These Final Hours (2013)

This is how an extinction level event movie should really be. No oil workers miraculously pulling off a drilling mission on a moving object in space. No prospect of saving a select few on an ark. And no life of adventure fighting off zombies.

These Final Hours is a beautiful movie despite the restrictions of the most definite ending imaginable. Earth dies in 12 hours. What are you going to do?

The Science of It

The movie is produced and shot in Australia so the Aussies have the fortune or  misfortune of being the last in line. 

An asteroid hit the Atlantic and its aftermath is being narrated by a dutiful radio host who keeps broadcasting at his station. He keeps the story moving by crossing off continents out loud.

What size of an asteroid can destroy the earth in one blow? Shouldn’t they have more than 12 hours? Is the radio host crossing off the countries and continents in correct succession? 

None of the science is tackled and that gave a restrictive sense of doors closing. No other questions exist but what to do with what time is left. What is right and wrong? What is legacy? 

Even for something that we may never ask ourselves the question is hypnotic.

Sets and Costumes

Australia gave the world Mad Max and again the harsh Australian heat provided the appropriate atmosphere for the end of times.

I don’t know if it’s an Australian thing or meant to be something symbolic because loosely fitted tank tops was the theme for the wardrobe. Mad Max was fully clothed. Even if the characters of the Walking Dead looked like they haven’t had a shower in weeks they still had more clothing.

There were more decently fitting tank tops and shirts at the party scene although they are not always in focus. If it was meant to show the abandoning of all sanity if not humanity in this time of despair I think it’s a nice touch especially with Freddy (Daniel Henshall).

The conscience Angourie Rice

Angourie Rice barely had 5 minutes of screen time in Spider-man Homecoming so I never saw her play a role as anything else but the conscience of the story.

I saw her first in The Nice Guys which was shown in 2016. She played a perfect third wheel to a buddy detective story. 

She was the conscience in that movie; the innocence that would dull the edge of a mean Jackson Healy (Russel Crowe), the loving daughter to a sometimes bumbling, sometimes insensitive father Holland March (Ryan Gosling). Holly March (Angourie Rice) balances everyone out.

Compared to the Nice Guys, Angourie was 3 years younger in These Final Hours and still she was effective. 

As Rose she tames the panicky and self absorbed James (Nathan Philips). She gave the perfect balance of youthful beauty that screams innocence and she also sharpness that is credible enough to put James in his place.

Hers was the best scene in the movie. She knows what to do in these final hours.