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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 The Rock Ben Daniels Rosamund Pike Yao Chin
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
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

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.

In 1994 or 1995, id Software sold Doom rights to two filming studios, reportedly Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, but the rights expired apparently due to a lack of timely production.^{[citation needed]} In 2002, it was reported that Warner Brothers acquired live action film rights to Doom from id Software. Sometime in 2003, Warner Brothers lost the rights and they were subsequently given to Universal Pictures, which moved into production in 2004.

In a 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 15.3 million USD, but promptly dropped down to approximately $4.2 million.^{[citation needed]}

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

Contents 1 Plot overview 2 Cast 2.1 Marines 2.2 Civilians 3 Production 3.1 Production history 4 Reception 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The film begins on Mars in 2046, in a research facility at a location known as Olduvai 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. Eventually, all but a Dr. Carmack are killed. As the doctor sends an SOS rescue signal, the "thing" breaks through the door, growls and stares at the doctor, and the scene fades out.

On Earth, a team of marines have their leave interrupted by Sarge (The Rock), who has received a call from Olduvai. 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 in Nevada. 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 had his legs severed by the Ark during an early attempt to use it. 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. 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. 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. Meanwhile, the Marines continue to explore the facility, encountering strange creatures intent on killing them. One of the creatures, an imp, succeeds in slaying one of the Marines, 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.

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 (BFG9000 of Doom fame), dubbing it the "Big Fucking Gun."

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, a fair amount of zombies, and Pinky (who has mutated into a Pinky Demon).

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 settling. 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 Dr. Grimm escapes to safety, the two Marines face off, Reaper having exhausted most of his current clip 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. Sarge's transformation begins to manifest during the battle, making him stronger. 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.

Karl Urban as John "Reaper" Grimm/Doomguy : The protagonist of the film. He joined the military after the death of his parents on Mars during his childhood. He was the only survivor of the Marine squad alongside his sister, Samantha.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Sergeant "Sarge" Mahonin: The squad leader. Sarge is a professional marine who appears to have a good relationship with the men in his squad. However, his blind belief in following orders causes him to commit war crimes (i.e. killing The Kid, civilians) and is killed by Reaper after being infected with the virus.

Raz Adoti as Gregory "Duke" McGreevy : A smart-aleck who flirts with Samantha, who seems to mildly return his interest. He is pulled through a grate and killed by an Imp.

Deobia Oparei as Gannon "Destroyer" Roark: The squad's stoic heavy-weapons specialist. He is killed by a transformed Stahl, but manages to beat the creature pretty badly.

Yao Chin as Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi: Enigmatic, mostly silent, this baseball-loving marine is left behind to defend the Ark. He is decapitated by a Hell Knight.

Al Weaver as "The Kid" Dantalian: The newest member of the squad, The Kid is inexperienced, much to Sarge's chagrin. He is killed by Sarge for refusing to kill civilians (his order was to kill them all, whether they are infected or not).

Richard Brake as Corporal Dean Portman: A somewhat depraved and lecherous member of the squad. He is beaten to death by a Hell Knight.

Ben Daniels as Eric "Goat" Fantom: A quiet, religious man who cuts himself whenever he sins. It was hinted that he served time in prison. He is the first marine killed, when he becomes infected, and proceeds to commit suicide by beating his head repeatedly against the glass.

Rosamund Pike as Dr. Samantha Grimm: A scientist on Mars, and John Grimm's sister (older by two minutes). Conducting archaeological research on the Martian civilization, she is assigned by UAC to accompany the marines and retrieve Dr. Carmack's research data. She is the only surviving civilian.

Dexter Fletcher as Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski : A nervous technician on Mars assigned to coordinate the squad's communications. Pinky has no lower body and is attached to a cybernetic wheel-chair, due to a teleportation accident while using the Ark (Reaper tells the Kid "He went to one galaxy, his ass went to another"). He is named for the Pinky Demon from the Doom games, which he eventually becomes near the end of the film (the transformation is not seen, but the results are). Reaper kills him by severing his cybernetic connection with a chainsaw and a few rounds from his assault rifle.

Robert Russell as Dr. Carmack: The base's chief scientist, Carmack's unethical experimentations in genetic engineering ultimately lead to the death of everyone on Mars. The demon attack leaves him catatonic, and he ultimately transforms into a monster. He is an obvious reference to the co-founder of id Software and lead programmer of the Doom games, John Carmack. He is later killed by Sarge.

Vladislav Dyntera as Dr. Steve Willits: Another scientist who ultimately ends up altered and killed. His name is a reference to Tim Willits, one of the owners of id Software and its current lead designer.

Daniel York as Lt. Huengs: The leader of all security forces on Mars. His fate is not seen, although it can be assumed he is dead.

Sara Houghton as Dr. Jenna Willits: Dr. Willits' wife, she first takes a blood sample from Carmack and is the first one to see that his blood was different. She was killed by Sarge along with the other civilians found by the Kid.

Brian Steele as Hell Knight (Baron of Hell)/Curtis Stahl: A psychopathic mass murderer slated for death row. Dr. Carmack somehow got access to him to test the new 24th Chromosome on. He transforms the majority of the civilians before being killed by Reaper.

Ian Hughes as Sanford Crosby, UAC's public relations representative who briefs Sarge on their situation.

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!"^[1]

• 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 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.^[2]

Doom has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes exhibiting a freshness rating of 20% (17% from 'Cream of the Crop' critics) for the film.^[3] The film was nominated for a 2005 Golden Raspberry Award.

• List of films based on video games

• 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

Preceded by The Fog

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

Succeeded by Saw II

v • d • e Doom series
Main games	Doom · Hell on Earth · Doom 3 · Doom 4
Other games	Ultimate Doom · Final Doom · Doom 64 · Doom: The Boardgame · DoomRL · Doom RPG · Chex Quest · Chex Quest 2
Expansion packs	Master Levels for Doom II · Resurrection of Evil
Engines	Doom engine · id Tech 4
Other media	Doom novels · Doom (film)
Misc	Union Aerospace Corporation · Making of Doom · Doom WAD files · Doom clone · Spin-offs and homages · Versions and ports · Doomguy · BFG9000 · Doom creatures