Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is used to being the biggest character on screen at any given time. Whether he’s speeding around the streets of Dubai (or a Russian glacier) in the Fast and Furious movies, pairing hilariously with teeny Kevin Hart, or even in animated form dancing a circle around young Moana and her tiny friends, The Rock is a massive man, and he’s happy to make sure we all know it. Which is why Rampage, if you look at it a certain way, might be his most daring movie to date. For the first time in quite a long time (since he … faced The Big Show at WrestleMania? I’ll work on it), The Rock has placed himself in action sequences against characters who dwarf him.
Now, sure, these characters are genetically enhanced beasts who have grown to giant, city-wrecking proportions that also seem to echo other, better known cinema classics. A giant gorilla is always going to make you think of King Kong, and a spiny beast emerging from the water is always going to make you think of Godzilla. A giant flying wolf is kind of a new, cool thing, so kudos to Rampage for that one. So you could just say these are monsters. But the gorilla in particular is a full-on character in this story, which probably takes a bit of explaining so here goes:
Debris from a destroyed space station where genetic experiments were happening falls to Earth and ends up radically mutating certain animals, among them: a crocodile, a gray wolf, and a rare albino gorilla who’s in residence at a San Diego wildlife preserve and enjoys a special relationship with primatologist Davis Okoye (The Rock). The gorilla is named George, and he and Davis are legit best friends. George is a normal-sized gorilla at this point, so you could see how their friendship would flourish as they’re on basically even ground. The Rock has a better way with words, as any wrestling fan could have already told you, but George the albino gorilla knows sign language, which is pretty damn impressive. The point is that Davis and George are bros and they hang out and bust each other’s chops and at one point George makes this gesture which is pretty cheeky for a gorilla!
If you noticed that George is massively huge in the above gif than, yes, spoiler, George is one of the animals that gets mutated and goes psycho crazy and starts to … rampage … across the country.He’s soon joined by the Wolf and Crocodile, neither of whom have personalities or human friends or know sign language, which is too bad for them, because that means The Rock needs to put a stop to them.
Rampage — which is based on the popular video game series and directed by Brad Peyton (who previously directed The Rock to co-exist with giant creatures and also save people in major downtown metropolises from certain destruction in Journey 2: The Mysterious Islandand San Andreas, respectively — may not be all that distinct from some of The Rock’s blockbuster-y movies of late. But this is the one where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his best friend, a genetically embiggened gorilla, team up to fight a wolf who can fly (and who can also shoot giant porcupine needles from its tail!) and a crocodile who can swim (less impressive than the wolf, to be fully honest). Watch The Rock be a physical underdog for the first time in ages! It’s like an eclipse or a good Brad Peyton movie: a rare sight indeed.
Friday, December 14, 8:30pm. Sign up or get HBO Add ons from GreenDot Today!
