A few days ago I reviewed the Netflix movie “Extinction” on this blog. I was lukewarm on the movie, but found it to be an entertaining diversion nonetheless.
It is an awfully tough game for outfits like Netflix to produce voluminous amounts of content annually and keep the quality high. Be that as it may, I commend the streaming service for its push into original content.
Bridget and I recently watched the Netflix movie “How It Ends” — a post-apocalyptic thriller that is, at its core, a road trip movie.
The movie is told from the point of view of Will Younger (Theo James), a young urban professional who lives with his girlfriend, Samantha Sullivan (Kat Graham), in Seattle, WA. The movie begins with the couple at the OB-GYN office, getting an ultrasound, and learning the gender of their baby.
Will is set to fly to Chicago to ask Sam’s father Tom (Forest Whitaker) for his blessing on the couple’s upcoming nuptials.
Tom and his wife, Paula (Nicole Ari Parker), live in an upscale apartment in downtown Chicago. Unfortunately, the dinner conversation between Will and Tom turns awkward and uncomfortable. As a result, Will doesn’t mention the proposal (or the fact that Sam is pregnant).
The next morning Tom receives a FaceTime call from Sam in his hotel room. She becomes distracted during the video chat, and mentions the power has gone out. Odd noises emanate from the phone. Sam tells Will she’s scared, then the call breaks up.
Will goes to the airport to fly home, but quickly realizes he won’t be able to fly out. A news report on TV mentions a large seismic event off the coast of California. Power and communications outages prevalent throughout the country.
Sensing he’s going nowhere fast, Will pays a driver to take him back into the city to Tom and Paula’s apartment.
Tom — who served in the military for 27 years — is packing and planning.
While packing his gear, Tom barks, “Let’s look at what we know, Will. There was an event. A couple hours ago. Out west. The power shut off here...and 2000 miles away. We have no idea what’s happening. Yet we’ve got F-22s doing flybys. It’s not about waiting for the power to come back on. The only thing we can do is what we decide to do.”
What Tom wants to do is drive across the country and get his daughter. Tom and Will set out to traverse the western United States in Tom’s late model Cadillac.
As I type this, I realize the plan sounds somewhat ludicrous, but the overall concept works for me. From that point on the movie becomes a “road trip” story where Tom and Will struggle to drive cross country while trying to come to terms with their tepid relationship.
When Bridget and I were in college, we read Pat Frank’s 1959 novel “Alas, Babylon” as part of a political science course. That story was about the struggle to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear war — where communications and power lines fail, convicts escape from lock-up, and food and fuel are in short supply.
Aspects of “How It Ends” remind me of Frank’s novel.
Because the story stays firmly planted on Will’s journey, viewers are left in the dark about what exactly we’re dealing with — is it a natural disaster or a human-induced catastrophe?
Compasses don’t work correctly, birds fly in peculiar patterns, and storms aren’t following meteorological norms.
Along the way, we see creepy images of over-turned train cars loaded with military equipment. Our protagonists also have to be vigilant to avoid getting carjacked by nefarious characters.
The pair even hires an auto mechanic they meet along the way (played by actress Grace Dove) to maintain the Cadillac during the trip.
I found “How It Ends” to be an intriguing adventure. The film has an eerie, sepia-toned look, and the car trip through “flyover country” was pretty compelling.
Online response to “How It Ends” has been largely unfavorable (much of the criticism focuses on the movie’s ending, which I WILL NOT spoil here).
I liked Theo James as a leading man in the movie. He hasn’t yet made a splash in Hollywood. His most notable role was as “Four” in the “Divergent” movie trilogy a few years ago (based on the terrific book series by Veronica Roth).
I also enjoyed Forest Whitaker in “How It Ends.” Neither he nor James are given a lot to work with here (the dialogue during the meat of the narrative is pretty sparse), but I enjoyed following the arc of their relationship as the movie progressed.
If you are feeling adventurous, give “How It Ends” a try. While the movie isn’t perfect, I found a lot to like in this post-apocalyptic tale.
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