On the Beach Ending Scene

frobinhood Says:

Jan 31, 2012 - the dead bodies were inside the houses because just like the aussies the yanks took the suicide pills

frobinhood Says:

Jan 31, 2012 - you gota look at it like this - although i was like why not just go into shelters? one thing you gota remember is if you were in that position would you wanna go underground knowing you could never return to the serface? the global scale of the fall out makes chernobyl look like the abomb testing zone outside adelade.

coventrygardens Says:

Jan 31, 2012 - but i thought the u.s. got smashed right away, so people there would have died very soon after the bombs went off. well, maybe that's what happened in certain parts of the u.s., whereas people in other parts of the u.s. had time to kill themselves after the bombs went off. by the way, the u.s. generally doesn't use the word "yank" or "yankee". in the u.s., those terms refer to a certain kind of u.s. citizen, not to each u.s. citizen. some americans are yank(ees), and some aren't.

coventrygardens Says:

Jan 31, 2012 - i wonder where the bodies of dead animals were. surely they would have died as well. even if hounds and cats were in houses, there should have been bodies of wild birds lying around. furthermore, i doubt large numbers of people would commit suicide. people generally try to stick it out to the end. the scenes of them committing suicide are more eerie to me than are the scenes where people die from the radiation and bombs.

frobinhood Says:

Feb 1, 2012 - yeah your right about the birds - idk maybe some "surviors" took the birds and ate em before they finally died - who knows lol.

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 1, 2012 - i recall watching the movie around 1980 when i was a kid. i didn't follow the movie all that closely back then. i recall saying to my mum something like, "boy, the australians had it rough. hopefully, we fared better than they did. surely our country, the u.s., would handle the radiation better." then my mum explained that the u.s. didn't fare so well, and then i got a bit disappointed, eh. as i continued watching the movie, i realized that it's a fictional movie.

4B5PR1T20R Says:

Feb 18, 2012 - I've only read the book..but that's how it looked like in my mind.

eutexian Says:

Feb 23, 2012 - Thats simple... they die.just as an aside.. I've only read the replies on this first page. And its clear to me that many of the posters would do well to read the novel on which this film is.. to an extent loosely based. The character of the Submarine captain is a man who is to be admired.

danbo1984 Says:

Feb 23, 2012 - @Texasjim2007, I think someone else needs to take their pills...

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 24, 2012 - i think the movie would have been better if they had made one simple change. they should have had the people die from radiation sickness, instead of having people kill themselves. having people kill themselves makes it too creepy. furthermore, i doubt large numbers of people would kill themselves under the circumstances shown here. people who kill themselves tend to be those with emotional problems, not physical problems.

eutexian Says:

Feb 24, 2012 - They made rather a lot of changes in the movie and this is why I heartily recommend you (or anyone else) read the book. I'm not sure how the extinction of mankind could be anything BUT creepy. Suicide wasn't the choice of everyone.. but by the end of the book Everyone was sick.. very very sick. The film doesn't show this at all. But then.. showing that would have been completely unacceptable in 1959

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 25, 2012 - the re-make of the film shows some scenes of them suffering from the sickness, but the original film simply had scenes where they talked about the sickness. for some reason, scenes of people killing themselves or killing their loved ones seem creepier to me than scenes where people get killed by their foes or get killed accidentally.

eutexian Says:

Feb 25, 2012 - I don't doubt it. But, within the 'reality' of the storyline people had two stark choices. they could either go by the fairly slow and awful process of radiation sickness. or quickly - falling asleep and never waking up. I know which way I would choose. Though its my fervent hope I will never be forced into making such a decision.

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - hey, how about a disease that doesn't shorten someone's life? what about something that simply makes a person sick like those that have radiation sickness, but doesn't hasten death? imagine that kind of sickness. would you take the pills in order to avoid that kind of scenario?

eutexian Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - if you mean.. a chronic illness then presumably I would either be in Hospital or at home with a carer and under medical supervision with treatments available to make my life tolerable. a different story to the story in this film. where everyone was dying and there was no one to care for you when you got to the final stages. Where people didn't die neatly together.. where parents could die before their infant children or the elderly could live for weeks slowly starving to death.

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - i guess it's kind of hard to create a scenario where everyone is terribly sick without it shortening their lives. they wouldn't be able to have medics, because the medics would likewise be sick. //// how about a more realistic scenario. you crash land on a deserted island, and you see there is no chance of getting food or fresh water, and you are pretty certain that you will starve to death if you don't do anything to shorten your life. would that scenario provoke you to use pills?

eutexian Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - Can't really answer that. possibly yes. but only in the final extremity because there is always the chance that a sail will appear on the horizon and it would be too ironic for that to happen 10 minutes after you swallowed and were beginning to lose consciousness. this is why i don't believe terminally ill people should rush into suicide.. because there is always a chance that a cure could appear the next day. But it's not for me to pronounce on other peoples decisions.

coventrygardens Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - it sounds like you would use the pills in a case where you are absolutely certain that using the pills is the only way to avoid death by starvation. for example, if you were on a deserted island, and you had a crystal ball which showed you for certain that death from starvation is going to result if you don't shorten your life. by contrast, i hope i'm the kind of person who would see it through to the end.

eutexian Says:

Feb 26, 2012 - *i hope i'm the kind of person who would see it through to the end."I think if you read the book. then you might reconsider that. its fiction. but the results of radiation sickness were well known about in 1957. just 7 years after Hiroshima. Starving to death isn't a nice way to go either. In the book, people did carry on to the end. that was made clear, but none of the major characters did, they all took the pill. they knew how sick they were and how much worse it would get

kristov29 Says:

Feb 29, 2012 - Fred astaire sitting in the Ferrari inside the garage, throttle wide open and a smile on his face, must be one of the classic film scenes of all time.

steevum Says:

Mar 5, 2012 - Just read the book. I had hoped that the Australian people would have been able to build an underground bunker, stocked it with food and water, fitted it with oxygen scrubbers to clean the air, and waited it out for the estimated decade. Unfortunately the book took a realistic view of what will happen to us if there is a war like this. We're toast.

afraga8 Says:

Mar 6, 2012 - Ten weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, I went in there.What I saw there ................ or perhaps, what I did not see there, still causes me sleepless nights and it has been almost seven decades since that day.Frag.

Mellowyellowraven Says:

May 16, 2012 - I remember seeing this film as a kid and the kind of effect it had on me. Then it was the possibility of a nuclear war, today it is Reactor 4 at Fukushima, something none of our power crazed leaders has any control over other than keeping us in the dark as to how serious it is.

tacticus0010 Says:

May 21, 2012 - Goodnight Australia.

Skip Person Says:

May 30, 2012 - I agree. After I watched the movie for the first time (x2 years ago) I sat and contemplated this scene for a long time and eventually went to bed w/ a very unsettled mind. When this movie comes to mind I always think of this scene. For me the scene is with all of its implications is somewhat complex and yet it is really so very simple.