On the Beach(1959)

POOPER: (Thanks Curt!)
There’s nobody left. The last-ditch attempt to find survivors reveals only a blind cord in the wind hitting a telegraph key.

LONGER VERSION:
In hopes of disproving the ongoing theory that radiation will eventually reach Australia and humanity will inevitable be exterminated, the American submarine Sawfish, led by Commander Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) -the only functioning one left at the service of the Australian Navy-, volunteers to travel towards the source of the mysterious Morse signal, at the Northern Hemisphere.

The contingent reaches the Northern end of Alaska, only to discover, much to their dismay, that the radiation not only has increased but it is indeed being carried Southward by the wind currents. Starting to lose hope, the men lead towards San Francisco, which is in ruins and completely devoid of life. One of the crew members -local to the area- asks to be allowed to take a quick look at the surroundings; Towers acquiesces, but warns him that he can only be outside for so long, after which he could become radioactive and dangerous from exposure to the environment. The man swims at the bay and overstays its time, thus not being able to return inside the submarine; however, after a day, he asks Towers to be left there, to die at his hometown and he is last seen sailing leisurely on a small boat.

Next, they reach San Diego, where it is determined the Morse signal is originating; another crew member, donning a protective suit, is sent to investigate and given exactly one hour to locate it and head back before the suit is deemed no longer safe. He finds the city’s power plant still running and, in one of its offices, the origin of the Morse signals: a telegraph key jumbled up with an empty Coke bottle and a window pull cord, with the wind moving it and causing it to produce the sounds. The man undoes it so it won’t sound anymore and, before leaving the place, shuts the plant down.

Powerless to do anything else, the crew return aboard the Sawfish to Australia. They all discuss the prospects of their inevitable demise to come, and what to do with whatever little time they now have left. The few American sailors still based in Brisbane, North of Melbourne -where the radiation has already been detected-, have now fallen under the Command of the Australian Navy, since the Australian ones are dying.

Osborn (Fred Astaire), a close friend of Towers, buys a huge Ferrari, goes on to win the Australian Grand Prix -where many contestants decide to kill themselves by crashing their cars- and, later on, he himself commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage. Towers reconnects with his love interest, Moira (Ava Gardner), both retreating to her father’s farm, where they get to spend time together, fishing and rekindling their romance -it is to be noted that, in this sequence, some revelers are seeing singing “Waltzing Matilda”, a beloved national Australian song, which then morphs into a more orchestral version-.

When they return to Melbourne, they discover with sadness that the radiation has finally reached the city and it is only a matter of time before everyone succumbs to it. Many people line up in the streets to obtain the Government-provided suicide drugs, so they can have a quicker, painless ending vs. the prolonged, suffering-laden one by radiation sickness. Lt. Holmes (Anthony Perkins) gets the package for himself, his wife Mary (Donna Anderson) and their daughter and, after much hesitation, they all end up taking it and dying together. Meanwhile, Towers debates with the Sawfish crew on whether they’ll meet their end in Australia or take one last trip back to the United States, everyone deciding for the latter option. Towers bids farewell to a heartbroken Moira, having chosen to lead the men back to America. She tearfully watches from the coast, as the Sawfish sails away and eventually submerges -it is speculated they probably do not survive the trip-.

The final sequence of the movie shows a windy, empty and silent city of Melbourne, indicating all life has been completely wiped out. Music is heard in the background, going from melancholic to strident, as the very last scene shows a previously seen Salvation Army banner, which, as a warning, reads: “THERE IS STILL TIME… BROTHER”.