The Omega Man

19711971
PGPG
1h 38min

6.5/10

Biological war has decimated life on Earth. Los Angeles is a windswept ghost town where Robert Neville tools his convertible through sunlit streets foraging for supplies.Biological war has decimated life on Earth. Los Angeles is a windswept ghost town where Robert Neville tools his convertible through sunlit streets foraging for supplies.Biological war has decimated life on Earth. Los Angeles is a windswept ghost town where Robert Neville tools his convertible through sunlit streets foraging for supplies.

6.5/10

30K

Director
- Boris Sagal
Writers
- John William Corrington(screenplay)
- Joyce Hooper Corrington(screenplay)
- Richard Matheson(novel "I Am Legend")
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

Awards
- 1 nomination

Videos1

Trailer 3:36

The Ωmega Man

Charlton Heston and Rosalind Cash in The Omega Man (1971)

Lincoln Kilpatrick in The Omega Man (1971)

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. The plague caused by the war has killed everyone else except for a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people calling themselves "The Family". The plague has caused them to become sensitive to light, as well as homicidally psychotic. They believe science and technology to be the cause of the war and their punishment, and Neville, as the last symbol of science, the old world, and a "user of the wheel", must die. Neville, using electricity, machinery, and science attempts to hold them at bay. —Roald E. Peterson III <slz13@cc.usu.edu>

plague post apocalypse based on novel global pandemic antidote 396 more

Taglines
- Pray for the last man alive. Because he's not alone.
Genres
Certificate
- PG
Parents guide

Trivia
The production company wanted a locale that looked like an abandoned metropolitan area, but it was too costly to build. The producer drove through downtown Los Angeles one weekend and discovered there were no shoppers, so the majority of the film's exteriors were shot there on weekends.

Goofs
In a city supposedly laid waste, Neville has to resort to running a generator any time he requires electricity. He does so to power his apartment; he does so to power up the projector inside the cinema when he goes to watch the film. But this city with no surviving infrastructure (in the opening scenes, as he's driving around in the red convertible), all the traffic lights are powered up.

Quotes
[first lines]
[the last man on Earth wrecks his car]
Neville: There's never a cop around when you need one.

Crazy credits
There is a 2-minute cold open with no logos or credits. The Warner Bros. logo comes on at the two-minute mark, followed by the opening credits.

Alternate versions
In the common version of this film, the scene where Richie tells Neville that he should either kill the Family or cure them takes place inside Neville's apartment. In an alternate version, the scene takes place on the rooftop, where Neville has a large water tank and a .50 caliber machine gun.

Connections
Featured in The Last Man Alive (1971)

Soundtracks
Theme from A Summer Place
Music by Max Steiner
Performed by The Ron Grainer Orchestra

Top review

Great flick

This movie rocks, right from the opening scene where our hero leaps from his car and sprays mutants with a machine gun, to the final frame where... but enough of that. A great flick, one in a line of Charlton Heston post-apocalyptic movies. If you like this you'll love Soylent Green and, of course, the first two Apes films. Heston's like John Wayne in space. Nobody does it better. In this one disease-ravaged mutants stand in for the hippies- that fixes up society's problem with the riff raff, and Charlton has an inter-racial relationship. So there are mixed messages. Charlton Heston chews the scenery in every frame. Oh well, damn you all to hell.

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