The World's End (film)

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The World's End
The World's End poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEdgar Wright
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBill Pope
Edited byPaul Machliss
Music bySteven Price
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • 10 July 2013 (2013-07-10) (Leicester Square)
  • 19 July 2013 (2013-07-19) (United Kingdom)
  • 23 August 2013 (2013-08-23) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[3]
Box office$46.1 million[4]

The World's End is a 2013 science fiction comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike. The film follows five friends who return to their hometown to reattempt an epic pub crawl they failed twenty-three years earlier, only to discover the town is in the midst of an alien invasion.

Wright has described the film as social science fiction in the tradition of John Wyndham and Samuel Youd (John Christopher).[5] It is the third and final film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). The film was produced by Relativity Media, StudioCanal, Big Talk Productions, and Working Title Films.[6] It grossed $46.1 million against a $20 million budget.

Plot[]

Gary King, a forty-year-old alcoholic, retains the mindset and immaturity of his teenage years, whereas his four boyhood friends, Oliver Chamberlain, Peter Page, Steven Prince, and Andrew Knightley, have all matured. The four have become estranged from Gary until one day, attempting to recapture his youth, he contacts and invites them to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl encompassing the twelve pubs of their hometown of Newton Haven, the last of them being the World's End. The group attempted the crawl as teens, twenty-three years previously on their last day of school, but failed to reach the final three pubs. Andy, now a teetotaller due to a drunk-driving accident years ago involving him and Gary, reluctantly agrees to join the others.

At the second pub, the Old Familiar, the group encounters Oliver's sister, Sam, who Gary and Steven fought over in school; in the teenage crawl, Gary had sex with Sam in the toilets of the seventh pub, the Two Headed Dog. Early into the crawl, the town residents appear eerily stoic and do not seem to recognize the group, except for the barman of the third pub, The Famous Cock, who tells them that they are banned. In the fourth pub, the Cross Hands, the group begins berating Gary for his childishness and lack of empathy when he interrupts a tragic story from Peter. Angry and upset, Gary goes to the toilet where he gets into a fight with a teenager and knocks his head off, exposing him as an android. As Gary's friends find him in the bathroom, initially to confront him about lying about his mother's death, the other members of the teen's gang, all of whom are also androids filled with a blue ink-like substance, enter the bathroom and engage in a battle against the human friends. The group realizes that the entire town has been replaced with android simulants. In shock, Andy abandons his teetotal lifestyle.

Gary urges them to continue the pub crawl to avoid suspicion. At the Trusty Servant, Gary and his friends learn that the androids want to improve humanity after Gary tries to buy some "herbal refreshment", discovering that drug dealer Trevor is in league with the androids. Oliver is put out of commission after pint six, being replaced by an android look-alike while he used the bathroom off-screen. The group bumps into Sam once more at the Two Headed Dog, where Gary, Sam, and Steven fight a pair of twin androids. She tags along with them to the Mermaid, where Steven discovers that the androids are trying to build a prosperous, galactic conglomerate, with humanity working alongside them, and that any humans refusing will be replaced with identical simulants. When the group arrives at the Beehive, the androids attempt to convince the humans to join their assimilation. Unwilling to lose their humanity and finding out that Oliver had been replaced, Andy goes mental and the group fights against a bar full of androids.

After escaping the Beehive, the situation worsens. Gary lets Sam, the only one sober enough to drive safely, escape Newton Haven by herself; Pete gets captured after attacking the android that replaced his childhood bully; and, when Andy and Steven want to go home as a result, Gary ditches them at the King's Head to finish the Golden Mile alone. Andy and Steven chase after Gary, as does the rest of Newton Haven, and Steven gets captured at the Hole in the Wall when he arrives to drive himself and his remaining friends out of town.

Andy catches up to Gary at The World's End and confronts him, provoking a fight. During their scuffle, Andy shares that his marriage is troubled and Gary's wrists are exposed, revealing evidence of a recent suicide attempt. Andy tries to stop Gary from drawing his final pint, but Gary clings to completing the Mile, saying it is the only thing in life he can achieve.

