Rampage is a 2018 American science fiction monster movie inspired by the video game series from Midway Games. It stars Dwayne Johnson and was directed by Brad Peyton. The screenplay was written by Ryan Engle, Carlton Cuse, Ryan J. Condal, and Adam Sztykiel. Supporting roles include Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. In the movie, a primatologist and his white-furred gorilla friend, George, work together to stop other animals that, along with George, have been changed into powerful, angry creatures by a virus that alters their genes.

This film is the third movie made by Peyton and Johnson together, following Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and San Andreas (2015).

Principal photography began in April 2017 in Chicago. The movie was released in the United States on April 13, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Critics had mixed opinions about the film, and it earned $428 million worldwide, despite costing between $120 million and $140 million to make.

Plot

Athena-1, a space station owned by a company called Energyne, is destroyed when a laboratory rat changes in a dangerous way and causes damage. Kerry Atkins, the only person who survived the disaster, escapes in a small pod when the station collapses. The pod carries three containers holding a dangerous pathogen that Energyne’s leader, Claire Wyden, had ordered Kerry to collect. However, the pod breaks apart when it returns to Earth, killing Kerry. One container is swallowed by an American crocodile in the Everglades National Park, and another lands in a forest in Wyoming, where a wolf is exposed to the pathogen.

Davis Okoye, a scientist who studies primates and a former soldier, works at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. He is friends with a rare, pale-colored western lowland gorilla named George, whom he rescued from poachers who killed George’s mother. Davis communicates with George using sign language. A third pathogen container crashes into George’s habitat, making him sick.

As George becomes much larger and more aggressive, Davis meets Doctor Kate Caldwell, a scientist who explains that Energyne created the pathogen to change genes on a large scale. Kate had wanted to use CRISPR technology to help cure diseases but discovered Energyne’s plan to use the pathogen as a weapon. She was wrongly imprisoned, and her brother died while she was away. George escapes from his enclosure and causes chaos at the preserve. George calms down but is later captured by a government team led by Agent Harvey Russell and placed on a military airplane. Meanwhile, Claire and her brother Brett oversee a failed attempt to capture a mutated wolf named Ralph.

Claire decides to use George to hide her plans and sends a signal from the Willis Tower to attract the mutated animals to Chicago. George reacts to the signal and crashes the airplane, but Davis, Kate, and Harvey escape safely. George survives the crash and joins Ralph in heading to Chicago, while Davis and Kate steal a military helicopter to follow them.

In Chicago, George and Ralph cause destruction as the military tries to stop them. The situation worsens when the mutated crocodile, Lizzie, joins them. Davis and Kate plan to steal an antidote to help the animals, but they are caught by Claire, who reveals the antidote only reduces aggression, not the pathogen’s effects. Claire shoots Davis, but he survives. When George climbs the Willis Tower, Claire tries to escape with Kate, but Kate hides a vial of antidote in Claire’s bag. George swallows Claire and the vial, returning to his normal state. Brett is crushed by falling debris as he tries to leave the building. The tower collapses, and Davis and Kate survive by landing a helicopter on the Federal Plaza.

Davis helps George fight the other animals while Kate and Harvey stop the military from using a powerful bomb. George defeats Ralph and Lizzie with help from Davis and a downed helicopter. After the threat is stopped, the military cancels the attack. George appears to die but recovers and helps rescue people with Davis and others.

Cast

• Dwayne Johnson as Davis Okoye, a former US Army Special Forces soldier and expert in primates who leads an anti-poaching unit.
• Naomie Harris as Katherine "Kate" Caldwell, a genetic engineer who lost her reputation and works with Okoye.
• Malin Akerman as Claire Wyden, the CEO of Energyne, the company responsible for the pathogen that caused George, Lizzie, and Ralph's mutations.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Harvey Russell, a government agent who works for the "Other Government Agency."
• Jake Lacy as Brett Wyden, Claire's brother who is not very smart and often nervous.
• Joe Manganiello as Burke, the leader of a private military group.
• Marley Shelton as Kerry Atkins, a scientist and astronaut.
• P. J. Byrne as Nelson, a scientist and friend of Okoye.
• Demetrius Grosse as Colonel Blake.
• Jack Quaid as Connor.
• Breanne Hill as Amy.
• Matt Gerald as Zammit.
• Will Yun Lee as Agent Park.
• Urijah Faber as Garrick.

