The Midnight Sky: George Clooney’s Take On The End Of The World
Duane Beckett
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Netflix’s blockbuster ‘The Midnight Sky‘ is not just a story of a lone scientist in the aftermath of a global catastrophe. It is the story of the end of the world.
Starring and directed by Oscar-winner Georgia Clooney. The movie offers the audience an insight into a possible doomsday future of the world:
A vision regularly portrayed in science-fiction movies that have become popular in recent years. Especially after 2012’s end of the world theories.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)
Good Morning Midnight
An adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel ‘Good Morning Midnight‘, Clooney’s ‘Midnight Sky’ offers a new perspective of the post-apocalyptic world.
It is the story of Augustine’s mission to stop a crew of astronauts from returning to earth and effectively killing them.
The twist occurs when Augustine finds a child who has been left at the observatory without any hope of rescue.
The world has been destroyed from the very beginning of the movie but no one knows how. This is the biggest mystery of the movie, what was ‘the event’ that bought the world to its end?
The answer is in several conversations and scenes easily glossed over throughout the movie:
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How Did It End?
The movie starts weeks after ‘the event’, February 2049.
CLUE ONE: Augustine is seen measuring radiation in the early parts of the movie. He monitors the Air Quality Index for rising radiation levels. This hints that environmental issues are the reason behind the end of the world.
CLUE TWO: The conversation between Sully, one of the astronauts who left the Earth before ‘the event’ also supports the assumption as he said, ” I am afraid we did not do a very good job of looking after the place while you were away.”
CLUE THREE: Moreover, there are also reasons to assume that the world ended with the manmade event. In his first contact with Aether, Lofthouse tells Sully that, ‘it was a mistake’.
CLUE FOUR: In another conversation, Lofthouse again tells Aether when they asked for a landing place that, ‘all survivable areas are underground’. This suggests that the world ended with some sort of nuclear apocalypse where the aftermath has made the planet uninhabitable with only some temporary safety underground.
What’s so intriguing is that the novel doesn’t provide any clear picture of what happened. So no one knows but it is clear that ‘the event’ in George Clooney’s eyes was something that could not be reversed – and human-made.
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The Midnight Sky Conclusion
After watching the movie, some might end up depressed over the idea that how humanity is moving forwards will lead to its own doomsday.
However, in reality, the main aim of the movie was to tell a hopeful story not a depressed one.
Augustine ends up with redemption, and redemption gives hope. The last moments of the movie when there are David and Felicity and moments of ‘what are we going to do’ – but there are also moments of ‘ OK, let’s get to work’.