# Movies/TV about being last person alive on earth **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906 "2014-05-21T08:12:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/21 "2014-05-23T19:09:28Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > A brief blog article I wrote on the subject. > > [RIP Richard Matheson: Godfather of the Undead - DrunkSunshine](http://drunksunshine.com/richard_matheson_1926-201/) > > And I second the recommendation for the BBC _Day of the Triffids._ **JohnClay** threads are magnetic. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/22 "2014-05-23T19:30:18Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I couldn’t find it and I doubt you’d want to because it was not nearly as good as the Will Smith one. If you mean _The LAst Man on Earth_ I think it is the superior movie. Tiny budget but it has a better atmosphere and follows the book much better. > [@lissener](#): > > A brief blog article I wrote on the subject. > > [RIP Richard Matheson: Godfather of the Undead - DrunkSunshine](http://drunksunshine.com/richard_matheson_1926-201/) > > And I second the recommendation for the BBC _Day of the Triffids._ Welcome back? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/23 "2014-05-23T19:42:38Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > There is a move called **“I Am Legend” with Will Smith.** > > [I Am Legend (2007) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/) > > He’s not exactly the last person left on earth, but it’s very close. He’s not certain. But he lives his life as if he is the last person in New York City. There are other people, but they are all infected with a deadly “zombie” type disease. > > \*\*It got a 7.2 on IMDB but I didn’t like it hardly at all \*\*- mostly because it starred Will Smith. You may want to take a look at it anyway. > > There is also a much earlier B&W movie with a very similar title. I couldn’t find it and I doubt you’d want to because\*\* it was not nearly as good as the Will Smith one\*\*. Bolding mine. Wow, you must have really hated the B&W one. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/24 "2014-05-23T20:09:15Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Richard Matheson wrote the sci-fi novel [I Am Legend](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(novel)) back in 1974, a pioneering piece [that has] been adapted for three movies,… _The Last Man on Earth._ So the book was written 10 years after the movie based upon it was made? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/25 "2014-05-23T20:50:09Z")
_ **The Twilight Zone** _ had more than one “last human(s) on Earth” episodes. In addition to Burgess Meredith’s “Time Enough at Last,” there was an episode called "Two,"with Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery as the last survivors of a nuclear war. Bronson was an American soldier and Elizabeth was a Russian. There was another post-apocalyptic episode called “The Old Man in the Cave.” A small band of war survivors has stayed alive by listening to instructions that their leader says come from a wise old man in a nearby cave. They have a lot of canned food that the old man has supposedly told them not to eat. Well, along comes a band of soldiers led by James Coburn. They demand to see the old man, and find out that “he” is a computer. They destroy the computer and get all but one of the survivors to chow down on the forbidden food… and they all die (the food WAS contaminated, just as the old man had tried to tell them). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/26 "2014-05-23T20:55:07Z")
This is a short story, not a TV show or movie (as far as I know, at least): Alfred Bester’s “Adam and No Eve.” All life on Earth has been destroyed while a scientist was in space. He’s the only living creature left. But a voice (God? His crazed imagination?) keeps telling him to get to what’s left of the ocean. He finally makes it there, and realizes before dying that by getting to the ocean, he’s enabled the millions of microbes in his body to survive. And MAYBE those microbes will evolve once again into higher life forms. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/27 "2014-05-23T21:03:50Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > There is a move called “I Am Legend” with Will Smith. > > [I Am Legend (2007) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/) > > He’s not exactly the last person left on earth, but it’s very close. He’s not certain. But he lives his life as if he is the last person in New York City. There are other people, but they are all infected with a deadly “zombie” type disease. > > It got a 7.2 on IMDB but I didn’t like it hardly at all - mostly because it starred Will Smith. You may want to take a look at it anyway. > > There is also a much earlier B&W movie with a very similar title. I couldn’t find it and I doubt you’d want to because it was not nearly as good as the Will Smith one. Your thinking of the Omega Man. Charlton Heston. - [The Omega Man (1971) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/28 "2014-05-23T21:13:21Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Your thinking of the Omega Man. Charlton Heston. - [The Omega Man (1971) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/) No, he’s thinking of Vincent Price in _ **The Last Man on Earth.