Rampage (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Rampage is a 2009 film directed by Uwe Boll. Despite its name and the fact that it's made by a director most famous for video game adaptations, it is unconnected to Midway's series. The plot concerns a young man named Bill Williamson (no, not that Bill Williamson) posting vlog rants about how the world is overpopulated and society's going down the drain, while building a suit of body armor and stocking up on weapons, leading up to a bloodthirsty rampage through his town. Amazingly, given the poor reputation of its director, it's actually a pretty good movie.

Not to be confused with the 1987 film of the same name. Or with the series of kaiju arcade games nor its actual film adaptation.

Tropes used in Rampage (film) include:
  • Bank Robbery: Bill pulls one off not for the money, but to make a point; he burns the money outside in a garbage can to show that it's meaningless to him. It also serves another purpose -- Bill saves some of the money and leaves it at Evan's dead body in order to frame him for the killing spree. He keeps the rest for himself -- the stuff that he
    • If you watch earlier in the film, Bill is printing counterfeit money, that is what he burns in front of the bank. The entire movie just turned out to be an elaborate bank robbery, as he still has all the money in his room at the end.
  • Bulletproof Vest: Bill's suit of steel-plate armor makes him effectively invincible.
  • Going Postal
  • Guns Akimbo: Done with a pair of submachine guns.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Fans of Ginger Snaps, keep your eyes open for Katharine Isabelle in a brief appearance as a beauty salon employee.
  • Karma Houdini: Bill kills his friend Evan and frames him for his killing spree, and winds up getting Evan's dad sent to jail. All the while, he returns to his normal life as though nothing had happened and prepares to go on another rampage as soon as he had the money.
  • Leave No Witnesses: The reason why Bill kills everyone in the beauty salon -- he took his mask off to have some water, then realized that they had seen his face, ruining his plan to get away with his crimes.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: Bill.
  • More Dakka: This film could be renamed 'More Dakka: The Movie' and you wouldn't have to change anything.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: The scene where Bill is in the bingo hall full of old people, none of them noticing a guy in full body armor and tactical getup walking around. The tension of the scene comes from the anticipation that Bill is just going to lay into the defenseless crowd with his machine guns. And it never happens.
  • Police Are Useless: Justified. Bill's first act is to take out the police station so that there's nobody to stop his rampage.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic/Harsher in Hindsight: There was a big thread on the film's IMDb message board saying how this movie was entirely unrealistic and could just never happen in real life. Cue the Utoya summer camp massacre, which played out almost exactly like Bill's killing spree (a bombing to distract the cops, followed by a run-and-gun massacre). To quote one of the posters:

Look at your thread. Look at the news about Norway. Look back at your thread. Slap yourself, because you have been owned.

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