Ep. 06-04: The Last Man on Earth (1964) & The Omega Man (1971)

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) It is three years since a plague either killed everyone on earth or turned them into vampires. Dr. Robert Morgan is the sole survivor and lives a perilous existence where at night the vampires attack his house and during the day he seeks out the undead and permanently kills them. The monotony and isolation of his existence are getting to him – is this all to life there will ever be?

THE OMEGA MAN (1971) Robert Neville has survived a war waged with biological weapons. The plague from war has killed everyone else except for a group of albino-like survivors, led by a former newscaster now calling himself Matthias. His group is sensitive to light and heat and is bent upon smashing all remnants of the prior civilization, especially Neville.

https://johnnyhasthekeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/06-04-Omega-Last-Man-FINAL.mp3

Welcome to our second of FOUR Richard Matheson stories—FIVE, considering this episode is a DOUBLE FEATURE! The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971) are the first two feature film adaptions of Matheson’s seminal novel I Am Legend (the third being I Am Legend, 2007). Unfortunately, none of these adaptions have lived up to the phenomenal source material (many consider Night of the Living Dead (1968) a better option). Join us as we take on these two films, discussing the pluses (few) and minuses (many) that give these films—flawed as they are—a special place in our genre-loving little hearts. Listen, as Johnny Has the Keys hunts the dead by day and they, in turn, hunt us at night, questioning our existence in this strange and dangerous new world. 

SHOW LINKS:

• The Last Man on Earth (1964)
• Original trailer
• The Omega Man (1971)
• Original trailer
• Richard Matheson
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• Vincent Price
• Mad Max (1979)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Charlton Heston
• Anthony Zerbe
• Rosalind Cash
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Night Surf by Stephen King
• The Passage by Justin Cronin 
• Evel Knievel
• Fonzie
• The Black Panther movement
• Shaft (1971)
• Michael Jackson
• Soylent Green (1973)
• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
• Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Ravenscroft font
• Kirk and Uhura’s first televised interracial kiss
• Mystery Science Theater 3000

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