THE QUIET EARTH (1985) - ***1/2

Apocalypse Gimmick: (1)Isolation in the Aftermath (2) Non-nuclear armaggedon. (3) Non-American
Claim to Fame: (1) Obscure New Zealand sci-fi picture, based on the novel by fellow Kiwi Craig Harrison. (2) Sure-fire movie to annoys religious folks

The Plot: Zac Hobson, a New Zealand scientist who wakes up one morning to find out that apparently he is the last person left on the planet Earth. He and his fellow scientists have been working on a project to harness interspatial energy, and this seems to be the result. Finding just two other survivors, they must try to prevent another such "event", or humanity will be extinct.

The Review: While Australia was having Glen Miller and Mel Gibson rock the wastelands of the 1980s with fast cars and double-barrell shotguns in the MAD MAX movies, New Zealand quietly produced this underrated cerebral sci-fi gem in the best of the literary tradition. Too bad its still ignored.

What if one day, you find that you are the last person on Earth...with everyone else being zapped from our plane of existence. What would you do?

If by the indications of protagonist actor Bruno Lawrence, you would first be desperate to seek contact of any kind of humanity, including looping your distress call 24/7 at the local radio station. You would get horribly depressed when no one answers. Then you decide to fuck it, and go in a looting spree that civilization always prevented you from getting away with. You would ride all the rusting trains, the deserted malls.

Then you would go batty after the fun wears off. You start wearing clothing in a Roman imperial style. You proclaim your dictatorship of Earth over a crowd of cardboard cut-ups of Hitler, Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, etc. When it seems all hopeless, you hold a Jesus Christ cross idol at gunpoint in a church, threatening God to come down to Earth, or "I'll shoot the kid!"

This entire first half is brilliant. Its a great movie on the severe effects of longterm isolation for any individual.

The second half though, is a decent if lesser and underwhelming picture that features around a love triangle, between the protagonist, a woman he finds, and later another man that is also found to be alive.

Either way, the movie's legendary ambigious ending is one that will cause viewers to debate what the hell has just happened. Sure, the film poster might spoil it, but its such a provacative visual, I can see why the producers and distributors insist on it being slapped on the posters and inevitable VHS covers.