In 1977, the American scientist and colonel Dr. Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) is the last man on Earth. All the human race died or became mutants due to the use of biological weapons in a war. During the war, Dr. Neville was researching an experimental vaccine, and in a flight to a hospital to use his latest experiment, the pilot of his helicopter died and the helicopter crashed. Dr. Neville used the vaccine on himself and it worked, making him the last survivor of human race. The race of mutants self-calls 'The Family' and is leaded by the fanatic Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) in the middle-ages standards, without the use of any facility of the Twentieth Century. Dr. Neville finds some other survivors and intends to use the anti-corpus of his blood to prepare vaccines for them. The apocalyptic story has a tragic open end.
Yesterday I saw this movie maybe for the tenth time. In my opinion, it is one of the best Apocalyptic Sci-Fi movies of the 70's (together with 'Soylent Green'), when the world had the cold war to threaten and the population had a great fear of a biological weapons. In Brazil, 'The Omega Man' has not been released on VHS or DVD, and I have a VHS, recorded from the open Brazilian TV in the 80's, dubbed in Portuguese, with a terrible image, but what else can I do to see this movie if the distributors and the cable TV do not show interest to release it in my country? For persons of other native languages like me, I would like to explain the original title of the movie. In accordance with 'The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary', omega is not only the 24th and final letter in the Greek alphabet, but also means the ending, the last of anything. I hope that Tom Cruise does not spoil this magnificent story, since I heard he had the intention of preparing (or spoiling) a remake. Remake of good movies should be forbidden! My vote is nine.
Today (06 September 2006) I have watched "The Omega Man" again, now in the original language.
Title (Brazil): 'A Última Esperança da Terra' ('The Last Hope of the Earth')
The Omega Man
1971
Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller
The Omega Man
1971
Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain - sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 16, 2022 at 07:30 AM
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The Last Hope of the Earth in an Apocalyptic Story
Entertaining
I find this version of the film entertaining! It's as much fun as the other two versions: The Last Man on Earth (1964) & I Am Legend (2007). Charlton Heston is great - nothing new there - but he's a lot of enjoyment in this cult classic flick!
The film is extremely dated I do agree but the entertainment value is still high. Worth watching if you enjoyed the one or both of the other film versions of the story. If you like sci-fi horror stories and vampires/zombies then this is a film for you!
8/10
Not to be confused with Shakespeare, but high on the "cool factor" and fun
The film is set in the near future and Charlton Heston seems to be the only person left on the planet. Everyone else is either dead or a psychotic zombie that cannot come out during the daytime. So during much of the film, cool Heston drives about town in his cool car--rooting for food or blowing apart the occasional zombie. And after a long day of this, it's home--not for a Miller beer, but to hide out in his amazing fortress home. At night, the crazed zombies attack his home again and again, but since Heston would later become the president of the NRA, it wasn't surprising that he proceeded to blow the crap out of the intruders--and do it with great gusto and style. Seeing Heston with a machine gun mowing them down was indeed a guilty pleasure.
There's a lot more to the movie than this--including a REASON for the plague that did this to the people and explained why he was immune (something forgotten in the earlier version of this film that starred Vincent Price). In addition, later in the film some hope for the redemption of mankind appears--thought you'll have to see the film for yourself to find out exactly what occurred.
This film is rare in that it's a remake of an earlier film AND it's actually better than the original! While not as good as Heston's greatest sci-fi films, PLANET OF THE APES and SOYLENT GREEN, it is wonderful fun. Sure, it isn't Shakespeare or amazingly artistic--just good old fun that is very re-watchable. An excellent and cool film that will please most viewers.