18 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About DOOM

By Brandon Jacobs / March 31, 2020

16. Origins Of The Title

Doom may seem like the perfect title in hingdsight, but the inspiration behind its usage comes from a surprising source.

Legendary programmer John Carmack actually came up with the title from a scene in the 1986 movie The Color of Money, starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman. The specific scene takes place at a pool hall, with Cruise’s character holding a custom cue case, to which a man asks, “What you got in there?” Cruise opens the case and simply says, “Doom.”

Carmack liked the name because id Software aspired to dominate and take the video game industry by storm with Doom in the same manner that Cruise’s character dominates his opponent in the scene. They ended up doing just that.