experiments with better tentacle material...
(4.00)The DVD cover shows someone in a gasmask, holding a gun, standing in a devastated urban landscape. The back cover says:
After a global apocalypse, Lilith wanders the remains of civilization hoping to find any sign of life. But what seems to be a quiet deserted world quickly turns into a battle of survival to become the last man standing.
Someone apparently thought they needed to misrepresent the movie to get it into the major stores. The cover photo is not from the movie, Lilith never wears that outfit, nor does she have a gun. There is no 'battle of survival' because Lilith literally never meets anyone else!
This movie was originally titled Population: 2 – though it has no relationship with another post-apocalypse movie, Population: 1 – and it is a slow-paced, moody film about Lilith (Suzanne Tufan), a lonely survivor with a dirty face, short hair and bad teeth, who wears a heavy coat and gasmask to protect against the 'toxins', and pulls a little wagon through ruined Portland looking for food.
Accompanying this is a subplot about a fighter-bomber on a bombing mission or maybe several missions, with the crew chatter providing clues about the state of the world.
There's also a series of flashbacks to Lilith's prior life, when she was young and beautiful; also introducing Vincent (played by Shelly Lipkin), head of OmniTech, the company saving the world from global warming through orbital deflectors, and Simon (Jon Ashley Hall), the company spokesman. Their relationship to Lilith is unexplained at first.
The movie boils down to sad Lilith picking through the ruins, and the suspense of the flashbacks which ultimately explain Lilith's heartache, with the fighter-bomber story apparently being a flashback to the plane that dropped the nuke on Portland.
I thought the performances were good. Tufan is charming as the younger Lilith, and sympathetic as the survivor; Hall plays a weak, annoying corporate type, and does it well; Lipkin is arrogant and manipulative as the CEO trying to save himself from the end of the world.
Complaints? The script is a bit vague at points, leaving questions such as why 'population: 2' when Lilith is the only survivor, and what exactly is the relationship between Vincent and Simon? The fighter-bomber special effects are very low budget, and repeated often but with different dialogue.
There's no nudity, but some 'strong language' (mostly the aircrew). Topics include suicide, abortion, betrayal and loneliness.
Can you game it? The backstory mentions corporations taking control, putting down rebellions and riots with bombs. Might be some post-apocalyptic campaign ideas, but the plot itself has no wargame-able content.
This was an award-winning indie film. It's worth watching if you're into post-apocalyptic drama.