Silent Running (1972)

In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.

Director:

Douglas Trumbull

Writers:

Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino (as Mike Cimino)

Stars:

Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bruce Dern	...	Freeman Lowell
Cliff Potts	...	John Keenan
Ron Rifkin	...	Marty Barker
Jesse Vint	...	Andy Wolf
Mark Persons	...	the Drone
Steven Brown	...	the Drone
Cheryl Sparks	...	the Drone
Larry Whisenhunt	...	the Drone

Storyline

In a future Earth barren of all flora and fauna, the planet's ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft. When word comes in that the pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed, most of the crew of the Valley Forge rejoice at the prospect of going home. Not so for botanist Freeman Lowell, who loves the forest and its creatures. He kills his colleagues taking the ship deep into space. Alone on the craft with his only companions being three small robots, Lowell revels in joys of nature. When colleagues appear to "rescue" him, he realizes he has only one option available to him.

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Plot Keywords:

male protagonist | dying words | death | psychotronic film | aerial camera shot | 

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Taglines:

Earth's last battle will be fought in space.

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Tous publics

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie follows the same basic outline of another environmental movie, Ark (1970). The earth's environment has been devastated. One lone scientist is trying to preserve samples of plant and wildlife under a dome. He comes under attack and the dome is destroyed.

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Goofs

When Lowell is playing pool, the robot is dropping the balls into the center pocket. There are two small air lines connected to the ball gripper. The camera cuts to a wider shot and you can see the robot has set the ball gripper on the table. The airlines have somehow disconnected themselves. It picks up the nine ball rack with its main gripper and drops it off on the table. It then picks up the ball gripper. There are no air lines connected to the ball gripper at this moment. The movie briefly cuts back to Lowell whilst the robot retrieves the first ball. When it returns, you can clearly see the air lines have been reconnected to the ball gripper.

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Quotes

Freeman Lowell: Just sit down and shut up! Sit down, sit down, sit down! Shut up and leave me alone, all of you. Let me eat.

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Alternate Versions

In the Italian version, the three drones are named after "Paperino", "Paperone" and "Paperina" ("Donald Duck", "Uncle Scrooge" and "Daisy Duck") because calling them "Qui", "Quo" and "Qua" ("Huey", "Dewey", "Louie") would have been cacophonous: "Vieni qui, Qui!" ("Come here, Huey!").

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Bruce Dern/Fernando Lamas/Mike Preminger/Dr. Samuel Dunkell (1977)

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Soundtracks

Silent Running
Lyrics by Diane Lampert
Music by Peter Schickele
Performed by Joan Baez

User Reviews

Endangered Species

When I first saw Trumbull's saga 33 years ago, it was indeed the most advanced special effects movie that followed 2001, even though it did not reach the same technical level. The film has it's flaws only because it was an experiment; make a movie for under a million dollars and do it in 32 days. What was done is a miracle considering this much.

It was visually more advanced in fact than other films that came after until Star Wars. So 2001 was the father of Silent Running and Silent Running was the father of upstart Star Wars, this by virtue of the fact that Douglas Trumbell worked on 2001 and then Silent Running and then John Dykstra who worked on Silent Running went on to Star Wars.

For me at least this is the importance of the film as a filmaking milestone in terms of film history and for those who want to know this history it is worth viewing.

The story is compelling enough to hold the viewer. At first Dern's character seemed over the top but decades later I believe that it's in fact right on.

All of your other reviews are wonderful but I have one terrible confession to make:

I am the only human being left alive on the Earth that still likes Joan Baez.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 December 1975 (France)

Also Known As:

Et la terre survivra

Filming Locations:

Van Nuys Airport - 16461 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Trumbull/Gruskoff Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Mono (35 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1