The Omega Man (1971) on Netflix
Biological weapons have wiped out most of humanity. Immune after an experimental vaccine, Army doctor Robert Neville lives alone in a desolate Los Angeles while nocturnal mutants hunt him.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.4/1036,492 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes65%
Trailer
Plot summary
A border conflict between the Soviet Union and China escalates into a full-scale war, and the biological weapons used in it destroy most of the human race. Robert Neville, a U.S. Army colonel and medical doctor in Los Angeles, tests the efficacy of vaccines. As the plague reaches him he injects himself with an experimental vaccine and survives. Two years later he believes he is the only immune survivor left. He patrols the desolate city by day, hunting the Family, a cult of plague victims turned homicidal albino mutants who cannot bear light. By night they besiege his fortified apartment building. Blaming technology for the war, they destroy what remains of science and use archaic weapons against him. In a department store he sees a healthy woman, and she flees.
Cast
- Jill Giraldias Little Girl
- Monika Henreidas Family Member
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Omega Man (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Whoopi Goldberg remarked that the kiss between the characters played by Charlton Heston and Rosalind Cash was one of the first interracial kisses to appear in a movie; when she asked Heston about it on her 1992 talk show, he leaned forward and demonstrated it on the unsuspecting Goldberg.
- Charlton Heston wrote in his autobiography that this was Rosalind Cash's first leading film role and that she was understandably nervous about filming a love scene with him, later joking to him, in his words, that it felt 'spooky... to screw Moses.'
- Without CGI, a depopulated Los Angeles was achieved by filming in the center of the city's business district on Sunday mornings, which in late 1970 were quiet, though some exterior shots still captured bystanders and moving cars in the background.
- Tim Burton said in an interview for his 2009 Museum of Modern Art exhibit that if he was alone on a desert island he would probably pick The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, adding that he did not know why it is one of his favorite movies.
- Neville's house was a real building on the backlot of the Warner Bros. Ranch, and it stood until 2023, when it was demolished as part of a full redevelopment of the site.
