John and Eugene ask the question, “why not vampires,” consider if racial prejudice goes away if you lose your pigmentation, and why Chuck Heston never gets a good ending in a film.
It’s the Omega Man!
Synopsis
Col. Dr. Robert Neville is a man with a problem: He’s the last man on Earth, roaming the deserted streets of Los Angeles, but if he’s the last man on Earth, who is he shooting at?
Taking solace in his solitude by taking in a movie, Neville lets time slip away from him, and as sunset looms, he rushes home to his bunker, where he is attacked by, and successfully defends himself from albino Luddites. Yes, Neville spends his days in solitude and his nights being taunted and attacked by the scarred remnants of humanity.
Through flashback, we learn that a 1975 Sino-Russian war lead to the deployment of a bacteriological weapon, that rapidly killed its victims. Neville, a researcher into a vaccine, found himself dying of the bacteria and in a desperate gamble, injected himself with the latest experimental vaccine. He alone survived as a human.
While most of the people died almost instantly, a subset of them were afflicted with albinism and extreme light sensitivity. They die much slower, and many of them still exist now two years after the majority of the world died. They have formed into an anti-science cult, called the family, led by former newsman Matthias. Their goal is to build a new world, devoid of the technology that brought destruction to them, and personified by Neville, a creature of the wheel. (Although, they themselves actually seem to have no problem using wheels.). They spend their nights burning books, destroying things and places of knowledge and science, and trying to kill Neville, whom they hope to kill for his sins.
Neville spends his days seeking for the Family’s next, where, if he finds it, he plans to destroy them all because, you know, they’re plague victims and he needs to put them down like mad dogs.
Speaking of mad dogs, it looks like Neville is cracking up because one day, after two full years alone, he spies and chases a young woman. He loses sight of her and is certain she was just a figment of his imagination. It rattles him and he lets his guard down. The Family ambushes him in a wine cellar and takes him captive. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to being burnt alive at Dodger Stadium.
As the flames are about to be lit, the stadium lights, long-dormant spring to life, blinding the Family. A young man, Dutch, not a figment of Neville’s imagination, and Lisa, the also-not-a-figment-of Neville’s-imagination young woman that he saw the other day rescue him – at gunpoint.
Taken to a fortress in the Los Angeles hill, he discovers a small colony of children, seemingly unaffected by the plague – but that is not actually the case. Some young people seem to have a natural resistance, but eventually, they too will change. Lisa’s younger brother, Ritchie, is turning, and Neville switches back into doctor/scientist mode.
He tells them that he is immune and that he may be able to synthesize a serum from his blood to reverse and cure the plague. Lisa accompanies Neville and Ritchie back to his bunkered home, which contains a laboratory. After weeks, he succeeds in reversing Ritchie’s condition. Now there are two immune humans and he can use both of their blood to inoculate Lisa, Dutch, and the others. They plan to leave somewhere in the woods to start rebuilding.
Ritchie’s young and stupid naive humanity kicks in and he asks Neville if they shouldn’t cure the Family, too. They are, after all, just thinking, feeling, sentient human beings who are victims of the plague just like everyone else. Neville says they’re vermin that need to be put down.
The next day, Lisa goes to collect supplies before leaving the big city, and Ritchie decides that the Family deserves to know that there is now a cure and they can return to normal. A laudable attitude, perhaps, but Ritchie doesn’t understand religious fanaticism, and does not realize that the Family doesn’t want a return to the old world. They think he was sent as a trap from Neville, so they kill him and go after Neville one last time.
Neville finds a note Ritchie left and goes to rescue him. Lisa, returning late from foraging, suddenly transforms and starts following the mob heading towards Neville’s home.
Finding Ritchie dead, Neville returns home, having an epic battle to get inside, but he does, only to discover the now-transformed Lisa has let Matthias and the Family in. They hold Neville and destroy his home, books, equipment, and art, before planning to kill him.
He’s got one last escape in him and he gets away, taking a bottle of his blood serum and Lisa with him, hoping to escape and cure her. Escaping outside, Neville’s gun jams and Matthias hurls a spear into his chest. It is over, now the Family can sleep in peace.
The next day, Dutch arrives with the kids to see the destruction. He finds Neville, still dying. He hands Dutch the serum, and the unresisting Lisa, and dies. Dutch and the kids leave for the mountains.
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