The day the world ended (movie)

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Movie
German title The day the world ended
Original title When Time Ran Out ...
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1980
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director James Goldstone
script Carl Foreman ,
Stirling Silliphant
production Irwin Allen
music Lalo Schifrin
camera Fred J. Koenekamp
cut Edward A. Biery ,
Freeman A. Davis
occupation

The day on which the world ended (Original title: When Time Ran Out ... ) is an American disaster film from 1980 . Directed by James Goldstone . Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant wrote the script based on the novel Die Feuerwolke (Original title: The Day Their World Ended ) by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts .

action

Hank Andersson and Bob Spangler cultivate an oil field on a volcanic island in the Pacific . During one of the wells, Anderson and his workers encountered not only oil, but also high gas pressure, which the drilling rig can barely handle.

At the same time, Shelby Gilmore and his assistant, Kay Kirby, arrive on the island. Gilmore operates a newly opened hotel complex with Spangler, in which Nikki, Spangler's wife and Gilmore's niece, as well as Brian and Iolani work. Spangler and Iolani have a secret affair with each other. Hotel guests include the tightrope walker couple Rene and Rose Valdez, Francis Fendly, suspected of white-collar crime, and NYPD investigator Thomas Conti, who monitors Fendly. On the other side of the island, Sam and Mona run a bar in a small village that is popular with locals and workers.

Anderson reports to Spangler that the oil field was successfully drilled, but also expresses his concerns about the high gas pressure. Spangler ignores these concerns and instead enjoys the expected profit. Nor does he take seriously the warnings from John Webster, a volcanologist who works in an observatory on the edge of the crater . However, Spangler agrees to ride with Anderson and Webster in a gondola belonging to the observatory into the crater of the volcano. The ride ends almost fatally when the gondola is hit by an explosion and almost crashes into the lava lake . Because all the data collected by the observatory suggests that an eruption is imminent, Anderson wants to evacuate the oil field, but meets the resistance of his workers, who want to stay on the oil field and the island despite the danger. Finally, Anderson agrees.

The volcano erupts shortly afterwards. The observatory falls into the crater, killing all scientists. At the same time, a tsunami hits the small village and kills everyone with the exception of Sam, Mona and two acquaintances, Dolores and Marsha, who can escape by car in time. Only the hotel complex is initially spared from the volcanic eruption. Anderson and Kirby, who are surprised by the outbreak on the beach, manage to save Nikki, a local and his two children from a horse farm by helicopter and fly them to the hotel complex. There he explains to Spangler and the guests that the lava would reach the hotel before the notified rescue workers from the neighboring islands arrive. A tumult ensues among the hotel guests, some of whom seize Anderson's helicopter and try to flee the island with them, but are killed in a crash just a few seconds after take-off. Meanwhile, lava bombs hit the hotel, seriously injuring some of the guests. Conti suffers burns to his eyes.

Anderson says it would be more advisable to go to another, higher point on the island and wait for the rescue there, whereupon Spangler contradicts and explains that the hotel complex is the safest place on the island. Anderson then only leaves the hotel complex with a small group that includes Gilmore, Kirby, Brian, the Valdez couple, Fendly, Conti, Mona, Sam, Dolores, Marsha and the local with his two children. Spangler, Nikki, Iolani and the majority of the guests stay in the hotel complex. Nikki, who remained there solely because of her husband, discovered the affair between him and Iolani a little later.

Meanwhile, the group around Anderson had to continue their escape on foot after a few kilometers by car, as the road was impassable after the eruption. When crossing a ravine on a narrow ledge, the local falls to his death. Shortly afterwards the group reaches another gorge, at the bottom of which a lava flow flows. The only way to cross the gorge is through an old wooden bridge. Rose Valdez can't take the exertion and dies of a heart attack.

Anderson first checks the bridge for its load-bearing capacity, then the others begin to cross the bridge in pairs. After gas bubbles repeatedly explode in the lava flow below and hit the bridge, it gradually collapses. Sam and Marsha fall from the bridge into the lava flow. Anderson and Rene Valdez, each carrying one of the children on their backs, can only cross the lava flow with an arduous balancing act over the bridge's still intact struts.

The group reaches a cave and spends the night in it. In the distance, Anderson and Kirby see the hotel being hit by more lava bombs and being destroyed. Spangler, Nikki, Iolani and the guests who stayed behind were killed.

The next morning the group climbs down to a bay from where the rescue takes place.

background

  • The $ 20 million film was Irwin Allen's last attempt to tie in with his two old box office hits, Poseidon Inferno and Flaming Inferno , but failed: The day the world ended received mostly negative reviews and also fell from the audience by.
  • As in his previous films, Irwin Allen signed a sizeable cast of stars (including Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Red Buttons and James Franciscus) for The Day the World Ended .
  • The film was shot in Hawaii and at the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios in Burbank, California.

Honors

The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design .

Reviews

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was a "disaster film that varied an old theme" without "offering anything new". He offers "average entertainment in the traditional Hollywood style".

The cinema magazine Cinema ruled: "Artificial orgy of rubble with a star lineup".

Paul Newman later stated in an interview that the film was the only one that he had made solely on the basis of the fee. He also said that almost the entire cast suspected that the film was going to flop.

literature

  • Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan Witts: Die Feuerwolke (Original title: The Day Their World Ended ). German by Alf Lindtröm. Swiss publishing house, Zurich 1970, 312 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The day the world ended. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 26, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ When Time Ran Out ... (1980) - IMDb. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ CINEMA online: Cinema at CINEMA: cinema program, films, DVDs, stars, trailers and more. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .
  4. ↑ When Time Ran Out ... (1980) - IMDb. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .