The Quiet Earth

A New Zealand science fiction film. Zac wakes one morning and can find nobody. The houses are open, cars are stopped in the road, a plane has come down; there are no people. There are no animals either. He is a scientist working on a research project. The project concerns a global energy network, and a test was run. From there the film enters a long passage of solitude. Zac stays in whatever house he likes, takes what he wants, shouts in the street. Then he begins to come apart: he calls out to God in a church, declares himself in charge and builds an audience out of shop dummies. Then he finds a woman. Then another man. Three people together with nothing in common. The tension between them is both personal and structural: when the number of survivors is three, none of the old rules applies. The second matter is that the experiment is continuing; there are signs it will happen again and Zac tries to stop it. The most-discussed thing is the last shot. What it is will not be written here; the narrative ends without explanation and that image counts among the best-known endings in the genre. Bruno Lawrence plays Zac and the film rests almost entirely on him. Alison Routledge and Anzac Wallace are in the cast. Geoff Murphy directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow science fiction and last-man stories. Who it is not for: anyone expecting explanation; the film never resolves its science and leaves the ending entirely to interpretation.