A One Mann’s Movies review of “The End” (2025).
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a spoof green-light meeting. But for Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End”, I think it’s time to break that fast.
Producer 1: “So, Joshua, tell us what you’re thinking about this new project”.
Oppenheimer: “Well guys, its about a bunch of people trapped in an underground bunker while armageddon rages up on the surface above them.”
Producer 2: “Wow, great, so it’s like “10 Cloverfield Lane” then? Some hot chicks locked in the bunker with some young guys. Lots of sexual tension. A need to repopulate the world. I get you; I get you.
Oppenheimer: “Er, no, actually. They are mostly family members and all the women are well above child-bearing age. There is a younger black woman who turns up…
Producer 1: “OK, great. So we can pitch it as a story of rampant sexual desire and…
Oppenheimer: “No, I’ll stop you there… I want it to be accessible to young people so I want it to have a 12A rating in the UK. So no explicit sex.”
Producer 2: “R-i-ght. So it’s a heavy apocalyptic drama, aimed at under 13’s with a bunch of old actors that most of them haven’t heard of and there’s not even any heavy petting??
Oppenheimer: “Correct. Oh, and by the way, it’s a musical. So they keep bursting into songs at random moments.”
Producer 1 and Producer 2 in unison: “Thanks for the drugs Joshua. We’re in!”
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The End” Plot:
A family of three, a best friend, a ‘butler’ and a doctor are in an underground bunker sealed off from a dead world above. Their solitude is disrupted when a young black girl finds her way into the compound.
Certification:
UK:Â 12A;Â US: R*. (From the BBFC web site: “Infrequent strong language, moderate violence, suicide, sex references”. * I’m a bit puzzled by this US rating which seems to be for “some language”. But I think I’ve seen this flagged as PG-13 elsewhere. Requires clarification.)
Talent:
Starring: Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Michael Shannon, Moses Ingram, Lennie James, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny.
Directed by: Joshua Oppenheimer.
Written by: Rasmus Heisterberg & Joshua Oppenheimer, with Shusaku Harada & Nathaniel Philip.
Running Time: 2h 28m.
“The End” Summary:
Positives:
- The location is marvellously evocative
- A heavyweight line up of stars.
- Some of the songs are quite clever.
Negatives:
- At nearly two and a half hours, it considerably overstays its welcome.
- The songs feel weirdly wrong.
- It sometimes feels overly sanitised for the subject matter.
Review of “The End”:
A brilliant location.
I really enjoyed the environment that the film is set in. We are in vast underground white caverns with the odd car scattered around. Every so often a big deflated pipe suddenly bursts to full capacity with a loud bang. What is it transporting…? Air? Water? The mechanism for this is not revealed, but its makes for a striking start to the film. The movie was actually filmed in a salt mine in Petralia Soprana, Sicily: a brilliant location.
The compound within the mine is a set of plush rooms, reminiscent to me of the finale of “2001: A Space Odyssey”. There, the ‘mother’ (Tilda Swinton) is hanging some of the great master’s artwork on the wall. (Where all this stuff has come from is (delightfully) left unexplained too.) Swinton is a perfectionist: everything has to be just right.
It’s a theme of the piece. ‘Mother’ is houseproud for visitors that will never arrive (and probably be shot if they do); in true “Mary Poppins” style, a piano is tuned despite noone ever playing it; ‘Son’ (Gorgeous George MacKay) is writing the (somewhat revisionist) memoir of his energy-mogul father (Michael Shannon) that noone will ever read. It’s all very sad.
The son is ‘the end’.
The bleakness continues as you learn that there is no means of reproduction in their self-imposed prison. At one point, ‘Butler’ (a marvellous Tim McInnerny) refers to ‘Son’ as “The End”. And he really is. You realise that ‘Mother’ is old but you wonder if ‘Friend’ (Bronagh Gallagher) might still be just of child-bearing age. But then the script helpfully delivers a line about a prolapsed uterus and you realise that avenue is closed off too.
Can you imagine a fate worse than being born in and then locked in a sealed tomb, watching all of your older relatives and ‘friends’ fall ill and die and knowing you would probably be eventually left there, all on your own. With not even a daily Wordle to occupy yourself. Horrible.
‘Girl’
When ‘Girl’ (Moses Ingram) arrives it’s like a ray of hope. The attraction of ‘Son’ to ‘Girl’ is immediately visible (why wouldn’t it be?) but the ’12A’/’PG-13′ certificate permits any explicit exploration of that. We only get to see some mild foreplay rather than any more broader examination of their emerging sexual relationship. (It’s so coy and sanitised that I wasn’t even quite sure if they were a couple or not until much later in the film.)
Of course, the compound’s lazy equilibrium of civilisation is founded on a bed of lies and deceits and the introduction of ‘Girl’ to the mix, sometimes probing into areas best left unprobed, surfaces truths that cause major ructions.
And then they sing.
The fact that you would bolt a musical onto this apocalyptic drama is a bold swing from Oppenheimer. For me, it didn’t really work. Every time someone burst into song, I must admit I rolled my eyes. “Oh no, not again!”. That’s not to say that the songs, by Joshua Schmidt, with lyrics by director Joshua Oppenheimer, are poor. They are actually quite clever, with the later songs in the film wrapping in harmonic versions of songs heard earlier. And, against all expectations I must say, the cast perform them adequately… even Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon. (MacKay is obviously an acomplished singer, having starred in 2013’s “Sunshine on Leith“.) It’s just that I was personally sufficiently invested in the drama that I didn’t need the songs.
It’s not really a ‘song and dance’ movie, although there is the odd dance or two. George MacKay does engage in an impressive salt-fuelled dance in the mines involving some impressive backward ‘handstands’ against a rock wall which I wouldn’t like to try to repeat! And a brief vaudeville scene with Tim McInnerny and Michael Shannon is pure gold.
A great ensemble cast.
Given the strange premise of the film, it’s great that it attracted such an A-list cast. Who wouldn’t pay good money to see Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon act together?
Shannon is, as ever, superb. You are never told what the global apocalypse above was caused by, but you have a strong suspicion that ‘Father’ had something to do with it. Under the urbane exterior, he’s a nasty piece of work. “Get your faggoty hands off me” he snaps at one point to McInnerny’s gay butler.
It’s no surprise George (“Big ding-dong”) MacKay made the list: although he’s been in such box-office gold as “1917” his recent tastes have taken him into a bunch of relatively small or indie films such as “I Came By“, “Femme” and “The Beast“. Elsewhere, Lennie James is great playing an unpleasantly crochety doctor and Moses Ingram is particularly effective as ‘Girl’.
Eternity is a sod of a long time.
Above all, at two minutes short of two and a half hours, this film is a long old slog. If it had been compressed into 100 minutes, it would have been far more entertaining for me. At 148 minutes, it’s a bit of a marathon. My friend and fellow film critic the Reverend Andy Godfrey described it as “one step closer to a cure for insomnia” and his cinema audience of seven reduced to just himself by mid-film. (A 2 out of 10 for him.)
Summary Thoughts on “The End”
Mark Kermode (on Kermode and Mayo’s “Take” review) liked this film far more than I did. Although I do agree with him on one thing: in a world of sequels and Marvel movies “the fact that someone (Oppenheimer) is doing work this brave is wonderful”. Films like this are bold and different and that is to be celebrated. It’s impressively done. It just didn’t really fully work for me: but it might do for you.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The End”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avvm0e4oNCE.
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