** _ The budget was low and some of it was a little cheesy, but on the whole, it was a decent effort. It was also MUCH closer to Matheson’s story than the other adaptations. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/29 "2014-05-23T21:23:47Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > The 1985 New Zealand film [The Quiet Earth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Earth_(film)), based on a novel, has the premise that a scientist played by Bruno Lawrence is the last man on Earth. > > He finds the rest of NZ devoid of life, with the cities empty and ruinous. But, I hear all the Australians say, how could he tell it was any different to normal? From there it gets complicated. > > Good film, Bruno Lawrence’s performance is great, and his early death was a great loss to both NZ and Australian film and TV. The trailer and the movie are both on Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/30 "2014-05-23T21:24:25Z")
There are a LOT of sf stories about this concept. There’s even an anthology [http://www.apocalypsebooks.com/last-man-on-earth/](http://www.apocalypsebooks.com/last-man-on-earth/) There are fewer films and TV shows about a single last person or, more commonly, group of people (you really do need someone to talk to). A lot of the obvious ones have been listed above **Five** – from Arch Oboler, who gave us the _Lights Out!_ radio show. This 1951 film has foive survivors of a nuclear holocaust > **[Five (1951) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043539/)** > > Five: Directed by Arch Oboler. With William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubes, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin. The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank... **Target Earth** – Five or so people left in an abandoned city being attacked by extraterrestrial; robots. Surprisingly good far from 1954. They’re not the last people on earth, but for most of the film they might as well be > **[Target Earth (1954) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047559/)** > > Target Earth: Directed by Sherman A. Rose. With Richard Denning, Kathleen Crowley, Virginia Grey, Richard Reeves. Giant robots from Venus invade Chicago. Stranded in the deserted city are strangers Frank and Nora. **The Bubble (AKA THe Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth)** – a couple stumbles into a town where they and the remaining inhabitants are trapped by a giant transparent bubble and – heyyyyy isn’t there a Stephen King novel and miniseries about this? (Couldn’t be - he NEVER steals ideas!). Another Arch Oboler confection, this time from 1966. In 3D! (really – I saw it that way) Again, not the last people on earth, but if you’re under a doome, does it make a difference? > **[The Bubble (1966 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Invasion_of_Planet_Earth)** > > The Bubble is a 1966 American 3-D science fiction film in color, later re-released under the title Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth. It was written and directed by Arch Oboler and starred Michael Cole and Deborah Walley. > Tony is flying Catherine, who is in labor, and her husband Mark to a local city when a storm forces their small aircraft to land near a small town. Catherine is rushed to a local doctor, who delivers her baby successfully. The town is an odd amalgamation of architectural style... **Robot Monster** – I know, I know. It’s an awful film. But it DOES feature a handful of people left alive when everyone else is gone, threatened by the gorilla-suited space-helmeted Ro-Man. Also in 3D, not that it helps, although it does explain the use of the Bubble Machine. With music by Elmer Bernstein!!! > **[Robot Monster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Monster)** > > Robot Monster (or Monster from Mars) is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white 3D science fiction film, remembered in later decades as one of the worst movies ever made. It was produced and directed by Phil Tucker, written by Wyott Ordung, and stars George Nader, Claudia Barrett, and George Barrows. The production company was Three Dimensional Pictures, Inc. