When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) to Scotland to find a possible cure.

To prevent an outbreak, Prime Minister John Hatcher orders Captain Nelson to send a team to Scotland to investigate, pointing at famed medical researcher Dr. Kane as a likely creator of the cure.

After being left behind during the Scottish quarantine and losing his wife, Kane became a twisted and sadistic feudal lord who blamed science for the downfall of civilization.

Canaris admits to Sinclair that he plans to hold back any cure until Reaper successfully eliminates much of the underclass in the form of social cleansing.

Director Neil Marshall lived near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall, a Roman fortification built to defend England against Scotland's tribes.

[13] The lethal virus in Doomsday differs from contemporary films like 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later by being an authentic plague that actually devastates the population, instead of infecting people so they become aggressive cannibals or zombies.

[6] Production was budgeted at £17 million,[4] an amount that was triple the combined total of Marshall's previous two films, Dog Soldiers (2002) and The Descent (2005).

Marshall described the broader experience: "There's fifty or more speaking parts; I'm dealing with thousands of extras, logistical action sequences, explosions, car chases — the works.

[4] South Africa was chosen as a primary filming location for economic reasons, costing a third of estimated production in the United Kingdom.

[13] In the course of production, several sequences were dropped due to budgetary concerns, including a scene in which helicopter gunships attacked a medieval castle.

[25] Marshall had seen the Aston Martin DBS V12 used in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006) and sought to implement a similarly "sexy" car.

The visual effects crew visited Scotland to take reference photos so scenes that were filmed in Cape Town, South Africa could instead have Scottish backgrounds.

[24] The film also included songs from the bands Adam and the Ants, Fine Young Cannibals, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Kasabian.

Marshall also hoped to include the song "Into the Light" by the Banshees, but it was left out due to the producer disliking it and the cost being too high to license it.

"The director of top horror flicks The Descent and Dog Soldiers was given more money for his latest effort, but many thought he wasted it on a collection of flashy set pieces without much interlinking plot in between."

The website's consensus reads, "Doomsday is a pale imitation of previous futuristic thrillers, minus the cohesive narrative and charismatic leads.

[37] Alison Rowat of The Herald perceived Doomsday as "decidedly everyday" for a thriller, with Marshall's script having too many unanswered questions and characters not fully developed despite a decent cast.

"[39] Philip Key of the Liverpool Daily Post described the film, "Doomsday is a badly thought-out science fiction saga which leaves more questions than answers.

"[40] Alonso Duralde of MSNBC described Doomsday: "It's ridiculous, derivative, confusingly edited and laden with gore, but it's the kind of over-the-top grindhouse epic that wears down your defenses and eventually makes you just go with it."

[42] Reviewer James Berardinelli found the production of Doomsday to be a mess, complaining, "The action sequences might be more tense if they weren't obfuscated by rapid-fire editing, and the backstory is muddled and not all that interesting."

[43] Dennis Harvey of Variety said Neil Marshall's "flair for visceral action" made up for Doomsday's lack of originality and that the film barely had a dull moment.

Harvey considered the conclusion relatively weak, and found the quality of the acting satisfactory for the genre, while reserving praise for the "stellar" work of the stunt personnel.

Seitz described his discontent over the lack of innovation in the director's attempted homages of older films: "Doomsday is frenetic, loud, wildly imprecise and so derivative that it doesn't so much seem to reference its antecedents as try on their famous images like a child playing dress-up.

The country's national body for film and television, Scottish Screen, had contributed £300,000 to the production of Doomsday, which provided economic benefits for the cast and crew who dwelt in Scotland.

A spokesperson from Scottish Screen anticipated, "It's likely to also attract a big audience who will see the extent to which Scotland can provide a flexible and diverse backdrop to all genres of film.

"[47] In contrast, several parties have expressed concern that Doomsday presents negativity in England's latent view of Scotland based on their history.

Angus MacNeil, member of the Scottish National Party, said of the film's impact: "The complimentary part is that people are thinking about Scotland as we are moving more and more towards independence.

Director Neil Marshall applied for membership with the organisation to add "fresh blood", but Doomsday was not mentioned during jury deliberations.

[49] Doomsday was the first Blu-ray title released by Universal Pictures after the studio's initial support of the now-folded HD DVD format.

[51] IGN assessed the unrated DVD's video quality, writing, "For the most part, it's a crisp disc that's leaps above standard def."