The World's End (film)



The World's End is a 2013 British-American comic science fiction film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike. The film follows a group of friends who discover an alien invasion during an epic pub crawl in their home town.

Wright has described the film as "social science fiction" in the tradition of John Wyndham and Samuel Youd (John Christopher). It is the third and final film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). The film was produced by Relativity Media, StudioCanal, Big Talk Productions, and Working Title Films.

Plot
40-something alcoholic Gary King tracks down his estranged schoolfriends and persuades them to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl encompassing the 12 pubs of their hometown of Newton Haven. The group attempted the crawl as teenagers in 1990, but failed to reach the final pub, the World's End. Gary begins the crawl with friends Peter, Oliver, Steven, and Andy. In the second pub, they are joined by Oliver's sister Sam, whose affections Gary and Steven fought over in school. Gary is refused entry to the third pub, having been barred as a teenager, but drinks beer left behind on a table outside.

In the toilets of the fourth pub, Gary picks a fight with a teenager and knocks his head off, exposing him as an android. Gary's friends join him and fight more androids. They decide to continue the pub crawl so as not to make the androids suspicious. At the seventh pub, the group runs into Sam again. Gary, Sam and Steven get into a fight with androids impersonating Sam's twin friends. At the eighth pub, androids impersonating girls from their youth attempt to seduce Gary, Andy and Peter, while Basil, a local known for conspiracy theories, explains the details of the android invasion. At the ninth pub, the group's old schoolteacher Guy Shepherd encourages them to accept their fate and be replaced by androids. Andy notices that Oliver has a birthmark he had removed with laser treatment and, realising he has been replaced, destroys the android. Another fight breaks out and the group scatters. Gary and Sam escape and Gary tells her to leave for her own safety.

The remaining friends accuse each other of having been replaced by androids, but prove that they are human. The androids close in on the group and capture Peter, but Gary is determined to finish the pub crawl. After having a drink at the other two pubs along the way, he runs towards the final pub, the World's End. Andy abandons Steven and chases Gary through the streets. At the World's End, Andy confronts Gary. In the quarrel, Andy realises that Gary attempted suicide in the years since school. As he tries to stop Gary from drawing his final pint, they discover a hidden chamber and reunite with Steven. A disembodied alien entity, the Network, reveals that the limited android invasion has been responsible for all of humanity's advances in telecommunications in recent decades, as a first step to joining a galactic community. The Network offers them eternal youth by becoming androids, but they refuse. Exasperated, the Network abandons the invasion after Gary persuades them that humanity is too stupid to join the aliens. Sam arrives to drive the group out of Newton Haven as it self-destructs.

Some time later, the destruction of Newton Haven has triggered a worldwide electro-magnetic pulse that set humanity back to the Dark Ages. The remaining androids have reactivated and are mistrusted by surviving humans. Andy's marriage has recovered, Steven is in a relationship with Sam, and android versions of Peter and Oliver have returned to a semblance of their former lives. In the ruins of Newton Haven, the now-sober Gary enters a pub with the younger android versions of his friends and orders five glasses of water. When the bartender refuses to serve androids, Gary draws a sword and leads his android friends into a brawl.

Cast

 * Simon Pegg as Gary King
 * Thomas Law as young Gary
 * Nick Frost as Andy Knightley
 * Zachary Bailess as young Andy
 * Paddy Considine as Steven Prince
 * Jasper Levine as young Steven
 * Martin Freeman as Oliver "O-Man" Chamberlain
 * Luke Bromley as young Oliver
 * Eddie Marsan as Peter Page
 * James Tarpey as young Peter
 * Rosamund Pike as Sam Chamberlain
 * Flora Slorach as young Sam
 * Pierce Brosnan as Guy Shepherd
 * David Bradley as Basil
 * Darren Boyd as Shane Hawkins
 * Richard Hadfield as young Shane
 * Michael Smiley as Trevor "The Reverend" Green
 * Nicholas Burns as Collaborator #2
 * Steve Oram as Motorcycle Policeman
 * Reece Shearsmith as Collaborator #1
 * Bill Nighy (voice) as The Network
 * Sophie Evans as Becky Salt
 * Samantha White as Erika Leekes
 * Rose Reynolds as Tracy Benson
 * Kelly Franklin as Kelly
 * Francesca Reidie as young Kelly
 * Stacey Franklin as Stacey
 * Charlotte Reidie as young Stacey
 * Alex Austin as Pale Young Man
 * Jonathan Aris as Group Leader
 * Jenny Bede as Fitness Instructor
 * Angie Wallis as Peter's Wife
 * Paul Bentall as Peter's Dad
 * Richard Graham as Head Builder
 * Alice Lowe as Young Lady
 * Rafe Spall as Young Man
 * Leo Thompson as Felicity
 * Julia Deakin as B&B Landlady
 * Greg Townley as Greg
 * Sebastian Zaniesienko as Seb
 * Luke Scott as Luke
 * Tyler Dobbs as Tyler
 * Samuel Mak as Sam
 * Teddy Kempner as Publican #1
 * Mark Kempner as Publican #2
 * Nick Holder as Publican #3
 * Paul Kennington as Publican #4
 * Mike Sarne as Publican #5
 * Mark Heap as Publican #6
 * Ken Bones as Publican #7
 * James Granstrom as Adrian Keane
 * Gabe Cronnelly as Upstairs Beehive Man
 * Patricia Franklin as Upstairs Beehive Lady
 * Mark Donovan as Big Ugly Bastard #1
 * Ricky Champ as Big Ugly Bastard #2
 * Garth Jennings (uncredited) as man in pub #5

