The Biollywood Podcast: Doom (2005)
In this episode of The Biollywood Podcast, the Director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense at the Atlantic Council, Asha M. George, Associate Director for Research, J.T. O’Brien, and Associate Director for Government Relations and Policy, Robert Bradley, discuss the 2005 film “Doom” – starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Karl Urban – and its implications for astrobiodefense, biosafety and biosecurity, and genetic modification.
Premise: In the year 2046, the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) operates a top-secret research facility on Mars called Olduvai. When a distress signal reports a containment breach, a squad of Marines known as the Rapid Response Tactical Squad (RRTS) is deployed via “the Ark” (a teleportation gate) to secure the facility.
They arrive to find the staff slaughtered or mutated into grotesque creatures. The threat isn’t supernatural, but biological: an ancient Martian “24th Chromosome” (C24) that has been weaponized as a serum. The squad must contain the threat before it can spread to Earth via the Ark, leading to a brutal conflict between duty, ethics, and survival.
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About the podcast
Viruses and other biological threats continually evolve. To keep up with them, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense at the Atlantic Council’s Biollywood podcast examines scenarios involving biological weapons, accidents, and naturally occurring pandemics. In this podcast, commission experts talk about biological threats and the popular culture media they appear in.
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The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense at the Atlantic Council provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of US biodefense and recommends changes to policy and law that strengthen national biodefense while optimizing biodefense resources.