Whimper at world’s end

These Final Hours (MA)
Starring: Nathan Phillips, Jessica De Gouw
“NOT bad, for an Australian movie.”
In a world dominated by Hollywood, it’s the ultimate praise that can be handed out in the colonies.
And it’s a description earned by These Final Hours, a very different Australian film indeed.
Bleak? This one is colder than a copper’s handshake.
The inevitable giant meteor has slammed into the North Atlantic, setting the world on fire and peeling the earth’s crust like an orange.
In 12 hours, the firestorm reaches Perth… perhaps the most unlikely setting ever for an end of the world movie.
A mass psychosis has taken hold of the population and many have chosen an early exit strategy in order to remain masters of their own fate.
Some embrace religion, others focus more on harming others than themselves.
Streets are deserted, cars are burnt out, bodies hang from light poles and it’s more downtown Baghdad than uptown Perth.
Into this literal maelstrom is thrust James (Nathan Phillips), leaving his pregnant girlfriend to attend an end of the world party and get so trashed he won’t feel a thing when the end comes.
But the road to the end of the world is not a smooth one and James finds himself rescuing a young girl from two wannabe paedophiles (weapon of choice: claw hammer).
The young girl becomes his conscience as he seeks to make peace with his family, attend the party and still make it back to his beloved.
There’s a lot going on here and it’s as compelling a vision of the end as any.
In a word, this film is tense from beginning to end.
Many images will stay with you – the men playing Russian roulette in front of a blood-spattered Australian flag might prove particularly hard to shake.
It’s a better apocalyptic vision than that other recent Australian end of the world road movie, The Rover.
Be warned – Aussie films are all grown up.
– Jason Beck