An ambiguous adventurer becomes involved with an experiment designed to overcome the impending extinction of the human species. One from the "What were they thinking?!" school of film-making: much like John Boorman's contemporaneous ZARDOZ (1974), this is yet another good-looking but uncontrolled attempt at a 'trippy' post-apocalyptic scenario that ends up being embarrassingly campy – and, here, wasting a fine veteran cast (Sterling Hayden, Patrick Magee, George Coulouris, Harry Andrews and Hugh Griffith) into the bargain – none of whom appear in any scenes together. The main role of Jerry Cornelius had been offered to Mick Jagger (who rejected the script as "too weird"!) and Timothy Dalton before Jon Finch stepped in and basically stopped his promising film career dead in its tracks; in hindsight, it is understandable not only that novelist Michael Moorcock hated this adaptation but also that his prolific literary creation never returned in any further cinematic adventure since! For the record, the supporting cast also features Jenny Runacre (as Cornelius' supremely annoying androgynous acolyte), Graham Crowden, Ronald Lacey, Sarah Douglas and Julie Ege...but every earnest effort on anybody's part is stifled by the film's relentless visual and aural assault on the viewers' senses. Interestingly, the former is reminiscent of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) and the latter features Eric Clapton among the session musicians! When Roger Corman picked up the film for U.S. distribution, he not only trimmed it by 11 minutes but also retitled it as LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH to (reportedly) little effect.
26 Reviews
Help! I'm trapped in a Hawkwind concept album!
ubercommando18 April 2005
Warning: Spoilers
OK, I've seen it...nope, not making sense...watch it again...nope, not getting it...hang on, I'll read the book maybe that will help...nada...
A sometimes fun, sometimes interesting but a thorough mess of a movie of a sometimes fun, sometimes interesting thorough mess of a book. It's like being in a time loop where Jerry Cornelius is always attending his father's funeral, always half-fancying his sister and always pursuing his brother Frank. Some of the sets like the nightclub "King Cool Flipped His Lid..." are well done, there are some amusing lines such as "I have a Phantom Jet parked outside...", "Shit, it's the Greek!" and "Hmmm, Rhesus positive" on merely touching a bloodstain. But very little is coherent; Miss Brunner "absorbs" her lovers but just what does that mean and how does she do it? Is it a post-apocalyptic world or not? What the hell happens at the end with a simian Cornelius/Brunner hybrid muttering about "what a very tasty world"? I'll give it this, Jon Finch turns in a great performance but this really is a beer n' pretzels ludicrous movie.
A sometimes fun, sometimes interesting but a thorough mess of a movie of a sometimes fun, sometimes interesting thorough mess of a book. It's like being in a time loop where Jerry Cornelius is always attending his father's funeral, always half-fancying his sister and always pursuing his brother Frank. Some of the sets like the nightclub "King Cool Flipped His Lid..." are well done, there are some amusing lines such as "I have a Phantom Jet parked outside...", "Shit, it's the Greek!" and "Hmmm, Rhesus positive" on merely touching a bloodstain. But very little is coherent; Miss Brunner "absorbs" her lovers but just what does that mean and how does she do it? Is it a post-apocalyptic world or not? What the hell happens at the end with a simian Cornelius/Brunner hybrid muttering about "what a very tasty world"? I'll give it this, Jon Finch turns in a great performance but this really is a beer n' pretzels ludicrous movie.
Way too campy for its own good
Leofwine_draca1 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
THE FINAL PROGRAMME is a drug-induced slice of sci-fi craziness, based on a novel by popular fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. Having a fondness for '70s-era science fiction such as LOGAN'S RUN, I was hoping to like this, but the sad truth is that it turns out to be a completely unconvincing dud of a film, far too light-hearted and campy to succeed.
The once-familiar actor Jon Finch, so good in FRENZY and MACBETH, gives a hideous performance as the arrogant protagonist, tasked with hunting down a secret microfilm in a world on the edge of the apocalypse. Various oddball supporting characters turn up to either help or hinder him, and the supporting cast is certainly the best thing about this; seeing the familiar faces of Harry Andrews, Julie Ege, Hugh Griffith, Graham Crowden, and Patrick Magee is certainly a pleasure, but they're not enough to distract from this film's overwhelming silliness. I don't mind a bit of camp but this film goes way over the top and as a result is simply stupid.
