May 28, 2012

'WORLD'S END' To Feature An Invasion Of Flesh-Eating Alien Plants?


The Cornetto Trilogy is finally coming to end with Edgar Wright's World's End headed to theaters next spring. We recently got a synopsis which is as follow: 20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries. 

While vomit seems to cover the "green" aspect of the film we had expected aliens to be the main baddies. The plot rundown never really explores the apparent sci-fi elements until now. Edgar's recent statement to Empire reveals the film will be apart of a sub-genre called social sci-fi. Some of the books included on Wiki are Brave New World, 1984 and The Time Machine. Wright is also directing fans to possible influences by naming authors John Christopher and John Wydnham, who were know for The Tripod novels and The Day Of The Triffids.

"Hard to say…It’s a sci-fi comedy. Social science-fiction. Look it up on Wikipedia and then bone up on John Christopher and John Wyndham."

Social science fiction is a term used to describe a subgenre of science fiction concerned less with technology and space opera and more with sociological speculation about human society. In other words, it “absorbs and discusses anthropology”, and speculates about human behavior and interactions.


John Chistopher's Tripod trilogy ended up a BBC series featuring invading aliens in the future. While John Wyndham's The Day of The Triffids (Sam Raimi is looking to remake it) focused on man-eating plants while the population goes blind after a meteor shower. It had a couple of films along with it's own short-lived BBC series in 1981. It seems like Wright plans to combine the books into his own story with aliens trying to bring about the end of humankind. Seemingly this is the most personal and inside of the three films as many would have had to grown up with these shows to even get the references. While Shaun of The Dead was a shout-out to George A. Romeo's "of The Dead" trilogy (Dead, Dawn, Day) with Hot Fuzz an homage to Lethal Weapon and cop actioners.

A key bridge between Shaun of The Dead (Shaun's mum's birthday flowers) and Hot Fuzz (Angel's Japanese Peace Lily) besides pubs has been flowers and references to gardening which could have been teasing World's End the entire time. The Triddids are flesh-eating plants and could come into play as gardening is a massive staple of British culture. Perhaps, the aliens are unknowingly planted in gardens during this epic pub crawl and slowly the town folk are either replaced with aliens (ala Invasion of The Body Snatchers) or become a new food source.



No comments:

Post a Comment