The World's EndNostalgia is an intoxicant. You remember things a certain way, it colors your perception of new experiences and those new experiences never seem to give you quite the same rush as before. You're living in the past, going on like one of those guys in the pubs about the "good old days". Gary King (Simon Pegg) is loaded on nostalgia...and alcohol, but it's really nostalgia which is his poison of choice. Forever stuck in a loop, recalling "That Fateful Night" when--as a youth--he and his four friends attempted the "Golden Mile"--an epic pub crawl--in their hometown of Newton Haven, only to come up a bit short. He wants a do over in the worst way.
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One by one, Gary "convinces" his former wolf pack to accompany him back home to give a go at the staggering trip down memory lane, but Gary discovers that his pals have all gotten respectable, with grown-up jobs, families, and their own serious affairs. But come they do, all of his buds (with courtly last names)--Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), Oliver "O-Man" Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), and Peter Page (Eddie Marsan)...but especially Gary's wingman, Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), who is the most sore at Gary's reemergence and his solicitation to partake in a return to events which had apparently left an unpleasant memory behind for him. In something of a role reversal compared to Edgar Wright's other entries into his "Cornetto trilogy"--Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz--Simon Pegg plays the irresponsible screw up, and Nick Frost plays the stalwart straight man, forced to loosen up a bit. Gary's past is frozen over in a state of arrested development, where he still drives the same hoopty car, he listens to the same music, and even is up to the same kind of tricks better suited to a teenager. But in a way, Gary's refusal to change is the heart of The World's End, a story which ultimately embraces a corrosion of conformity. While Gary's mission is initially one of personal fulfillment, trying to recapture that perfect moment that has been missing in his life, the film takes a dramatically sharp left turn about midway through, putting us on the road to an altogether different kind of experience. The gears shift, and everything we know changes--as alarming of a turn for us as it is for Gary and his crew; and yet this shift is still deeply tied to the deeper human condition explored: sometimes we just don't want to be told what to do.
As in the predecessors to The World's End, co-written all by star Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, there are not only a few nods to the other entries in the trilogy, but also deeply thematic ones. Just as Shaun and Nick (also Simon Pegg) discovered their true calling in the wake of nearly catastrophic--or fully catastrophic--episodes, so does Gary. As in Shaun of the Dead, there is a fear of being turned into a zombie--a slave--to the institutions which should enrich our lives, but instead keep us in shackles; and in Hot Fuzz, there is the fear of conspiracy, that everyone is in on a big plan to keep you under their thumb, keep you from acting up, and doing as your told...or else. Gary keeps a lot from us, just as he does with his friends, because he is scared of the transformation from rebellious teen into boring adult; and maybe we all should be in a way. The message in the film is that humanity is a rebellious lot--like a teenager--given to wanton freedom and learning through our mistakes. When we look around us, what do we see? A world gradually getting closer because of sophisticated technology allowing for extensive social networking, but are we honest with ourselves, or others? We still go about wearing the boring suits, driving the boring cars, acting like adults, drinking the sugar-free, gluten-free, fun-free Kool-Aid. It's as Steven points out that when they visit the first pub--that it looks like every other pub anywhere--that they've all been "Starbucking", making everything a neat, tidy, soullessly homogenized copy of a copy. That's the fear, that's the dread which lurks in Gary, that terror of losing himself, seeing those he loves and cares about turned into a pre-fab, PC-friendly, vanilla robot, and that's something to be scared about. Gary's gone on his life without any real sense of achievement, no real sense that he's done what he wants do to, and that bothers him more than anything. He wants to be special, wants to be important, even if it means that he completes the silly quest he has set before himself, the "Golden Mile". It's understandable to want to complete a mission you take on, even if it's crazy, even if it requires some serious fortitude, maybe even a brush or three with death; but every so often, you have to prove something to yourself--and even everyone else...that you are alive and free, and it's red blood that flows in these veins. And maybe a few lagers in the end.
Recommended for: Fans of a highly eclectic mix of genres creating a wholly unique story about freedom and personal growth, and conquering the hordes of nostalgia beating down the portcullis.
As in the predecessors to The World's End, co-written all by star Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, there are not only a few nods to the other entries in the trilogy, but also deeply thematic ones. Just as Shaun and Nick (also Simon Pegg) discovered their true calling in the wake of nearly catastrophic--or fully catastrophic--episodes, so does Gary. As in Shaun of the Dead, there is a fear of being turned into a zombie--a slave--to the institutions which should enrich our lives, but instead keep us in shackles; and in Hot Fuzz, there is the fear of conspiracy, that everyone is in on a big plan to keep you under their thumb, keep you from acting up, and doing as your told...or else. Gary keeps a lot from us, just as he does with his friends, because he is scared of the transformation from rebellious teen into boring adult; and maybe we all should be in a way. The message in the film is that humanity is a rebellious lot--like a teenager--given to wanton freedom and learning through our mistakes. When we look around us, what do we see? A world gradually getting closer because of sophisticated technology allowing for extensive social networking, but are we honest with ourselves, or others? We still go about wearing the boring suits, driving the boring cars, acting like adults, drinking the sugar-free, gluten-free, fun-free Kool-Aid. It's as Steven points out that when they visit the first pub--that it looks like every other pub anywhere--that they've all been "Starbucking", making everything a neat, tidy, soullessly homogenized copy of a copy. That's the fear, that's the dread which lurks in Gary, that terror of losing himself, seeing those he loves and cares about turned into a pre-fab, PC-friendly, vanilla robot, and that's something to be scared about. Gary's gone on his life without any real sense of achievement, no real sense that he's done what he wants do to, and that bothers him more than anything. He wants to be special, wants to be important, even if it means that he completes the silly quest he has set before himself, the "Golden Mile". It's understandable to want to complete a mission you take on, even if it's crazy, even if it requires some serious fortitude, maybe even a brush or three with death; but every so often, you have to prove something to yourself--and even everyone else...that you are alive and free, and it's red blood that flows in these veins. And maybe a few lagers in the end.
Recommended for: Fans of a highly eclectic mix of genres creating a wholly unique story about freedom and personal growth, and conquering the hordes of nostalgia beating down the portcullis.