Development
The World's End began as a screenplay titled Crawl about a group of teenagers on a pub crawl; it was written by Edgar Wright at the age of 21. He realised the idea could work with adult characters to capture "the bittersweet feeling of returning to your home town and feeling like a stranger". Wright said he wanted to satirise the "strange homogeneous branding that becomes like a virus", explaining: "This doesn't just extend to pubs, it's the same with cafés and restaurants. If you live in a small town and you move to London, which I did when I was 20, then when you go back out into the other small towns in England you go 'oh my god, it's all the same!' It's like Bodysnatchers: literally our towns are being changed to death."

In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Pegg told Clark Collis, "People think we choose the genre first every time, and it's not true. We find the stories first. The notion of alienation from your hometown taken to its literal conclusion was how we got to science fiction."

After the story was complete, Wright and Pegg examined a list of real pub names and "tried to make them like tarot cards" to foreshadow the events of the story. Wright explained: "So we said, 'OK this one's the Famous Cock, because this is where Gary is trying to puff up his own importance.' ... We did go through and work out in each one how the pub sign was going to relate."

Production
Principal photography for The World's End began on 28 September 2012. Filming took place in Hertfordshire, at Elstree Studios, Letchworth Garden City, and Welwyn Garden City. Part of the film was also shot at High Wycombe railway station, Buckinghamshire.

All twelve pubs in the film use identical signage on menus and walls, reflecting what Wright called "that fake hand-written chalk" common to modern British pubs. The exteriors of the real pubs were shot at locations in Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City, with altered signage. Letchworth Garden City railway station got a makeover as the "Hole in the Wall". Stunts were coordinated by Brad Allen of martial arts film director Jackie Chan's team. Wright said: "In Drunken Master, Jackie Chan has to get drunk to fight, but this is more the idea of Dutch courage. You know, when you're kind of drunk and you think 'ah, I can climb up that scaffolding!' Or just that you're impervious to pain. One of the things we talked about is this idea that [the characters] become better fighters the more oiled they get."

The Broadway Cinema, Letchworth, a renovated independent cinema built in a quintessentially Art Deco style in the 1930s, was used to portray the Mermaid pub. This cinema was also the first outside London to play the film, with a special introduction by Pegg thanking the residents of Letchworth for their help during its making; over 800 viewers watched the film at the cinema on its opening night.

Soundtrack
The film uses what the New York Post's Kyle Smith called "a brilliant Madchester soundtrack", alternative rock and pop music from the time of the characters' adolescence. Wright explained: "A lot of those songs are ones that really hit me and Simon hard when we were that age... [Gary] is still living by those rules. It's like he decided to take 'Loaded' and 'I'm Free' to heart and thinks the party's never going to end."

The soundtrack for the film was released on 5 August 2013 in the UK and 20 August 2013 in the United States, with the film's score, composed by Steven Price, released on the same day.

The only songs featured in the film that did not make it onto the soundtrack are "The Only One I Know", "Summer's Magic", and "The Only Rhyme That Bites", by The Charlatans, Mark Summers, and 808 State respectively. The original soundtrack tributes the song "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" by Yes when the young characters reach the hills.

