Last and First Men

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Last and First Men

2020

1h 10m

Sci-Fi

Fantasy

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

100%

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29 Reviews

48%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Two billion years ahead of us, a future race of humans finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that is left in the world are lone and surreal monuments, beaming their message into the wilderness.

Maxwell Rabb

Chicago Reader

Last and First Men is a flash of the cosmos, unveiling an imposing and reflective vision of humanity’s inevitable expiration.

Feb 23, 2022

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Josh Kupecki

Austin Chronicle

Last and Future Men is a haunting film of melancholic beauty, but hidden within are stubbornly persistent elements of hope. Just listen patiently.

Jan 27, 2022

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William Repass

Slant Magazine

The push and pull between gradual buildup and apocalyptic rupture allows the film to infiltrate the mind and recalibrate our sensitivity to time.

Rated: 3/4

Dec 11, 2021

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Michael Barrett

PopMatters

Last and First Men, an astounding and unusual art film, science fiction meditation, and visual symphony, is the first and only film created by the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson.

Rated: 9/10

Aug 17, 2023

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Ray Pride

Newcity

This assuredly onrushing vision, based on the 1930 science-fiction book by Olaf Stapledon, looks, feels, so much like Jóhannsson's musical soundscapes: what must have been contained in that fragile mind. Consider it a hopeful tragedy.

Rated: 10/10

Jan 28, 2022

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Not very welcoming in the conventional realms of narrative or character involvement, Men is nonetheless a unique experiment that casts a hypnotic spell.

Jan 21, 2022

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Nina E

very grayscale and sparse narration with droning background music throughout, it is a no burn. I'm not sure why this was on Shudder it is not scary at all.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/14/24

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craig m

This movie was a pretentious self important bore that droned on and on. I get that it was basically an audiobook with pictures. I feel if you are going to make a movie about people going extinct maybe there should be some people in it, not just a bunch of uncentered footage of monuments and clouds.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

12/27/23

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Mark H

Weird and slow, loved it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/16/23

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Jeffrey P

A pertinent pessimistic and poignant prognostication of potential problems 2,000,000 years in the far, far, far, far future. Touching. My favorite part is where it is revealed that humanity has resorted to sharing a brain. It didn't mention if A.I. snuck into the mix. Needed more Rick & Morty.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/12/23

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Mark C

Call this movie what it is! It is an audio book with slides. It is a cure for insomnia.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/09/23

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Kelli T

At first, I was intrigued by the slow moving black and white shots of what appeared to be brutalist style Soviet-bloc war monuments, accompanied by the ebb and flow of a truly evocative soundtrack and Tilda Swinton's soothing alien ASMR. I wondered what would come next. Turns out that slow moving black and white shots of what appeared to be brutalist style Soviet-bloc war monuments, accompanied by the ebb and flow of a truly evocative soundtrack and Tilda Swinton's soothing alien ASMR is all there is to this film. That's not a bad thing.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/07/23

Full Review

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Jóhann Jóhannsson

Director

Tilda Swinton

Narrator

Jóhann Jóhannsson

Writer

Jóhann Jóhannsson

Original Music

Þór Sigurjónsson

Producer

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Synopsis

Two billion years ahead of us, a future race of humans finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that is left in the world are lone and surreal monuments, beaming their message into the wilderness.

Director: Jóhann Jóhannsson
Producer: Þór Sigurjónsson
Screenwriter: Jóhann Jóhannsson
Production Co: Zik Zak Kvikmyndir
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: British English
Runtime: 1h 10m