• Jason Liles as the motion-capture performance for George, a leucistic western lowland gorilla (similar to Snowflake) raised and trained by Okoye. George is very intelligent, uses sign language to communicate with Okoye, and has a childish sense of humor, often joking with Davis. George is one of the animals affected by Energyne's pathogen, which makes them grow larger and mutate into giant, destructive monsters.
• Skye Notary and Willow Notary as the motion-capture performances for Femi and Enu, two female gorillas who live in George's habitat.
• Vincent Roxburgh as the motion-capture performance for Paavo, a young male gorilla who lives in George's habitat (uncredited).

Production

In 2009, Warner Bros. bought the rights to make a movie based on the 1986 arcade game Rampage. This happened when Warner Bros. purchased Midway Games for $33 million. The movie project was announced in November 2011, with John Rickard as a producer. Rickard said he chose to work on the movie after seeing Rampage on Warner Bros.’ list of titles they owned the rights to and remembering playing the arcade game. In June 2015, Dwayne Johnson was cast to star in the film, reuniting with New Line and producer Beau Flynn. At that time, the studio was looking for a director to begin filming in mid-2016. Johnson said he loved the game as a child, playing it in a pool hall and later owning it on the Nintendo Entertainment System. During the search for a script, writers offered many versions, including one that stayed true to the game, where the monsters were mutated humans. The producers eventually chose a script by Ryan Engle, who wanted to create a "love letter to the monster movies I grew up watching," such as Jaws and Jurassic Park, while making it clear that the animals were not the heroes.

After Johnson was cast in July, Brad Peyton was hired to direct and produce the film. Between January and July 2017, the rest of the supporting cast was selected.

Rampage was the last Warner Bros. film to be financed by Access Entertainment / RatPac-Dune Entertainment. Warner Bros. ended their partnership with the company because of sexual harassment allegations against RatPac-Dune owner Brett Ratner. This led to the company being uncredited for the film, and it later dissolved.

Principal photography for the film began on April 17, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. The film was also shot in Atlanta, Georgia.

Easter eggs from the original game were included in the movie. For example, Energyne’s offices have a Rampage arcade machine, George eats a person he pulls out of a building he punched, and Claire is devoured while wearing a red dress, just like the woman in the arcade game’s opening screen.

The visual effects were mainly created by Weta Digital. Effects supervisor Erik Winquist and a small team traveled to Chicago to build a model of the Chicago Loop, which would be destroyed in the film’s final battle. They studied the city’s architecture and took thousands of 3D scans and photos of downtown Chicago. Artists used footage of the 2001 World Trade Center collapse and building implosions from the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand, as references for destruction scenes. One of the most difficult challenges was figuring out how the monsters’ weight and size would affect the city and its destruction.

Because Weta had experience making animated apes in King Kong and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it helped them create George quickly, according to Winquist. Motion capture coach Terry Notary left Avengers: Infinity War to help Jason Liles perform as George. However, since Ralph and Lizzie were not motion-captured, animators had more freedom to design them, such as a wolf with porcupine spines and wings.

Other visual effects companies, including Hydraulx, Scanline VFX, and UPP, also contributed to the film.

Music

The music for the film was written by Andrew Lockington. This was Lockington's fourth project with director Brad Peyton. A special song called "The Rage" by Kid Cudi plays during the film's end credits. The soundtrack was released online on April 13, 2018, by WaterTower Music.

Marketing

As part of the promotion, three new games were introduced. One is a browser game titled Rampage: City Smash. Another is an arcade beat 'em up game, which functions similarly to a redemption game, and it is available at Dave & Buster's. The third game is a free virtual reality game called Project Rampage VR.

