Borderlands (film)

For films with similar titles, see Borderland § Film and TV.

Borderlands is a 2024 American science fiction action comedy film co-written and directed by Eli Roth, based on the video game series developed by Gearbox Software. It stars Cate Blanchett as Lillith, an outlaw who forms an alliance with a team of misfits to find the missing daughter of the most powerful man in the universe. The ensemble cast also features Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Édgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The film was announced in August 2015, with Lionsgate Films developing it with Ari and Avi Arad producing, and Leigh Whannell in talks to direct. By February 2020, Erik Feig had joined as a producer and Roth was attached to direct from a screenplay by Craig Mazin. Casting took place from May 2020 to April 2021, with Blanchett cast first and others the following year. Principal photography began in April 2021 in Budapest, Hungary, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and wrapped in June. Two weeks of reshoots took place in early 2023, directed by Tim Miller due to Roth's commitments to Thanksgiving (2023). That June, Mazin removed his name from the project and was replaced by Joe Crombie.

Borderlands premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on August 6, 2024, and was released in the United States by Lionsgate on August 9. The film was panned by critics and has grossed $8.8 million worldwide.

Plot

On the planet of Pandora, Roland, a mercenary soldier apparently gone rogue, kidnaps teenager Tiny Tina with the help of Krieg, a "Psycho" who was institutionalized in the same facility.

Meanwhile, on another planet, bounty hunter Lilith is contacted by Atlas, a powerful corporate magnate. He convinces her to rescue Tina, his daughter. Lilith returns to Pandora, her home planet, for the first time since she was a child. With the help of Claptrap, a robot that was mysteriously programmed to wait for her on Pandora, she locates Tina.

After realizing that Atlas wants his daughter back against her will, Lilith teams up with Roland and Krieg when they are attacked by the Crimson Lance, the private army of Atlas. Lilith is informed that Tina was genetically engineered with biological material from the Eridians, the ancient race that once inhabited Pandora, and that Atlas believes only she can open the Vault where the secrets of the lost civilization's advanced technology are kept.

With the help of Lilith's long-ago foster mother, Dr. Patricia Tannis, they locate the key to open the Vault in a underground maze occupied by a tribe of Psychos. They manage to take the key to the surface. Lilith destroys the device Atlas entrusted her with to signal when she had rescued Tina, and he immediately communicates with her via robotic drone, explaining that he still wants the girl. Tina overhears the end of the conversation and assumes Lilith has betrayed her. She throws a grenade at Lilith, leaving her unconscious. When Lilith recovers, Claptrap unknowingly plays a holographic message for her, recorded by her mother.

The next day, without Lilith and Claptrap, the team find the Vault only to realize Atlas is waiting for them. However, Tina is unable to open the Vault. Lilith appears and explains that she is the one who can do it, being an Eridian known as the Firehawk. Atlas threatens to kill Tina if Lilith does not open the Vault. She obeys but traps Atlas inside, where a creature drags him away. The group celebrates their survival.

Cast

• Cate Blanchett as Lilith
• Kevin Hart as Roland
• Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap
• Edgar Ramírez as Atlas
• Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina
• Florian Munteanu as Krieg
• Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tannis
• Haley Bennett as Lilith's mom
• Bobby Lee as Larry
• Olivier Richters as Krom
• Janina Gavankar as Commander Knoxx
• Cheyenne Jackson as Jakobs
• Charles Babalola as Hammerlock
• Benjamin Byron Davis as Marcus
• Steven Boyer as Scooter
• Ryann Redmond as Ellie
• Harry Ford as Middleman

Additionally, Penn Jillette was going to have a cameo in the film as a preacher overseeing a wedding, after voicing Pain (from the villainous duo Pain and Terror) in the video game Borderlands 3 (2019); however, this scene was not included in the final version of the film.

Production

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Writer and director Eli Roth (left). Tim Miller (right) took over directing duties during reshoots.

