The World’s End (2013) Review

“I fucking hate this town”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It’s hard to keep on partying forever but if you do, it’ll be then hard to know if it was all worth it.


PLOT


2013’s The World’s End follows immature alcoholic Gary King who constantly misses how he never got to complete his pub crawl of 12 total pubs in his childhood neighborhood of Newton Haven, ‘The Golden Mile’. So, he decides to recruit his old friends to do it with him again like they tried in 1990. His old friends include: Peter Page who became a car salesman, Steven Prince who became an architect, Oliver Chamberlain who became a real estate agent and Andrew Knightley who became a corporate lawyer. While they all hesitate in participating, they tag along out of pity when Gary lies about his mother dying. As they reach the town, they run into Oliver’s sister Sam, who Gary remembers fighting over with Steven. Gary would also find disappointment Andy chooses to be sober the whole time after a drunk driving incident involving them both years prior. By the time of reaching the fourth pub, The Cross Hands, Andy tries to confront Gary of his lies but they don’t get that opportunity when the whole group fight a bunch of teenagers that turn out to be androids with blue ink filled within them. Off of this, they realize they’ve taken over the whole town. Not wanting to draw attention, Gary suggests continuing the crawl and Andy breaks sobriety to continue the ruse until they can get out of there. The King does try telling Sam, but she doesn’t believe him until he saves her from twins that were once her friends. Steven even encounters the local conspiracy theorist, Basil (David Bradley), who reveals he hasn’t been replaced yet by the ‘Blanks’ who want to build an intergalactic conglomerate and replace any human with their identical stimulants when they refuse. Gary helps Sam escape after fighting off more Blanks led by their former teacher, Mister Shepherd (Pierce Brosnan) at the ninth pub, The Beehive. During and after the fight, Pete and Oliver get swapped by their doppelgängers. Not wanting to wait any more, Gary helps Sam escape. He then ditches Steve & Andy to reach the final pub, The World’s End. His last drink waits for him, but Andy intervenes, wanting to get him out of town for his safety. As the two bicker, Gary admits he can’t stand how Andy’s life turned out, but when the latter corrects him that marriage is going downhill and he’s still trying to save it however he can. Gary ends up revealing he tried killing himself as he felt his life never got better after the first attempt of the crawl, feeling like it all should’ve begun had he finished it then. Believing this is all he has left, he pulls the lever to his last drink which only takes him, Andy and Steve to a hidden chamber for the Blanks. Their leader, The Network, offers Gary eternal youth should he join the cause in making humanity join a galactic community, but he turns it down, instead pointing out their tyranny and demanding humanity to be left alone. Exasperated by the whole argument, the Network departs but triggers a pulse that destroys the town and all of the electric power on earth. Some time after this apocalypse, Andy tells a new group that while most Blanks reactivated a few weeks later, they’re shunned by most humans. While he got to save his marriage and the stimulants of Oliver & Peter picked up where they left off, Steven started dating Sam. Although he doesn’t know what happened to Gary after the blackout, the film ends with the reveal that he got sober and now travels with younger versions of his friends that are Blanks.


