Doomsday (2008 film)

Doomsday
Against a red background is the outline of a vertical column with two opposite diagonal columns crossing the first. Within the outline at the top is a woman with tattoos on her face and spikes in her hair, holding a spiked mace. At the bottom in the outline is the tattooed backside of a man with a mohawk spreading his arms outward. Cutting through the outline is the word "DOOMSDAY". Above the outline on the red background are the words, "Mankind has an expiration date."
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNeil Marshall
Written byNeil Marshall
Produced byBenedict Carver
Steven Paul
Starring
CinematographySam McCurdy
Edited byAndrew MacRitchie
Music byTyler Bates
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures (United States and United Kingdom)[1]
Concorde Filmverleih (Germany)[2]
Ster-Kinekor (South Africa)[2]
Release dates
  • 14 March 2008 (2008-03-14) (United States)
  • 9 May 2008 (2008-05-09) (United Kingdom)
Running time
105 minutes
(United States)
108 minutes
(United Kingdom)
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Germany
  • South Africa[3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget£17 million[4]
Box office$22.5 million

Doomsday is a 2008 science fiction action film[5] written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film takes place in the future in Scotland, which has been quarantined because of a deadly virus. When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) to Scotland to find a possible cure. Sinclair's team runs into two types of survivors: marauders and medieval knights. Doomsday was conceived by Marshall based on the idea of futuristic soldiers facing medieval knights. In producing the film, he drew inspiration from various movies, including Mad Max, Escape from New York and 28 Days Later.

Marshall had a budget three times the size of his previous two films, The Descent and Dog Soldiers, and the director filmed the larger-scale Doomsday in Scotland and South Africa. The film was released in the United States and Canada on 14 March 2008 and in the United Kingdom on 9 May 2008. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the casting, pacing, narrative, and homage to previous films, but criticized the plot holes, character development, confusing editing, and overloaded gore. The film grossed $22 million worldwide, making it a box office bomb.

  1. ^ a b c "Doomsday (2008)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b Doomsday at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ "Doomsday". London: British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 16 August 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference from was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Doomsday (2008) - Neil Marshall". AllMovie.