutated Dr. Carmack. Sam, Reaper, and Sarge learn that UAC was experimenting on humans using the extra Martian Chromosome (C24) harvested from the remains of the ancient skeletons, but the mutants got loose, leading to the outbreak. Sam and Reaper try to convince Sarge that the creatures are humans from the facility, mutated by the C24 serum and that not all of those infected will fully transform into the creatures. Sam hypothesizes that some of those injected with C24 will develop superhuman abilities but retain their humanity, while others with a predisposition for violent or psychotic behavior will become creatures, a pattern she believes also happened with the Martians, who built the Ark to escape.
Some creatures use the Ark to reach Earth, where they slaughter or mutate the research staff. The marines, Sam, and Pinky follow, and Sarge orders the squad to sanitize the entire facility. When Kid informs Sarge that he found, but refuses to kill, a group of survivors, Sarge executes Kid for insubordination, leading to a standoff with an armed Pinky. The group is suddenly attacked by creatures who kill Duke and drag Sarge and Pinky away. Reaper is wounded by a ricocheting bullet. To prevent him from bleeding to death, Sam injects her brother with the C24 serum.
Reaper regains consciousness and finds his wounds have healed and that Sam has gone missing. Using his new C24 superhuman abilities, he fights his way through the facility, even battling a mutated and monstrous Pinky before finding an unconscious Sam with Sarge, who has become infected and has killed the group of survivors Kid had previously found. Reaper and Sarge battle, both of them enhanced with superhuman powers. Reaper is able to gain the upper hand and throws Sarge through the Ark back to Mars along with a grenade, which destroys Sarge and the Mars facility. Reaper then carries his unconscious sister into the elevator and rides back up to the ground level in Nevada.
Between 1994 and 1995, following the success ofDoom II, Hollywood began gaining interest in producing a live-action film adaptation ofDoom.Universal Pictures initially acquired the rights, which were later obtained byColumbia TriStar. Former CEO ofid SoftwareTodd Hollenshead stated that a number of factors prevented the project from moving forward such as theColumbine High School massacre, lack of producers, and poor scripts. The id Software team screened a presentation ofDoom 3 to agents from Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to see if they were interested in the property.[10] ProducersLorenzo di Bonaventura andJohn Wells eventually obtained the rights.
Di Bonaventura and Wells initially set development for the film atWarner Bros., however, the duo moved development of the project to Universal after Warner Bros. failed to move the project into production after 15 months.[11] The terms of the deal with Universal included gross point royalties for the developer and rights holder.[10] In 2004,Enda McCallion was attached to direct the film andDavid Callaham was named the screenwriter, with the script loosely adapting elements fromDoom 3.[11] Callaham's early draft featured the Cacodemon, Arch-Vile, and other demons from the games but were cut due to time and budgetary reasons.[12] That September, McCallion dropped out as director andAndrzej Bartkowiak joined the project.[13]Edgar Wright andSimon Pegg were approached to polish the script's dialogue, but declined andWesley Strick was hired instead.[12] Production was scheduled to begin in Winter 2004 in Prague.[14]
Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for the lead.Vin Diesel was offered the lead but turned it down.Dwayne Johnson was offered the role of "John Grimm" but turned it down in favor of "Sarge", stating, "For some reason I was drawn more to Sarge, I thought 'Sarge' was, to me, more interesting and had a darker side."[12] In September 2004,Karl Urban andRosamund Pike were cast as John and Samantha Grimm.[15] The Rapid Response Tactical Squad actors underwent military training for two weeks under military advisor Tom McAdams.[12][16]
Monsters and creature effects for the film were created byStan Winston Studios, supervised by John Rosengrant.[17][18] The visual effects were supervised byJon Farhat. The film included 350 effects shots, the work was shared between two companies,Framestore who focused on character animation and creature work in 130 shots, andDouble Negative who worked on environments, dimensional effects and futuristic weapons in about 200 shots.[18] Pictures of Johnson were taken to conceptualize his demon makeup.[19] The second layer of prosthetics took two hours to apply on Johnson[20] while the third level of prosthetics took three hours to apply.[21] Acrylic paint was used to cover Johnson's tattoos.[22] After the 2D concept art, the creatures were sculpted and body-cast.[23] Brian Steele andDoug Jones underwent head and shoulder life casting and body casting to get an impression for their body frames.[24] An earpiece was added into the suits so that Jones and Steele could receive directions from Rosengrant, however, their mics were not enabled for them to reply.[25] The team drew upon forensic pathology books to give the creatures a repulsive nature.[26]
The first person shooter sequence was completely directed by Farhat[27] and was filmed in 14 days after a planning period of three months.[28] While the scene is one continuous shot, multiple cuts, that Farhat called "hook-ups", were made during filming,[29] Farhat stated, "you can do it by moving a camera, and passing something, and cutting. And then rolling the camera again on a subsequent date."[30] Other hook-up styles were used by using a green screen or blue screen when a door opens or jump cutting by whipping an object.[31] The gun was only used on-screen when it was needed due to its size affecting the aspect ratio.[32]
The film's score was composed byClint Mansell, upon which he produced a remix of theNine Inch Nails song "You Know What You Are?", which was used in the film's ending credits. The song "Switchback" byCelldweller was licensed for the trailers.
