The Quiet Earth

This is a kiwi classic from 1985, directed by Geoff Murphy and starring Bruno Lawrence .

Synopsis

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

THE QUIET EARTH centres around a scientist called Zac (BRUNO LAWRENCE) who wakes one morning to discover he is alone in the world. The global top-secret energy project (OPERATION FLASHLIGHT) which he has been working on for a year, has changed the world. Humanity seems to have been wiped out.

Zac begins a frantic search for other survivors. At the same time he has the chance to live out his fantasies. In a world where excess and wealth have no meaning, he switches from dwelling to dwelling and vehicle to vehicle.

But he soon realises the emptiness and loneliness of his nightmare situation. "I have been condemned to live" he says.

The discovery of two survivors, first a woman (ALISON ROUTLEDGE) and then a man (PETE SMITH) sets the scene for a critical struggle for survival and adds an intriguing spiritual and emotional domension to the film.

Zac's attraction for Joanne is threatened by the presence of Api. Yet despite fellings of antagonism between the two men, the three characters band together under the growing realisation that the forces unleashed by the experiment have created an instability in the universe.

The Effect - or tilt fo the fourth dimension - which struck at the exact moment of death for each of the three characters, is destined to happen again.

Zac and Api calculate that only by blowing up the satellite station where the experiments have been carried out, will they destroy the grid and prevent the Effect from occurring again.

Together they load a huge articulated truck with dynamite and head for the station, but they find they can't get close enough because of the radiation. What happens next is an extraordinary and unpredictable series of events.

For information about this movie or any other New Zealand film please go to the New Zealand Film Commission