Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (Post-release)

[Vivek]

I was waiting for more people to discover this on Blu-ray and then wanted to share the following article, but then I never got around to it.

Simon Pegg’s Captain Kirk Moment And The End Of THE WORLD’S END | Badass Digest

I loved The World’s End and I loved it even more after reading this great analysis by Devin. It's one of my all time favourite movie articles by him. It offers some unique insight to the characters and themes depicted in the movie and dwells further on what the ending represents.

If you have seen the movie, give it a read.


THE WORLD’S END Movie Review: Come For The Comedy Buzz, Stay For The Humanity Hangover | Badass Digest
Also then you can read this earlier review from him.

 

[CB2001]

I was waiting for more people to discover this on Blu-ray and then wanted to share the following article, but then I never got around to it.

Simon Pegg’s Captain Kirk Moment And The End Of THE WORLD’S END | Badass Digest

I loved The World’s End and I loved it even more after reading this great analysis by Devin. It's one of my all time favourite movie articles by him. It offers some unique insight to the characters and themes depicted in the movie and dwells further on what the ending represents.

If you have seen the movie, give it a read.

I actually saw it on one of the movie channels. I may have to pick this up on Blu-Ray sometime. As for the analogy that the face-off against Network is an Intervention... I don't recall Network actually using the word, so its hard to see the AA comparison as working (maybe I should watch that scene again. Got it on the DVR). To me, it wasn't just Gary that won the argument. Andy also helped out by making points that Gary clearly would have missed (such as how many people did the Network turn in Newton Haven, and what happened to the people who were "Emptied", and even pointed out the fact that human is composed of a lot of people like Gary). But then again, I could very well be wrong and Gary could have come to these points on his own.

It's still a pretty excellent film. To be honest, to me, when it comes to ranking the trilogy that these films make, for me it as to be Shaun of the Dead first, with The Worlds End in second place, and Hot Fuzz last.

I figured I'd go ahead and end this reply with a song.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Gary King really is my British evil twin. *chuckle* Here I am at about age 24:

And by that point I'd been listening to Sisters of Mercy since high school. I'm driving a 25-year-old Honda Accord, but it's not quite as knackered as the Beast. I don't have quite as much angst as him, though.

With his SoM shirt and the soundtrack of my youth, I kept wondering why no SoM selections for the music. Then the first chord of "This Corrosion" at the reveal of the replicated Young Gary and I just lost it in the theater. I do still think the song over the end credits should have been https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuezNswtRfo]"Lucretia My Reflection". The lyrics are perfect for the end of the film:

I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Hot metal and me

thedrine
I hear empire down
I hear empire down

I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Love lost, fire at will
Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill, I hear
Dive, bombers, and
Empire down
Empire down

I hear the sons of the city and dispossessed
Get down, get undressed
Get pretty but you and me,
We got the kingdom, we got the key
We got the empire, now as then,
We don't doubt, we don't take direction,
Lucretia, my reflection, dance the ghost with me

We look hard
We look through
We look hard to see for real
Such things I hear, they don't make sense
I don't see much evidence
I don't feel. I don't feel. I don't Feel

A long train held up by page on page
A hard reign held up by rage
Once a railroad
Now it's done

I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Hot metal and methedrine
I hear empire down

We got the empire, now as then,
We don't doubt, we don't take reflection,
Lucretia, my direction, dance the ghost with me

--Jonah

[ETA: I don't know why it's parsing the link weird or why it keeps trying to insert a second quote break in the lyrics,,,]

 

[CB2001]

I've got to admit, I hadn't even heard of The Sisters of Mercy until this film. But now I'm beginning to listen to some of the music, including the song you suggested IP. And after watching the music videos for "This Corrosion" and "Lucretia, My Reflection", I have to give kudos to both Pegg and Wright when it came to Gary King's design. Just looking at the music videos and comparing them to the scenes with the young Gary King, you can clearly see that Gary styled his look after the lead singer, down to the hair and sunglasses (which with the T-shirt and tattoo for The Sisters of Mercy backs up the fact even more that he's a die-hard fan. That or he thought the lead singer looked cool, so he adopted the look because he thought he was just as cool).

Another thing I think was interesting was how the friends (except for the weak one) were all bad-asses when it came to brawling, even more so when they're drunk. I kinda wonder if it was meant to be a possible Drunken Master reference, or an explanation on how they knew how to fight (kinda like how it was suggested in the Scott Pilgrim comics that Scott was a master fighter because he played tons of video games when he was growing up, but in the case of TWE, they were proficient at drunken fighting because they used to drink and fight at pubs a lot?).

 

[Vivek]

I had heard the song "This Corrosion" before the movie, but hadn't seen the video until now. Andrew Eldritch definitely was the inspiration for Gary's look.

I kinda wonder if it was meant to be a possible Drunken Master reference

You're right, it was. And at least in the case of Gary it was a direct reference. Wright posted the following tweet last month along with that gif, which was from Drunken Master II.

edgarwright: This is the highest tribute myself, Simon Pegg & Brad Allan could pay to our hero, Jackie Chan. http://i.imgur.com/mnv2A6X.gifv

 

[CB2001]

Nice! Didn't even catch that move in the film!