When Gary pulls the lever to pour himself a pint, the floor lowers into a hidden chamber. A disembodied alien entity, known as the Network, tells Gary and Andy that the simulant invasion has been responsible for the technological advances in telecommunication over recent decades, which are the first step to humanity joining a galactic community. The Network offers Gary eternal youth if he becomes a simulant, but he refuses. Along with Andy and Steven, who has survived, Gary gets into a foul-mouthed debate with the Network, calling out the tyranny in the latter's plan and demanding that humanity be left to its own devices. Eventually, the Network, exasperated, agrees to abandon the invasion. Sam comes back to rescue Gary, Andy, and Steven and they head for the hills as the town is destroyed, but are unable to outrun the pulse triggered by the departure of the Network, which deactivates Sam's car.

Some time later, Andy relates that the pulse triggered a worldwide blackout that destroyed all electrical power on Earth, sending humanity back to the Dark Ages. The remaining simulants reactivated a few weeks later and, although they are now independent from the Network, they are mistrusted and shunned by most of the surviving humans. Andy's marriage has recovered, Steven is in a relationship with Sam, and the simulant versions of Peter and Oliver have picked up where their human versions left off. In the ruins of Newton Haven, the now-sober Gary enters a pub with the simulant versions of his younger friends and orders water. When the bartender refuses to serve simulants, Gary leads his friends into a brawl.

Cast[]

  • Simon Pegg as Gary King, an immature alcoholic who bring his childhood friends back together to recreate their youth.
  • Nick Frost as Andy Knightley, one of Gary's childhood friends who grew up to be a teetotaling corporate lawyer.
    • Zachary Bailess as Young Andy
  • Paddy Considine as Steven Prince, one of Gary's childhood friends who grew to up be an architect.
    • Jasper Levine as Young Steven
  • Martin Freeman as Oliver "O-Man" Chamberlain, one of Gary's childhood friends who grew up to be an estate agent. His nickname comes from a birthmark on his forehead resembling the number 6, which reminded his friends of the birthmark resembling three sixes that marks the Antichrist in the film The Omen.
    • Luke Bromley as Young Oliver
  • Eddie Marsan as Peter Page, one of Gary's childhood friends who grew up to be a car salesman.
  • Rosamund Pike as Sam Chamberlain, Oliver's younger sister, who Gary has lusted after and Steven has had a crush on since they were teenagers.
    • Flora Slorach as Young Sam
  • Pierce Brosnan as Guy Shepherd, Gary's favorite teacher.
  • Bill Nighy (voice) as The Network, the alien entity responsible for the invasion.
  • David Bradley as "Mad" Basil, an eccentric local man from Newton Haven.
  • Darren Boyd as Shane Hawkins, Peter's former bully.
    • Richard Hadfield as Young Shane
  • Michael Smiley as Trevor "The Reverend" Green, a drug dealer who sold cannabis to Gary during the 1990 attempt at the Golden Mile and now serves The Network.
  • Sophie Evans as Becky Salt
  • Rose Reynolds as Tracy Benson
  • Peter Serafinowicz (uncredited) as Knock-a-Door Run Home Owner

Development[]

The World's End began as a screenplay titled Crawl, about a group of teenagers on a pub crawl, written by Edgar Wright at the age of 21. He later realized the idea could work with adult characters to capture "the bittersweet feeling of returning to your home town and feeling like a stranger".[7] Wright also said he wanted to satirize the "strange homogeneous branding that becomes like a virus", explaining: "This doesn't just extend to pubs, it's the same with cafés and restaurants. If you live in a small town and you move to London, which I did when I was 20, then when you go back out into the other small towns in England you go 'oh my god, it's all the same!' It's like Bodysnatchers: literally our towns are being changed to death."[8]

In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Pegg told Clark Collis, "People think we choose the genre first every time, and it's not true. We find the stories first. The notion of alienation from your hometown taken to its literal conclusion was how we got to science fiction."[9]

After the story was complete, Wright and Pegg examined a list of real pub names and "tried to make them like tarot cards" to foreshadow the events of the story. Wright explained: "So we said, 'OK this one's the Famous Cock, because this is where Gary is trying to puff up his own importance.' ... We did go through and work out in each one how the pub sign was going to relate."[8]

Production[]

The Gardeners Arms pub on the boundary of Letchworth was used as the shooting location for the final pub, the World's End.

