Doomsday Gun - Die Waffe des Satans

As an engineer's son, I have never seen a better portrayal of an engineer's enthusiasm for new problems and new challenges. In one unforgettable scene, Frank Langella brought to the screen for the first time in my opinion what can only be called, "the-joy-of-development."

Too often films that deal with invention focus on that moment when the problem comes together and is solved. What they fail to recognize is the first step, when the men and women are looking at the challenge ahead has even more emotional potential. Thankfully the writers and actors in this film did not forget this human truth.

The cast is excellent. The script is uneven, but the only reason this is obvious is because instead of staying mildly good throughout, like most made for cable films, this movie is mildly good with occasional scenes of brilliance.

If you are an engineer or just have one as a friend or member of the family, see this film. It's a wonder.

This movie sets out to tell the (more or less) true story of Canadian weapons designer Gerald Bull (Frank Langella), who dreams of building the world's most powerful artillery gun: hundreds of feet long and able to deliver a shell the size of a small building. The only problem? America and Great Britain don't want to finance his masterpiece and don't want Bull constructing one for anybody else. But Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is willing to pay for one, and able to get around the American embargo on selling weapons to Iraq by cleverly disguising the gun's parts as ordinary industrial equipment. But once Bull goes to work for Saddam, he sets himself as a target for international hit squads willing to do anything to keep such a weapon out of the wrong hands. He found himself playing cat-and-mouse, taking precautions to stay one step ahead of the world's intelligence agencies. This movie provides a pretty good reconstruction of the project, and the fact that the project was a quite chilling possibility gives the story much of its interest. Unlike the outlandish schemes of James Bond's usual adversaries, Bull's supergun was technically feasible and his customer, Saddam, was a very real threat to world peace. A decent way to pass the time for anybody looking for real life intelligence intrigue.

Another good example of how a tv movie can, perhaps within bland and low-cost production values, be more interesting and truthful than the standard Hollywood film.

Another respondent has described how well the film captures the creative moment within engineering, and that's all true. I think Langella's performance was also an excellent representation of a buccaneering businessman, drawing about him intelligent people he trusts and inspiring them, although occasionally haranguing them.

Good scenes .. Gerald Bull dining on the grave of a famous German artilleryman. The Israeli spy chief walking morosely around the Baghdad arms fair looking at all the hardware he would one day have to face. The nods and winks of the British establishment as they turn a blind eye to the production of Saddam's supergun.

Yes it clunks here and there. But fine acting and a literate script. More absorbing than most films which cost 10 times as much.

Seven out of ten.

Interesting fact based spy film with supposed allies backstabbing each other, each with their own agenda for using an engineer's gigantic gun he is developing. The long range implications for Middle East Countries is factored against the region's importance as an oil producer. Profit and greed is offset by the scientific drive of one man, who's vision is well beyond the present, possibly offering him the immortal recognition he desires. This is well acted, fast paced, and intriguing. There is even an open ended conclusion that begs discussion. The miniatures and computer renderings of the big guns are superbly done, and the film is relevant even with all the time that has passed. - MERK

Just a quibble to correct Jonathan from Hoboken's identification of Gerry Bull as an America. He was Canadian (you can even see him brandishing his Canadian passport in the final airport scene with Price (Spacey) near the end.) Gerry Bull was an inconvenient Canadian, in that he thought too big for a Canadian, and, like many other Canadians of talent and vision, eventually had to leave the country to achieve what he wanted. He was a brilliant supersonic aerodynamics engineer, who had contributed to the Avro Arrow program, and had run HARP (High Altitude Research Program) which had been, ahem, aimed at achieving spaceflight using guns, a la Jules Verne. It had operated the original 'supergun' in the Caribbean, with battleship guns put end to end. Bull gave up on Canada when Canada gave up on him, and that's when he became the international long-range artillery guy, selling his expertise to whoever paid - Israel, South Africa, Iraq. I figure if Israel could knock out Saddam's Osirak nuclear plant with an air strike, it wouldn't be past them to knock off the guy about to give Saddam a supergun with which to shell Tel Aviv.

The movie, though heavy on the CIA-is-the-root-of-all-evil conspiracy theories, was entertaining and not that bad, especially as a made-for-TV job, with, I thought, pretty good casting (I always like Michael Kitchen).