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures. > Robot Monster tells the story of the alien robot Ro-Man's mission to Earth to des... **The Day the World Ended** Roger Corman does the post-nuclear holocaust in this 1955 film that features a handful of survivors in a surprisingl;y untoucherd suburban house. A Telepathic three-eyed four-limbed mutant wants the girl (a typ[ical Paul Blaisdell monster suit), but , like lots of monsters in movies, it dissolves in water. > **[Day the World Ended](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_the_World_Ended)** > > Day the World Ended is a 1955 independently made black-and-white post-apocalyptic science fiction film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Paul Birch and Mike Connors. Chet Huntley of NBC, later of The Huntley-Brinkley Report, served as the film's narrator. It was released by American Releasing Corporation (later American International Pictures) as a double feature with The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. > The film's story centers on a hero... **Chosen Survivors** – the survivors of the nuclear holocaust are menaced in their underground bunker by rabid vampire bats. From 1974, with Jackie Cooper, Bradford Dillman, Pedro Armanderiz, Jr., and other actors who should have known better. Corman’s The Day the World Ended is better. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/31 "2014-05-24T00:05:06Z")
Key and Peele’s [Last Man on Earth](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wVX8wm_CONM&feature=kp) is a short subject film, but it explores the essence of the genre with great depth of feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/32 "2014-05-24T03:51:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are a LOT of sf stories about this concept. There’s even an anthology There are several anthologies. It’s sort of my hobby. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/33 "2014-05-24T09:29:22Z")
That company that makes low-budget movies timed to come out with blockbusters also made I am Omega to coincide with the release of Smith’s I am Legend. At the end of the Japanese version of Ju-on/The Grudge, it is implied that the ghost killed everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/34 "2014-05-24T12:42:51Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Richard Matheson wrote the sci-fi novel [I Am Legend](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(novel)) back in 1974, a pioneering piece of the zombie apocolypse genre. So far it’s been adapted for three movies, _I Am Legend, The Omega Man,_ and _The Last Man on Earth._ 1964’s _Last Man on Earth_ is indeed based on _I am Legend_; the novel was published in 1954. I \<3 Richard Matheson and have collected original copies of his short story collections and novels over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/35 "2014-05-26T16:26:56Z")
As far as short-story anthologies go, in addition to the above listed _Last Man on Earth_ book, (not the movie directly above) there are: _Armageddons_ featuring Frederick Pohl’s “Fermi and Frost” _The End of the World_ featuring Phillip Dick’s "Impostor\* _Catastrophes_ featuring Fritz Leiber’s “A Pail of Air” _After the Fall_ featuring Harry Harrison’s “The Day After the End of the World” Note, most of these stories are actually ‘end of the world’ stories. \*Which I discovered well after I read it that it was made into the Gary Sinise movie of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/36 "2014-05-26T16:34:43Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > As far as short-story anthologies go, in addition to the above listed _Last Man on Earth_ book, (not the movie directly above) there are: > > _Armageddons_ featuring Frederick Pohl’s “Fermi and Frost” > _The End of the World_ featuring Phillip Dick’s "Impostor\* > _Catastrophes_ featuring Fritz Leiber’s “A Pail of Air” > _After the Fall_ featuring Harry Harrison’s “The Day After the End of the World” > > Note, most of these stories are actually ‘end of the world’ stories. > > \*Which I discovered well after I read it that it was made into the Gary Sinise movie of the same name. _After the Fall_ is not merely a collection of “End of the World” stories – it’s a collection of _upbeat_ end-of-the-world stories, edited by Robert Sheckley. Definitely something to add to your collection. AQs such, there aren’t a lot of “Gee I’m the Last Guy Left” stories. But it does contain one of my facvorites – Philip Jose Farmer’s _The Making of Revelation, Part I_, in which God gets Cecil B. deMille to produce and direct Armageddon. deMille, in turn, gets Harlan Ellison to script it, because Ellison is the only writer who’s not afraid to argue with God. In the end, God gets fed up with Ellison and replaces him with a hack from Peopria. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906/37 "2014-05-26T18:17:48Z")
How about Fukkatsu no Hi (“Virus” in English) from 1980. It had the largest budget ever for a Japanese movie when it came out, although I remember it being mostly in English. Surprisingly good. Much of the story is set at a research base in Antarctica and Edward James Olmos is part of the cast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-about-being-last-person-alive-on-earth/688906.md?page=1)