The once-familiar actor Jon Finch, so good in FRENZY and MACBETH, gives a hideous performance as the arrogant protagonist, tasked with hunting down a secret microfilm in a world on the edge of the apocalypse. Various oddball supporting characters turn up to either help or hinder him, and the supporting cast is certainly the best thing about this; seeing the familiar faces of Harry Andrews, Julie Ege, Hugh Griffith, Graham Crowden, and Patrick Magee is certainly a pleasure, but they're not enough to distract from this film's overwhelming silliness. I don't mind a bit of camp but this film goes way over the top and as a result is simply stupid.
Where's The Final Programme?
MetalMiike12 November 2004
This is one of those spectacular misfires; Fuest has taken Moorcock's splendid book and cut everything down to the bone so much that what remains is only the irrelevant sci-fi plot that was basically a throwaway excuse to hang all the elements of the book together. For this there really is no excuse; the next two books were available at the time the film was in production (the last was not publish until 1977) and if anyone had bothered to read them, they would have realized that Jerry Cornelius ain't James Bond. This a cheap Bond rip-off. The books were trans-dimensional, time hopping wonders; they had an arrogance of plot structure that really captured the complexities of multi-dimensional realities. This is a chase movie. It has a conventional three-act structure and, worst still, it ditches all the characters vital to the novel (or amalgamates three, four or five of them into one). It misses out on Moorcock's views of sexual liberation and worst of all Fuest has absolutely no idea what his source material is about. After seeing the Dr. Phibes movies I thought him to be an entertaining and imaginative director. After seeing this I realize his style has nothing to do with imagination but a talent for making do with low budgets. The Final Programme was made for around £600,000. Not inconsiderable for the time but it is wasted in every frame on trivia. For example, an early chapter of the book revolves around a massive assault on Jerry's father's Chatauex in Normandy by a team of crack armed mercenaries with hundreds of casualties; here it is reduced to a bit of mild house breaking just outside London. Jon Finch's Cornelius is the only plus point about it (he was, after all, a friend of Moorcock) and what the books really need is $400 million throwing at them (they have to be filmed back-to-back), faithful adaption, and a director like Alejandro Jodorowsky. The books have recently been reissued in a bind-up as "The Cornelius Quartet". Read them; you'll be going back to them for years to come trying to unravel all the different strands. The film has no strands.
Ludicrous ending.
trevorandrewmillar-707691 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
In the book, the all-purpose human being that emerges is a dazzling, charismatic creature like Adam Warlock in Marvel comics; in the film, he's a hairy hunchbacked neanderthal. Totally ludicrous and completely unnecessary re-writing! Also, why didn't they state explicily Ms Brunner's real nature (she's a succubus, a female sexual vampire); does Moorcock have issues in that area?
Fun, confused 70's Moorcock romp.
Judexdot17 August 2005
I saw the ads for "The Last Days Of Man On Earth" well before I could watch "R" films, but I was always wanting to see it. It dropped into a bit of obscurity stateside, and it was years before I found a copy. Shortly after I saw it, Anchor Bay issued the uncut original in limited quantities, and I managed to grab one.
well, the book is better. But Jon Finch is the perfect Jerry Cornelius, and this may be his best work. Jenny Runacre is every bit as good as "Miss Brunner", though her character doesn't quite embody the written character to the degree of Finch. Ron Lacey also shines, in a brief turn as the sun glassed assassin, "Shades", walking straight out of the books pages.
The low budget is disguised well, but the film needed a bit more for effects, relying on a lot of color tinting, sound effects, and old style inflatable "sculptures", to fill the screen.
Moorcock hates it, but this embodies the spirit that fueled "New Worlds", the science fiction magazine that brought Moorcock to the worlds attention, rather well, invoking much classic British entertainment of the recent past. The original cut is preferable, but "The Last Days Of Man On Earth" is a completely different edit of the film, not just a retitling. The differences aren't major, but the US removes everything that even borders on superfluous, with much minor trimming being done to almost every scene. In an odd parallel with "A Boy And His Dog", it follows the overall story arc acceptably, but adds a joke in poor taste to the conclusion, and many have found that alone, was enough to sour their perceptions.
