The Condemned The Condemned is a 2007 action film , co - written and directed by Scott Wiper , and starring " Stone Cold " Steve Austin , Vinnie Jones , Robert Mammone , Madeleine West and Rick Hoffman . The film centers on ten convicts who are forced to fight each other to the death as part of an illegal game which is being broadcast to the public . The Condemned was filmed in Queensland . Fight choreography was co - ordinated by Richard Norton , who also stunt doubles for Jones on some scenes . The film was produced by WWE Films and released by Lionsgate . The Condemned was released in the United States on April 27 , 2007 . Plot . Jack Conrad ( Austin ) is a dangerous convict awaiting execution in a Salvadoran prison . " Purchased " by a wealthy television producer and transported to a deserted island in the South Pacific along with nine other condemned criminals similarly purchased from prisons around the world . They are " offered " the opportunity to avoid capital punishment and win back their freedom by fighting to the death in an illegal game to be filmed and broadcast live over the Internet . A bomb is placed on the ankle of every contestant , each featuring a 30 - hour countdown timer , and a ripcord that will detonate the bomb after a ten second delay . The winner will have the bomb removed and be given their freedom as well as a pocket full of cash as the prize . Breckel ( Robert Mammone ) , the producer , is aiming for online ratings that equal or beat the latest Super Bowl reception of 40 million television viewers . As the broadcast progresses , FBI agents discover Conrad ' s real identity as Jack Riley after a tip from one of Conrad ' s former classmates . Conrad is discovered to be a former Delta Force operative who was captured on a Black ops mission to El Salvador after bombing a building controlled by drug dealers . Conrad ' s girlfriend becomes aware of the situation and watches the show at a local bar as it unfolds . Ewan McStarley ( Vinnie Jones ) and Saiga ( Masa Yamaguchi ) team up to remove the competition , while Yasantwa ( Emelia Burns ) uses her wiles to trick others to their death . After seeing the show ' s broadcast tower before the show , Conrad infiltrates the tower and calls his girlfriend , managing to tell her the latitude of the island before he is forced to leave . After the other seven contestants have died , Conrad is left alone against McStarley and Saiga . He stabs Saiga , and McStarley flees . Eventually , a helicopter drops a shotgun down to McStarley , who uses it to hunt down Conrad . After Conrad falls into a stream , McStarley runs into the cameraman and his armed guard dressed in ghillie suits while searching for Conrad , and shoots them , picking up the guard ' s MP5 . When McStarley and Conrad meet again , Conrad ends up rolling over a cliff and into a stream to avoid being shot by McStarley ' s shotgun . Conrad is presumed dead by the fall , and McStarley is declared the winner . As McStarley is being driven to the control tower to collect his prize , Breckel hears that the FBI has sent United States Navy SEALs to take him into custody . After he meets McStarley and de - activates his bomb , he tells him that he won ' t receive his prize money . Breckel and McStarley fixed the game in his favor in exchange for his freedom and profits . McStarley takes a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun from one of the guards , and kills the tech team in the building , one by one , since they truthfully didn ' t know that Breckel is abandoning them all . When he corners Julie , Breckel ' s girlfriend , he is confronted by Conrad , who shoots him several times after talking briefly . Conrad grabs McStarley ' s two machine guns and chases down Breckel , who is fleeing the island in a helicopter . After emptying the two guns firing at the helicopter , he is given McStarley ' s re - activated ankle bomb by Julie . Conrad throws it into the helicopter , which explodes and crashes into a cliff . The epilogue shows Conrad driving back to his home in Texas , a free man , and meets his girlfriend ( Madeleine West ) , who presumed him dead after he fell off the cliff in his struggle against McStarley . Cast . Main Cast Casting . On one of the two DVD audio commentary tracks , Steve Austin notes that he was originally supposed to be playing the villain role of Ewan McStarley ( played by Vinnie Jones ) and that the role of Jack Conrad was supposed to be played by one of two stars from Hollywood that Steve chose not to mention . Soundtrack . The soundtrack for The Condemned was released on April 24 , 2007 exclusively on the iTunes Store . Additional tracks Other songs featured in the film , but not included on the soundtrack : Release . Critical response . The critical response to the film was overwhelmingly negative . Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a 16 % rating , registering 15 " fresh " reviews out of 95 , [ 3 ] while Metacritic gives the film a 23 % rating . [ 4 ] Complaints against The Condemned included accusations of plot holes , overly preachy tone , and massive amounts of violence untempered by comic relief , irony , or plot progression . V . A . Musetto of the New York Post ( considered a " top critic " by Rotten Tomatoes ) gave the film zero stars out of four , describing it as a " sickeningly violent and inane movie " and complaining that it is a bad rip - off of Battle Royale and The Most Dangerous Game . One of the few positive reviews came from Michael Booth the Denver Post . He described the concept as " The Truman Show meets Con Air " and makes positive notes the reality television aspects of the story , although he cautions readers not to expect " high art " based on the 3 star rating he gives the film . Box office . The US $ 37 million budgeted film failed at the box office , by most reasonable standards for such calculation . It debuted with a $ 3 . 8 million opening weekend in the US . The film lasted only 4 weeks in theaters and closed with a total of $ 7 , 371 , 706 . Home media . On September 18 , 2007 , The Condemned was released on DVD and Blu - ray . Opening at no . 4 , The Condemned brought in $ 6 , 520 , 918 in the first week . Overall , it sold an estimated 1 , 175 , 297 units earning $ 22 , 545 , 356 , more than 200 % it ' s box office gross . The Condemned was released in Australia on January 4 , 2008 , with an MA15 + rating ( Strong Violence , Strong Coarse Language ) . It was released in New Zealand DVD in February 2008 with an R18 rating ( Contains Violence and Offensive Language ) . The DVD made its release in the United Kingdom on March 24 , 2008 with a rating of 18 ( Contains Strong Violence and Language ) . This was a straight to DVD release to the United Kingdom .