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Scientist Zac Hobson’s world ends with a bottle of
pills at precisely 6:12 A.M. but he awakens to a new reality: he is seemingly
the last man on Earth. Confused, he explores this strange geography not sure if
this is some internal dimension or an external result of the failed Project
Flashlight, a unilateral experiment involving countries across the globe.
Zac begins to slowly lose his mind to the madness
of isolation, becoming god of the empty streets and echoing lifeless cities.
The gunmetal taste of suicide brings him back to sanity and he begins to
monitor the world around him, taking measurements of the now pulsating sun. He
meets Joanne and Api and their base human conflicts threaten to push them
apart, to isolate them in a world of silence and create an emotional vacuum
filled with the ether of despair. Through dialogue, they discover the reason
for their existence; they all died at the moment the Project malfunctioned,
preserving them in this empty world. Soon Zac discovers that this
electromagnetic pulse is going to reoccur and their only hope for survival is
to destroy the facility.
Director Geoff Murphy films in long shots of
deserted streets and towns, lending an air of realism to this somewhat trite
narrative. As Zac explores an empty house, a torrent of water flows from the
kitchen ceiling, homage to Tarkovsky’s masterpiece SOLARIS. A crashed jet plane, abandoned vehicles, burning wreckage,
and a still hot coffee pot, inform the audience that everyone just disappeared
without a trace and which adds a level of realism for such a small budget film.
But it’s the character’s juvenile emotional turmoil that almost unravels the
story, which removes us from any sympathetic coherence: the three protagonists
aren't very likable. Though we know more about Zac than Joanne and Api, we are
still too detached from caring about their dilemma. Finally, Zac disappears in
a mushroom cloud but awakens once again to an alien terrain where spidery
clouds caress the violent blue surf and a ringed planet rises above the gentle
mist.
Final Grade: (C)
