A Brief History of Warhammer 40k on Screen
“Warhammer 40,000” is a tabletop miniature wargame created by Games Workshop. The game is set in a dystopian science fiction universe in the far future and has a grimdark theme, which refers to the dark and dystopian settings of science fiction and fantasy.
At least two films have been made from this game. There has been a direct-to-DVD animated film called Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40k Movie, released in 2010, and a TV series called Angels of Death, produced by the Warhammer TV team in 2021.
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40k Movie
The film opens on the planet Mithron with a group of Imperial Fists Chapter Space Marines under attack from an unknown enemy. Nidon, a Space Marine by the name of Nidon, races to protect the Codex before a fireball engulfs them all.
A training duel takes place aboard a Space Marine Strike Cruiser between brothers Proteus and Severus, both from the Ultramarines Chapter’s 2nd Company. Proteus disarms Severus, but he escapes and defeats him. Next, Proteus and the other newly initiated members of the 2nd Company’s Ultima Squad are shown the Relic Thunder Hammer in their ship’s reclusium.
A swearing-in ceremony is conducted on the Hammer by the Captain and his right-hand man, Pythol. With the ceremony over, Ultima Squad prepares for their first mission, a trip to Mithron.
After leaving the cruiser, Captain Severus addresses Pythol and the ten marines of the Ultima Squad to inform them of the distress call they had received shortly before they lost contact with the planet.
Arriving at the shrine, Ultima Squad discovers that the garrison force has been annihilated during a tough battle and that the Imperial shrine on the planet desecrated. It appears that the forces of Chaos are responsible for the desecration, and Severus decides to continue the search to find the survivors.