Principal photography for The World's End began on 28 September 2012.[10] Filming took place in Hertfordshire, at Elstree Studios, Letchworth Garden City, and Welwyn Garden City.[11] Part of the film was also shot at High Wycombe railway station, Buckinghamshire.[12]

All twelve pubs in the film use identical signage on menus and walls, reflecting what Wright called "that fake hand-written chalk" common to modern British pubs.[8] The exteriors of the real pubs were shot at locations in Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City, with altered signage.[13] Letchworth Garden City railway station received a makeover to become the "Hole in the Wall".[14] Stunts were coordinated by Brad Allen, of martial arts film director Jackie Chan's team. Wright said: "In Drunken Master, Jackie Chan has to get drunk to fight, but this is more the idea of Dutch courage. You know, when you're kind of drunk and you think 'ah, I can climb up that scaffolding!' Or just that you're impervious to pain. One of the things we talked about is this idea that [the characters] become better fighters the more oiled they get."[8]

The Broadway Cinema, Letchworth, a renovated independent cinema built in the 1930s in the Art Deco style,[15] was used to portray the Mermaid pub. This cinema was also the first outside London to play the film, with a special introduction by Pegg thanking the residents of Letchworth for their help during its making; over 800 viewers watched the film at the cinema on its opening night.[16]

Soundtrack[]

The World's End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
Released5 August 2013 (2013-08-05)
GenreAlternative rock, indie rock, Madchester, alternative dance, Britpop, psychedelic rock, electronica
Length74:59
LabelABKCO Records
Edgar Wright film soundtrack chronology
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
(2010) 		The World's End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(2013) 		Baby Driver
(2017)

The film uses what the New York Post's Kyle Smith called "a brilliant Madchester soundtrack",[17] alternative rock and pop music from the time of the characters' adolescence. Wright explained: "A lot of those songs are ones that really hit me and Simon hard when we were that age... [Gary] is still living by those rules. It's like he decided to take 'Loaded' and 'I'm Free' to heart and thinks the party's never going to end."[8]

The soundtrack for the film was released on 5 August 2013 in the UK and 20 August 2013 in the United States, with the film's score, composed by Steven Price, released on the same day.

The only songs featured in the film that did not make it onto the soundtrack are "The Only One I Know", "Summer's Magic" and "The Only Rhyme That Bites", by The Charlatans, Mark Summers and 808 State respectively. The version of "20 Seconds To Comply" which features in the film is the mix from Silver Bullet's album "Bring Down The Walls No Limit Squad Returns", albeit edited to remove dialogue samples from RoboCop. On the soundtrack album, it is replaced by the Bomb Squad mix (again re-edited to remove the samples). The original soundtrack tributes the song "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" by Yes when the young characters reach the hills.

Track list[]

In addition to songs featured in the movie, the album also features dialogue snippets. The track list for the soundtrack is as follows:[18]

