These Final Hours

The basic premise is the same as that of Lorene Scafaria's fine 2012 film SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD--two protagonists thrown together go on a road trip as an asteroid-induced end of the world impends. This film is not anywhere as enjoyable to watch: while the earlier film does show many of the negative and ugly aspects of human behavior when doom approaches, that shown so relentlessly here is even uglier, and there is little that is noble or humorous to counterbalance it. And the two main characters are not as charismatic as those in Scafaria's film. Of course, here, there's no chance of romance between these protagonists, so the burgeoning love between the unlikely couple (Steve Carell and Keira Knightley) in Scafaria's film has no real parallel here. James' rescue of Rose might set up a kind of father/daughter dynamic, but as she is seeking her actual father, this too is a no-go. It is a tribute to James' basic decency that he treats getting her back to her people as his real aim. James left the woman he loved to go to an end of the world party, which is also paralleled in Scafaria's film, but though that party repelled Carell's character (Dodge) with its hedonism and emptiness, by contrast, the party James has risked his life, and abandoned his lover, to attend, turns out to be a depraved, hellish nightmare from which he and Rose barely escape alive. (Again, a whole different degree of ugliness.) The ending too, is much more graphic and uncompromising than that in SAFFTEOTW ... it ends on the beach at Perth, as the clearly visible onrush of the firestorm races toward them across the Indian Ocean. The girlfriend's initial rage at James-- "You left me!"-- reminds me of a parallel moment in the Season 2 of the new Outer Limits adaptation of Larry Niven's short story "Inconstant Moon" (Season 2 Episode 20) where Joanna Gleason locks Michael Gross out as the firestorm of the Nova/Solar Flare reaches them (in the Pacific NW of Canada, one surmises), screaming much the same thing. In that, however, a new day dawns in defiance of the possible outcomes, and the couple survives. Here, as in SAFFTEOTW, there is no such hopeful ending. Overall, not as good -- and certainly nowhere as enjoyable or watchable-- a film as SAFFTEOTW, and much, much, darker (in its view of humanity, not the inescapable doom that rushes to take them). But the approaching firestorm at the end is impressive!

Gripping and well made, simultaneously uplifting and redemptive but also depressing and definitely apocalyptic, this is the beautifully filmed story of two people facing the end of the world in Perth, Australia. The day the film depicts beginning about ten minutes after an asteroid impacts the north Atlantic Ocean, there are about 12 hours before a global firestorm reaches Perth. It is heavily implied again and again everyone knows this asteroid strike was coming and really there was no way to survive it. The world is truly ending.The story is essentially about how people chose to spend those final hours and how they decide to face the end. Will they fall into crime and violence? Party until they are numb and don’t care? Spend quiet time with family and friends? Take their own lives and/or the lives of loved ones so they don’t feel any pain from the coming firestorm? Face the coming apocalypse, wanting to feel and experience things up until the very last moment, maybe alone, maybe with those they love most, maybe with complete strangers?The movie focuses on two people. We get James, the main character, who in the beginning is with his lover Zoe, enjoying each other’s intimate company on the beach and what they know will be a great view of the firestorm. Zoe, who tells James she is pregnant, wants James to stay, but James wants to join his friend for one final party and get wasted, blocking all feelings for what is going to happen and is really rather upset to receive such serious news on his last day alive. Understandable, certainly, but also selfish, and James leaves over Zoe’s objections to make his way to his friend Freddy’s party.Along the way James encounters signs of the end of the world, one of them two men taking a young teenage girl into a house with the obvious intent to rape her. Torn between going on his way to the party and rescuing the girl, James finds he just can’t leave the girl to that fate, even knowing she would die in less than 12 hours and rescues her.The girl – her name Rose – was never someone James intended to bond with, but bond he does while hoping to find Rose’s dad (Rose and her father got separated) or failing that, leaving her with someone while he makes his way to the party, but events don’t go as planned owing to a variety of encounters along the way. Also along the way James becomes less selfish and redeems himself, finding peace with his life and what he needs to do in his final hours, some of that from Rose’s positive influence, some of that from the quest to get her to her father and to do something selfless in his last hours on earth.The movie was beautifully filmed with just gorgeous use of color and light. It had just the right touches of post-apocalyptic mayhem without being ugly or brutal (certainly nothing quite as dark as The Walking Dead or the like). Some of the encounters were tropes of a sort of this subgenre – people trying to take your working vehicle for instance – but others were not and a surprise. The actor who played James (Nathan Phillips) did a great job and was believable as he made the slow slide from selfish and nihilistic to a man on a mission to a man at peace, and Rose (played by Angourie Rice) was endearing, right between the line of a child and an intelligent and quite capable adult, precocious and frustrating and very well portrayed.The movie reminded me a bit of Iain Rob Wright’s novella _Tar_ and the novel and the movie _On the Beach_ but I think was superior to either one (though they are all quite good). If you like any of those three you would enjoy this film.

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Ich habe in einer Kritik gelesen, dieser Film "frißt sich ins Gehirn". Und das tut er. Nur wenige Filme schaffen es, mich über das Ende hinaus noch zum Nachdenken zu bewegen. Was wäre wenn? Was würde ich tun wenn? Die Fragen, die sich die Hauptfigur in dem Film nicht mehr stellen muss, denn die Fakten sind unumstößlich: das Ende kommt. In etwa 12 Stunden ist das Leben auf der Erde ausgelöscht.Ein unglaublich starker Film, der beschreibt, dass es nie zu spät ist, das Richtige zu tun, und das keine Zeit zu kurz sein kann, das Richtige überhaupt zu erkennen... für sich selbst und auch für andere.Wer hier Weltuntergangsspektakel im Stil von Armageddon oder Deep Impact oder so erwartet,der ist hier fehl am Platz. Es geht hier um Charakter, Einsicht, Sehnsucht und natürlich um Angst, Leid und Mitleid.Starke Nummer! Musikalisch super untermalt ein ganz starker Film. Kaufen und mehrmals gucken. Vielleicht hilft es dem einen oder anderen auch, seinen eigenen Focus wieder etwas zu justieren.

good film, well cast and for once humans lose. I liked this

Pretty OK if you like end-of-world films. Not as spectacular as say Deep Impact, but more personal. Beware, very dark!

great thanks