There's never a cop around when you need one.
How much?
Can't say I'm crazy about the paint job.
How long to get an order from the factory?
How much you give me in trade for my Ford?
Really? Thanks a lot, you cheating bastard.
Great show. Held over for a third straight year.
Marijuana!
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome warmly...
Country Joe and the Fish.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
We're certainly delighted to be here today.
We'd like to start off our portion of the show...
by giving you a taste of a little something we call rock and soul music.
This is really beautiful, man. You have to realize the turnabout...
that I've gone through in the last three days.
Just to look, just to see, just to really realize...
what's really important.
The fact that if we can't all live together and be happy...
if you have to be afraid to walk out in the street...
if you have to be afraid to smile at somebody, right?
What kind of a way is that to go through this life?
They sure don't make pictures like that anymore.
There is no phone ringing, damn it!
There is no phone.
My God, it's almost dark.
They'll be waking up soon.
Penthouse, Robert, and hurry. Oui, oui, sir.
This is your commentator Jonathan Matthias with another bulletin.
And now, as the Sino-Russian border war continues to rapidly escalate...
U.S. authorities are beginning to question to what degree we will become involved...
in what could swiftly grow into global conflict.
Abort firings! Interception will fragment the cilia-carrying missiles.
Repeat! Abort firings!
Interception will fragment the cilia-carrying missiles.
Hi.
Another day, another dollar.
Hi, big brother. How's your ass?
As for you, I think it's your move.
Join me?
Miserable schmuck.
Isn't he? Isn't he a sullen...
At it again, I see.
What'll it be tonight? Museum of science? Some library?
Poor miserable bastards.
They almost got me tonight, you know that?
Neville come out!
Shut up!
- Neville! - Why the hell can't you leave me alone?
Three, brother? Are you sure?
- Not three. - Three, brother.
Two were inside the garage when he brought down the door.
We heard the shooting. Then Joshua.
The light. They should have stayed clear of the light.
There was no light, brother. Just the fire.
- Nonsense. Neville can't see in the dark. - Tell him that.
- Any more than we can see in the light. - To hell he sees.
Good enough, he sees.
More! Burn it all!
One creature...
caught in a place he cannot stir from in the dark.
Alone. Outnumbered, hundreds to one.
Nothing to live for but his memories.
Nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns, gimmicks.
And yet the whole Family can't bring him down out of that...
That honky paradise, brother?
Forget the old ways, brother. All your hatreds, all your pains.
Forget. And remember...
the Family is one.
But him, that thing...
that creature of the wheel...
that lord of the infernal engines and machines...
What day is it, anyway? Monday?
The hell it is. It's Sunday!
Sunday, I always dress for dinner.
Let me put the power to him, brother. Just a little nitro.
I can get the cannons out of the old guard armory.
- We could have him out in no time. - I said no.
We could, but then the curse would begin all over again.
- Don't you see? - Yes, I see.
I see him living high in the light...
while we rot and hide like grubs.
- What do you see, brother? - He will be destroyed, brother. He will.
But not by guns, not by machines, not by the evil forbidden things...
the tools that destroyed the world.
The world.
They destroyed the world.
The entire Los Angeles area.
Already hospital facilities have begun to crack under the strain...
and civil defense authorities state the situation is the same across the country.
Marshal law is now nationwide.
Major cities in all parts of the country: New York, Los Angeles...
report plague victims falling dead in the streets, in their homes, at work.
The first symptom appears to be severe choking...
followed by immediate unconsciousness. Death occurs within minutes.
Whether a state of war between China and Russia still exists...
is not important any longer.
Our fellow countrymen are dying.
The very foundations of civilization are beginning to crumble...
under the dread assault of that horror long feared, germ warfare.
CONELRAD Channel. This is a class-one emergency.
All civilian traffic is barred from streets and highways.
Stay in your homes.
Those found without specific military orders, are subject to summary execution.
Stay in your homes. Repeat. CONELRAD Channel.
This is a class-one emergency.
All civilian traffic is barred from streets and highways.
Now the question is survival. Is this the end of technological man?
Is this the conclusion of all our yesterdays, the boasts of our fabled science...
the superhuman conquests of space and time, the age of the wheel?
We were warned of judgment.
Here it is. Here, now...
in the form of billions of microscopic bacilli.
This is the end.
Neville.
I see.
Let's try the test vaccine.
93B-71.
How the hell do I know?
We'll find out.
All right, I'll be there in an hour.
Vaccine.
