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The Quiet Earth




The Quiet Earth (1985)

Director: Geoff Murphy
Writers: Craig Harrison (novel), Bill Baer
Cast: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith
Genre: Sci Fi, Mystery


"A man named Zac Hobson awakens to find himself alone in the world. In a desperate attempt to search for others, he finds only two who have their own agenda."

I love sci-fi, but I flat out disliked this one. It was silly and had next to nothing to say. It's main claim to fame is that it shows us all the things a person could do if you were the last person in the world...such as:

Driving a car really fast, driving farm equipment through buildings, collecting artwork, shooting at a statue of Jesus, and wearing a slip and blowing up stuff.
None of that was food for the brain. I like to be challenged by a movie or at least care about the characters. I didn't care about anyone in this, especially the lead guy who was like watching paint dry.



The scene where a person walks on the wall, was ridiculously tacked on for eye candy effect. It wasn't incorporated into the story, nor did it move the movie forward or contribute anything other than just being filler space. In fact that's what most of this movie is filler scenes.

The editing wasn't great, especially in the scene where he first has the girl back at his place. Watch that scene carefully, the edits between the camera shots are erratic.

The Quiet Earth
reminded me of another sci fi film, The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) though that one was not only much more cinematic, but also more thought provoking.

I love 1980s sci fi, even B budget movies as long as they have something going on with them, there was nothing engaging in this one. The one cool thing about The Quiet Earth is the movie poster.