The Quiet EarthSuppose you discovered that you were the last man alive on Earth; what would you do? Drive a car through a shopping mall? Go about to fancy houses, and live in them, drinking champagne for breakfast and wearing tuxedos? Maybe lose your mind, and resolve to confess your sins from the balcony in a negligee to an audience of cardboard cutouts of some of history's most famous and infamous figures...all viable options. For Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence), all of these are eventualities in his struggle to cope not only with his place in this quiet Earth, but with the knowledge that he may have been partially responsible for its inception.
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The transition occurs one bright, hot morning in New Zealand at 6:12am exactly, when a mysterious flash of light--perhaps only registered at a subconscious level--causes live on the planet to vanish. It is not an experience which Zac is prepared for, but he slowly comes to the realization that a covert government project he has been involved with--Project Flashlight--was the catalyst for this event. What we know of Zac is minute at first, only assembled by bits and pieces as the story unfolds. In truth, it is not for a good chuck into the film in which we discover our protagonist's name; prior to that, he could be anyone, just like us. Zac experiences this new world with a slow dawning of understanding, mirroring the dawn that opens the film. Dawn is significant, as it emphasizes our own small place in the universe, but also is an expression of the new, the rebirth of the world every day. The image of the dawn is repeated at other moments in The Quiet Earth, such as when Zac cracks an egg into his champagne--resembling the sun rising in the opening shot--and, of course, that ambiguous and alien closing shot book-ending the film. Zac sees his place in this new world as a kind of punishment, as he recalls his own involvement in the advent in Project Flashlight, one which he convinced himself was for the "greater good"...that dangerous phrase, which we all know is merely a justification for a specific interest we've been motivated to embrace, either by money, creed, or some other emotional drive. In effect, Zac blames himself for the loss of the rest of humanity, and experiences a breakdown. He even proclaims himself as "president of this 'quiet Earth'" from the rooftops wearing a dress, waiving a shotgun around. For him, his punishment is that he has been left alive. He goes through all the stages of loss preceding this, discovering the state of the planet now after the alarming cosmic event. What Zac finds he was unprepared for was that he was not alone in his "punishment"...
What might be a halcyon dream is also an isolated nightmare by daylight, where his only company is in his own delusional playacting of other people--as in his games of billiards--prior to his being approached by Joanne (Alison Routledge). When Joanne shows up, they greet each other with some trepidation at first, but shortly warm up to one another, resolved that they are now the only survivors in this new world. Joanne and Zac quickly become lovers--which comes across as being derived more from an inevitability to their loneliness than true love--but also set about trying to uncover more information which might lead them to some kind of resolution or understanding of the events or a remedy to them. It is not long after this when Zac stumbles across Api (Pete Smith), a masculine and somewhat aggressive rival, whose presence immediately sets about making the relation with Joanne a love triangle with little provocation. Ultimately, even at the end of days, when the opportunity to feud over a woman comes up, two men will find a way to engage in that battle of testosterone. Interestingly, the three also discover that what they share in common is that at the time when the world seemed to make this shift, they were all at death's door by accident or design, and that their near-death states were somehow responsible for their remaining behind. Api observes that after the event, he walked along the streets and felt that he were a ghost; what if he is a ghost, as is everyone left behind? There is no real strong evidence to support that the three characters exist in some kind of half-life state, but they do exist in a place which is otherwise deprived of life. Maybe they did die, and it's only that the purgatory they're in is just like their own world before. While this is a possible reading of The Quiet Earth, I feel the story is more effective as one which purports the dangers of advancing technology for strategic purposes without regard to the safety and well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. There is a kind of recklessness which the trio exhibits which mirrors that of their predecessors. It is less that they are irresponsible as individuals, but as members of a society which is unable to handle the powers it tampers with. They waive guns around, they drive recklessly--even while in a flatbed truck loaded with explosives, and they argue and fall into jealously once their base of power is threatened. In other words, even though the trio are adults, they behave a bit at times like children...not unlike the kind of government which allowed such a program like Project Flashlight to come into effect, its legacy being that of a far too quiet Earth, one with such people in it.
Recommended for: Fans of one of the "last man on Earth" style science fiction dramas, where a lone survivor (or one of the few) must cope with the newfound responsibilities and challenges that come not from being removed from society, but from the reverse. There is also a strong message about being conscientious of allowing rampant government interference in our lives and the natural order of things without moral oversight.
What might be a halcyon dream is also an isolated nightmare by daylight, where his only company is in his own delusional playacting of other people--as in his games of billiards--prior to his being approached by Joanne (Alison Routledge). When Joanne shows up, they greet each other with some trepidation at first, but shortly warm up to one another, resolved that they are now the only survivors in this new world. Joanne and Zac quickly become lovers--which comes across as being derived more from an inevitability to their loneliness than true love--but also set about trying to uncover more information which might lead them to some kind of resolution or understanding of the events or a remedy to them. It is not long after this when Zac stumbles across Api (Pete Smith), a masculine and somewhat aggressive rival, whose presence immediately sets about making the relation with Joanne a love triangle with little provocation. Ultimately, even at the end of days, when the opportunity to feud over a woman comes up, two men will find a way to engage in that battle of testosterone. Interestingly, the three also discover that what they share in common is that at the time when the world seemed to make this shift, they were all at death's door by accident or design, and that their near-death states were somehow responsible for their remaining behind. Api observes that after the event, he walked along the streets and felt that he were a ghost; what if he is a ghost, as is everyone left behind? There is no real strong evidence to support that the three characters exist in some kind of half-life state, but they do exist in a place which is otherwise deprived of life. Maybe they did die, and it's only that the purgatory they're in is just like their own world before. While this is a possible reading of The Quiet Earth, I feel the story is more effective as one which purports the dangers of advancing technology for strategic purposes without regard to the safety and well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. There is a kind of recklessness which the trio exhibits which mirrors that of their predecessors. It is less that they are irresponsible as individuals, but as members of a society which is unable to handle the powers it tampers with. They waive guns around, they drive recklessly--even while in a flatbed truck loaded with explosives, and they argue and fall into jealously once their base of power is threatened. In other words, even though the trio are adults, they behave a bit at times like children...not unlike the kind of government which allowed such a program like Project Flashlight to come into effect, its legacy being that of a far too quiet Earth, one with such people in it.
Recommended for: Fans of one of the "last man on Earth" style science fiction dramas, where a lone survivor (or one of the few) must cope with the newfound responsibilities and challenges that come not from being removed from society, but from the reverse. There is also a strong message about being conscientious of allowing rampant government interference in our lives and the natural order of things without moral oversight.