So theres this guy right, and....

October 10, 2005 10:16 AM

I'm looking for the name of a movie i once saw half of. Ive talked to some friends about it and some of them seem to remember it to - its all a little vague though, sorry bout that. This whole thing is spoiler-ridden, for obvious reasons, so if you start to read it and a) havent seen the movie before and b) would kind of like to i'd suggest you stop when you think it starts to get good, because i've put down what i THINK the ending is.

It was on British television maybe ten years ago - it starts with a man lying in bed - hes completely naked and a bird is singing outside his window. Its early in the morning and i think theres a shot of his alarm clock. Maybe theres a bright flash, but anyway, he wakes up. He gets dressed and goes about his day but everyone's disappeared. As in, there are no people anywhere, they all seem to have just vanished.

He starts to get used to it - he raids a supermarket in a golf cart and sets up his house in a mansion - i think he also rigs up some kind of radio set or loudspeaker repeating some message. Sometime in the movie he meets two(?) others and they try and figure out where everyone else has gone. The rest of this is hearsay and what ive been able to piece together from other people who may or may not have seen the movie. Seriously, this is reaching an obsessional status with me, please help!

So, these three people think that it must have something to do with where one of them works (maybe the main character), which is at some kind of computer or power station or something, very experimental. So they go there and they manage to figure out what happened.

All of them died at the exact time this computer/power thing went "off", or exploded, or something. So it basically defibrillated them or something and they registered as dead so they didnt disappear.

They decide to reverse it, or that they cant go on living, or something - anyway, they decide to make the machine do it again. Or maybe the machine is already set to do it again and they want to stop it. So, anyway, they break into the machine (theres some kind of lock or something keeping them out) and one of them swings an axe into the machine - causing it to go off. As it goes off again, he dies from the electric shock. He wakes up, but alone this time.

I think it was made in New Zealand or Australia - it just seems a little too dark and drenched in realism for an American movie, and the scenery didnt look English. Anyway, please help! I'm desperate to see this movie!

posted by lowest.common.denominator to media & arts (12 answers total)

The Quiet Earth.
posted by bobo123 at 10:19 AM on October 10, 2005

It sounds like The Quiet Earth mentioned above, but at the end of it the hero drives a truck into a radio telescope to disrupt the grid.

I haven't seen it in years but I remember liking it.
posted by beowulf573 at 10:34 AM on October 10, 2005

Most assuredly The Quiet Earth.
posted by jdroth at 10:35 AM on October 10, 2005

Jesus you people were quick! thanks, you've solved about 3 years worth of wondering. Best damn 5 dollars i ever spent.
posted by lowest.common.denominator at 10:53 AM on October 10, 2005

sounds like 28 days later, but i guess thats not it
posted by chuckforthought.com at 12:00 PM on October 10, 2005

Sadly, this movie is only out on VHS, so I can't add it to my Netflix que.

I saw part of this when i was pretty young and would love to see it again, but alas I no longer own a VCR.
posted by teece at 12:02 PM on October 10, 2005

It is available on DVD here in New Zealand, or from amazon.co.uk. It says it's region 0.
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:55 PM on October 10, 2005

Ha! I just watched this movie Sunday. You can do the same thanks to BitTorrent.
posted by the biscuit man at 1:03 PM on October 10, 2005

I recall the final scene being surreal--wasn't there two suns rising, or something like that?

Amazing movie; I knew it right away when you started describing it.
posted by Savannah at 2:42 PM on October 10, 2005

It was amazing. I remember going to see it with my father in the theater, and we were both totally blown away. Great, great movie. (End scene spoiler follows; apologies in advance if I don't have the spoiler protocol right!)

[SPOILER]



Savannah, my recollection is that the grid somehow transported the guy who'd worked at the place to someplace that featured an enormous, ringed planet rising on the horizon.

[/SPOILER]
posted by Janta at 3:06 PM on October 10, 2005

Some years ago I was in a thread (USENET, perhaps) where this was deemed by many "the best sf movie you've never heard of".
posted by dhartung at 1:17 AM on October 11, 2005

Good movie, I remember it got kinda silly once the guy met the two survivors. The ending I don't remember but I seem to recall it being disappointed. Still, worth watching.
posted by zardoz at 9:06 AM on October 11, 2005