Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug and written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, based on the Tomb Raider video game series. An American and British co-production, it is served as a reboot and the third installment in the Tomb Raider film series, which was based on the 2013 video game, with some elements of its sequel. The film stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, who embarks on a perilous journey to her father's last-known destination, hoping to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas appear in supporting roles.
Principal photography took place from January to June 2017 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, and Cape Town, South Africa. The film was also shot on location across London, particularly East London. Tomb Raider was released in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2018, and in the United States on March 16, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making it the first Tomb Raider film not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $275 million worldwide, approximately the same unadjusted total as the 2001 film of the same name and more than its 2003 sequel, a figure considered its break-even point.
A sequel was initially in development with Vikander set to return, but was cancelled in 2022 after MGM's rights to the Tomb Raider series expired, while Vikander stepped down from the role. Another reboot film, set to be part of a shared universe that will include a television series and a video game, is in development at Amazon MGM Studios.
Plot
Following the disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft, Lara Croft makes a living as a bike courier. She is arrested after a collision with a police car. Richard's business partner, Ana Miller, posts her bail and urges Lara to accept her inheritance. Lara believes her father is still alive, but Ana warns Lara that the family estate, Croft Manor, will be sold off if she does not claim her inheritance. Lara reluctantly accepts and gains access to a secret chamber in her father's tomb, where she finds a pre-recorded video message from Richard detailing his research into Himiko, the mythical Queen of Yamatai who was said to command the power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy his research, but instead she investigates further.
Not yet receiving her inheritance, Lara is forced to pawn the jade pendant her father gave her. With the money, Lara travels to Hong Kong where she hires Lu Ren, captain of the ship Endurance, to sail into the Devil's Sea and the island of Yamatai. The ship capsizes in a violent storm, and Lara washes ashore, where she is knocked unconscious. She awakens only to encounter Mathias Vogel, the leader of an expedition to locate Himiko's tomb. The expedition has been funded by a shadowy organization called Trinity, which seeks to harness and weaponize Himiko's power. Mathias takes Lara prisoner, claiming that he killed her father and revealing that he intends to use Richard's research to continue his expedition, and adding Lara and Lu to his slave force. The two of them try to escape, but only Lara succeeds.
After surviving rapids and narrowly avoiding falling over a waterfall with the wreck of a wartime airplane, Lara reunites with her father, who is revealed to be alive and staying on the island to prevent Trinity from finding Himiko's tomb. Despite his protests, Lara sets out the next morning to steal Mathias' satellite phone. Lara makes contact with Lu, and he, along with the other slaves, stages a distraction that allows Lara to infiltrate the Trinity camp and take the phone. In the ensuing chaos, Richard makes his way to Himiko's tomb but is captured by Mathias, who forces Lara to open the tomb, something she has prepared for since she was a child. At that point, the entrance to the tomb self-destructs and falls away, allowing them to enter the tomb, which has not been seen for over two thousand years.
The party navigates a series of booby traps and locates Himiko's sarcophagus. When a Trinity soldier attempts to remove her corpse, he is infected by a highly infectious pathogen that turns him into an aggressive necrotic zombie. Lara realizes that Himiko was an asymptomatic carrier of the virus who chose to entomb herself so that she could not infect others. Mathias concludes that Trinity wants to create a bio-weapon from it, but unable to move Himiko's corpse, he instead cuts off a finger, which he seals in a pouch. Lara and Richard overpower the remaining soldiers, but Mathias escapes and Richard becomes infected. Knowing there is no cure, Richard proposes destroying Himiko's tomb to prevent the disease from spreading across the world. Lara pursues Mathias as Richard sets off a bomb, killing himself and sealing the tomb. Lara fights Mathias at the ledge of a pit trap, forces him to swallow Himiko's finger, and then kicks him into the pit. She barely escapes the collapsing tomb, regrouping with Lu and the slaves; they commandeer a Trinity helicopter to escape Yamatai.
Lara returns to London, where she formally accepts her inheritance and inadvertently discovers that Trinity's front company, Patna, is a subsidiary of Croft Holdings. She investigates further, suspecting Ana is an agent of Trinity and manipulated her into accepting her inheritance to take control of Croft Holdings' business operations when Richard stopped cooperating with Trinity. Having witnessed Trinity's ruthlessness firsthand, she prepares for her next adventure. At the pawnbroker, she recovers her jade pendant, additionally buying two H&K USP pistols.