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[DaddyfromNaboo]

Okay.This does not happen too often, and I did not expect it to happen to me with this movie. But, someone please explain the ending to me. To me it does feel tacked on, and the leverage that the argument between Gary and The Alien intelligence feels IMO like a deus ex machina move, so someone please spoonfeed me on why the movie had to end the way it did.

 

[CB2001]

Okay.This does not happen too often, and I did not expect it to happen to me with this movie. But, someone please explain the ending to me. To me it does feel tacked on, and the leverage that the argument between Gary and The Alien intelligence feels IMO like a deus ex machina move, so someone please spoonfeed me on why the movie had to end the way it did.

Vivek linked this article here, which I think helps explain the ending a bit (and it's an interesting read): http://badassdigest.com/2013/08/25/simon-peggs-captain-kirk-moment-and-the-end-of-the-worlds-end/

But to be fair, the Three Musketeers had a point: the Network had to replace all but three people in a town of at least a couple of thousand, and that's just at one node out of the (I think it said) twenty nodes throughout the planet. When you add up the numbers, they've taken out a large number of human beings. So, again, how can humanity be raised to the same quality of the other planets if there's no humans to benefit from it? In fact, the Network's attempt to saying that its for the good of humanity to replace certain humans reminds me much of the Ship of Theseus paradox thought experiment. Basically, the story goes like this:

"The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same."

—Plutarch, Theseus

An example of this paradox was used in both the novel and the film version of John Dies at the End. Click here to see the opening scene.

In short, is the item still the same item if most of it has been replaced? This is basically the same thing that happens with Gary's car "The Beast" (when he picks up the others, he says its exactly the same car, and then lists off all the parts that had to be replace). To the Network, basically, even with the Blanks that have replaced people, they're still the same humans as they were. However, for the Three Musketeers, they point out that it's not the same, and their argument is right because those humans are dead and mulched.

Now, did the ending have to involve basically the end of the world and its reverting back to the Dark Ages? Yes. Why? Because all modern technology in the past 23 years (in the film) was influenced by the Network. By rejecting the Network's influence, they are rejecting everything that the Network brought to Earth. There's no way for humanity to go it's own way if the technological influence of the Network still remains. It boils down to one basic thing: it's either all influence or no influence. And, by the way it looks, humanity was doing better than it was with the technology. You can't have it both ways. You can't be independent if you still have a higher being's influence, now can you? That'd be like the original 13 colonies of the United States claiming independence while still being ruled by the King of England.

I don't know if that'll help in explaining things, but I hope that it does even in the smallest way possible.

 

[Vivek]

edgarwright: "Huge kudos to the fellow who split-screened the foreshadowing from The World's End intro to all that comes later"

The World's End Opening Scene (Side-by-side Comparison) - YouTube

 

[Lost in Trek]

That was great. Fantastic film!

 

[yaris]

It's not a bad film, but t's the weakest of the 'trilogy' Hot Fuzz is a better film, Shaun of the Dead and then World's End. Just my opinion

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

It's not a bad film, but t's the weakest of the 'trilogy' Hot Fuzz is a better film, Shaun of the Dead and then World's End. Just my opinion

I like all three for their different tones. It's totally apples and kumquats for me. That said, if I had to pick a favorite, it'd be World's End, because (absent substance abuse issues, suicide attempt, and inability to evolve while still retaining past favorites) I am Gary King. This is from the mid-'90s:

No Sisters of Mercy shirts, although I listened the heck out of them, and still do. There was a card game that came out a bit over a decade ago called Gother Than Thou. Gained points for things like eyeliner or an ankh pendant (which irritate me, as I don't consider those defining accoutrements, and actually often tend to be favored by poseurs who see some of the superficial, but don't get it), and lose points for things like no food money or the dreaded Visit From Mom. The card that had the highest point value, should you be able to complete what it challenged you to do, required you to be able to recite at least five lines from "This Corrosion". Well, I only had one thing to say to that:

"I got nothing to say I ain't said before
I bled all I can, don't wanna bleed no more
I don't need no one to understand
Why the blood run hold
The hired hand
On heart
Hand of God
Floodland and driven apart
Run cold
Turn
Cold
Burn
Like a healing hand..."

​

All that said, I still wish the song used for the end credits was "Lucretia My Reflection". The lyrics are so apropos to the story:

"I hear the roar of the big machine
Two worlds and in between
Hot metal and methedrine
I hear your empire down
I hear your empire down..."

​

And so on.

But yeah, I've still got the trench coat (granted, it's a replacement for the original, as I've grown across the shoulders and it was getting pretty ratty, but it's the same make, model, color, and vintage), I still wear the shirts and listen to the music that I loved back when, I have my 1988 Honda Accord (rather than a Ford Cortina) that I've stubbornly kept running (about as badly as Gary's car, I admit, but that's because I'm accumulating everything I need to do an engine swap... and change the radiator, the suspension, the exhaust line, the heater blower, the brake master cylinder, the power steering pump and gearbox...), and I definitely miss the good old days when I was young and invincible.

--Jonah

 

[Vivek]

https://twitter.com/philipkennedy/status/745582999824179201 (GIF)

philipkennedy: " #OnThisDay Jun 22nd 1990

The first attempt of The Golden Mile in @ edgarwright's The World's End. "