THOUGHTS


This would be the third and film of Edgar Wright’s anthological trilogy, ‘Three Flavors Cornetto’, that had started with Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz, and it did not disappoint if you ask me. I was laughing a whole bunch because it’s pretty surreal of an idea to have a pub crawl, only to walk into an alien invasion. Marcus Rowland’s production design definitely pulled off  making the ideal illusion you expect out of Newton Haven that it’s a place that feels too perfect to exist and the special effects done for the Blanks are intimidating enough to keep me interested, even that giant statue that moved around for a minute. Bill Pope’s cinematography is still able to match the exhilarating energy that’s been done in the past entries. The big laughs for me really went to how Gary was willing to still finish his drink in the middle of a fight, being right that the twins were creepy off of how they were talking in sync, and him allowing to be seduced by other Blanks due to how drunk he is. The real icing on the cake is hearing the visible annoyance of Bill Nighy as the Network, the longer he argued with Gary. I mean that’s ideal for an argument to go when one is sober and the other isn’t. Hell, I even respect the story ended in a cliffhanger rather than resolution because you can’t really resolve an apocalypse. What this entry does differently that feels right is that it’s upfront in saying there is a blessing to find adaptation and self forgiveness rather than cling on to the troubled past. This is the dilemma with another strong lead performance from cowriter Simon Pegg. Having been the more mature one in past films, he’s instead the wild card that doesn’t want to be responsible and wants to reclaim all the joy he had in his youth. He chose to live in pain because he felt he couldn’t live up to his potential for not finishing the crawl. Rather than putting an effort in following through whatever expectations that people had at the time, he let this setback define him. And in a way to have a sendoff in his life, he wanted to be with his friends one more time, instead of being alone should he try to take his life again. So in a deep sense, all the smiles he had before the end were a disguise of all the depression he was feeling. Ironically, it took the apocalypse for him to turn his perspective around. But before that, it was moving to know there were people that had that worry for him and wanted him to be better. Nick Frost steps up on being the responsible leader because Andy is the ideal wingman you want in your life, just genuinely wanting to look out for you. Being sober is hard for everyone, but it was important for him to do so at the time because he didn’t want to repeat his mistakes compared to Gary. Had he known what was going on with his friend, he totally would’ve checked on him and figure out how to help him. The best part about Andy is that he knows he’s flawed and that he doesn’t stop trying to be better. Had he kept in touch with Gary and told him how he was handling it, it would’ve inspired his friend to get it together much sooner. Hell, even he shares the irony that it took the apocalypse for him to patch things with his wife. As for the rest of the group, they definitely didn’t have the same problems, but the fact they didn’t let the Golden Mile define them proves that that’s the point of growing up. I definitely adored Pete because Eddie Marsan because he was a timid one who took too long to express his bravery because the one time he should’ve kept it pent up backfires due to doing so for so many years. You want to be happy he gets semi-closure when confronting a blank that resembled his old bully, but the timing was of course off for him. Martin Freeman was also interesting in making Oliver the cynical one who is far more of a workaholic compared to Andy because he gets carried away worrying over his appearance. However, he still expressed interest in his friends when reuniting which says a lot. Had he kept his guard up better, he would’ve bettered his chances as well. The fact he and Pete’s blanks choose to take over their lives is fitting because in one way, it’s better to be remembered than forgotten. I also enjoyed Paddy Considine as Steven because he had his own sensibility that makes his most reserved. Like the others, his loyalty is reluctant because not even he could believe how Gary remained the same after all this time. And if those things didn’t make you relate to him enough, it’s him being a hopeless romantic that’ll do it because that was his own goal to resolve. I think it easy to fall for Sam too because Rosamund Pike makes her pleasant and far more level headed compared to her brother’s friends. Yes, she did sleep with Gary during the original Golden Mile because she at the time wanted to live recklessly. She doesn’t do it again years later because she grew to change too. And that is part of picking Steven at the end, he has things figured out and she’s not settle for less than that. But because she still knows Gary is still a decent guy for helping her escape, she returns by coming back for them, saving them from the blast. While this group doesn’t know what happened to their king of a friend, it’s nice to know each one of them found content equally down the line. This film is indeed great on its own, but there are still some things that made me scratch my head harder than Sam not picking up sooner of the twins’ weirdness. For instance, it’s totally on the gang to not check in with each other once Andy chose to reassemble them because in their case, it was too good to be true. And in all honesty, Andy should’ve picked up sooner that Gary was lying about his mom. Also, it’s odd that the Blanks chose to not fix the bathroom wall that Gary punched. If they wanted to keep their cover, they should’ve fixed way before the gang ever came back. Next thing, it’s so weird that Andy was so focused on calling out Gary, that he takes a while to notice the severed head whereas everyone else noticed immediately. He ain’t even drinking yet, so that ain’t a good excuse for him. Lastly, do the blanks teleport? I have to ask because the guys went pretty far undetected until Pete stood up to his bully doppelgänger. Ignore these issues however, then you’re still gonna have a good laugh of The World’s End. If you’re into the comedies that are smarter than meets the eye, check this out when you can.