On its opening weekend,Doom debuted in 3,043 theaters and earned $15.5 million. In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $28.2 million and grossed $30.5 million internationally, grossing $58.7 million worldwide.[7]
Doom received negative reviews from critics.[9] OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18%, based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus states: "The FPS sections are sure to please fans of the video game, but lacking in plot and originality to please other moviegoers."[33] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average rating of 34 out of 100, based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[34] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade B− on scale of A to F.[35]
Roger Ebert said, "Doom is like some kid came over and is using your computer and won't let you play."[36] 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."[37]Kim Newman ofEmpire magazine called it "Not quite as dreadful asResident Evil: Apocalypse, but that's hardly a major achievement."[38][39]Justin Chang ofVariety gave the film a mixed review and was critical of Johnson’s performance but positive about the "tongue-in-cheek sensibility" and the faithful display of weapons from the game. In summary: "It's really not all that bad. Ultra-derivative bigscreen transplant of one of the most successful (and controversial) games ever made plays like a mutant cross between a biotech thriller and a zombie movie, with all the alien autopsies, blood-gushing protuberances and meaningless scientific jargon that come with the territory."[3]
Richard James Havis ofThe Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Plot, character development and dialogue are so sparse that the screenwriters are fortunate they're not paid by the word. But this basic approach doesn't render it ineffectual. There's so little to go wrong that those who like their entertainment mindless and violent will find little fault."[40]Chris Carle atIGN gave it 3 out of 5 and called it "easily the best videogame-to-film adaptation yet", saying although it is not big on plot or characterization "it succeeds in the things it sets out to do".[41]
John Carmack (co-founder of id Software and co-creator ofDoom) spoke favorably of the film, stating, "I liked it. Nobody expects a video game movie to be Oscar material, but I thought it was a solid action movie with lots of fun nods to the gaming community."[42]John Romero declined to comment on the film in a 2018 WeAreDevelopers Q&A session.[43] In 2009,Dwayne 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".[44]
In 2021,Rosamund Pike expressed embarrassment for not familiarizing herself with the source material, commenting, "I feel partly to blame in that respect because I think I failed just through ignorance and innocence to understand, to fully get a picture of whatDoom meant to fans at that point. I wasn’t a gamer. I didn’t understand. If I knew what I knew now, I would have dived right into all of that and got fully immersed in it like I do now. And I just didn’t understand. I feel embarrassed, really."[45]
In 2009,Time listed the film on its list of top-10 worst video games movies.[46] Johnson received aGolden Raspberry Award nomination for his performance.[47]
Doom was released onUMD andDVD on February 7, 2006,[48][49]HD DVD on April 26, 2006,[50] and onBlu-ray Disc on February 10, 2009.[51] The DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray releases only feature the unrated extended cut, with no options for the theatrical cut.[49][50][52] The extended cut runs 113 minutes.[53] In the United States and Canada, the DVD earned $29.2 million in domestic video sales.[7] The extended cut was released on4K Blu-ray on August 9, 2022.[54]
In an October 2005 interview, executive producerJohn Wells stated that a second film would be put into production if the first was abox office success.[55] In April 2018, Universal Pictures announced plans for a newDoom film.[56]Doom: Annihilation was released direct-to-video on October 1, 2019.
Doom is made to resemble and glorify a videogame. It has some tight action sequences and some righteous kills, and it succeeds in the things it sets out to do.
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