Now that the zombie movie is finally (mercifully) behind us and the vampire thing seems to have mostly fizzled, we’re poised for the rise of the kaiju. Giant monster movies, mostly dormant since the ‘50s, are back in force. The trickle that began with Cloverfield , dribbled with Pacific Rim and Godzilla , is about to become a torrent. Not only did Toho just reboot their own Gojira series with Shin Godzilla, but Legendary plans to follow up on their American reboot with a whole shared universe, with both Kong: Skull Island and a new King Kong vs. Godzilla on the way. And now an adaptation of the ‘80s arcade game Rampage is in the works, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. A new interview with director Brad Peyton (San Andreas) explains how it will be different from other monster movies on the way.
Speaking with We Got This Covered, Peyton said the movie would return to the core of the original game, building a more complex story on top of a very simple premise:
“With Rampage, we are using our love of the original game as our inspiration. Then we’re going to build a movie, like San Andreas, that is really going to surprise people in what it delivers. It’s going to be a lot more emotional, a lot scarier and a lot more real than you’d expect. So you look at that original concept about a lab that affects these animals and makes them rampage, and that’s the nugget.”
To be the “actually” guy, the giant creatures in Rampage weren’t animals, but humans mutated into animals. Maybe Peyton’s still going in that direction, but it sounds more like the Rampage movie will be an animal experimentation parable, sort of a Plague Dogs But Giant This Time . Honestly, that sounds a little better. Humans transforming into animals smells a bit too much like the Ninja Turtles.
But while Rampage may have a different origin story, Peyton does say they’ll be sticking to the traditional Rampage trio of Lizzie, George and Ralph. “There’s the three, the lizard, the ape and the wolf, so we’re keeping it similar, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out where we’re going with this,” Peyton said.
The key insight from this interview, the aspect that may just separate Rampage from other monster movies, is the giant creatures’ human genesis. Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Kong: Skull Island all have a mythic or alien aspect. The giant monsters are something other and oppositional to humanity. Rampage will get closer to the truth: all the big disasters are our own damn fault.