Release

Rampage was released on April 13, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was originally planned for release on April 20, but the date was changed after Avengers: Infinity War also moved its release date earlier to April 27. This adjustment gave Rampage a two-week gap between its release and the other film. By chance, Rampage was released three weeks after Pacific Rim Uprising, another American kaiju movie.

The film became available on Digital HD on June 26, 2018, and was released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 17, 2018. So far, Rampage has sold $28.7 million in DVDs and Blu-rays in North America.

Reception

The movie Rampage earned $101 million in the United States and Canada and $327 million in other countries, totaling $428 million worldwide. This amount was compared to a production budget of $120 million and a marketing budget of $140 million. Deadline Hollywood reported that the film was expected to break even two years after its release when all revenue sources were considered.

In the United States and Canada, Rampage was released at the same time as Truth or Dare, Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, and the wide release of Isle of Dogs. It was projected to earn between $35 million and $40 million from 3,950 theaters during its opening weekend. The film earned $11.5 million on its first day (including $2.4 million from Thursday night previews), $13.9 million on Saturday, and a total of $35.7 million over the weekend, ranking first at the box office. Audience demographics included 43% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic, 19% African American, and 14% Asian. In its second weekend, the film’s earnings dropped 41% to $21 million, finishing second behind A Quiet Place. In its third weekend, earnings fell 64% to $7.1 million, finishing fourth. It dropped 35% in its fourth weekend to $4.6 million, finishing fifth. In its fifth weekend, earnings fell 27% to $3.3 million, finishing seventh.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51% from 283 reviews and an average score of 5.3/10. The site’s summary states: “Rampage isn’t as fun as its source material, but the movie’s energetic style might satisfy audiences looking for a simple blockbuster.” It was the best-reviewed live-action video game film on the site until Pokémon Detective Pikachu was released the following year. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 from 46 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.” Audiences rated the film “A−” on a scale from A+ to F, while PostTrak reported 90% of adults and 86% of children gave it positive scores.

Variety’s Peter Debruge gave the film a moderately positive review, stating: “Despite being derivative, Rampage understands its audience—Transformers fans and younger viewers who enjoy scenes of destruction without real-world trauma. Director Peyton’s lack of artistic vision is balanced by his ability to manage a complex CGI production.” Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5/4 stars, noting that while the action scenes with giant animals were fun, the film had slow moments. The Mir Fantastiki review gave the movie 7/10, calling it “stupid” but effective at being what it is.

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5/4 stars, writing: “Rampage is a drag. I wrote ‘NO FUN’ three times during the film with increasingly impatient underlines.” Nick Allen of The Hollywood Reporter described the film’s tone as “disastrous,” noting it felt emotionally shallow despite its budget. Empire called the film a typical Johnson project, stating it was “big dumb fun” but not as enjoyable as it could have been.

Rampage was nominated for three Teen Choice Awards: for Choice Sci-Fi Movie, and for the acting performances of Dwayne Johnson (Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actor) and Naomie Harris (Choice Sci-Fi Movie Actress).

Lawsuit allegations

In late March 2018, German director Uwe Boll, known for making movies based on video games, said he would take legal action against Warner Bros. if the studio did not change the film’s title. Boll directed and produced a different series of movies called Rampage, which features a character who kills many people and leads a revolution, sharing similar political beliefs as Boll. He stated that the Warner Bros. film could harm his brand and reduce the money he earns for future Rampage movies. He also claimed the Warner Bros. film might confuse viewers and described it as a typical example of a light-hearted, action-packed movie.

Potential sequel

In July 2017, Dwayne Johnson talked about making a sequel and offered a role in the movie to Mike Matei. By April 2018, director Brad Peyton said he was willing to return as director for a possible sequel and mentioned that the story idea for the project had been planned out. Johnson noted that he has worked with Peyton before and enjoys working with him creatively, looking forward to future projects together. In December 2021, Hiram Garcia said Warner Bros. Pictures wanted to make a sequel, while Seven Bucks Productions put the project on hold to focus on other projects.