Movie of the Week: Where Have All the People Gone?

While on a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, Steven Anders (Peter Graves), along with his daughter Deborah (Kathleen Quinlan) and son David (George O’Hanlon, Jr.), experience a strange flash of light followed by and earthquake.  They originally believe it could have been a nuclear bomb or accident which is collaborated by their friend falling ill and eventually dying and turning into a pile of dust.  Having to hike two days out of the mountains to the nearest town, they find that everyone there has been turned to dust as well. Realizing this was no nuclear accident, the family attempts to make their way home to Malibu beach, hoping the rest of their family survived.  Along the way they meet other survivors, some of them friendly, others not, and some join their new make-shift family in hopes of surviving this brave new world where the majority of the population has been turned into piles of salt like dust. Will this rag tag group of survivors make it home?  Watch and find out!

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Where Have All the People gone? was a 1974 made for television science fiction drama that premiered on NBC and was intended to be a pilot for a series but was not picked up.  The film avoided some of the post-apocalyptic cliches, which was a plus to most viewers along with keeping the cause of the mass extinction a mystery until nearly the end.  For the most part, the story is a family drama and is more about how the different characters react to the situation than the situation itself.  The exploration of what this kind of stress could do to a good person was interesting and handled subtly but appropriately.  We have a man who steals the family’s vehicle at gunpoint and when asked why, it was that his family is in Arizona, and he needs to get to them.  He apologizes but is not necessarily sorry for his actions as he is doing what he has to do to get to his loved ones.  Later David laments in not having his shotgun at the time of the carjacking, and his father asks him, “has it come to that so soon?”.  Begging the question, how fast would society devolve into a kill or be killed kind of place?  Another point of interest is that dogs were affected as well and seem to have been driven mad, and it was mentioned that some people had the same reaction, in fact one of the more intense scenes is from a pack of dogs attacking.

The acting was good with characters showing versatile range of emotions.  There isn’t a lot of humor within the story, but there are moments of levity. The production value was good, yet simple, there were no real special effects, and we never actually see anyone turn into dust.  The script was well written with some good dialogue between characters and some interesting plot twists and turns.  I did find the pacing a bit slow, and the film’s rhythm wasn’t as good as it could have been. There were a couple mentions of prayer and God and I am wondering if this movie was intended as an allegory for the biblical story of Sodom, where Lot’s wife disobeys the order of God and looks back at the city while it is being destroyed and is turned to a pillar of salt.  If so, it was very subtle, and I am not sure most people would have picked up on it.