Doomsday (2008)

Plot of Doomsday: The population of Scotland has been decimated by something called the ’Reaper Virus’. The authorities, unable to contain it, build a wall on the border with England and abandon the inhabitants. But years later the virus appears in England and aerial photos show that there are people alive in Scotland. As a result Eden Sinclair, a special forces major, with a team of soldiers enter Scotland in armoured personnel carriers to find the cure. They are quickly overcome by a bunch of cannibals led by Sol who goes in for staged events, in time cooking and eating one of the soldiers. Sinclair and her group escape on a steam train with Cally a young woman who says that she and Sol are the children of Kane, now a lord of another group, these emulating medieval warriors. The survivors of Sinclair’s team are captured by Kane’s knights and Sinclair is forced into combat with Kane’s champion. She wins, and they escape into a storage facility where they find a Bentley in a container. Can they use it to escape? Meanwhile in London the administration veers in the direction of dictatorship.

Content: There is a brief moment of nudity as a woman is shot in the bath. No sex. Sinclair is sort of looked after by her boss Bill Nelson, who gives her the news about her new task. Once captured by the cannibals Sinclair is beaten by Sol and his guys. He performs a sort of stage show backed by pole dancers and music and as a climax one of Sinclair’s soldiers is cooked alive over a fire. Later, when they have been captured by Kane, Sinclair is faced with an armoured and helmeted gladiator in a primitive arena. They do keep managing to escape but the team are gradually reduced and in the finale they escape in a Bentley while being chased by numerous Mad Max type of vehicles.

A View: The derivations of this film are obvious as a sort of cross between Escape from New York and Mad Max 3, but maybe it is no worse for that, although it is considered to have been a bomb. I did have some trouble with a few scenes. In the arena where Sinclair is faced with the armoured gladiator, she has no weapons and he has a spear and a ball on a chain. Surely she should have died within moments. She should have been given a weapon. And then we have the business of the car chase, where, apart from vehicles miraculously appearing, the Bentley would have outpaced everything Sol had available – without effort. But despite these failings I found myself sorry it had not done better. Rhona Mitra did a great job, and it is obvious that everyone tried hard to make it a success. Maybe a watch while having a few beers.

Fun Fact: They bought three Bentleys for the film. One was written off quickly but the second did most of the work. At the end of filming it just needed a bit spit and polish to restore it to perfection.   

Fun Fact: They bought three Bentleys for the film. One was written off quickly but the second did most of the work. At the end of filming it just needed a bit spit and polish to restore it to perfection.