Ten Things From the Rampage: President Down Director’s Commentary

It’s been a little while since this movie was released now and I don’t feel like it’s received as much attention as it deserves. The review on this website was about the first to appear on the internet, if not the first, and there are still not many out there. I recently got through the whole trilogy for the umpteenth time with a limited edition DVD box set from Germany and I thought I’d share some facts from the director’s commentary on Rampage 3, which features Brendan Fletcher (Bill Williamson) as well as Uwe Boll himself. Anyone who’s seen Uwe Boll Raw will know that Boll’s banter is fairly entertaining, as he bashes every cunt from hipsters to the political elite, but I’ve tried to keep my selections related more to the movies themselves. So, here are 10 things I learned from the Rampage President Down commentary.
1. Principle photography on President Down was 6 days. Bill’s last stand, the epic shoot-out between Bill and the FBI was shot in only 3 days. That alone should make Boll and his team eligible for some kind of award.
2. Brendan Fletcher has almost been killed twice whilst filming two different projects – the first time he accidentally hung himself on the set of Blood Rayne 2 when someone forgot to make a false noose and the second time whilst working on the television series Cardinal when the actor shot through his own jaw with a blank after a critical mistake by the armourer. Uwe Boll notes that Fletcher’s death would have been good for the film in commercial terms, to which Fletcher remarks “You could’ve sold the shit out of those box sets if I’d died.”

3. Uwe Boll’s original cut of the film includes footage of actual ISIS be-headings, but these were deemed unacceptable and edited out in most territories.
4. Speaking of ISIS, Boll recently received death threats from ungrateful Turks living in Germany after he criticised the Turkish president Recep Erdogan in response to Erdogan demanding legal action be taken against a German satirist who alleged that he was a goat fucker on German TV. Boll also received death threats from radical Muslims after making fun of Islam and Jihadists in his Postal film.
5. Uwe’s infamous “Go fuck yourselves” Youtube rant generated 1.9 million clicks, earning the director the grand total $64. Given the difficulties he’s had bringing the final chapter of the trilogy to fruition, his frustration is probably understandable, especially when studios are throwing money at the likes of Peter Jackson and Michael Bay, et al to produce ever mounting piles of cinematic dogshit.

6. As with the first two Rampage movies, most of the dialogue in President Down was improvised, with the actors working from just a 10 page treatment.
7. In the first Rampage, Bill goes into a bingo hall and orders a sandwich, before leaving without killing anyone, concluding that the elderly players are dead already. The scene with the two homeless guys in Rampage 2 was shot in an alley next to that same bingo hall, which by that time had gone bankrupt (“No bingo?”) By the time Rampage 3 was filmed, the bingo hall had coincidentally been converted into a film studio and was used to shoot the scenes in the FBI office and television station.
8. President Down might have been made a year earlier, but Fletcher was hired to appear in The Revenant, so Rampage 3 was postponed, probably for the better, since it allowed more time for pre-production and for anticipation to build amongst fans.
9. All the aerial photography was captured using drones.

10. After the end credits of President Down there is a short clip of Uwe Boll taking his hat off to the camera and then walking off into the distance. That may be his final farewell, as a director at least, since he has stated that Rampage 3 will likely be his final movie.

The Rampage Trilogy is currently available in a limited edition DVD/Blu-ray set from Amazon.de and the special features are as follows:

Rampage – Commentary with Uwe Boll, making of featurette (14 minutes), trailer.

Rampage: Capital Punishment – Commentary with Uwe Boll, making of featurette (24 minutes), trailer.

Rampage: President Down – Commentary with Uwe Boll and Brendan Fletcher, tantalizingly short featurette (less than 7 minutes), deleted scene (Agent Molokai interview), trailers.

Although it’s a German release there are separate commentary tracks recorded in both English and German for each film.