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Message |
senna
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They're all DEAD
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Apr 18 03:13 UTC 2002 |
Arts question: In my Shakespeare class, during a discussion of King Lear,
it came to our attention that nobody could recall any plays or movies or
similar works in which *all* of the characters wound up dead. This naturally
does not include No Exit, for obvious reasons, but I was curious if anybody
can recall works of some sort where every character (not just the major
characters) dies by the end of the story.
This is an item because I wouldn't mind stimulating some discussion.
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| 150 responses total. |
senna
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response 1 of 150:
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Apr 18 03:15 UTC 2002 |
A Perfect Storm just crossed my mind, but it is disqualified by the bit
characters on shore. In any case, George Clooney's giant chin (anyone who
saw the movie at TOP knows what I'm talking about) will live forever.
I suspect that there are stories of villages or communities that are
completely wiped out, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
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aruba
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response 2 of 150:
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Apr 18 04:34 UTC 2002 |
I don't think there are any humans left alive at the end of Silent Running.
And we blow up the world at the end of the second Planet of the Apes movie,
don't we?
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senna
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response 3 of 150:
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Apr 18 04:43 UTC 2002 |
What are the contexts?
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aruba
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response 4 of 150:
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Apr 18 13:48 UTC 2002 |
Well, Silent Running is about Bruce Dern taking care of a spaceship of
plants with his robot buddies. Frankly, I never did understand the plot
very well, because the robots don't talk, so there's not much dialog. At
the end, he's ordered to come back to earth, but he doesn't want to, so he
blows himself up and leaves the robots to care for the plants.
I haven't seen the Planet of the Apes movies since I was a kid, so I can't
remember much. But the second one ends with Charleton Heston (I think)
staggering into the underground doomsday-device control room and, as a
last dying act, pulling down on the crystalline switch, leaving it
streaked with blood. Then the screen fades to black, so you don't really
see what happens next.
At least, that's how I remember it. Someone feel free to tell me what was
really going on.
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scott
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response 5 of 150:
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Apr 18 13:52 UTC 2002 |
That would have been the second "Planet of the Apes" (dialed in, can't access
imdb.com to get details) movie. I don't remember the exact ending either.
"Pen and Teller get Killed" ends up with everybody dead (and I do mean
*everybody*), but it's not a well known movie at all.
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aruba
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response 6 of 150:
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Apr 18 13:55 UTC 2002 |
Eww, forgot about that one. It was a real stinker.
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jmsaul
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response 7 of 150:
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Apr 18 18:09 UTC 2002 |
I don't think any of the characters in _Dark Star_ survive.
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void
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response 8 of 150:
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Apr 18 18:20 UTC 2002 |
You beat me to it, Joe. Everyone in "Dark Star" dies, or you know that
they are going to meet certain death very shortly.
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brighn
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response 9 of 150:
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Apr 18 18:26 UTC 2002 |
Another King work: the Tommyknockers. I don't think anyone from the city
survives, but there may be a few ancillary characters (people on TV, etc.)
who are unscathed.
I would think that such apocalpytic examples would be restricted to:
-- All the humans die, but other sentient species survive (do any versions
of "I Am Legend/Omega Man" end with all the humans dead? I don't remember;
the movie version of "Lathe of Heaven" *begins* with everyone but one person
dying, but he brings a bunch of them back to life)
-- All the main characters die, but possible ancillary characters on TV
survive (it seems like I've seen a few horror movies like this, where the
point was that all the death was to prevent more death if the baddies got
away)
-- EVERYBODY DIES. It seems to me that there must be SOME stories like this,
but I don't know any. I know a few where everybody but one person dies
(there's a Twilight Zone episode where a solitary-type wishes he were all
alone, and the world gets destroyed, and he gets all excited about getting
to read in peace now, and his glasses break).
Time Machine has a sole human survivor as well.
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brighn
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response 10 of 150:
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Apr 18 18:28 UTC 2002 |
I remember reading an experiment work of fiction which ran through a half
dozen phonebook listings about what people were doing the moment before the
nuclear bombs went off and destroyed everything and everyone. It was very
disturbing because it was so realistic.
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scott
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response 11 of 150:
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Apr 18 20:55 UTC 2002 |
"Dr. Stranglove" presumably ends with the Soviet Doomsday device going off.
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edina
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response 12 of 150:
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Apr 18 21:39 UTC 2002 |
How about a movie that is so bad you wish everyone were dead?
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void
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response 13 of 150:
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Apr 18 21:43 UTC 2002 |
"Battlefield Earth."
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edina
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response 14 of 150:
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Apr 18 21:45 UTC 2002 |
That movie cries out for Mystery Scienc Theater.
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scott
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response 15 of 150:
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Apr 18 21:51 UTC 2002 |
Hmmm. Nobody was permanently dead in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band",
but their careers all died.
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senna
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response 16 of 150:
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Apr 18 23:29 UTC 2002 |
If I recall my viewing of Strangelove correctly, the principles had made
arrangements for select people to survive, including themselves.
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mcnally
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response 17 of 150:
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Apr 18 23:56 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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flem
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response 18 of 150:
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Apr 19 00:35 UTC 2002 |
Does anyone survive in Das Boot?
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gull
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response 19 of 150:
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Apr 19 02:17 UTC 2002 |
Re #12: You mean like 'Death Race 2000'?
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remmers
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response 20 of 150:
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Apr 19 02:24 UTC 2002 |
Re #12: The most recent version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau"
(with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer in two of their hammiest
performances ever) is in that category. Actually, most if
not all of the major characters do die -- and the movie was
so bad I didn't care.
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scott
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response 21 of 150:
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Apr 19 03:27 UTC 2002 |
Re 18: The lieutenant/reporter survives, I think.
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krj
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response 22 of 150:
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Apr 19 03:51 UTC 2002 |
James Blish's science fiction novel "The Triumph of Time,"
the fourth (and last :) ) of his CITIES IN FLIGHT series,
involves the end of the universe.
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jazz
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response 23 of 150:
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Apr 19 04:05 UTC 2002 |
Everyone who was alive dies in Spielberg and Kubrick's "AI".
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brighn
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response 24 of 150:
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Apr 19 05:43 UTC 2002 |
BTW, in Troma's version of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet are among the
few major characters who DON'T die.
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