The movie opens with a shot of downtown Manhattan with the original World Trade Centers standing in the background and Yul Brynnur standing still like a bald Stonewall Jackson. He only comes alive when Max Von Sydow promise him a room (with no rats, lucky him...), two meals a day (there's a food shortage you know, and Soylent Green is being rationed) but he has to find his own extra-curricular activities. (Von Sydow's that detailed). The population is down to almost nothing (the tourist season must be over) but gangs run rampant and Brynnur is the one to keep them in their place. There's lots of shots of the half-naked Brynnur fighting the gangs for Von Sydow and rescuing the poor and starving folk who live in his 8 floor walk up (presumably with rats as roommates).
This is a bleak look at society at the end of the Mayan calendar, taking you way inside the bowls of the City. Seeing the Trade Centers standing a decade after the historical catastrophe may be disconcerting for some viewers. The ending makes you wonder if Brynnur and his gal-pal Joanna Miles will run into Charleton Heston galloping up the East River with a mute young lady while being chased by talking apes. Oh, wait, no...the statue of Liberty was seen standing, so that's not possible.
Or is it?
This is a bleak look at society at the end of the Mayan calendar, taking you way inside the bowls of the City. Seeing the Trade Centers standing a decade after the historical catastrophe may be disconcerting for some viewers. The ending makes you wonder if Brynnur and his gal-pal Joanna Miles will run into Charleton Heston galloping up the East River with a mute young lady while being chased by talking apes. Oh, wait, no...the statue of Liberty was seen standing, so that's not possible.
Or is it?