With fire, my brothers, we have purified all that lives with our zeal...
and we shall continue with our work.
With our devotion, we shall cleanse the world.
And Neville will come down, down to the Family into judgment...
down to punishment for his blasphemies.
Here is the instrument of cleansing, my brethren.
And nothing quite cleanses like fire.
I was lucky today.
Believe me, I was lucky.
He tried a gambit...
and it almost worked.
But it ended up a stalemate...
with the Family down three pawns.
What do you think his next move will be?
End games are always full of surprises, aren't they?
My move.
Discovered check.
How does that grab you, Caesar?
Your move, Imperator.
Excuse me.
Did you move?
Balls.
You used to be a nice guy once, you know that?
And Speedy Bob Neville, his great legs churning...
goes flashing across the finish line...
with a 3-minute-and-50-second mile.
Go ahead. I wanna see some son of a bitch beat that.
This is recording 6306, Rimini Boulevard, Sector 2.
Last five blocks have been clear...
except for some signs they've been foraging for food...
in a small grocery store...
at 5500 block.
You'd think the prices would keep them in the supermarkets.
You gotta hand it to them. They sure cover their tracks.
Two years.
If I could just find the nest, find out where they hole up.
Matthias!
All right, where's Matthias?
Come on. Where's Matthias? Where's the hive?
Journal recording 958. August 5, 1977.
I found another one, one of Matthias' group, dead of plague.
The sweep continues.
Not my color.
Wait! Come back!
I want to talk to you!
Is this how it starts?
A trip to the laughing academy?
No, you silly bastard.
It starts with you asking yourself idiot questions.
Right.
Okay.
Let's get cleaned up...
and find a drink before the bars close.
And, all brothers and sisters, I ask you to look at him.
Does he have the marks? Do you see them?
You see him, as we were before the punishment...
before we gained grace.
You see lying there the last of scientists, of bankers, of businessmen...
the users of the wheel.
Do we use the tools of the wheel as he does?
- Is he of the Family? - No.
Is he of the sacred society?
- Then what is he? - Evil.
He is part of the dead.
He has no place here.
He has the stink of oil and electrical circuitry about him.
He is obsolete.
You are discarded.
You are the refuse of the past.
You're full of crap.
How hard it is to admit the truth.
Take him to the little room for the questioning.
Mr. Neville, now we can talk a little while.
It's been a long time since you've talked, except to yourself.
Tell me something, would you?
Are you fellas really with the Internal Revenue Service?
Your little jokes are meaningless, Mr. Neville.
Or doctor, or colonel, or whatever it was they called you.
- I'm a scientist. What the hell are you? - Definition of a scientist:
A man who understood nothing, until there was nothing left to understand.
So there is a little light in the forest after all.
A guiding light, Mr. Neville.
Now to me has passed the responsibility...
for this last tiny remnant of mankind.
Then why don't you quit these bloody games?
Throw away those Halloween costumes, and get these people organized, damn it.
Or are you already too far gone?
- Along road of truth... - For God's sake.
And we are very organized, Mr. Neville.
After last night, you should know that.
If you're organized, why don't you try finding a cure?
There is none!
There was no cure, and there is no cure...
but the Family has found its way.
We can bear it.
The only burden left is you.
But you've been trying to kill me for two years.
Last night you killed how many?
Three of us? And today, we don't know yet.
You're the angel of death, Doctor, not us.
He has confessed all, brothers.
Murder, use of forbidden tools, practice of prescribed rites.
He admits science, medicine, weapons, machinery, electricity.
He has not shared the punishments.
He does not bear the marks.
Marks?
Show him, my children.
Show him the pretty marks.
These are the marks, Mr. Neville.
The punishment, which you and those like you, brought upon us.
In the beginning we tried to help one another, those that were left.
We tried to clean things up, set things straight.
We buried things and burned.
Then it came to me that we were chosen...
Chosen for just this work.
To bury what was dead, to burn what was evil...
to destroy what was dangerous.
You're barbarians.
Barbarians?
You call us barbarian?
This is an honorable name.
We mean to cancel the world you civilized people made.
We will erase history from the time...
that machinery and weapons threatened more than they offered.
And when you die...
the last living reminder of hell will be gone.
Gone.
Brother Zachary.
We are ready, brother.
- Here is evil. - Evil.
Is this not the place, where all the dead were burned?
And this is the last of the dead.
And what shall we do with him, my brethren?
Burn.
- The dark! - Turn off the light!
Get those lights out!
