Your friendly furry host, Mikey, at Wolfman’s Cult Film, is here to take us through a selection of apocalyptic films. To help give a little heads up for possible incoming scenario’s. We can hopefully learn from our battling brave action heroes and somewhat be slightly prepared for what horrors might becometh! So lets don our tin foil hats and hold hands together under the dinning room table. Mikey’s prophesying movie mayhem is about to start…
OK! be warned big SPOILERS are afoot. It’s hard to review them in this style without the spoils.
This review is for The Quiet Earth (1985)
Is The Devastation Set Today Or In The Future?
It’s set from July the 5th at 6.12 am. I assume it’s the year of the film, 1985?
Method Of Earth’s Destruction?
A joint experiment across the world to create a wireless global energy grid called Project Flashlight is set in motion. With red pulsating gamma rays and distortion across the skies, “The Effect” has dire, devastating results. Wiping out all the worlds population, apart from one man!
Apocalyptic Doomsdays Rating out of 100%?
Pretty much 100%
Man Alone? Who’s Our Hero?
Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) is employed by the New Zealand branch of Project Flashlight. Zac knew deep down there could be serious dangers whilst working on the experiment. But what could he have said or done?
Does Hero Go Doolally?
Zac goes through many crazy moments. Some having the time of his life, driving a train with his mannequin lady friend smoking cigars, to filming his own movie with famous historical characters. When it all gets too much for him, he finally cracks up dress up as a lady and spending his time wandering the lone City in a petticoat.
Warrior Queen or Damsel In Distress
With the surprise arrival of Joanne (Alison Routledge) with her zesty, feisty, fire red hair, Zac’s world is turned, once again, upside down. She’s a cheeky lass and can hold her own. The moment they meet is tenderly, well filmed. One becomes two, could there be a third?
Innocent Cannon Fodder?
The world!
Tagline – On July 5th, everyone on Earth disappeared
Flesh Eating Zombies? Malicious Cyberpunks? Murderous Mutants, Angry Aliens Or A Overlord Megalomaniac?
No crazy mutants, human killing machines or zombies this time around. Just one man, alone?
My Favourite Scene?
I have to go for Zac’s total breakdown of madness. Starting with a civilised pool match with himself in dual roles that leads to him going full FUBAR in some sort of Caesar leader moment. Up on a balcony addressing his people, which include Alfred Hitchcock, Nixon and Hitler. It funny and poignant at the same time.
Do The Heroes Get A Chance To Repopulate The Barren World?
See question “Any random comical scenes” below for a slight hint.
Best Film Death Scenes?
Everyone vanished/died in a blink of an eye but we do get to see the body remains in an underground lab. There we discover the fried and crispy body of Zac’s supervisor “Perrin“.
Any Random Comical Scenes?
Maori, Api (Pete Smith) orgasm face is an unexpected laugh out loud moment.
Rough Body Count?
Population of the world in 1985 says it was 4.85 billion. So somewhere in that ball park!
Tagline – ”The creations of our mind should be a blessing, not a curse to mankind.” – Albert Einstein
What Are Humankind’s Survival Changes?
Pretty damn slim if I’m honest. Though there could be more to humankind than we could ever fathom?
Lessons For Us To Learn From This Film?
Well! Maybe don’t mess around with technology that we truly don’t understand? Do you recall when CERN turned on the Large Hadron Collider? Smashing high energy proton beams into each other searching for the Higgs Boson and creating things like Quark-gluon plasma and bottomonium? The newspapers at the time gave us the usual warm feeling news of “Hey it could create a blackhole and suck the Earth in on itself!” Then there’s experiments in Fusion Power. Where the power and heat of the Sun is created in a lab. What’s the worse that could happen? Tee-hee..
Director, Writer, Producer, Etc.
Directed by New Zealander Geoff Murphy who took the handle on a few American action sequels. Like Young Guns II (1990), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000). Lead actor Bruno Lawrence wrote the screenplay with Bill Baer and Sam Pillsbury who also produced the film. It is based on a a science fiction novel written in 1981 by Craig Harrison.
Soundtrack Composer?
The film soundtrack composer for The Quiet Earth was conducted by John Charles. There was a vinyl release that I wouldn’t mind having in the collection one day.
Any Film Facts?
World you believe the late and awesome Harry Belafonte did the man-a-lone talking to mannikins and then finding himself caught in an awkward threesome, first. If you not seen it, checkout The World, The Flesh and The Devil (1959). It’s a fantastic film. Plus another little titbit, in the novel, it is written that time loops back to 6.12am every morning, a` la Groundhog Day (1993) style. Also like the brilliant little short film starring Kurtwood Smith called 12.01 PM (1990). The movie opts away from the novel with the loop but keeps the same time of the event, 6.12am.
A Really Nice Story To Add…
Science communicator and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson did an article for the Los Angeles Times in 2014 where he was asked what his top ten science fiction films might be. I don’t believe the original article exists anymore, however, the list is here on IMDB and this is quoted to what he said about The Quiet Earth.
‘Low budget, low distribution. One of many films that imagine for you what life might be like if you were the last person alive on Earth. In this case, the premise, the story, the casual science literacy of the main character, keeps the viewer in suspense the entire time, wondering what the hell happened and why.’ NdGT
IMDB Rating 6.7/10
Wolfman’s Overall Film Fun Rating 8/10
I’ve seen The Quiet Earth around four times since first catching it on television back in the 80’s. This was my first viewing for like 15 years and it felt fresh going back in. It’s a great film and Bruno Lawrence really carries the film with his everyday man, stuck, in a totally messed up situation.
Thanks for having a read. Hope it was fun?
Stay safe and remember to print these manuals off for safe keeping as the power grid will no doubt be down.
Big love.
Mikey Da Wolf
Wolfmans Cult Film 