In 2011, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford had his first conversation about a possible film adaptation of Borderlands with producers Avi and Ari Arad of Arad Productions. In May 2015, Leigh Whannell was in talks with Lionsgate to write and direct an adaptation of the video game series. The film was officially announced in August 2015; however Whannell's involvement was left omitted. Aaron Berg was tapped to pen an R-rated take on the material in April 2016. By June 2018, Oren Uziel assumed scripting duties from Berg.

In February 2020, Eli Roth was attached to direct the film from a screenplay written by Craig Mazin, with Erik Feig joining as producer through his production company Picturestart. Cate Blanchett was cast as Lilith in May 2020. Speaking of her decision to join the project, Blanchett said: "The gun-slinging stuff was so much fun. I got really absorbed in that whole world. I think there also may have been a little Covid madness — I was spending a lot of time in the garden, using the chainsaw a little too freely. My husband said, 'This film could save your life'." The rest of the ensemble cast was announced between January and April 2021. By that month, Mazin's script had been rewritten by Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier; and again by Roth.

Filming began on April 1, 2021, in Budapest, Hungary, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and wrapped on June 22. On June 4, 2021, first look images of the cast were released, with black and white images obscuring all but the cast's silhouettes. In January 2023, it was announced the film would be going through two weeks of reshoots directed by Tim Miller, due to Roth's commitments to Thanksgiving (2023). Zak Olkewicz wrote new pages for Miller. In June 2023, Mazin removed his name from the project, replaced by Joe Crombie; Mazin has denied reports that Crombie was his pseudonym. Additional literary material was credited to Berg, Uziel, Taylor, Rettenmaier, Olkewicz, Chris Bremner, and Sam Levinson. Steve Jablonsky composed the film's score after replacing Nathan Barr.

Release

Borderlands premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on August 6, 2024. It was theatrically released in the United States by Lionsgate Films on August 9, 2024. The film cost $110–120 million to produce, and Lionsgate spent $30 million on print and advertising. International presales reportedly covered 60% of production costs.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Borderlands was released alongside It Ends with Us and Cuckoo, and was projected to gross $8–16 million from 3,125 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4 million on its first day, including an estimated $1.32 million from Thursday previews. It debuted at $8.8 million, finishing in fourth, and Deadline Hollywood reported the film would likely lose the studio $20–30 million.

Critical response

Borderlands received overwhelmingly negative reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 9% of 99 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Glitching out in every department, Borderlands is balderdash." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 27 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 46% positive score, with 31% saying they would definitely recommend it.

The Guardian called the film "janky" and a "juvenile and derivative adaptation" while Variety found it was a "generic gaming adaptation that deprives audiences of the most valuable ingredient of its source: surprise." The Independent said it was a "total disaster" while Rolling Stone wondered if Borderlands was the worst video game movie ever. The Evening Standard suggested it was the worst film of the year. PC Gamer compared Borderlands to numerous other video game movie adaptations: "You might have heard the claim that this is a righting of the scale, … [to] remind us that good adaptations are the exception, not the rule. We needed a new Super Mario Bros. (1993). We didn't get one. Borderlands cannot hold a candle to Super Mario Bros. It is not interestingly bad. … It has no cheesy, thwarted ambition to redeem it. It never becomes more than a waste of a hundred minutes."

Blanchett's performance was praised by Tim Grierson, of Screen Daily, who contrasted it with the rest of the ensemble cast: "Not many in the starry ensemble shine. Vivid character actors like Gina Gershon and Jamie Lee Curtis ... are trapped in stale genre types. Even the potentially intriguing change-of-pace performances — such as Hart in a far more sombre turn than we expect from the explosive comedian — flatline." Among the more positive reviews, MovieWeb wrote, "Roth displays his cinematic prowess with solid combat scenes. Munteanu's Krieg is a beast and a half, twisting baddies into human pretzels with unabashed glee. The violence is brutal but not graphically disturbing ... It's stunning to see a Roth film without even a hint of blood. The producers made a business calculation to avoid the R-rating and allow children who also enjoy the games to see the film. Die-hard Roth fans expecting his trademark gruesome torture should sit this one out."

See also

• List of films based on video games

External links

• Official website
• Borderlands at IMDb