It comes close to bringing Moorcocks world to the cinema, but isn't quite there. Here's hoping that someone might make another attempt.
well, the book is better. But Jon Finch is the perfect Jerry Cornelius, and this may be his best work. Jenny Runacre is every bit as good as "Miss Brunner", though her character doesn't quite embody the written character to the degree of Finch. Ron Lacey also shines, in a brief turn as the sun glassed assassin, "Shades", walking straight out of the books pages.
The low budget is disguised well, but the film needed a bit more for effects, relying on a lot of color tinting, sound effects, and old style inflatable "sculptures", to fill the screen.
Moorcock hates it, but this embodies the spirit that fueled "New Worlds", the science fiction magazine that brought Moorcock to the worlds attention, rather well, invoking much classic British entertainment of the recent past. The original cut is preferable, but "The Last Days Of Man On Earth" is a completely different edit of the film, not just a retitling. The differences aren't major, but the US removes everything that even borders on superfluous, with much minor trimming being done to almost every scene. In an odd parallel with "A Boy And His Dog", it follows the overall story arc acceptably, but adds a joke in poor taste to the conclusion, and many have found that alone, was enough to sour their perceptions.
It comes close to bringing Moorcocks world to the cinema, but isn't quite there. Here's hoping that someone might make another attempt.
I loved the poster
christopher-underwood7 April 2023
I know there are plenty of people that love this but I find it so difficult. Of course even with Michael Moorcock I find his books difficult so with this one it is surely a problem for me. For Robert Fuest, the partly written script with Moorcock, directed and even designed so although I didn't really like The Avengers (1968/69) in my twenties. Clearly there is something really different here but I just find it hard to understand, despite there being a veteran cast as, Sterling Hayden, Patrick Magee, Harry Andrews and Hugh Griffith. For some reason I even found his films, And Soon the Darkness (1970) and especially The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) that I didn't like, so maybe there is just something about the work of this man. I loved the poster (Allan Jones & Phillip Castle).
Slick trip
kinetica23 December 2003
Sort of like Zardoz crossed with Planet of the Apes.
The film is well acted, well shot, and the plot holds together... even though the Nazis are dragged in a bit, but not to the detriment of the film.
It is allegorical, and rather clever twist on some poetry for those who have taken Humanities classes in school.
Worth a look if you are new to film, and are looking for something out of the ordinary, that requires a bit of knowledge to hang with.
The film is well acted, well shot, and the plot holds together... even though the Nazis are dragged in a bit, but not to the detriment of the film.
It is allegorical, and rather clever twist on some poetry for those who have taken Humanities classes in school.
Worth a look if you are new to film, and are looking for something out of the ordinary, that requires a bit of knowledge to hang with.
No "tune in next week" so be prepared to sit through to the end.
mark.waltz13 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is a rather bizarre film to try to describe, a future where the population is now at a minimum and they don't have long to survive. That future consists of mansions that turn into fun houses, one brother trying to outwit another (and vice versa), a sexy femme fatale and a plethora of doddering old character actors, both British and American.
This is purely a visual treat, slight in a believable plot and bizarrely convoluted yet a lot of fun if you can tolerate the ridiculous elements of it all. Jon Finch is the hero, although I'd hardly describe him as a desireable one, dealing with the seductive Jenny Runacre, not someone you can define well as far as characterization she plays.
Such character actors like Sterling Hayden, Harry Andrews and Hugh Griffith appear, their wacky parts like futuristic versions of the inventors from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Sarah Douglas has a small part as Finch's old girlfriend who has a pill addiction. The traps of the mansion in the early scenes are fun, but after a while, you begin to wonder what pills the writer was taking. The ending is one I can envision the audience looking at each other and asking, "Huh?"
This is purely a visual treat, slight in a believable plot and bizarrely convoluted yet a lot of fun if you can tolerate the ridiculous elements of it all. Jon Finch is the hero, although I'd hardly describe him as a desireable one, dealing with the seductive Jenny Runacre, not someone you can define well as far as characterization she plays.
Such character actors like Sterling Hayden, Harry Andrews and Hugh Griffith appear, their wacky parts like futuristic versions of the inventors from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Sarah Douglas has a small part as Finch's old girlfriend who has a pill addiction. The traps of the mansion in the early scenes are fun, but after a while, you begin to wonder what pills the writer was taking. The ending is one I can envision the audience looking at each other and asking, "Huh?"
