The day when the earth came to an end (film, 1955)

“What you see now didn’t really happen, but this moment is close, and therefore this film is a terrible warning for us living in the world. Therefore, our story begins with the end. "

A nuclear explosion is shown. The whole world is destroyed. Jim Maddison and his daughter Louise remained alive in the asylum house that Jim built for ten years. It is located between the hills filled with lead ores, which shields the radiation , they have electricity from the generator, a supply of water and food for several months. Soon, five more survivors came to the house. A glamorous pair of Tony and Ruby, a geologist Rick, carrying the burned Radek, and old Pete with his mule Diablo. Jim does not want to let them, but Louise insists on this act of humanism.

Soon, Radek begins to have oddities in behavior: he does not eat or drink anything, goes for a walk at night in the infected forest, where he catches and eats radioactive animals raw. Soon he meets the Monster, and then the other infected, who belong to Radek badly, but nevertheless he would prefer to live with them, and not in this house of refuge. Rick and Jim talk about the effects of radiation on the body, how animals and people mutate, especially Jim has something to say about this: a few years ago he was the captain of a ship that conducted nuclear tests , and personally witnessed mutations of animals survivors in the epicenter of the explosion. They had extra eyes, their skin was flexible, but strong, not pierced by bullets.

Meanwhile, Rick and Louise fall in love with each other, and Jim gives the blessing of marriage. And Tony and Ruby decide to kill everyone so that the two of them have enough food and water for not three months, but three, but Tony doesn’t manage to pull the weapon off from either Jim or Rick.

Lake Louise discovers traces of a strange large upright-walking creature, and soon such tracks begin to appear closer and closer to home. Jim and Rick begin night duty, and one of them lost Diablo, led away by Radek. Rick, Jim, Tony and Pete go looking for him and find both dead - the traces say they were killed by a “creature with huge steel claws.”

Pete, saddened by the loss of Diablo, goes through the poisonous fumes beyond the hills. Jim, trying to stop him, also falls under their influence and now lies in bed, unable to rise. Meanwhile, Tony, threatening with a knife, takes Louise from the shelter and informs her that “she wants to fertilize her and stay with her alone on Earth.” Ruby intervenes in the rape attempt. Louise runs off to her father and fiance, while Tony kills Ruby and throws the body off a cliff. Returning to the house, he reports that "Ruby is still left for a walk." Rick warns Tony not to approach Louise, but he just laughs back.

Soon, swimming in the same lake, Louise sees the monster again, and the next night she wakes up and as a somnambulist goes into the forest, where the monster abducts her. Later, Louise reports that “I heard voices in my head, the monster called me by name”. Rick goes in search of the bride, Tony and the sick Jim stay in the house together. Tony takes possession of the pistol and feels like the master of the situation: he is preparing to kill Jim and Rick (when and if he returns) and stay, as he wanted, together with Louise. Jim, once again checking the radio, discovers voices: it means that there are still survivors. He takes a sample of water that is poured from heaven, and that water is clean.

Meanwhile, the monster lowers Louise to the ground and she jumps into the lake, realizing that the mutant is afraid of water. Rick arrived in time shoots a monster, but even rifle bullets do not take it. Louise tells her fiance to jump into the water to her, and he does. It begins to rain, the monster runs away in horror, but soon the downpour kills him.

Rick and Louise return to the house, Tony aims from the window at Rick, but Jim kills Tony with a pistol hidden under the pillow.

Jim, dying, says lovers that "pure rain will save the world." Rick and Louise, with backpacks, embracing, walk away. The final inscription "START" appears on the screen.

• The film was shot in 10 days ^[1] .
• Roger Corman directed and produced this film. In addition, he "played" the tiny role of the bridegroom of the protagonist in a framed photograph. It was his fourth film as a director and the first film in the “science fiction horror film” genre ^[2] .
• The monster costume was made of foam rubber , the jaws for it were bought in a store for magicians , and the claws were cut from white pine.
• The mutant monster was completely created and played by , who was by no means an actor, but an artist, sculptor and author of special effects. Because of his short stature, Blaisdell saw almost nothing while in his suit. Because of this, several times it was necessary to re-shoot the scene (which is not typical for low-budget films), in which the Mutant carries Louise in her arms (Paul stumbled, fell, ran into obstacles); and when his suit got wet in the scene with a shower, Paul almost choked on him.
• The film was released by American International Pictures by the film company in the same block with the film “ Phantom from a Depth of 10,000 Leagues ”. For two months of hire, this pair of films together collected about 400,000 dollars. The exact budget is “The Day when Earth Has Come to an End” - $ 96,234 and 49 cents ^{[3] [4]} (about $ 880,000 in 2018 prices ^[5] ); according to TV Guide - 65 000 dollars ^[2] .
• The biggest fee for shooting this film was received by - $ 7,500 plus interest on the profit at the box office ^[6] .
• TV Guide gave the film two stars out of five, calling it "stupid but funny" ^[2] .
• In 1967, made a remake of The Day ... titled " ", the dialogues here are repeated almost word for word.

• End of the world
• Postapokaliptika
  • List of apocalyptic films

• . “Keep Watching The Movies of the Fifties, American Science Fiction, Vol I: 1950–1957” (1982) , ed. , ISBN 0-89950-032-3

• About the film (English) on tcm.com