Writing a script based on Doom

[Koko Ricky]

At the moment I'm attempting to write a script for a movie which will likely never be made. I mean, perhaps in 20 years if the production company I'm a part of ever takes off, but for now it's just something I'm doing for fun; putting together a compelling script based on my favorite FPS of all time. I thought I'd share with you the premise of the script, which perhaps could be turned into a motion comic at some point, or perhaps even animation.

Around 200 years in the future, the U.S. military has made a contractual agreement with the United Aerospace Corporation, allowing them to take advantage of UAC's experiments and technology. Bases are established on the moon and Mars and its two satellites, Phobos and Deimos. The Martian bases are of particular interest, millions of miles away from Earth where they are free of espionage.

There, elite soldiers are regularly cloned for their unbeatable skills; gateways capable of teleporting humans between the moons and Mars have been established; weapons concentrating heat, light, sound and gravity repulsion are in their testing phases; and most controversial of all, engineers are currently perfecting an apparatus which can transform thought patterns into material objects, using a complex array of lasers and raw materials.

The Doomguy (whose is unnamed as of this writing) is shipped to Mars for six months as punishment for assaulting a superior back on Earth, who ordered his squadron to fire upon civilians perceived to be a threat. On Mars he slowly becomes privy to various experiments and weaponry, and befriends an engineer.

He begins to suspect something is up when the engineer mysteriously disappears. This is due to pressure from the military to get the "thought apparatus" up and running. Engineers are placed in a state of suspended animation, cut off from all outside contact, though their mental functions are still active. Through this imprisonment, they are forced to perfect the machinery 24/7 with no breaks...it seems the military is anxious to take advantage of thought manifestation because of the amount of labor and money it would save on manufacturing, construction and cloning.

Though their captive state attempts to create the illusion of normal life, the engineers slowly become conscious of their imprisonment, causing a gradual buildup of hate, resentment, fear, isolation, claustrophobia and dementia. The thought apparatus then becomes a tool to wreak havoc on those around them. Literal inner demons are materialized with astonishing success, clones are halfway breathing and mentally psychotic, and various barriers and fleshy anamolies prevent direct access to the massive lab where hell is breaking loose. The madness of hundreds of engineers causes a wave of terror which must be stopped.

At this point, most of the rest of the script would be a series of action sequences, in which several squadrons try to eliminate the threat, although they are pitifully outnumbered. Taking advantage of clones, teleports and experimental weaponry, many are slaughtered in attempt to rectify the situation. Eventually, the Doomguy finds his way to Deimos and eliminates the threat, though not alone as in the games. There are several twists that play into these sequences, such as an attempt to assinate or at least stop the Doomguy, because he is hellbent on destroying the machinery, which the military wants to salvage. This is where the main conflict comes in: do we let one of our most trained commandos destroy our work, or risk total destruction in order to save the world's most powerful machine?

Right now I'm only a few pages in, but I think this could be a really fun script, one that is much more intelligent and engaging that the Doom movie. I think an idea like this, many of Doom's core ingredients can be implemented, with the twist being that the "demons" are actually manifestations of the engineers, while the "zombies" are clones manufactured by the engineers that have gone haywire.

[Maes]

much more intelligent and engaging that the Doom movie

But how will it compare to the Doom Comic?

[Koko Ricky]

Maes said:

But how will it compare to the Doom Comic?

Lol. This is an attempt at a SERIOUS Doom experience. The games are not exactly realistic but I basically want to make up for how stupid and laughable the script was for the movie. I think mine would be something the fans would be more responsive to because it incorporates so many of Doom's idioms.

[PRIMEVAL]

Interesting concept. I actually see this more as a TV show rather than a movie... and not too sure why. But either way, I'd watch it. I don't exactly like the idea of the demons being mere human creations as opposed to being literal demons from some underworld, but I can look around that if it can be pulled off good. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

[Koko Ricky]

I've toyed with the idea of it being an underworld thing for years, as I've layed out (sometimed only mentally) various ideas for scripts or stories, that often used elements from the Doom universe. When I tried to design a "mature" premise while still trying to include some sort of demonic element, I couldn't resolve the two in a way that satisfactory. The scarace appearance of directly Satanic aesthetics (a few inverted crosses and pentagrams appear in all old school Dooms) and technology fused demons was, I suppose, too "video-gamey" for me to write hard science fiction.

What you must understand about this "thought apparatus"--that the engineers have been essentially enslaved intro constructing--is that it is capable of materializing thought patterns into physical manifestations. The idea is that an array of lasers would carve out material for construction, either of new bases, ships, weaponry, even cloning soldiers, using basins of raw elements as their source matter.

This proves to be a very bad idea, as a heap of negative thought input, combined with using a soldier's genetic data to clone mutated soldiers, serves as a plot device to throw in a lot of Doom's classic iconography. So all these soldier mutations and negative thought material could manifest itself in ways that could closely resemble the various demons that appear in the games. It incorporates elements of the games, novel and even movie, but gives a scientifically intriguing source for demons. The gateways, demons, Mars, Hell, it's all there.

[DeathevokatioN]

Why not just stick to teleportation technology bringing demonic forms into the human universe? Maybe even throw a bit of the TNT story into it about the gigantic corrupted starship full of demons?

[elic]

I think the "Thought-demons" idea is good, but I also think that it would be necessary for there to be some real demon army somewhere along the line. Maybe there could be a plot twist in which it turns out that UAC is run by actual Demons, and that the whole disaster was planned.

[Koko Ricky]

Processingcontrol said:

I think the "Thought-demons" idea is good, but I also think that it would be necessary for there to be some real demon army somewhere along the line. Maybe there could be a plot twist in which it turns out that UAC is run by actual Demons, and that the whole disaster was planned.

Hah! I like that one. There is a lot of room for different ideas with the actual origin of the demons. In my universe it is ultimately the result of a "thought machine," but it's open as far as to their specific characteristics. I imagine it being a mix of Silent Hill, H. R. Giger, Bosch, Doom 64, Cronenberg...the horror would come from seeing familiar humans, terrain and structures becoming twisted in a way that could evoke different horror aesthetics.

[Radon]

Fuck the script, follow the books.

[Gez]

The Doom books are stupid, don't read them. Aliens in disguise, more than meet the eyes... Feh.

It's "Union Aerospace Corporation", by the way, not "United".

Anyway, big plot-hole in your script: what is to prevent someone, anyone, from just pulling the plug? It won't destroy machinery and yet it will stop it from functioning just fine. Problem solved.

[Radon]

Discrepancies like that are change-able sure but the adventure, the characters, the deepness it had in the world that opened a new perspective into the levels were great. Galactic chess-game? Fine scratch that out, but the flow the emotion kept is great. Writing a script is one thing, but having it interpreted the very way its written is another thing.

[40oz]

Yeah unfortunately for movie scripts, while you are able make people do whatever you want, you still have to foresee the character's abilities to use common sense.