The Omega Man
1971
Based On The Book: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Re-make of The Last Man On Earth (1964)
Re-made as I Am Legend (2007)
Cast Includes: Charleton Heston
Moe Grassia:
I suggest watching The Omega Man on a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing else to do. The story revolves around a doctor/researcher, Neville, (Charleton Heston) who is the last man on earth, having been able to actually develop a last-minute vaccine against a plague unleashed by ICBMs carrying biological warheads, the result of a general Sino-Soviet war. However, he only could vaccinate himself. Not everyone dies, however, as some victims of the plague go on to live a sort of half-life as mutants who only come out at night. Living in an abandoned Los Angeles, Neville must spend his nights barricaded in an apartment where he has gathered the remains of mankind's civilization: art, music, some labor-saving devices, etc. He sits and plays chess by himself against a bust of Caesar while hordes of the undead, who have renounced technology as an abomination which was the root cause of their "enlightenment", lay seige to his home and taunt him. They are organized as a "Family" and have a Leader, who in his former life was a television news reporter; now he has become a sort of Charles Manson cult figure (The movie was circa 1971 or so). During the day Neville makes it his mission to try to eradicate the nests of his enemies. It would appear that no hope is left.
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updated february 2010