Rather odd
gpeltz24 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The Last Days of Man on Earth, (1973) otherwise called, The Final Programme. It was directed by Robert Fuest, and co written with Michael Moorcock, Spoiler alert I will be talking about the movie. But first, first impressions. Its an English movie, I do not remember it theatrically released, It slipped by me. I found it rather like The Prisoner, on acid. or like the movies that Mike Myers spoofed with his Auston Powers series. It was made two years after,"Zabriskie Point" British films were going through this "thing" about being offbeat. It was never taking itself serious, Oddball music, snappy dialogue, and deliberate "artistic" set ups played out, with little plot to go on. The movie stared Jon Finch, as the ruffle shirted, Jerry Cornelius, It is suppose to take place in the future, Never depicted, but referred to in the film, was the Third World War. It didn't seem to phase any of the goings on in this movie.
Jerry is the surviving son of a great inventor, who before he died, developed a computer program called the " Final Programme", It would bestow upon one person, immortality, with the knowledge of all mankind. The created being could reproduce itself, and do all kinds of other nutty things, like rule the world.
Mrs Brunner, played by Jenny Runacre, leads a group of scientists who want the programme, for their super advanced computer, that looks rather like a copying machine. Sterling Hayden is also on board. How do we know the film is tongue in cheek ?,
"Heard they bombed Amsterdam, about time they did something right"
The problem being, if the film does not take itself seriously, why should we care, as clever as it all is the plot is obscured. For a while though its a fun ride, with an anything can happen, openness, About three quarters of the way in, you may be glancing at your watch. Truly an oddball film, ranks high on the "strange movie", List. Production values were OK, it says it was shot in Technicolor, Maybe, but not the print I caught. I thought it looked more like a BBC television production. Some nice exterior shots, and totally senseless band music. I give this film Seven out of Ten Psychedelic Stars. . .
Jerry is the surviving son of a great inventor, who before he died, developed a computer program called the " Final Programme", It would bestow upon one person, immortality, with the knowledge of all mankind. The created being could reproduce itself, and do all kinds of other nutty things, like rule the world.
Mrs Brunner, played by Jenny Runacre, leads a group of scientists who want the programme, for their super advanced computer, that looks rather like a copying machine. Sterling Hayden is also on board. How do we know the film is tongue in cheek ?,
"Heard they bombed Amsterdam, about time they did something right"
The problem being, if the film does not take itself seriously, why should we care, as clever as it all is the plot is obscured. For a while though its a fun ride, with an anything can happen, openness, About three quarters of the way in, you may be glancing at your watch. Truly an oddball film, ranks high on the "strange movie", List. Production values were OK, it says it was shot in Technicolor, Maybe, but not the print I caught. I thought it looked more like a BBC television production. Some nice exterior shots, and totally senseless band music. I give this film Seven out of Ten Psychedelic Stars. . .
"A Very Tasty World!"
ShadeGrenade12 September 2006
The early-to-mid '70's saw a glut of movies predicting a pessimistic future for Mankind; 'Soylent Green', 'No Blade Of Grass', 'A Clockwork Orange', 'Logan's Run', the 'Planet Of The Apes' sequels and this, based on a Michael Moorcock novel. Jon Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, Nobel Prize winner, rock star and secret agent, who embarks on a quest to free his beloved sister from the clutches of his evil brother Frank. The world Cornelius inhabits is the Swinging Sixties writ large; recreational drug use, rampant sexual promiscuity, and lack of respect for authority are rife. Writer, set designer and director Robert Fuest had worked on the 'Avengers' television series, and it shows. The sets are dazzling, the supporting cast good, and despite its pessimistic theme the film manages to be fun. Jenny Runacre steals the show as the bizarre 'Miss Brunner', a freakish mutation who absorbs the bodies of her lovers. You really need to watch this to believe it. Funny, stylish and erotic, its a genuine cult oddity.
A very tasty world.
Hey_Sweden11 July 2021
A simplification - albeit a rather offbeat one - of one book in a series of novels by Michael Moorcock, "The Final Programme" may work better for people who haven't read the novel. Therefore, they can appreciate it for what it is, and not fret about what it isn't. This viewer admits that it took a while to grab hold for him personally, but it's just quirky enough and provocative enough to make for a reasonably entertaining movie. I would be surprised if it didn't have some sort of cult following by this point.
