''Rampage'' is a 2009
action film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
written and directed by
Uwe Boll
Uwe Boll (; born June 22, 1965) is a German filmmaker. He came to prominence during the 2000s for his adaptations of video game franchises which often starred international stars like Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Christian Slater, E ...
and starring
Brendan Fletcher
Brendan Fletcher (born December 15, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He first gained recognition as a child actor, winning a Leo Award and being nominated for a Gemini Award his acting debut in the made-for-television film ''Little Criminals''. He ...
,
Michael Paré
Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), ''Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhunt ...
,
Shaun Sipos
Shaun Sipos (born October 30, 1981) is a Canadian actor, known for playing Jack on the ABC series ''Complete Savages'', Eric Daniels on ''Life Unexpected,'' David Breck on The CW series ''Melrose Place'', Aaron Whitmore on The CW's ''The Vampi ...
and
Lynda Boyd
Lynda Boyd (born January 28, 1965) is a Canadian actress, singer, dancer, musician, and writer. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Final Destination 2'' (2003), ''An Unfinished Life'' (2005), ''She's the Man'' (2006), and ''O ...
.
It received a theatrical release in Germany, though was released
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
in the rest of the world. It was Boll's first film to gain mainly positive reviews. The film was followed by two sequels ''
Rampage: Capital Punishment'' (2014) and ''
Rampage: President Down'' (2016).
Plot
In the fictional town of Tenderville,
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, Bill Williamson, a 23-year-old man, is living with his parents and working a low-paid job as a mechanic, feeling bombarded with the problems of the world, by ubiquitous TV sets, radios, and the outspoken political views of 21-year-old Evan Drince, who seems to be his sole friend. Bill's parents ask him to move out and Bill leaves for work, stopping to get coffee along the way, and argues with the shop owner when he is unsatisfied with his coffee. At work, his boss interrupts him while Bill is working on a personal vehicle off the clock. The boss then condescendingly dismisses Bill's request for a raise.
Back at home, Bill prints out fake money and then constructs a suit of AR-500 steel body armor, complete with a ballistic helmet and a
paintball
Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...
mask. Armed with two
submachine gun
A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...
s, two
semiautomatic pistol
A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun (pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actually ...
s, and two
knives
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...
, he heads into the center of town. First, he incapacitates the police by car-bombing their headquarters with a remote-controlled, bomb-loaded van. He then walks through the streets, shooting people at random with the submachine guns, and stops to taunt and shoot the coffee shop owner. Two police officers open fire on him, but Bill's armor blocks the bullets and he kills both officers. He goes into a salon filled with several hiding women and takes off his mask in order to get a drink before leaving without shooting anyone, but then returns after realizing he revealed his identity to the salon occupants, all of whom he kills.
Bill goes unnoticed into a bingo parlor, orders a sandwich, harasses the host, and leaves without shooting anyone, believing the elderly patrons are already close enough to dying. He then enters a local bank, killing the security guard before shooting some of the employees and customers who attempt to subdue him. He proceeds to rob the bank, forcing the manager to empty a safe full of money into a plastic trash bag. Outside the bank, he secretly switches the money he stole with his fake money and burns the bag in a trash can, shouting that money is worthless and causes the problems of the world.
After killing a restaurant waitress to reinforce the case that Evan, who had argued with the waitress, was the killer, Bill calls Evan, who is in a forest nearby expecting him for a ''mano-a-mano'' paintball competition. Bill drives to the forest and is pursued by several police officers, led by Sheriff Melvoy. Bill kills most of the officers with explosives and flees into the forest, pursued by Melvoy, the only surviving policeman. When he arrives at the forest, Bill ambushes Melvoy, stabbing him and leaving him to die. Finding Evan, Bill immobilizes him with a
stun gun
A stun gun is any weapon that incapacitates its target without killing. Tasers, tranquillizer guns, and mace (spray) are all types of stun guns. Subcategories of stun gun include the electroshock weapon, an incapacitating weapon that momentarily di ...
and then places one of his pistols in Evan's hand, shooting him in the head to give the illusion of suicide. Bill puts the armor suit and weapons on Evan's corpse, leaves the forest, and burns remaining evidence in a barrel.
Bill then returns home before his parents arrive with horror stories about the killings in town. While they are conversing in front of the television, news stations report that they have identified the killer as Evan, and that at least 93 people have been killed in the rampage. In his room, while packing his belongings and the stolen bank money, Bill hears a local television news report that police have arrested Evan's father, an activist during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
era, who is claiming the innocence of his son and accusing Bill of the crime. Bill fills a briefcase with the stolen money and prepares to leave. The story concludes with a home video of Bill announcing his departure on a personal quest to unknown whereabouts, to further reduce the world's population. A text indicates Bill had disappeared from that point on, and two years later, his video recording found its way onto the Internet.