Cast Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft Maisy De Freitas as 7-year-old Lara Emily Carey as 14-year-old Lara Dominic West as Lord Richard Croft, Lara's archaeologist father Walton Goggins as Mathias Vogel, a rival archaeologist of Richard Croft, and a member of Trinity, a shadowy organization Daniel Wu as Lu Ren, the ship captain who helps Lara to search for her father Kristin Scott Thomas as Ana Miller, an associate at Richard Croft's company, Croft Holdings Derek Jacobi as Mr. Yaffe, an associate at Croft Holdings Hannah John-Kamen as Sophie, Lara's friend Nick Frost as Alan, a pawn shop owner Jaime Winstone as Pamela, Alan's wife
Additionally, Antonio Aakeel plays Lara's friend Nitin. Duncan Airlie James plays Terry, a mixed martial arts club operator. Josef Altin portrays Lara's boss Bruce, Billy Postlethwaite and Roger Nsengiyumva appear as Bill and Rog, Lara's co-workers and opponents at the race, and Michael Obiora portrays Baxter, the Croft Holdings' receptionist.
Production Development and casting In January 2009, Warner Bros. Pictures partially acquired the film rights for Tomb Raider from Paramount Pictures as a turnaround for a potential film reboot (four years after Angelina Jolie stepped down as Lara Croft from the last movie), with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also purchasing half of it later on. Warner Bros. previously had involvement in the Tomb Raider franchise as its video game division Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment helped co-publish the video game Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008) with Eidos Interactive, as well as the animated series Revisioned: Tomb Raider, which released on Warner's corporate sibling Turner Broadcasting's online video game service GameTap in 2007. GK Films had also acquired the rights to make the film in 2011 with either MGM and Warner to distribute.
Initially, Megan Fox, Jennifer Lawrence, Olivia Wilde and Mila Kunis were originally rumored to portray Lara Croft, but all had declined. Deadline Hollywood had also reported that Daisy Ridley was considered for the role, but Ridley later described it as "the craziest rumor [she had] ever heard about [her]self". Norwegian director Roar Uthaug came on board in November 2015, and Alicia Vikander was cast as the new Lara Croft in April 2016. Walton Goggins was announced to play the villain in December 2016, and much of the rest of the cast was revealed in early 2017.
Filming Principal photography began on January 23, 2017, in Cape Town, South Africa, and wrapped on June 9, 2017, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England. Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire was the location for exterior shots for Croft Manor. The waterfall sequence involving the plane was filmed at a waterpark at Lee Valley, outside London, at a venue that had been built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and was combined with footage filmed in South Africa.
Visual effects The visual effects are provided by Scanline VFX and supervised by Nick Crew and Paul Linden with the help of Method Studios, Rising Sun Pictures, Mr. X, Soho VFX, Zero VFX, and Factory VFX.
Music
On June 14, 2017, It was announced that Tom Holkenborg signed on as the film's composer after being removed from Justice League. The soundtrack was released digitally on March 9, 2018, by Sony Classical Records, with the physical edition being released on March 16, 2018, followed by the vinyl on August 24, 2018.
Release Theatrical Tomb Raider premiered on March 2, 2018, in Berlin, Germany, at an exclusive preview with guests and cosplaying fans. It was released in the United States on March 16, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Marketing To promote the release of the film, Mattel released a promotional Barbie doll based on Lara Croft to tie in with the release. The doll is sculpted in the likeness of Alicia Vikander and features full articulation and a doll stand. The doll was designed by veteran doll designer Bill Greening as a Black Label Collector doll and released on February 19, 2018. Square Enix also promoted the film for its Final Fantasy mobile game, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, with Lara Croft being its playable character.
Home media Tomb Raider was released on digital streaming platforms on May 29, 2018. A 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD release occurred on June 12, 2018. It was released in Australia on June 18, 2018, for Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD.
Reception Box office Tomb Raider grossed $58.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $216.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $274.7 million, against a production budget in the range of $90–106 million. To break even, estimations say the film needed to gross at least $275 million worldwide. According to MGM's 2020 Q2 earning reports, Tomb Raider is producing net revenue for the studio.
In the United States and Canada, Tomb Raider was released alongside Love, Simon and I Can Only Imagine, and was projected to gross $23–29 million from 3,854 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $9.1 million on its first day (including $2.1 million from Thursday night previews). It went on to open to $23.6 million, finishing second at the box office, behind Black Panther ($26.7 million in its fifth week). It fell 57% to $10.1 million in its second weekend, finishing 5th at the box office. It grossed $4.9 million in its third weekend, falling 51% and finishing seventh. Opening weekend audiences were 56 percent male and 44 percent female.
Internationally, the film opened in nine Asian countries a week before its United States debut. It made $14.2 million over the weekend, with Korea's $2.9 million being the biggest market. The film opened in China on March 16, 2018, and made $12.3 million the first day. It was the fifth-highest-grossing day for a Warner Bros. film, opening 6% higher than Wonder Woman, and went on to debut to $41 million. , the film's largest markets were China ($78.4 million), the United Kingdom ($10.4 million), France ($10.1 million), and the CIS countries ($7.5 million).
Critical response