Jon Finch ("Frenzy") is front and centre here as the character Jerry Cornelius, a sardonic scientific genius living in a world on the possible brink of apocalypse. He gets involved in the hunt for some valuable microfilm. It contains a revelatory formula (devised by his late father) for creating a self-replicating human being, and possibly a new Messiah. Jerry must deal with a comely but conniving computer expert (Jenny Runacre, "The Witches"), and the machinations of his weaselly brother Frank (Derrick O'Connor, "Lethal Weapon 2").
The first-rate supporting cast includes Sterling Hayden ("The Godfather") in a brief cameo as a wheeler-dealer American major, Harry Andrews ("The Hill"), Hugh Griffith ("Ben-Hur"), the stunning Julie Ege ("Creatures the World Forgot"), Patrick Magee ("A Clockwork Orange"), Graham Crowden ("The Company of Wolves"), George Coulouris ("Citizen Kane"), Ronald Lacey ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and Sarah Douglas ("Superman" and "Superman II"). Finch is amusing as a protagonist who's always quick with the pointed comments, and Runacre is enticing as the woman determined to see her plan through. (She also has a tendency to *consume* her lovers.)
Complete with sex, nudity, action, and a bit of globe-trotting, "The Final Programme" also benefits from the striking visual approach by production designer / screenwriter / director Robert Fuest, whose other 70s feature films include the "Dr. Phibes" movies, "And Soon the Darkness", and "The Devils' Rain". Bizarre and stylish, it can get goofy at times, but it's definitely not boring.
Seven out of 10.
Jon Finch ("Frenzy") is front and centre here as the character Jerry Cornelius, a sardonic scientific genius living in a world on the possible brink of apocalypse. He gets involved in the hunt for some valuable microfilm. It contains a revelatory formula (devised by his late father) for creating a self-replicating human being, and possibly a new Messiah. Jerry must deal with a comely but conniving computer expert (Jenny Runacre, "The Witches"), and the machinations of his weaselly brother Frank (Derrick O'Connor, "Lethal Weapon 2").
The first-rate supporting cast includes Sterling Hayden ("The Godfather") in a brief cameo as a wheeler-dealer American major, Harry Andrews ("The Hill"), Hugh Griffith ("Ben-Hur"), the stunning Julie Ege ("Creatures the World Forgot"), Patrick Magee ("A Clockwork Orange"), Graham Crowden ("The Company of Wolves"), George Coulouris ("Citizen Kane"), Ronald Lacey ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and Sarah Douglas ("Superman" and "Superman II"). Finch is amusing as a protagonist who's always quick with the pointed comments, and Runacre is enticing as the woman determined to see her plan through. (She also has a tendency to *consume* her lovers.)
Complete with sex, nudity, action, and a bit of globe-trotting, "The Final Programme" also benefits from the striking visual approach by production designer / screenwriter / director Robert Fuest, whose other 70s feature films include the "Dr. Phibes" movies, "And Soon the Darkness", and "The Devils' Rain". Bizarre and stylish, it can get goofy at times, but it's definitely not boring.
Seven out of 10.
A fascinating footnote
dafyddabhugh20 March 2004
The novel from which this movie was taken, The Final Programme, by Michael Moorcock, is structurally identical in plot and character to another Moorcock novel... Elric of Melnibone, the first of the Elric series.
This is not a coincidence; both books are part of the Champion Eternal cycle... a series of interconnected series about the Champion Eternal, who exists in every time and every universe, condemned always to fight -- and never know why he is fighting. He goes by many names -- Elric of Melnibone, Jerry Cornelius, Count Urlik, Prince Corum, each with his own series. In some incarnations he knows who he is, in others he thinks he's a normal man (occasionally, a particular incarnation is female). Sometimes two (or even three) incarnations meet each other.
The cycle, which makes up about a third of all Moorcock's ouevre (probably dozens of novels), is one of the most monumental achievements of meta-fiction ever written... but I think this is the only book of Moorcock's made into a movie, though he did contribute to the adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel The Land That Time Forgot (dinosaurs on an island).
Now that Fritz Leiber is dead, Moorcock can lay claim to being the greatest living fantasy writer.
The movie The Final Programme (a.k.a. The Last Days of Man On Earth) does an incredible job of capturing the Jerry Cornelius character, much better than I would have expected. But the ending is changed from that of the book, and not for the better. Still definitely worth a rental.
