Main Cast: Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney, Jay Hackett, Saskia Post, Midnight Oil
Release Year: 1984
Country: AU
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
This is one of the more unusual films about a nuclear holocaust, nearly introspective in its focus on a handful of people in Sydney's world-famous opera house, finding ways to pass the time until the morning brings more news. The setting is New Year's Eve (in the middle of summer here), and some intimation of the immediate future surfaces in the form of reports on a major crisis in Europe and the aftermath of demonstrations against U.S. nuclear ships at harbor in Sydney. Sharon (Cassandra Delaney) and Eva (Saskia Post) are young teen roommates who are more interested in their own personal relationships than what is happening in distant Europe, and after meeting at the opera house where Sharon works, they are ready to go off to a New Year's party together. But before they can leave, a radio broadcast announces that nuclear bombs have been dropped in Europe and North America and also on U.S. targets in Australia. The announcer requests that people remain where they are, and the two shocked teenagers are at a loss as to how to cope. They are soon joined by an American soldier gone AWOL and a custodian who was busy working after the end of the evening's concert. The four isolated people explore the empty building, engage in conversation just to fill the time, and even distract themselves with a game of strip poker -- anything to avoid facing the possibility that this may be the last night of their lives. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Cast
Tyler Coppin - Sam
Cassandra Delaney - Sharon
Jay Hackett - Brendan
Saskia Post - Eva
Midnight Oil
Todd Boyce - American sailor; Ian Gilmour - Sharon's ex-boyfriend; Frankie Raymond - Frankie; Peggy Thompson - Sam's mother; Richard Morecroft - First Newsreader; Justin Monjo - American sailor
Credit
Julia Overton - Associate Producer, Ross Major - Costume Designer, John Duigan - Director, John Scott - Editor, Simon Wincer - Executive Producer, William Motzing - Composer (Music Score), Ross Major - Production Designer, Tom Cowan - Cinematographer, Richard Mason - Producer, John Duigan - Screenwriter
In Australia, four teenagers in the Sydney Opera House are horrified to hear the news that nuclear war has broken out in Eastern Europe. They try to figure out the best way they can survive the coming conflagration. At the film's end, it is left uncertain whether Sydney will be hit by nuclear weapons, although the US spy facility at Pine Gap has been obliterated.
Trivia
This Movie includings performance by Midnight Oil.
One Of The Cast Members Cassandra Delaney is married to singer John Denver.