  1. "Loaded" (single edit) – Primal Scream (4:21)
  2. "There's No Other Way" – Blur (3:19)
  3. Dialogue: "I Put This On a Tape for You" – Simon Pegg and Paddy Considine (0:09)
  4. "I'm Free" – The Soup Dragons (3:50)
  5. "Step On" – Happy Mondays (5:14) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  6. Dialogue: "Was The Music Too Loud?" – Steve Oram and Simon Pegg (0:04) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  7. "So Young" – Suede (3:37)
  8. "Old Red Eyes Is Back" – The Beautiful South (3:32) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  9. Dialogue: "A Humble Taproom" – Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (0:15) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  10. "Come Home" (Flood mix) – James (3:53) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  11. "Do You Remember the First Time?" – Pulp (4:22)
  12. Dialogue: "Welcome" – Simon Pegg (0:04)
  13. "What You Do to Me" – Teenage Fanclub (1:57)
  14. "Fools Gold" (single edit) – The Stone Roses (4:15)
  15. "Get a Life" – Soul II Soul (3:36)
  16. Dialogue: "We Have Changed" – Nick Frost (0:07)
  17. "This Is How It Feels" – Inspiral Carpets (3:10) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  18. "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" – The Doors (3:16)
  19. "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" – Definition of Sound (3:43)
  20. Dialogue: "This Is What the Kids Want" – Simon Pegg and Martin Freeman (0:07)
  21. "Step Back in Time" – Kylie Minogue (3:04) [Deluxe version bonus track]
  22. "Join Our Club" – Saint Etienne (3:15)
  23. "Here's Where the Story Ends" – The Sundays (3:52)
  24. Dialogue: "I Hate This Town" – Nick Frost (0:04)
  25. "20 Seconds to Comply" (World's End Bomb Squad mix re-edit) – Silver Bullet (4:35) [A re-edit of the Album Version mix actually appears in the film.]
  26. "This Corrosion" (single edit) – The Sisters of Mercy (4:21)
  27. "Happy Hour" – The Housemartins (2:21)
  28. Dialogue: "Let's Boo Boo" – Simon Pegg and Paddy Considine (0:24)

Release[]

The World's End premiered on 10 July 2013 at Leicester Square in London[19][20] and was released on 19 July 2013 in the United Kingdom.[19] It was released in the United States on 23 August 2013.[21]

Reception[]

Box office[]

The World's End earned £2,122,288 during its UK opening weekend, losing the top spot to Monsters University. Its weekend grosses were higher than Shaun of the Dead's £1.6 million but lower than Hot Fuzz's £5.4 million.[22]

In the United States, the film was released on 23 August and earned $3.5 million on its opening day, outperforming The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and You're Next. It had the highest per-cinema average out of all films in theaters throughout the country on its opening day.[23] Its opening weekend, the film earned $8,790,237, finishing fourth at the box office behind Lee Daniels' The Butler, We're the Millers, and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.[24] This total exceeded box office expectations, which had ranged from $7 million[25] to $8.5 million,[26] and was also the biggest opening weekend for any of the films in the Cornetto Trilogy.[27]

Critical reception[]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 89% approval rating, with a weighted average score of 7.44/10, based on 240 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "Madcap and heartfelt, Edgar Wright's apocalypse comedy The World's End benefits from the typically hilarious Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, with a plethora of supporting players."[28] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[30]

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, praising it as "hilarious" and the "best" collaboration of Wright, Pegg and Frost, and saying that "these pint-swilling Peter Pans also know how to work the heart and the brain for belly laughs... The finale is a little too shaggy and silly. But what do you expect after a dozen beers?"[31]

Mark Dinning of Empire magazine gave the film four stars out of five, writing: "Bravely refusing to rigidly adhere to a formula that has been so successful, Wright, Pegg and Frost's Cornetto Trilogy closer has tonal shifts you won't expect, but the same beating heart you've been craving."[32]

Henry Barnes of The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five, writing: "With this final film they've slowed down a bit, grown up a lot. And saved the richest bite until last."[33]

Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York named The World's End the ninth-best film of 2013, praising Pegg's "hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of over-the-hill deadbeatness."[34]

Accolades[]

The World's End received two Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations, for Best Actor in a Comedy (for Simon Pegg) and for Best Comedy, but lost to Leonardo DiCaprio and American Hustle, respectively.

The film won Best British Film at the 19th Empire Awards, held in London in March 2014.