Give us the dark!
Bring back the dark!
Who the hell are you?
Shut up.
He's gone!
Find him. That's an order!
- Find him! - Go, man, go!
Move!
You son of a bitch, just hold tight. Up against the wall, you mother.
Don't turn. Just stand. I'll turn you when I want.
On or off, up or around, I'll turn you. Now cool it!
Now, put your hands out.
Way out about shoulder high, like they're gonna crucify you, baby.
Matter of fact, they were gonna roast me. Why'd you stop 'em?
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
You got any more questions, fathead?
My name is Robert.
Your name's mud.
Down the tunnel!
After him!
Back!
Okay, hold it. Open it up.
- You. You're the... - Your living Playtex doll.
Now come on, man. Get the bike. Move! Pull it out!
- You really plan ahead. - It helps.
Now look, you gotta run this thing, you understand, but I'm the ramrod.
Those stadium lights, how'd you manage that?
- Dutch knows all about that stuff. - Dutch?
Come on, man. Get on the bike.
Don't screw up. I know how to roll, but it's hard on the elbows.
And if you just have to play James Bond...
I'll bust your ass.
Yes, ma'am.
Don't let him get away!
Goddamn it, left, and step on it!
Move! Down the tunnel, man.
Hit it. They're blinded.
Okay, baby. Hitch up your drawers.
- I thought we'd gotten past that. - You're sweet.
It's okay, Tommy.
This is the man, and I mean the man.
But he's cool. It's okay.
Come on, man.
This is it. That's all there is.
At least all we know of.
There are others, I guess, if Matthias and his brethren haven't killed them all.
I didn't know there were any left.
Between the Family at night and you in the daytime...
shooting at anything that moved, man, we had to stay low.
I had to stay alive.
The mad bomber himself.
And I see you got the mad scientist.
- You know me? - And about your work.
My work?
Biowar pathology perimeters in urban and semi-urban environments.
Journal of Military Medicine, June, 1974.
Incremental effects, countermeasures to toxic agents, and liquid systems delivery.
Microbiological Letters, January, 1975. Remember?
That's a nice recitation. You know what it means?
I was a med-school senior when they scratched the world.
As a matter of fact, I was gonna apply to Biowar Labs for my post-doc...
- But the next term never came. - Sorry you didn't make it.
Sorry the world didn't make it.
Come on. Let's go see about Richie.
Lisa's brother. He looks like he's about to go over.
You've only seen the tertiary cases, Matthias and his people.
We're not that far gone, but we're on the road.
The yellow brick road. We're off to see the wizard.
When it hit, the older people either died or went to the third stage fast...
you know, blindness in light, albinism...
psychotic illusions, occasional stages of torpor, like Matthias and the things there.
- What about you? Why didn't you get it? - I don't know.
Some of the younger people have a kind of...
resistance.
I don't know, we just hold out.
Some of us are a bit light-sensitive, otherwise, we're all right.
But Richie's definitely going.
He's advanced secondary. Incidentally...
mind telling me what keeps you in the city?
You some kind of exterminator?
I guess maybe you could call it that.
Very complicated, Doctor.
I'd be living on top of City Hall, or better, the Oxy Tower...
instead of that pillbox you're in.
That's where I live. It's where I used to live.
It's where I'm going to live, and not Matthias nor his Family...
nor any other son of a bitch is going to make me leave.
He's no better.
His fever is high.
- What are you... - Shut up.
Keep out of the way.
Sit down.
Could stay this way for weeks, or he'll go over 10 minutes from now.
I've seen them go before.
I almost got killed by a friend of mine last summer.
He went over without any warning.
When I looked away...
his face was pale and his hair was going. When I looked back...
he didn't have any eyes.
What did you do?
I did just like you'd do, Doctor. I killed him.
If the Masonic rites are over.
How about Richie?
We'll take him to my place. I got nearly everything I need there.
Is there anything you can do, Doctor?
I mean, seeing how you've lost over 200 million patients.
I don't have it.
Have what?
The plague. I'm immune.
- Everybody has it. - Everybody but me.
There was a vaccine, just an experimental batch.
We weren't sure it would work.
- Why, if you're immune, you could... - That's right.
My blood might be a serum.
At the stage that boy's in, my antibodies could reverse the whole process. Stop it.
Christ, you could save the world.
Screw the world. Let's save Richie.
Nothing with drugs. It's got to be the serum.
Couldn't you reconstitute the vaccine?
