CineBad!!!

Welcome to the so-called future, where little scraps of paper blow through the empty streets of LA! (I think that was supposed to make LA seem deserted, but they kind of overdid it.) Anyway, as you can imagine, germ warfare has all but destroyed mankind. The lone survivor, Dr. Neville, carries the torch of civilized society. He rides around in stolen cars all day, watches movies by himself, and indulges in conversation with imaginary people. Oh, and he’s always stepping over the corpses of germ warfare victims, something which the special effects department makes good use of. Sometimes, he has poignant, hallucinatory flashbacks of life before The Plague.

The only spot of bother on Dr. Neville’s horizon, more or less, is the tribe of evil zombies that stalk him each night. These are the mutated results of long-term exposure to The Plague. It’s confusing, since in the beginning of the movie, we’re treated to flashbacks of people dying “instantaneously” from “severe choking,” yet The Plague is supposedly also responsible for the zombies. So I guess it can go either way.

Anyway, these zombies dress in long, hooded black robes and wear aviator sunglasses, to protect themselves from the sunlight. They look kind of like the Unabomber, only classier. The zombies have pale skin and opaque white eyes, so they can rip off their sunglasses and stare at people for total scary effect. Their leader is Matthias, a man (or whatever) who believes that technology brought about the end of civilization and therefore rejects the “tools of the wheel.” (?) The zombies indulge in uncivilized acts, like book burnings. They also like to chant alot.

Neville’s immunity to The Plague stems from the fact that he shot himself up with an experimental vaccine. We flash back to Neville riding in a Gov’t helicopter, just as he and his pilot experience the “severe choking” associated with The Plague. After the chopper makes a spectacular crash landing, we see him crawl across the scorched earth, muttering “vaccine, vaccine!” (I am not making this up.) Anyway, he survives just long enough to immunize himself against the plague (although he already has it, so a vaccine wouldn’t do much good… oh whatever.)

The zombies capture Neville and are about the burn him, when they’re suddenly thwarted by Lisa, another survivor of the plague. Before we can start worrying about how she got to be in the right place at the right time, the two are already shacked up together and doin’ it. It’s OK, though, because Lisa’s kick-ass afro more than makes up for any plot problems. Neville cures Lisa’s brother Ritchie of the plague by making a serum of his blood, but before he can immunize Lisa, Ritchie wanders off to confront the zombies and everything falls apart. I won’t give away the film’s surprise ending, except it involves a rather fabulous Art Moderne water fountain. (That thing kept popping up throughout the whole movie, and I was like, “what the hell is that for?” Well, I found out.)

The Omega Man functions as both a bad sci-fi film and a Blaxploitation film at the same time! Watch out for the gratuitous disco-music fight scenes! In fact, the soundtrack was pretty ill-suited to the movie on more than one occasion. People die, and the music sounds really, really happy. (Incidentally, the soundtrack is by Ron Grainer, who also composed the Doctor Who theme song.) The costumes and scenery are also delightfully bad. Overall, a very well-rounded bit of cheese!