The Quiet Earth (film)
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| The Quiet Earth | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Geoff Murphy |
| Produced by | Sam Pillsbury, Don Reynolds |
| Written by | Craig Harrison (novel) Bill Baer Bruno Lawrence Sam Pillsbury |
| Starring | Bruno Lawrence Alison Routledge Pete Smith |
| Music by | John Charles |
| Cinematography | James Bartle |
| Editing by | Michael Horton |
| Distributed by | Unknown |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $Unknown |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Quiet Earth is a 1985 New Zealand science fiction doomsday film directed by Geoff Murphy and starring Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge and Pete Smith as three survivors of a cataclysmic disaster. It was based on the 1981 science fiction novel of the same name by Craig Harrison.
[edit] Plot
Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) is a scientist working for Telinco, part of an international consortium working on "Project Flashlight", an ambitious experiment apparently designed to tap the vacuum energy fluctuations of space itself.
July 5th begins as a normal winter morning near Auckland, New Zealand. At 6:12 A.M., the sun momentarily darkens and a red light surrounded by darkness is briefly seen (as if through a tunnel). The sun then returns to normal and Zac awakens abruptly, appearing somewhat surprised. He doesn't notice that there are no sounds of birds. The radio produces only static, and a call to the motel operator elicits no reply. He gets dressed and drives into the city.
On the way, he notices that there are no people or animals to be seen. It appears that everyone has simply vanished in the midst of their routine activity. Downtown Auckland is utterly deserted. Investigating a fire, he discovers the remains of a crashed jet, but there are no bodies, only empty seats with the seat belts still fastened.
He enters his underground laboratory workplace and logs onto the computer system; the monitor displays the message "Project Flashlight Complete". He finds no one there, save for the burned, disfigured body of a colleague. When he touches it, it falls onto a control panel, triggering a radiation leak. The lab automatically seals itself off, trapping Zac inside. He finds his personal tape recorder and notes:
- "Zac Hobson, July 5th. One: there has been a malfunction in Project Flashlight with devastating results. Two: it seems I am the only person left on Earth."
The mass disappearance occurred at the precise moment that Project Flashlight was activated. Zac rigs a makeshift explosive and escapes.
Zac goes to a radio station and sets up a repeating broadcast, asking anyone listening to contact him at his home. After several days without a response, his mental state begins to deteriorate. He puts on a woman's slip and alternates between exhilaration and despair. Eventually he breaks down altogether. He places cardboard cutouts of famous people (such as Adolf Hitler, Richard Nixon, and Pope John Paul II) on the lawn and addresses them from a balcony, to the accompaniment of recorded fanfare and applause. The electricity fails just as he declares himself "President of this Quiet Earth". Then, he goes on a destructive rampage, still wearing the slip, which by this point has become tattered and is missing one of its straps, making it a grotesque parody of a caveman's skin. He enters a church and demands that God show Himself ("If you don't come out. I'll shoot the KID!!!" he screams, pointing his shotgun at a statue of Jesus). He blasts the statue to pieces, and declares himself to be God. Totally despondent, he puts the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth, but then backs away from the brink of madness.
Establishing a more normal routine, he sets up a electrical generator and programs a computer to monitor the local conditions. He begins to notice subtle changes in the environment, suggesting that the effects to the experiment are ongoing.
One morning, he comes across another survivor, a young woman named Joanne (Alison Routledge). Together they begin to search for other survivors and eventually become lovers. Later, they find a third survivor, a large Māori man named Api (Pete Smith). The three determine why they survived the Effect: they were all on the verge of death when it happened. Api was being drowned in a fight with another man, Joanne was electrocuted by a faulty appliance, and Zac took a fatal overdose of pills. He had figured out that there were serious problems with the experiment and was guilt-ridden for not bringing them up with his employers.
A love triangle develops, but Zac is more concerned about some very disturbing observations: several fundamental constants of the universe (such as the elementary charge of the electron and proton) are changing. As a result, the Sun's output is fluctuating. Zac believes that the Effect may be about to occur again. He decides to destroy the still-running Telinco facility to unbalance the Project Flashlight "grid" and hopefully stop the Effect.
The three put aside their mounting personal tensions and travel to the installation with a truckload of explosives, only to be stopped at the perimeter when Zac detects dangerously high levels of ionizing radiation. He heads back toward town, supposedly to retrieve a device to run the truck by remote control. While he is gone, Joanne and Api make love. Afterwards, he tells her that he is going to sacrifice himself by driving the truck; he doubts that Zac's device is capable of controlling a big semi.
Then they see that Zac has had the same idea. He drives onto the roof of the underground lab, which collapses under the weight. Just as the Effect reaches a maximum, he sets off the explosives.
Once again, a red light is seen surrounded by the dark tunnel (as in the beginning of the film). Zac then finds himself lying face down alone on a beach. There are strange cloud formations, resembling waterspouts (see poster image above). As he walks to the water's edge, an enormous ringed planet slowly rises over the horizon. The film closes on Zac's face, bewildered and unable to comprehend what has happened. He holds up his personal tape recorder as if to speak, but then lowers it. It is clear there is nothing left to say.
