"Ah c'mon. We hear kids playing, that means that there were kids playing. Don't let On The Beach turn you completely pessimistic."
But there was another post-apocalyptic film released in 2009 called The Road. After some unexplained event, the landscape is a wasteland, cities are devastated, the sky is full of dust and ash, most of the animals and plants are dead, the few remaining people are cold, diseased and starving. (Though some have turned to cannibalism.) The two main characters were a father and son, who were trying to reach the coast. In one scene the Man shows the Boy how to commit suicide with a gun in the mouth if worse comes to worst. Pretty bleak stuff all round.
What became of the Boy at the end of the film is left uncertain. Over the credits we hear sounds of what the world used to be like when civilization existed and life was easy - birds singing, lawn mowers, garden sprinklers, neighbours chatting. It wasn't meant to indicate that humans had managed to avoid extinction and rebuild. Though some viewers, who hadn't read the original novel, did interpret it that way.
This is why I find the sound of children giggling at the end of Children of Men ambiguous. I actually thought it was a bit spooky when I first heard it. We also hear John Lennon singing, but that doesn't mean he came back to life.
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smoko
7 years ago
@greg-233 Well, it was just kids playing - I think that's enough to make it clear that humanity will survive without saying that everything's going to be wonderful.
But I get your point about The Road, which I will definitely avoid watching because it sounds way too grim.
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