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# I Am In Awe Of The Borderlands Movie’s Origin Story, A Burden You Must Now Also Bear
- URL: https://aftermath.site/borderlands-movie-eli-roth-randy-pitchford-gearbox/
- Published: 2024-08-13T20:00:06.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-27T17:13:33.000Z
- Author: Nathan Grayson
- Tags: Movies, Video Games, Borderlands, dogs, eli roth, gearbox, now you know, randy pitchford, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-10-27 13:00

After many years in various circles of development hell, the *Borderlands* movie is finally out. It’s not doing well. On [Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/borderlands?ref=aftermath.site), it’s currently tangled in the tendrils of a nine-percent score, and its global box office take over the weekend was [a mere $16 million](https://www.pcgamer.com/movies-tv/borderlands-grosses-16-million-globally-leaving-it-roughly-60-million-shy-of-breaking-even-and-that-s-before-the-theatres-take-their-cut/?ref=aftermath.site) – tens of millions less than its budget. I have no desire to see this apparent whimper of a thing in theaters, nor should you. However, I will absolutely *devour* details about how it got made.

Nothing about the movie makes sense, after all. How did it attract such a star-studded cast? Why are all the main characters played by actors substantially older than they’re supposed to be? Why [cut the cartoony gore](https://kotaku.com/borderlands-movie-r-rated-pg-13-eli-roth-interview-1851618411?ref=aftermath.site) the *Borderlands* series is known for, especially with the R-rated *Deadpool & Wolverine* running circles around the rest of this year’s summer movie slate? [Is Cate Blanchett OK](https://www.vulture.com/article/cate-blanchett-borderlands-covid-madness.html?ref=aftermath.site)?

Answering precisely none of those questions – though definitely providing an illuminating point A to explain how we reached the movie’s point Z – is director Eli Roth’s explanation of how he pitched *Borderlands* to studio execs, which I discovered while going down a rabbit hole last night and which I am now obligated to share with you, to ease the weight of my own burden. It involves literal dogshit. From [an interview](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/sci-fi-movies/borderlands-director-reveals-the-first-question-he-asked-the-games-studio-and-how-his-dog-got-him-the-job/?ref=aftermath.site) Roth did with SFX Magazine:

> Whenever I take \[my dog\] for a walk and she has to go to the bathroom, she won’t let me look at her. I have to look away because she gets really shy. But one day I filmed her. She had that shy look on her face and I was like, 'That’s Claptrap.'  
>  
> My first question \[to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford\] was, 'You can’t kill Claptrap, but you can shoot him hundreds of times?' He goes, 'Correct. Because there’s a scene where Claptrap gets shot up after being a decoy.' I said, ‘So, what happens to the bullets?’ Randy goes, 'I don’t know.’ I go, ‘Could he shit out the bullets, like we’re in a Mel Brooks movie?’ He goes, ‘Yes, he could.’ And I felt we needed to see that.  
>  
> … And that was my pitch to Lionsgate. They were laughing so hard.

This tale fits a little too well with *Borderlands*’ sometimes-puerile sense of humor, so perhaps it’s just marketing spin. But given where things ended up, I’m choosing to believe it.

Speaking of where things ended up, Pitchford is – as [PC Gamer recently put it](https://www.pcgamer.com/movies-tv/randy-pitchford-tweets-maximum-copium-after-borderlands-bombs/?ref=aftermath.site) – posting through it. Among other things, he recently compared the plainly-bad video game movie [to The Beatles](https://x.com/DuvalMagic/status/1822369245822374131?ref=aftermath.site), which is certainly a choice.