THESE FINAL HOURS

Australia, 2013, 87 minutes, Colour.
Nathan Phillips, Angourie Rice, David Field, Lynette Curran, Sarah Snook, Jessica de Gouw, Daniel Henshall.
Directed by Zak Hilditch.

These Final Hours are, in the film, literally humanity’s final time before the absolute destruction of Earth.

The film works well in the apocalyptic genre, offering a plausible end of the world, a meteor crashing into earth setting off an ever-increasing fireball that destroys the northern hemisphere, Africa and is headed, finally, to Australia. Audiences interested in this kind of film will have in mind the basic core plot of Neville Shute’s On the Beach. There are many differences, this film is more focused on the final hours alone – though it does finish on the beach. Another recent film with this theme is Searching for a Friend at the End of the World with Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley.

The challenge of the film to its audience is to ask what we would do if we had only a few hours to live. The central character, James, played well by Nathan Phillips, is a self-centred man. At the opening, we see him sexually involved with his girlfriend, discovering that she is pregnant, but nevertheless leaving her and going to see another girlfriend at an end-of-life party. He is an Everyman character, but seemingly a less than worthy one. He takes his car, driving to the party, a device which enables the audience to see what is going on in the streets and how people are responding.

One thing that makes an effective impact is that the setting is Perth, ordinary suburban streets, the car passing by very comfortable homes which now are empty, still looking realistic despite what is going on. Most audiences can identify with this setting. The streets are not crowded, though there are bodies lying on the street, one hanging from a light pole, a group of with their Bibles praying in the street, some predators attacking a little girl…

It is this episode the challenges James’s conscience. Reluctantly, yet willingly, he goes to the rescue of the little girl, confronting the brutal predators and killing them. He takes the girl, Rose, who wants to go to find her father. James is still somewhat unwilling but goes to the local ice rink where her father is not to be found, and she asking him then to take her to her aunt’s place where her family were to gather. But, James still wants to go to his party.

The party is a conventional scene of loud music, young people dancing, sexual activity, some of it orgiastic. James leaves Rose with the partyers, and teams up with his other girlfriend, Vicky, who has been looking forward to spend a sexual end of the world with him. He meets up with his friend, Frank, the host of the party who ultimately does not understand James’s altruistic decisions. After disillusioning Vicky that the bunker she and Frank have prepared will not save them from death, she lets him go. In the meantime, there is a woman, mentally deluded by grief and drugs, who thinks that Rose is her daughter and gives her a pill which has a terrible effect on the little girl. This reinforces James and his decision to save Rose.

The final part of the film is, indeed, very sad. Rose finds her family but in tragic circumstances, deciding to stay, that this is the right place for her at the end of the world. James visits his mother, a low-key visit, with a fine cameo performance by Lynette Curran. She is going to stay in her home, quietly doing her puzzles until the end comes.

Which leads James back to where he started, to the girlfriend, seeing the enormous furnace in the sky which is devouring earth, the culmination of these final hours.

Not a film for everyone, rather disturbing in its way. But it is an interesting contribution to the ever-popular apocalyptic imagining of the end of the world.

1. The apocalyptic genre? The end of the earth by fire? Total destruction? The background of such stories as On the Beach? The Australian setting?

2. The initial visuals, the meteor, the crash? The nature of the meteor, its crash to earth, destruction in the northern hemisphere? Moving towards Australia?

3. The Perth settings, the suburbs, the comfortable houses, the streets, the beach? The party? The musical score and its mood?

4. The voice-over, the information, the personal touch in the communication of the radio speaker? James and his response?

5. The film asking the question of the audience what they would do at the end of the world? The visuals of the different reactions in the film, the range of suicides, the hanging in the street, the deaths in the street, James and his sister, her family and the death in the bath, Rose’s family and their deaths in the woods? The violence and brutality, especially towards Rose? Predators on the prowl? The abandoned cars and taxis, the group on the street praying? The absence of people at the ice-skating rink? People staying at home, James’s mother? preparation for death or no preparation, accepting it? Fear? The party, sexual behaviour, orgiastic, be merry for tonight we die, the issue of the bunker and possible safety? The challenge to good order at the end of the world?

6. The opening, James and his girlfriend, the sexual encounter, her pregnancy, his leaving – his thinking of her, discussions with Vicki about her, her being by herself?

7. James’s character, age, experience, his girlfriend, the question of the party, self-centred, wanting to see Vicki, his friend Freddy?

8. The predators with Rose, the challenge to James’s conscience, his going to save her, the brutality, the deaths? His taking Rose in the car? Have the visit of the skating rink, Rose expecting her father, no one there? Going to the library, the policeman father with his wife and children wanting James to kill them? James unable to?

9. Rose, her age, character, wanting to be with her father, wanting to go to the house of Aunt Janice? Her determination? The bond with James? The challenge to his conscience?

10. Going to the party, the visuals of the party, the music, the dancing, sexual encounters? Frank and his abandonment? The woman thinking that Rose was her daughter, Mandy? Rose in the swimming pool? The woman giving Rose the pill? The confrontation with James, shooting her? The orgiastic behaviour? Vicki, her relationship with James, the sexual approach, going to the bunker, his disillusioning her about the possible safety, Frank and the bunker, Vicki and her accepting fate and letting James go?

11. The growing intensity, the voice on the radio, the visuals of abandonment and suicide? Time getting closer?

12. Going to the house Aunt Janice, the search, James finding the bodies in the woods, their deaths? Rose wanting to see her father? To be in the right place? Her strong stance, the decision to stay, James leaving her, looking at her for the longest time possible?

13. James, going to visit his mother, her quiet presence, attitudes towards her son, concern about her daughter and the family? Her decision to stay, doing her puzzles until the end? Urging James to go?

14. The vehicles throughout the film, the vans, the cars, the taxi, the need for petrol? James’s mother giving him the petrol? His driving back home, the car and the exhaust, explosion? His running, his girlfriend at the beach, on the shore, watching the fire coming, her reaction, antagonistic, accepting, the finale with James and the girl waiting for their fate?

15. The film remaining within the apocalyptic genre, avoiding the conventions of the horror film, focusing audience attention on the reality of the end of the world in the challenge as to what one would do?