You got any idea how many steps it takes...
to synthesize an antibiotic specific for this bug?
- Got the picture. - I've tried. God knows I've tried.
Once I caught one of Matthias' people last year...
and tried everything on the shelves on him.
He damn near killed me...
and then he died very badly himself.
So it's very tight, Doctor.
Very tight.
Bring him in here.
In the bed.
I see where you do your heavy thinking.
One side keeps the other side going.
Can't have one without the other.
- I'm a narcissist. - How do you do?
- The guest room. - You weren't expecting us?
I wasn't expecting you.
Hold these.
I'm gonna need some help.
Lisa will have to do.
I hate to leave the kids alone too long. They get spooked.
Watch your mouth.
Some of the kids, you know what they say?
What do some of the kids say?
They say the Family comes in the night when it's dark.
They say they're going to come some night and take Richie's soul...
and tie it all up in a bag and give it to the devil.
Is that really true? Do you know if that's really true?
We wouldn't let that happen.
Not a chance.
Are you God?
Let's find out if he's a doctor first before we go promoting him, okay?
Okay.
How about a break?
Your move.
I just made my move.
Where'd you get that dress?
The same place you got that jacket. I hustled it.
The house fuzz was on vacation.
Neville.
His voice...
I'll never get used to it...
to hearing it.
Something...
We were with them for a while, you know?
With Matthias?
You were a part of that Family?
When it happened, when even the army fell apart...
and there was nobody left except those living alone like animals...
Matthias walked the streets at night...
ringing a bell.
Richie and l, we had us a place in the back of a furniture store.
One day, we hear this bell.
So we go out to see, and there are people there.
We thought we were alone...
just me and Richie with millions of corpses.
But there was Matthias and other people.
Anyway, he gave us the Family for a while.
We helped with the burials.
We helped with the burnings.
But when it was over, and the worst was past...
they began to know how different we were, our skin, our eyes.
One day while they were asleep, we just took off.
How'd you get mixed up with Dutch and his group?
Dutch came by one day, and said he was with the census bureau.
Now, what are you thinking?
You know the old song?
"If you were the only girl in the world and I were the only boy", okay...
but, until then don't bother me?
I guess I'm the only boy.
The Family.
I forgot to keep the fuel up in the generator.
They'll be into the garage!
You stay here.
- What's this for? - Comfort.
You may not have time.
More time than Neville has, brother.
- When he comes back, I'll be waiting... - Take care.
- He has the luck of a devil. - I know.
But this time his luck has run out.
You can take down that service flag now, mother.
Man, don't scare me like that.
You all right?
Yeah, I'm okay.
What's this stuff about me being the only girl in the world?
Do you know it's been a long time?
I'm not sure I remember how this goes.
- How is he? - He's stable.
No loss of pigment since yesterday and vital signs are steady.
He's comfortable.
I'm sorry.
It's been a long time since I've had a patient.
Doctor, you certainly haven't lost your bedside manner.
Is that so?
Are you ready for this?
What is it?
Birth control pills.
Yeah.
Here we are.
I can make toxins from both of these.
All right, now the tourniquet.
Good and tight.
That's fine.
Give me the swab.
All right, you get the needle.
Go ahead.
All right, take off the tourniquet.
Will one bottle be enough?
It's genuine 160-proof old Anglo-Saxon, baby.
I was a very peculiar doctor in those days...
trying to find treatments for diseases that hadn't existed...
till other doctors invented them.
Now I'm the only game in town.
I don't know how much. I'll draw blood as often as I can.
We'll just have to keep pumping it into him.
- How long do you think it'll take? - I don't know.
I really don't know.
But if it does work...
then Richie will be the source of even more antibodies.
The more people we inject...
the more serum we'll get.
And when that's done...
When that's done, baby, we will pull out.
We'll take what we need and head for the mountains.
Out of "rats' alley Where the dead men lost their bones."
T. S. Eliot turns out to have been just as good a prophet as he was a poet.
The Waste Land.
I wonder if it comforts him.
I wonder if I'll ever see a stream full of fish again.
Where'd you ever see a stream full of fish in Harlem?
At the movies.
- Does that hurt? - A little, yeah.
It hurts. How about off, man? Turn it off.
A week ago, that much light would have sent you right up the wall.
I'm beginning to see the light.
I'll have another batch of serum ready in a few hours...
then we'll load up that Land Rover, pick up Dutch and the kids...
and go to the hills. How about the Sierras?
Yeah.
Baby, we made it. We really made it.