It received nominations for three awards at the 40th Saturn Awards: Best International Film, Best Writing, and Best Actor for Pegg.[35]

It received nominations for MTV Movie Awards: Best Fight (for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, & Eddie Marsan) & Best Comedic Performance (for Simon Pegg)

See also[]

  • Index of drinking establishment-related articles

References[]

  1. ^ "THE WORLD'S END (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 5 July 2013. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "The World's End". British Film Institute. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Simon Pegg: The World's End is $4 million shy of double what Hot Fuzz cost". radiotimes.com. 24 July 2013. Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  4. ^ Reynolds, Simon (18 August 2013). "The World's End (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  5. ^ Hewitt, Chris (28 May 2012). "Pegg And Wright Talk The World's End". Empire. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  6. ^ "The World's End". Big Talk Productions. 22 February 1999. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  7. ^ Brooks, Xan; Barnes, Henry (17 July 2013). "The World's End: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright on their apocalypse comedy – video interview | Film | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Franklin, Oliver (17 July 2013). "Edgar Wright interview on The World's End, pubs & Ant Man – Film – GQ.COM (UK)". Gq-magazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  9. ^ Collis, Clark (30 August 2013). "3 Blokes. 3 Films. Many, Many Laughs". Entertainment Weekly: 47.
  10. ^ Chitwood, Adam (28 September 2012). "Production Begins on Edgar Wright's THE WORLD'S END; Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan Join the Cast". Collider.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  11. ^ "Creative England supports the production and filming of The World's End". Creative England. 4 July 2013. Archived from the original on 3 August 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  12. ^ Cain, Rebecca (14 October 2012). "Film crews at High Wycombe train station". Bucks Free Press. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  13. ^ "The Railway Station looks a bit different this morning". facebook.com. Love Letchworth. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2012.[unreliable source?]
  14. ^ Davies, Alan (21 July 2013). "The World's End pub crawl locations revealed". Welwyn Hatfield Times. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  15. ^ "Cine-files: Broadway Cinema, Letchworth Garden City". The Guardian. 3 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  16. ^ Tanna, Chandni (19 July 2013). "Letchworth premiere of The World's End a big hit with viewers". . Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  17. ^ Smith, Kyle (22 August 2013). "The World's End can't come soon enough". New York Post. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  18. ^ Phares, Heather. "The World's End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b Kemp, Stuart (10 July 2013). "The World's End Premiere: Cast Celebrates Boozy Pub Crawl Comedy in London". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 14 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  20. ^ "The stars come out for Simon Pegg at The World's End premiere". Evening Standard. 10 July 2013. Archived from the original on 10 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  21. ^ Fischer, Russ (20 March 2013). "Edgar Wright's The World's End US Release Date Pulled Forward to August". /Film. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  22. ^ Reynolds, Simon (24 July 2013). "Monsters University holds off The World's End at UK box office". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013..
  23. ^ "Daily Box Office for Friday, August 23, 2013". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 27 August 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  24. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for August 23-25, 2013". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 25 August 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  25. ^ Subers, Ray. "Forecast: You're Next Targets Top Spot on Quiet August Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 26 August 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013..
  26. ^ Weekend Forecast: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, The World's End, & You're Next Archived 30 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  27. ^ Subers, Ray. "Weekend Report: 'Butler' Repeats, Newcomers All Open Below $10 Million". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013..
  28. ^ "The World's End". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  29. ^ "The World's End Review". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 6 September 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  30. ^ "Find CinemaScore" (Type "World's End" in the search box). CinemaScore. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  31. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (31 August 2013). "The World's End". Entertainment Weekly. p. 48. Archived from the original on 11 September 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  32. ^ Dinning, Mark. "The World's End". Empire. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  33. ^ Barnes, Henry (9 July 2013). "The World's End – first look review". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  34. ^ Uhlich, Keith (18 December 2013). "Best of 2013: Best Films of 2013". Time Out New York. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  35. ^ ""Gravity, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Lead Saturn Awards Noms"". 26 February 2014. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2018.

External links[]

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