The film stars Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
It follows a primatologist who, along with his leucistic western lowland gorilla friend that has become a raging creature with fluctuating size enhancements as a result of a rogue experiment, must stop two other mutated animals.
Primatologist Davis Okoye, a former Special Forces soldier and member of an anti-poaching unit, works at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
He is friends with a rare leucistic western lowland gorilla named George that he saved from poachers who murdered his mother and communicates with him via sign language.
As George grows considerably larger and becomes more aggressive, Davis is contacted by genetic engineer Doctor Kate Caldwell, who explains that the pathogen was developed by Energyne to rewrite genes on a massive scale.
She had hoped to advance research on CRISPR as a potential cure for diseases, but discovered Energyne's plans to use it as a biological weapon and was falsely incarcerated, during which her terminally ill brother died.
George calms down, but is soon captured by a government team led by Agent Harvey Russell and put on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airplane.
George survives the crash and joins Ralph as they make their way to Chicago, while Davis and Kate are aided by Russell in stealing a military helicopter in pursuit.
[23] Rickard said that he decided to work on the movie by searching the list of titles to which Warner held the adapting rights and, upon finding Rampage, remembering playing the arcade game.
[24] In June 2015, Dwayne Johnson was set to star, re-teaming with New Line and producer Beau Flynn, while the studio was looking for a director to start production in mid-2016.
Motion capture coach Terry Notary even took a break from Avengers: Infinity War, which was also filmed in Atlanta, to help Jason Liles in his performance as George.
On the other hand, the lack of motion capture for Ralph and Lizzie let the animators go loose with how these monsters were portrayed, such as "a wolf that has porcupine spines and wings".
The website's critical consensus reads: "Rampage isn't as fun as its source material, but the movie's sheer button-mashing abandon might satisfy audiences in the mood for a brainless blockbuster.
[48] Variety's Peter Debruge gave the film a moderately positive review, saying: "However derivative it may be, Rampage knows its audience—namely, Transformers fans and kids born after 9/11 for whom elaborately orchestrated scenes of falling skyscrapers carry nary a whiff of real-world trauma.... What director Peyton lacks in artistic vision he compensates for in his ability to wrangle such a CG-intensive production".
[60] In an article for The Hollywood Reporter, Nick Allen wrote about what he called the film's "disastrous" tone, saying that "despite the Rampage arcade cabinets being constantly visible in its villains’ headquarters, director Brad Peyton's live-action adaptation comes off as too emotionally glib and mean-spirited, even for a mega-budget B-movie".
[63] Director Brad Peyton was asked if the rat in the beginning of the film was based on "Larry" from the Atari Lynx port of the original game.
[64] The film was also speculated to be a prequel to The Walking Dead television series[65] because of the similarities between Negan and Harvey Russell, both of whom are played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
[66] In late March 2018, German director Uwe Boll, famous for his movie adaptations of video games, threatened to file a lawsuit against Warner Bros. if the studio did not change the film's title.
He also went on to say that the Warner Bros. film "confuses the audience" and is "one of those typical feelgood, popcorn movies..."[67] In July 2017, Dwayne Johnson discussed the potential for a sequel and offered an appearance role to Mike Matei.
[70] In December 2021, Hiram Garcia confirmed that Warner Bros. Pictures wants a sequel, while Seven Bucks Productions delayed development in favor of other projects.