Doomsday (2008)

**tak sakaguchi** Qui Mar 12, 2009 7:05 am

In 2008, the Reaper virus infects Scotland, resulting in the region being walled off by the British government. A Scottish woman brings her little daughter, injured in one eye but otherwise healthy, to soldiers for rescue. The mother convinces them to airlift her daughter and gives her daughter an envelope. Years pass after the successful quarantine, with the contained population apparently dying off. Decades later, the virus, thought to be contained, reappears in London. Prime Minister Hatcher (Alexander Siddig) and his puppeteer Canaris (David O'Hara) share with domestic security chief Captain Nelson (Bob Hoskins) news of survivors in Scotland, believing a cure may have been found. They ask him to send a team into the walled-off area to find medical researcher Dr. Kane (Malcolm MacDowell), who was last known to be working on a cure when Scotland was quarantined. Nelson chooses Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), the little girl now grown up with a cybernetic eye replacing her lost eye, to lead the team.

Inside the wall, while investigating Kane's last known location, Sinclair and her team are ambushed by plague survivors. As some team members are killed, Sinclair and Dr. Talbot (Sean Pertwee) are captured while Sergeant Norton (Adrian Lester) and Dr. Stirling (Darren Morfitt) manage to escape. Sinclair is interrogated by the leader of the survivors, Sol (Craig Conway). Dr. Talbot is barbecued alive by the cannibalistic survivors. During the cookout, Sinclair escapes from her cell and comes across Kane's daughter, Cally (MyAnna Buring), also imprisoned. Freed by Sinclair, Cally leads her to a waiting train manned by her friend Joshua (Martin Compston), and Norton and Stirling meet up with them to escape from Sol and his men. The train takes them to the mountains, where they take a shortcut through a hidden military facility to the castle where Kane dwells. They are surrounded by Kane's medieval soldiers, Joshua is killed, and everyone else surrenders to Kane's medieval men. Sinclair discovers from Kane that the survivors are naturally immune and that he has been warring with his son, Sol. There is no cure for the virus. Sinclair defeats Kane's executioner, Telamon, in an open arena within the castle, and her teammates help her escape from the castle. They retreat to the facility and find a Bentley in storage to use as escape, though Norton is killed in the process.

In London, political leaders plan to seal off the "hot spot" where the virus is spreading. Canaris convinces Hatcher to let the infected population dwindle before sharing any cure Sinclair's team may provide so the population is more controllable against infection in the future. Although the government leaders are isolated, an infected man successfully infiltrates their location and infects Hatcher. Hatcher, knowing that he has the virus, commits suicide, and Canaris takes over Hatcher's position as Prime Minister.

In Scotland, Sinclair, Cally, and Stirling run into Sol's men on the highway and lead them on a car chase. Sol attempts to hijack the Bentley, but while he is on the roof, Sinclair plows the car through a roadblocked bus, decapitating him. Using a GPS cell phone also taken from the facility, Sinclair summons a government gunship and hands over the cure to Canaris: the immune survivor Cally from whose blood a vaccine can be replicated. Canaris, who arrives with the gunship, shares his plan with Sinclair to withhold the cure for political reasons and invites her back to London. Sinclair chooses to stay and goes to find her old home located at the address on the envelope her mother had left her. Nelson, having been given the envelope by Sinclair before she left on the mission, finds her there. Sinclair provides Nelson a video of her conversation with Canaris, which she recorded with her cybernetic eye. Nelson takes the recording back to London and is aired publicly, exposing Canaris' plan to hold back the cure. Sinclair returns to the location where she and her team were first attacked by the cannibalistic tribe and, presenting them with Sol's severed head, is cheered as their new leader.

Directed by Neil Marshall
Produced by Benedict Carver
Steven Paul
Written by Neil Marshall
Starring Rhona Mitra
Bob Hoskins
Malcolm McDowell
Music by Tyler Bates
Cinematography Sam McCurdy
Editing by Andrew MacRitchie
Neil Marshall
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) 14 March 2008 (US)
9 May 2008 (UK)
Running time 105 min.
Country United Kingdom
Language English