I think I'll go pick up some stuff for the trip.
Is there anything special you fancy, baby?
What I pick up today, you're going to be seeing for a long time.
- Why don't you skip it? - Honey.
The most dangerous thing I ever ran into in one of those stores was you.
You watch yourself.
You stay on the ground floors, near the doors, and in the light.
- If you see anything, shoot. - Check.
Honey, can I borrow your credit cards?
Is that gonna be for me?
You don't need any more.
This is for Lisa.
- One of these days, she may... - Start to turn?
That's always a possibility.
It's best to catch these things early.
Then you don't think the serum would work...
for tertiary cases?
- What do you mean? - Like Matthias.
The Family.
It's hard to say.
Would it?
Come on, help me with this.
Put the cap on that. Put it in the refrigerator.
I can't afford to give more blood till I get clear of this town.
Later on, if your blood count comes up...
and you put on some weight, we can use your blood to make serum.
Yeah?
Yeah. Now, go eat your soup.
Someone ought to do something about those people.
How about it?
- You gonna give them the serum? - Fat chance.
How come?
We'd have to be here for a few more months, for one thing.
For another thing, they're homicidal maniacs, for God's sake.
Man, they're humans. I mean, they're sick, you know?
They're vermin.
Okay, then.
If you don't want to cure them, kill them.
If I just knew where they're at.
The old court building, that's where.
In the Civic Center.
That's where they're holed up.
- You're kidding me. - They're there.
Go on. Ain't you gonna go down there and zap them?
Why not?
You've been looking to kill them for practically two whole years now.
Either kill them or cure them, damn it.
No need.
They're half-dead right now.
You know what, mister?
You're hostile.
You just don't belong.
Nice of you to let me hang around.
At times, you scare me more than Matthias does.
- How's Richie? - Beautiful. It works.
It works.
My God, it's a beautiful world!
Don't you think we ought to do something?
Damn right.
I've got some blood to make up serum for Lisa.
We'll start on the rest of you in a week or so.
Can you have the kids ready to leave tomorrow?
Gonna take me a little ride in the sun.
Where are we going?
Away, that's all. Just away.
Someplace nobody ever bothered with. A river nobody ever dammed...
a mountain nobody built any bloody freeways to...
where everything we do will be the first time it happened.
You got it. That's it. Just like in the beginning of the world.
Like we were starting all over again in the Garden of Eden!
Only this time, we don't trust no frigging snake!
Scout, I wonder if we're gonna have room for you.
"Going to find out who's right.
"You or me."
- Why are you here? - I came to help you.
- You know the man. - Neville?
That's him.
He's got a serum for what's wrong with you.
And if you could just talk to him, get with him...
then everybody could be...
Yes? Everybody could be what?
Everyone...
Everybody could be normal again.
I see.
- We could be as we were before? - I guess so.
- The way we were. - The way we were.
That's what Neville thinks we want? Is that why you?
- He didn't send me. He... - Silence!
He sent you to offer us something from his world...
to change us back to the creatures we were. A trick!
A trick to weaken our resolve.
I was almost like you, but he saved me. He brought me back.
He wants us all to go away from here.
You have been damned, Richard.
Don't you see that? Don't you?
Prepare the Family.
Tonight...
I think Neville might come out.
The Family is one.
The Family is all.
We have cleansed the world.
Outside the Family, there is nothing at all.
The Family.
Oh, my God.
Yes, Robert?
About Richie...
I know.
You know?
Matthias told me.
It was necessary.
My God.
Come in.
Sounds strange, doesn't it?
"Come in, Neville."
I thought we might arrange a little entertainment for you...
before time for concluding our little business.
My brothers.
We waited for you, Neville...
so you could see this, the end.
The end of all you've done. You see, none of it was real.
It was illusion. Your art, your science.
It was all a nightmare, and now it's done.
Finished.
My brethren...
our task is nearly complete.
He was the last of those who brought the punishment to us.
We have cleansed and purged his world.
Now we must build.
Build coffins. That's all you'll need.
Bring him.
All right, stand back!
Back up!
Stop him! Don't let them get away!
It's 10 minutes to sunup.
We'll have to chance it.
- I want... - Damn it, it's jammed.
I want you.
For God's sake, come back in the light.
The bad dream is over, friend Neville.
Now we can sleep in peace.
Robert, you're evil.
I'm part of the Family.
I'm sorry.
The Family.
You don't understand.
Put her in the truck.
Let's move, kids. We got a long way to go.