Dafydd ab Hugh
This is not a coincidence; both books are part of the Champion Eternal cycle... a series of interconnected series about the Champion Eternal, who exists in every time and every universe, condemned always to fight -- and never know why he is fighting. He goes by many names -- Elric of Melnibone, Jerry Cornelius, Count Urlik, Prince Corum, each with his own series. In some incarnations he knows who he is, in others he thinks he's a normal man (occasionally, a particular incarnation is female). Sometimes two (or even three) incarnations meet each other.
The cycle, which makes up about a third of all Moorcock's ouevre (probably dozens of novels), is one of the most monumental achievements of meta-fiction ever written... but I think this is the only book of Moorcock's made into a movie, though he did contribute to the adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel The Land That Time Forgot (dinosaurs on an island).
Now that Fritz Leiber is dead, Moorcock can lay claim to being the greatest living fantasy writer.
The movie The Final Programme (a.k.a. The Last Days of Man On Earth) does an incredible job of capturing the Jerry Cornelius character, much better than I would have expected. But the ending is changed from that of the book, and not for the better. Still definitely worth a rental.
Dafydd ab Hugh
a little bit of prescience
flowirin4 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This was released the year I was born, and it seems to track the slow destruction of the world, that has been my lived experience.
Its a little spooky, to be quite honest.
Production wise, its a bit, well, $hit. Cheap sets, horrid noises, flashing lights, but its well within the 60's 'trippy' vibe, so i'll forgive that.
Story wise, its lunacy, and only my familiarity with the eternal champion grounds it in any kind of sense at all. But it is fun lunacy, and I'd have loved this at my late night TV sessions at uni. In the 90s.
The ending though. That's the whoah. Bit.
The future? Its today, with a weird ape dude/girl in makeup thats supposed to be able to give birth, give a smile and a wink as it walks out into the world it now inherits.
Make of it what you will. Maybe next time circuit things will turn out a little prettier?
Its a little spooky, to be quite honest.
Production wise, its a bit, well, $hit. Cheap sets, horrid noises, flashing lights, but its well within the 60's 'trippy' vibe, so i'll forgive that.
Story wise, its lunacy, and only my familiarity with the eternal champion grounds it in any kind of sense at all. But it is fun lunacy, and I'd have loved this at my late night TV sessions at uni. In the 90s.
The ending though. That's the whoah. Bit.
The future? Its today, with a weird ape dude/girl in makeup thats supposed to be able to give birth, give a smile and a wink as it walks out into the world it now inherits.
Make of it what you will. Maybe next time circuit things will turn out a little prettier?
"HELP Miss Brunner, I'm losing!"
oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx27 June 2010
I saw Alain Robbe-Grillet's Eden and After in the cinema a few years back, and I left in a kind of ecstatic trance, and ever after wondered if I was going to have an experience like that in the cinema again. The Final Programme hit the same spot, despite a quite ludicrous ending Bogart quote that seemed almost like an act of self-deprecating sabotage. I walked out of the film gasping and crooning.
The Final Programme is one beautiful puppy. The story is from a Michael Moorcock novel, it's about a young man, Jerry Cornelius who, following the death of his genius plutocrat father goes off in search of a microfilm, jealously guarded by his insane brother, in a mansion full of high tech traps and also sought by colleagues. Don't take the plot too seriously though, it's something that you aren't meant to subject to too much scrutiny.
The film is an utter masterpiece of atmosphere. I have an interest in British pop art, which has been a shamefully under-recognised movement. I was just astonished to discover that this movie had a lot of the elements from it. For example the walls of Miss Brunner's house are decorated with it, including perhaps the most famous piece of the whole movement, Peter Blake's "Babe Rainbow". I had a sort of pilgrimage last year to Pallant House art gallery in Chichester where a lot of this stuff is stored. There was a Colin Self exhibition on at the time to supplement their permanent collection of British pop art (a movement that predated the American equivalent and is easily as good). His work carries this nuclear apocalyptic beauty/malaise, that you also catch in The Final Programme where characters just offhandedly mention that Rome doesn't look so good without the Vatican, or how miscellaneous other erasures have just happened. You even get Sterling Hayden making an appearance reprising his Buck Turgidson role from Dr Strangelove, only he's better here as Major Wrongway Lindbergh, and wearing lovely orange shooting glasses and (perversely) an ankh medallion!
