Until the End of the World
Until the End of the World (; ) is a 1991 science fiction adventure drama film directed by Wim Wenders. Set at the turn of the millennium in the shadow of a world-changing catastrophe, the film follows a man and woman, played by William Hurt and Solveig Dommartin, as they are pursued across the globe, in a plot involving a device that can record visual experiences and visualize dreams. An initial draft of the screenplay was written by American filmmaker Michael Almereyda, but the final screenplay is credited to Wenders and Peter Carey, from a story by Wenders and Dommartin. Wenders, whose career had been distinguished by his exploration of the road movie, intended this as the ultimate example of the genre.
Plot
In 1999, panic ensues when an orbiting Indian nuclear satellite begins to spiral toward Earth. Claire Tourneur, who has been traveling around Europe trying, unsuccessfully, to distract herself after discovering that her boyfriend slept with her best friend, is unconcerned by the impending nuclear disaster, though her sleep has been troubled by a recurring nightmare. When she gets stuck in a traffic jam in the south of France after it is projected as a possible impact site, she decides to take a side road. She gets into an accident with a pair of surprisingly friendly bank robbers, who enlist her to carry their stolen cash to Paris, in exchange for a cut of the loot. Along the way, she meets a man who introduces himself as Trevor McPhee. He is being followed by an armed man named Burt, so Claire agrees to let Trevor travel to Paris with her. After reaching the house of her estranged lover, Eugene, Claire discovers that Trevor stole some of the stolen money while she slept.
Cast
- Adelle Lutz
- Alec Jason
- Alfred Lynch
- Allen Garfield
- Amália Rodrigues
- Bart Willoughby
- Carmen Chaplin
- Chick Ortega
- Chishū Ryū
- Christine Oesterlein
- David Byrne
- David Gulpilil
- Diogo Dória
- Dolores Chaplin
- Eddy Mitchell
- Erika Rabau
- Ernie Dingo
- Jean Seberg
- Jeanne Moreau
- Jimmy Little
- Justine Saunders
- Kuniko Miyake
- Kylie Belling
- Lois Chiles
- Maurice Ronet
- Max von Sydow
- Michael Winters
- Miwako Fujitani
- Naoto Takenaka
- Paul Livingston
- Peter Przygodda
- Rüdiger Vogler
- Sam Neill
- Solveig Dommartin
- Stéphane Audran
- Tom Waits
- William Hurt
- Yelena Smirnova