8 Years Ago, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Forgotten Video Game Adaptation Hid a Bigger Story

With his 2018 disaster movie Rampage, star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his regular director Brad Peyton gave the world a video game adaptation that was a far cry from something like The Last Of Us or Assassin’s Creed. Rampage came from a 1986 arcade game of the same name in which players could play as one of three classic monsters: a giant ape (modeled after King Kong), a giant lizard (modeled after Godzilla), and a giant werewolf. In the game Rampage, the goal was simple, as clear as the title itself: destroy. The narrative complexity and cinematic aspirations you could find in games later in the medium’s lifespan were largely absent from Rampage, but that’s also part of the fun of it and most other arcade games from the 1980s. The ability to jump in, press buttons, and destroy buildings is still enormously satisfying. And most importantly, that simplicity fit The Rock’s 2010s ambitions.