# Please ID a Sci-fi flick from the 80's **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095 "2019-10-01T12:59:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/1 "2019-10-01T12:59:54Z")
It’s an Australian movie, I think. A middle-aged guy wakes up and finds that everyone has disappeared. Apparently into thin air, as at one point he finds a crashed airliner and all the seats are empty but the seat belts are all still buckled. He eventually finds a young lady and they have romance until they also find a handsome young man. This causes friction and Mr. Suddenly Third-Wheel leaves. I remember at the end he also suddenly teleports and the last shot of the film is him standing on a beach looking up at the alien sky above him full of planets and moons. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/2 "2019-10-01T13:07:51Z")
No idea of the movie. I just wanted to mention that plot is very close to **The World, The Flesh, and The Devil 1959**. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/3 "2019-10-01T13:12:56Z")
I remember watching that. But in that film I think they make it clear that there was a nuclear war. In the OP film, it’s a big mystery where everyone went. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/4 "2019-10-01T13:18:32Z")
How about [The Quiet Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Earth_(film))? ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/5 "2019-10-01T13:26:49Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > How about [The Quiet Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Earth_(film))? Came in to post this as well. That definitely it. I just watched it (again) on Amazon Prime last month. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/6 "2019-10-01T14:22:50Z")
Yup! that’s it! Sorry NZ, for thinking it was in Oz. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/7 "2019-10-01T15:56:43Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > How about [The Quiet Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Earth_(film))? > [@Sparky812](#): > > Came in to post this as well. That definitely it. I was also going to say _The Quiet Earth_. I saw it when it came out. Good movie. And there’s _another_ DVD I’ll have to dig out from wherever SWMBO put it! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/8 "2019-10-01T17:05:53Z")
By the way, I actually own a copy of THE BOOK that it was based on. At the time I had acquired it, it was one of the hardest tomes to track down, since so few copies were printed (NZ market is rather small). If you’re interested, [here’s a synopsis of the book](https://moviechat.org/tt0089869/The-Quiet-Earth/58c744e96b51e905f670c24e/Synopsis-of-the-book). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/9 "2019-10-01T17:42:22Z")
Wasn’t there- not a remake, exactly, but a film in the same vein- a couple of years ago? The protagonist was a woman this time. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/10 "2019-10-01T17:45:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I was also going to say _The Quiet Earth_. I saw it when it came out. Good movie. And there’s _another_ DVD I’ll have to dig out from wherever SWMBO put it! Aye; me too. I remember Siskel & Ebert reviewing it and it went on my list. I saw it at the Art Towne Theatre (at least I think it was re-named Art Towne by then). I know right where my copy is; I just watched it last January. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/11 "2019-10-01T17:46:22Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Wasn’t there- not a remake, exactly, but a film in the same vein- a couple of years ago? The protagonist was a woman this time. Maybe you’re thinking of [_Z for Zachariah_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_for_Zachariah_(film)) loosely based on the book by Robert C. O’Brien. The book is good… the film is awful. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/12 "2019-10-01T18:17:44Z")
I enjoyed Z is for Zachariah. Along with H.M. Hoover’s work, it’s nice to have real female protagonists. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/13 "2019-10-01T18:24:22Z")
I _think_ I was thinking of _The Wall_, though, if you consider it, there is also _Last Woman on Earth_ and plenty of other lone-survivor-of-an-apocalypse-until-they-run-into-somebody-else films. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/14 "2019-10-01T20:40:38Z")
The Quiet Earth, yes. The big deal in the movie was IIRC some strange energy field that passed over the Earth. If you were already in the process of dying (or being murdered), you were spared. Everyone else living was snatched away to destination unknown. So our protagonists were all getting killed or otherwise dying…then were suddenly spared…then found themselves almost alone in this abandoned Earth. Can anyone explain the ending, how the guy got transported? Did he try to kill himself by driving a car into a wall or something? Memory is fuzzy on this point. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/15 "2019-10-01T21:12:22Z")
Aye; he died driving a load of explosives into the project that caused the Effect. But just like the previous time he tried to kill himself and a massive scientific anomaly coincided with his death he actually survives and this time is moved across time and/or space to someplace entirely new to him. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/16 "2019-10-01T21:34:50Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > The big deal in the movie was IIRC some strange energy field that passed over the Earth It’s a little more sinister than that. A company/consortium/whatever is implementing a worldwide power grid. IIRC, it was a system where power was freely available from the ether. ‘Freely’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘free’; just that it was a worldwide system that could be tapped into to provide power. I think it was meant to solve the problem of pollution in addition to power inaccessibility. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/17 "2019-10-01T21:37:41Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > Can anyone explain the ending, how the guy got transported? Did he try to kill himself by driving a car into a wall or something? Memory is fuzzy on this point. He dies a second time by crashing the truck and simultaneously setting off the explosives, blowing himself up in a giant fireball! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/18 "2019-10-01T22:22:36Z")
“He tells lies!” ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/19 "2019-10-02T12:10:03Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > The Quiet Earth, yes. > > The big deal in the movie was IIRC some strange energy field that passed over the Earth. If you were already in the process of dying (or being murdered), you were spared. Everyone else living was snatched away to destination unknown. So our protagonists were all getting killed or otherwise dying…then were suddenly spared…then found themselves almost alone in this abandoned Earth. > > Can anyone explain the ending, how the guy got transported? Did he try to kill himself by driving a car into a wall or something? Memory is fuzzy on this point. You’re correct about the global energy grid. Hobson was involved in it’s development and tried to commit suicide due to his guilt over not speaking out about his concerns about Project Flashlight I believe the book sheds more light on what happened to everyone. Something to do with animal DNA vs. plant DNA and living vs. dead tissue. It’s also mentioned somewhere that The Effect cannot penetrate water i.e. fish were not affected. The ending is left to your own interpretation a new world, the after-life, purgatory, a dream, etc… The book has him wake up in bed at 6:12am again. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095/20 "2019-10-02T12:31:04Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Yup! that’s it! Sorry NZ, for thinking it was in Oz. I am outraged!!! This is like confusing northern Washington for Vancouver. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-sci-fi-flick-from-the-80s/841095.md?page=2)