Coronavirus has struck everywhere, and everyone is either impacted by this or in complete denial. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetime. For the last couple of weeks I have been saying this is the “Dawning of the Planet of the Apes”, comparing this to the original 5 Planet of the Apes films I enjoyed as a kid. But there is another film that describes this calamity to nearly a T, and that would be the 1971 film The Omega Man. This film was shown often on weekend afternoons growing up in Portland. KPTV Channel 12 showed it at least once a year, and though it gave my brother nightmares and I was not allowed to watch it in his presence, I made sure to caught it every time.
In the movie, Charlton Heston is the last man left after a plague has ravaged the world, changing people into light sensitive, albino mutants who scorn all technology. They only come out at night to try kill Heston.
The story is one of the many post apocalyptic films from the era, predicting the end of the world in the near future (this one takes place in 1977, a mere 6 years from when the film was released). Though the plague in this film is a result of bacteriological warfare, there are some similarities to what we are seeing now. In the film they shot scenes in downtown LA some very early Sunday morning. This was the only way they could have empty streets in the bustling business district of one of America’s most populous cities. The impact on film was powerful, but not as powerful as the images I have seen of empty streets all over our country, from Los Angels to New York, and the world as well. I’m staying home at the Cat’s Lair, but I imagine the silence in these areas is…...disquieting.
Don’t forget your machine gun when you go jogging….
Empty streets in Queens, NY. Taken March of 2020. Photo by Juan Arredondo for the NY Times.
Shopping has also changed for the public, many stores across the country limiting the amount of people that can enter a store at a time. But that wasn’t an issue for the Omega Man. Crash a car or run out of gas? Just get a new one. Outfit too sweaty from jogging with your automatic? Drop in to a store and help yourself to one off the rack:
Wait a minute, where are the men’s clothes in this store? Say…. with nobody to judge I can wear whatever!
I know there is a lot of anxiety out there about what is going on, but if you have time on your hands and access to the movie, check out The Omega Man. Keep yourself safe and home if you can. Come to think of it, I never saw old Chuck wash his hand once in the film. 20 seconds of washing could have saved him a lot of grief.