I’ve simply completed watching MGM Plus’ Earth Abides, and for a post-apocalyptic thriller, it was a pleasant change of tempo to the standard grim battle for survival in a future world stricken by zombies and/or cannibals you discover in motion pictures like The Road or the lengthy, plodding The Walking Dead TV sequence, or the place all people lives underground like Silo or Fallout.
Earth Abides, the TV present, relies loosely on the traditional 1949 sci-fi novel of the identical title written by George R. Stewart. The story follows protagonist Isherwood ‘Ish’ Williams (Alexander Ludwig), a geology pupil who’s engaged on his thesis within the mountains someplace in California. Bitten by a rattlesnake he manages to make it again to his cabin within the woods earlier than passing out in a fever from which he doesn’t wake for days, presumably weeks.
When he does come spherical, he finds that nature biting again was a foreshadowing of what’s to return. Nature has certainly struck again and he’s fully alone. Civilization has been destroyed by a lethal pandemic; everybody he is aware of is useless, the streets are empty and the TVs and radios are all quiet. Wandering into town he finds a few oddball survivors who had been proof against the virus, nevertheless it’s solely when he retreats to the suburbs that he finds Emma (Jessica Frances Dukes), a lady who appears to be more proficient at surviving in a post-apocalyptic world than he’s. They resolve to make a life collectively and he positive aspects route as they slowly begin to construct a neighborhood round them.
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If, like me, you trudged by each sequence of The Walking Dead out of some misplaced sense of responsibility, solely to seek out out that it primarily repeats the identical ‘dangerous man’ plot line again and again each season, you’ll discover it refreshing that the primary focus of Earth Abides isn’t on how people are inherently egocentric and evil, however on how we have to cooperate to outlive in nature.
Sure, they sometimes meet different teams, not all of whom have their greatest pursuits at coronary heart, however as a rule the aim is just to remain alive and the folks select to band collectively as a result of they wish to kind a neighborhood. As people it seems that working collectively provides us our greatest probability of survival – who knew?
While Mary Shelley’s The Last Man was the primary post-apocalyptic novel, Earth Abides is almost certainly the unique supply materials for all of the ‘waking as much as uncover civilization has collapsed’ plot traces that you simply see repeated repeatedly in sci-fi and horror – 28 Days Later, I’m you. And speaking of traditional literature, all through Earth Abides the worth of old school public library is regularly emphasised, as a result of if you wish to know methods to do one thing in a post-apocalyptic world, like say, set up photo voltaic panels or ship a human child, you’ll be able to’t merely hearth up YouTube. The native library seems to be a lifesaver.
As the title suggests, all through all of it, the Earth abides. We get to observe nature recuperate and reclaim the world. As each final brick, fibre-optic cable and bridge that people have created begins to rot away, cities are turning again into forests and wild animals are frolicking within the streets. There’s loads of motion, heartbreak and drama alongside the best way, however we get to see a world the place people reside with out the idea of cash or a social standing to chase after, the survivors slowly lose their hangups and grow to be freer to grow to be the form of folks they actually wish to be, particularly relating to human relationships.
If you’re searching for one thing totally different to your subsequent binge watch of probably the greatest Prime Video exhibits (should you’re within the UK), then I prefer to suppose that Earth Abides provides you a extra reasonable take a look at a post-apocalyptic future than we’ve seen thus far, one the place we don’t all immediately default to cannibalism as our first technique of survival, and other people discover out what it actually means to be human in any case.
