The World’s End is a 2013 British science fiction comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan. It is the third in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Wright has described the film as “social science fiction” in the tradition of John Wyndham and Samuel Youd.
Gary King, a middle-aged alcoholic, resolves to track down his estranged friends and complete the “Golden Mile”, a pub crawl encompassing 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. The group attempted the crawl as teenagers over 20 years earlier, but failed to reach the final pub, The World’s End. Gary persuades Peter Page, Oliver “O-Man” Chamberlain, Steven Prince, and Andy Knightley to join him in Newton Haven.
The group are briefly joined for a drink by Oliver’s sister Sam, over whose affections Gary and Steven had previously rivaled. In the toilets of the fourth pub, Gary gets into a fight with a surprisingly strong and agile teenager. Gary accidentally knocks the teen’s head off, exposing him as a robot. Gary’s friends join him and fight more robots, after which Andy abandons his teetotal ways and drinks an order of shots. The group decide to continue the pub crawl to avoid suspicion…
“Just as the adults step in to make some belated adult decisions, it turns out that the town has been taken over by robots. And even though that’s pretty much the whole plot of the movie, once things get rolling, a lot of the genuine character-driven plot evaporates. I get it, I guess, that this kind of a spoof on a disaster movie is a way to confront existential problems, addiction, middle-age, conformity, feelings of isolation, but I just couldn’t help but feel that the group dynamic was building toward something. And then the robot thing happens and that’s basically the rest of the movie.” Rob Gunther. Strictly Autobiographical
“The most inventive, humane comedy in ages, probably the best-directed action film of the summer, and easily the most intelligent science-fiction story in a year lousy with the things.” Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
“There’s a lot to enjoy in The World’s End, and it’s only let down by a sense of familiarity – it might be very different in story, but stylistically it’s very much the same as the previous two films. What once seemed fresh now sometimes feels like Wright is referencing himself, and after three films, we get it – you have a great editing technique. No need to keep pointing it out, we’ll pick up on it anyway. But the story and the characters here feel much more developed than in previous films and this time, Wright and Pegg are willing to make their central character less an everyman and more someone we might struggle to like (it can be argued that Gary is the real villain of the piece for the first half). And the smart screenplay – which has lots of subtle moments in the dialogue that foreshadow later events – is sharp, witty and knowing.” David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening
