Film

Doomsday

Name: Doomsday
Genre: Action, Thriller, Science Fiction
Released: 2008
Cast: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig, David O'Hara

Doomsday is a trashy, gleeful action thriller that mashes up plague-outbreak sci-fi with post-apocalyptic punk aesthetics and castle siege cinema. It's all snarling one-liners, arterial sprays, and Rhona Mitra being absolutely unhinged as a hardened commando sent into a cordoned-off hellscape. Pure popcorn carnage.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you relish blunt, pulpy genre pastiche that wears its Mad Max and Escape from New York influences openly, and you don't mind a plot that mainly exists to reach the next set piece.

Skip it if you want restraint or a story with emotional weight, since the violence is frequent and gleefully gory and the characters are sketched in broad strokes.

What it asks of you: At just under two hours it runs lean and fast, with little downtime between chases and firefights, so it asks you to keep up rather than settle in.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

28 Days Later2002

Establishes the modern zombie-plague formula Doomsday riffs on, with genuine dread and visual innovation. Danny Boyle's infected are terrifying; the moral collapse is earned.

But Grindhouse style and breakneck pacing can feel punishing rather than fun. Some find the handheld camera work nausea-inducing.

Mad Max 21981

Peak post-apocalyptic action—leather-clad marauders, jury-rigged vehicles, and jaw-dropping stunt work. George Miller invented the template Doomsday lovingly steals from.

But Deliberate pacing means long stretches between set pieces. Shot on film stock that looks intentionally sickly.

Escape from New York1981

John Carpenter's arch action-noir about a convict dropped into a quarantined Manhattan. Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken is ice-cold cool. Directly inspired Doomsday's premise and tone.

But The miniature effects look dated. Russell spends half the film looking bored, which some read as compelling and others find slack.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Doomsday

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Equinox1970

Both are ultra-ambitious action films made by genre enthusiasts on smaller budgets than their scope suggests. Both love practical effects and don't care if the seams show. Both are more interested in *feeling* right than looking Hollywood-smooth.

A genuine cult film shot by a teenager using stop-motion monsters and practical ingenuity. Fevered, weird, and made with absolute conviction despite having almost no money. The DNA of DIY genre cinema.

But Looks like it was shot on a camcorder from 1970—because it was. Sound design is nearly inaudible. Narrative logic is dreamlike to the point of opacity.

Resident Evil2002

Milla Jovovich in a black dress fighting zombies and undead commandos in an underground facility. Brisk, silly, glossy action that knows exactly what it is.

But Plot barely coherent. Earnest about its own ridiculousness in a way that wears thin.

Dredd2012

Karl Urban as an armored lawman in a vertical city. Graphic-novel excess, brutal combat, stunning use of slo-mo. A smaller film made with real conviction.

But Claustrophobic setting and repetitive brutality. Some scenes of violence are blunt to the point of grimness.

Pandorum2009

Claustrophobic sci-fi survival horror with Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. Tense, grimy, and genuinely unsettling. Lower budget than Doomsday but meaner.

But Twist ending divides audiences sharply. Darkness—literal and tonal—makes it hard to follow in places.

Lockout2012

Guy Pearce as a wisecracking agent breaking into a prison satellite. B-movie energy with charm. Knows it's dumb and leans into it.

But Effects are visibly cheap. Jokes land unevenly. Plays like a direct-to-video film that somehow got theatrical money.

Ultraviolet2006

Milla Jovovich again, in a color-saturated, CGI-heavy actioner about a modified soldier fighting a fascistic government. Wildly ambitious visual excess.

But Narratively incoherent and genuinely ugly to watch despite the budget. Critics and audiences despised it equally.

Priest2011

Paul Bettany in a black cassock fighting CGI vampires. Scott Stewart's world-building is confident. Schlocky action with religious iconography as set dressing.

But Aggressively empty. 3D gimmickry substitutes for character. Feels like a first draft that somehow got filmed.

Videodrome1983

Both films use plague/contagion as metaphor for society's collapse, but Doomsday is external carnage while Videodrome is internal dissolution. One attacks outward; one corrodes inward. Both treat the body as the battleground.

David Cronenberg's hallucinatory nightmare about a TV executive losing grip on reality through mysterious broadcasts. Visceral body horror, genuine unease, and James Woods being magnificently unraveled. Absolutely unlike anything in mainstream sci-fi.

But Deliberately obtuse plot. Deliberately gross. Will feel uncomfortable—that's intentional. Slow burn in ways modern action rejects.

High and Low1963

Both films are fundamentally about quarantine and the artificial divide between the safe and the damned. Doomsday seals off Scotland; High and Low maps the psychological zones between wealth and poverty. Both ask: what do we owe the abandoned?

Kurosawa's heist-thriller about class warfare, moral compromise, and urban corruption. Spans from a mansion to the slums of Tokyo. Taut, intelligent, visually immaculate. A masterclass in tension without superhuman abilities.

But Black and white. At 143 minutes. Japanese cinema from six decades ago, which means patience and attention. Zero action sequences as modern audiences think of them.