The Omega Man
All team (24)
Short description
After a biological war wipes out most of humanity, U.S. Army scientist Robert Neville believes he is the only person left in Los Angeles. He survived thanks to an experimental vaccine, but the plague transformed other survivors into light-sensitive, night-dwelling mutants who consider him responsible for the catastrophe. Led by a fanatical figure named Matthias, they emerge after sunset to hunt him, while Neville spends his days gathering supplies, trying to hold on to his sanity and searching for anyone else who might be immune.
The film was directed by Boris Sagal, its sixth feature in the chronological run of his filmography, from a screenplay by John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, and produced by Walter Seltzer. Charlton Heston plays Neville, with Anthony Zerbe as Matthias, Rosalind Cash as Lisa, Paul Koslo as Dutch, Eric Laneuville as Richie and Lincoln Kilpatrick as Zachary. It is set in a deserted Los Angeles and is based on Richard Matheson's novel, a story filmed more than once.
Released in 1971, the film took about nine million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 6.4 rating from roughly 36,000 votes, and on TMDB a 6.2 from about 639 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 5.3 from 34 reviews, lower than the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The filmmakers wanted to shoot in a location that looked like an abandoned town, but building sets would have been too troublesome and expensive. One day, film producer Walter Zelzer (1914-2011) drove through the business district of Los Angeles on his day off and noticed that the streets were completely empty, so they filmed in the appropriate setting on weekends there.
- This prompted the screenwriters, John William Corrington (1932-1988), Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Richard Matheson (1926-2013), to come up with the idea of making the friend of the main character, played by Charlton Heston (1923-2008), an African American woman, Rosalind Cash (1939-1995). It was the 1970s, and interracial relationships were not yet so common, but the screenwriters decided that in a world where humanity was almost destroyed, racism would already be a thing of the past.
- The filmmakers wanted to shoot in a location that looked like an abandoned town, but building sets would have been too troublesome and expensive. One day, the film’s producer Walter Zelzer drove through the business district of Los Angeles on a day off and noticed that the streets were completely empty, so they filmed scenes in the appropriate setting on weekends there.
- The idea to cast Rosaline Cash, an African American actress, as the friend of the main character played by Charlton Heston came to the scriptwriters John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Richard Matheson. Interracial relationships were not yet widespread, but the scriptwriters decided that in a world where humanity was almost destroyed, racism would already be a thing of the past.
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