Cast
*
Brendan Fletcher
Brendan Fletcher (born December 15, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He first gained recognition as a child actor, winning a Leo Award and being nominated for a Gemini Award his acting debut in the made-for-television film ''Little Criminals''. He ...
as Bill Williamson
*
Michael Paré
Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), ''Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhunt ...
as Sheriff Melvoy
*
Shaun Sipos
Shaun Sipos (born October 30, 1981) is a Canadian actor, known for playing Jack on the ABC series ''Complete Savages'', Eric Daniels on ''Life Unexpected,'' David Breck on The CW series ''Melrose Place'', Aaron Whitmore on The CW's ''The Vampi ...
as Evan Drince
*
Lynda Boyd
Lynda Boyd (born January 28, 1965) is a Canadian actress, singer, dancer, musician, and writer. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Final Destination 2'' (2003), ''An Unfinished Life'' (2005), ''She's the Man'' (2006), and ''O ...
as Sarah Williamson, Bill's Mom
* Robert Clarke as Evan's Father
*
Matt Frewer
Matthew George Frewer (born January 4, 1958) is an American-Canadian actor, singer and comedian. He portrayed the 1980s icon Max Headroom in the 1985 TV movie and 1987 television series of the same names.
He became prominent when playing roles ...
as Alan Williamson, Bill's Dad
* Katey Grace as Bank Teller
*
Brent Hodge
Brent Hodge (born July 9, 1985) is a Canadian-New Zealander documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known for his documentaries '' I Am Chris Farley'', ''A Brony Tale'', ''The Pistol Shrimps'', ''Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary'','' ...
as Bingo Hall Server
*
Katharine Isabelle
Katharine Isobel Murray (born November 2, 1981), known professionally as Katharine Isabelle, is a Canadian actress. She has been described as a scream queen due to her roles in various horror films. She started her acting career in 1989, playing ...
as Beauty Staff #2
* Malcolm Stewart as Bank Manager
* Pale Christian Thomas as Gelato Server
* Michaela Mann as Waitress
Production
Parts of Rampage were filmed in
Langley, British Columbia, on a stretch of Fraser Highway that cuts directly through the city centre.
Release
While receiving a theatrical opening in Boll's native Germany, the film is a
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
project in the US and was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 1, 2010, by Phase 4 Films.
Reception
''Rampage'' received several positive reviews. Comments were made expressing surprise at the positive reviews the film received, as Uwe Boll's previous films have been poorly reviewed by critics.
[ '']/Film
''/Film'', also spelled ''Slashfilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005.
Podcasts
Six podcasts have run on the site. ''The /Filmcast'', hosted by David Chen, De ...
'' gave the film 7 out of 10, stating "Even a broken clock is right two times a day. And it was bound to happen eventually. Uwe Boll has made a good movie. Not a great movie, but a decent film." ''Film.com
RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision based products. RealNetworks was a pioneer in Internet streaming software and services. They are based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company also p ...
'' stated
"I can’t believe the words I’m about to type (...) Uwe Boll’s latest film (...) is good. Very good." The film received 3½ stars out of 5 from ''Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
'', who praised Uwe Boll's "evolution" in style, "almost as if the German Ed Wood
Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker,
actor, and pulp novel author.
In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
has taken a deep look into the mirror, reflected on his films, and made a turn for the better".
Peter Debruge of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' gave the film a negative review, calling it "uncompromising and nearly unwatchable (as much for its subject as for its nauseating visual style)". Scott Foy of Dread Central
Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
gave the film 3.5 stars out 5 and stated, "Uwe Boll can be a little less angry today knowing he has crafted a solid, tension-filled, original thriller about subject matter that few filmmakers would dare even touch. Congratulations, Dr. Boll, you've silenced many of your critics."
Sequels
On January 9, 2014, ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' revealed that Uwe Boll had begun development of a sequel to ''Rampage'', featuring the return of Brendan Fletcher as Bill Williamson. The plot involves Williamson holding a television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
hostage as a political platform. Featured alongside Fletcher are actors Lochlyn Munro
Lochlyn Munro (born February 12, 1966) is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include ''A Night at the Roxbury'' (1998), ''Scary Movie'' (2000), ''Freddy vs. Jason'' (2003), ''White Chicks'' (2004), '' The Predator'' (2018) and ''Cosm ...
, Mike Dopud
Mike Dopud ( sr, Majk Dopuđ, ''Мајк Допуђ'') is a Canadian actor, stuntman, and former football player known for his supporting roles on television. His best-known roles include Vic Hadfield in the miniseries ''Canada Russia '72'', Jas ...
, and Michaela Ross. Natalia Tudge is the film's producer. A teaser for the film was released on January 31, 2014. The film was later revealed to be titled ''Rampage: Capital Punishment'' and was released on August 19, 2014. A third film called ''Rampage: President Down'' was released in 2016.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampage (2009 Film)
2009 films
2009 action thriller films
2009 psychological thriller films
Canadian action thriller films
German action thriller films
2000s English-language films
English-language Canadian films
English-language German films
Films directed by Uwe Boll
Films set in Oregon
Films shot in British Columbia
Mass murder in fiction
Brightlight Pictures films
2000s Canadian films
2000s German films