On the Beach

On the Beach (1959)

Plot summary

(2 votes)

The last few million humans live in the southern hemisphere -- mainly Australia. The northern hemisphere has been almost totally vaporized by nuclear war. What's left is cooking in a lethal dose of radiation, which is drifting inexorably south. We follow the lives of an American nuclear sub commander (his wife and children dead); his Australian girlfriend, Moira; an Australian naval officer with a young wife in denial and with a newborn baby; and a scientist who feels responsible. They live their familiar lives in whatever time is left, vainly hoping to find an escape.

Guy Holladay

Continuity mistake: In the part when the two American officers are looking around in Anchorage, USA, and come across the dead woman at the News Studios you can clearly see her blink 2 or 3 times as the camera pans out.

More mistakes in On the Beach

Moira Davidson: All I want to know is: if everybody was so smart, why didn't they know what would happen?
Dwight Towers: They did.
Moira Davidson: Well, I - I can't take it. I - oh, yes, I can take it! But, it's unfair. It's unfair because I didn't do anything. And nobody I know did anything.

More quotes from On the Beach

Trivia: When Moira and Bill Davidson are strolling in the pasture, they pause to admire a beautiful mare that is posing for them, and Bill offers the horse something to eat from the palm of his hand (sugar cubes or some other treat, presumably, but it's not visible). However, the horse does not react to the treat nor eat anything that Bill offers, because the actor's hand was actually empty. The trained horse was obeying cues from her trainer, off-camera, and only her trainer carried the real treats.

Charles Austin Miller

More trivia for On the Beach

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