Track list
In addition to songs featured in the movie, the album also features dialogue snippets. The track list for the soundtrack is as follows:
 * 1) "Loaded" (single edit) – Primal Scream (4:21)
 * 2) "There's No Other Way" – Blur (3:19)
 * 3) Dialogue: "I Put This On a Tape for You" – Simon Pegg and Paddy Considine (0:09)
 * 4) "I'm Free" – The Soup Dragons (3:50)
 * 5) "Step On" – Happy Mondays (5:14) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 6) Dialogue: "Was The Music Too Loud?" – Steve Oram and Simon Pegg (0:04) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 7) "So Young" – Suede (3:37)
 * 8) "Old Red Eyes Is Back" – The Beautiful South (3:32) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 9) Dialogue: "A Humble Taproom" – Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (0:15) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 10) "Come Home" (Flood mix) – James (3:53) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 11) "Do You Remember the First Time?" – Pulp (4:22)
 * 12) Dialogue: "Welcome" – Simon Pegg (0:04)
 * 13) "What You Do to Me" – Teenage Fanclub (1:57)
 * 14) "Fools Gold" (single edit) – The Stone Roses (4:15)
 * 15) "Get a Life" – Soul II Soul (3:36)
 * 16) Dialogue: "We Have Changed" – Nick Frost (0:07)
 * 17) "This Is How It Feels" – Inspiral Carpets (3:10) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 18) "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" – The Doors (3:16)
 * 19) "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" – Definition of Sound (3:43)
 * 20) Dialogue: "This Is What the Kids Want" – Simon Pegg and Martin Freeman (0:07)
 * 21) "Step Back in Time" – Kylie Minogue (3:04) [Deluxe version bonus track]
 * 22) "Join Our Club" – Saint Etienne (3:15)
 * 23) "Here's Where the Story Ends" – The Sundays (3:52)
 * 24) Dialogue: "I Hate This Town" – Nick Frost (0:04)
 * 25) "20 Seconds to Comply" (World's End Bomb Squad mix re-edit) – Silver Bullet (4:35)
 * 26) "This Corrosion" (single edit) – The Sisters of Mercy (4:21)
 * 27) "Happy Hour" – The Housemartins (2:21)
 * 28) Dialogue: "Let's Boo Boo" – Simon Pegg and Paddy Considine (0:24)

Release
The World's End premiered on 10 July 2013 at Leicester Square in London and was released on 19 July 2013 in the United Kingdom. It was released in the United States on 23 August 2013.

Box office
The World's End earned £2,122,288 ($3,242,064 USD) during its UK opening weekend, losing the top spot to Monsters University. Its weekend grosses were higher than Shaun of the Deads £1.6 million but lower than Hot Fuzzs £5.4 million.

In the United States, the movie was released on 23 August and earned $3.5 million on its opening day, beating out The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and You're Next. The World's End also had the highest per-theater average out of all films in theaters throughout the country on its opening day. On its opening weekend, the film landed in fourth place with $8,790,237, behind Lee Daniels' The Butler, We're the Millers, and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. This exceeded box office expectations ranging from $7 million to $8.5 million, and The World's End's opening weekend earned the most out of all films in the Cornetto Trilogy.

Critical reception
The World's End received critical acclaim. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating with a weighted average score of 7.4/10 based on 218 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Madcap and heartfelt, Edgar Wright's apocalypse comedy The World's End benefits from the typically hilarious Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, with a plethora of supporting players." The film also holds a Metacritic score of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 45 collected reviews.

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, praising it as "hilarious" and the "best" collaboration of Wright, Pegg and Frost, saying that "these pint-swilling Peter Pans also know how to work the heart and the brain for belly laughs... The finale is a little too shaggy and silly. But what do you expect after a dozen beers?" Mark Dinning of Empire magazine gave the film four stars out of five, writing: "Bravely refusing to rigidly adhere to a formula that has been so successful, Wright, Pegg and Frost's Cornetto Trilogy closer has tonal shifts you won't expect, but the same beating heart you've been craving." Movie blog eatpraymedia gave the film four and a half stars, calling it "...the perfect antidote to big budget movie making." Henry Barnes of The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five, writing: "With this final film they've slowed down a bit, grown up a lot. And saved the richest bite until last."

Accolades
The World's End received two Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations, for Best Actor in a Comedy (for Simon Pegg) and for Best Comedy, but lost to The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle respectively.

The movie won Best British Film at the 19th Empire Awards held in London in March 2014.