Yup the film sure is one hell of an aesthetic treat, and apparently the design is by Fuest himself, a painter in a previous life who had exhibited at the Royal Academy (excellent preparation for a filmmaker). An example of the outstanding production design that I will mention in a moment is Miss Brunner's nightie. Miss Brunner is a wet dream of a character that you can hardly believe, tapped firmly enough into male sexual fantasy she bears comparison with Kathleen Turner's China Blue in Ken Russell's film of the same name. She is a totally sexually confident woman, absolutely gorgeously dressed and coiffured at all times, in control, who leaves the shooting to the guys, as if they were just being silly little boys. I would call her a black widow, but she's like a golden widow spider (whatever that is), she is destructive, like a Kali (Indian mysticism plays a part in the movie too), playfully sadistic and just utterly mesmerising. She appears at one point wearing a pleated white nightie, that has a crocheted openwork top with the word LOVE in the centre, with scrolls and hearts. There's no way they got that off a hanger somewhere, it's got to have been made by a pop artist, quite the most glorious thing I've seen in a hundred years. She mentions at one point that she always gets the best out of people, well she manages to convince a gorgeous associate to tinkle the ivories with baroque music whilst naked, so I can quite see her point! She has these gorgeous red curls, pink lipstick, gold eye shadow, covered in pink ruffles over a starred white tunic. Sorry to obsess, but well, she obsesses me.
The movie stars Jon Finch as Jerry Cornelius, he's like a more sprightly Oliver Reed, extremely charismatic, and I've no idea why his career didn't take off after this movie, but it doesn't seem to have. He's just hilarious as well, he walks up to a spike with some blood on it at one point, touches it and says "ah rhesus negative", ludicrous yet he carries it perfectly. He spends half of the movie eating chocolate digestive biscuits, just crazy. The movie also contains half of my favourite character actors ever, including Patrick Magee (Mr Alexander in A Clockwork Orange - the guy whose wife is raped) and Hugh Griffith (sheikh in Ben-Hur). I just can't believe what I was watching. Unusually for sci-fi the technobabble and philosophobabble actually seemed to be pitch perfect! Truly a strange experience for me, saw Dmitri at one point reading the Larousse Encyclopedia of World Mythology, one of the most splendid books in existence, something that hypnotised me as a child. It almost appeared like Fuest had made this film for me personally, even though at the time I hadn't been born.
Best of all, this appears to be on DVD!
The Final Programme is one beautiful puppy. The story is from a Michael Moorcock novel, it's about a young man, Jerry Cornelius who, following the death of his genius plutocrat father goes off in search of a microfilm, jealously guarded by his insane brother, in a mansion full of high tech traps and also sought by colleagues. Don't take the plot too seriously though, it's something that you aren't meant to subject to too much scrutiny.
The film is an utter masterpiece of atmosphere. I have an interest in British pop art, which has been a shamefully under-recognised movement. I was just astonished to discover that this movie had a lot of the elements from it. For example the walls of Miss Brunner's house are decorated with it, including perhaps the most famous piece of the whole movement, Peter Blake's "Babe Rainbow". I had a sort of pilgrimage last year to Pallant House art gallery in Chichester where a lot of this stuff is stored. There was a Colin Self exhibition on at the time to supplement their permanent collection of British pop art (a movement that predated the American equivalent and is easily as good). His work carries this nuclear apocalyptic beauty/malaise, that you also catch in The Final Programme where characters just offhandedly mention that Rome doesn't look so good without the Vatican, or how miscellaneous other erasures have just happened. You even get Sterling Hayden making an appearance reprising his Buck Turgidson role from Dr Strangelove, only he's better here as Major Wrongway Lindbergh, and wearing lovely orange shooting glasses and (perversely) an ankh medallion!
Yup the film sure is one hell of an aesthetic treat, and apparently the design is by Fuest himself, a painter in a previous life who had exhibited at the Royal Academy (excellent preparation for a filmmaker). An example of the outstanding production design that I will mention in a moment is Miss Brunner's nightie. Miss Brunner is a wet dream of a character that you can hardly believe, tapped firmly enough into male sexual fantasy she bears comparison with Kathleen Turner's China Blue in Ken Russell's film of the same name. She is a totally sexually confident woman, absolutely gorgeously dressed and coiffured at all times, in control, who leaves the shooting to the guys, as if they were just being silly little boys. I would call her a black widow, but she's like a golden widow spider (whatever that is), she is destructive, like a Kali (Indian mysticism plays a part in the movie too), playfully sadistic and just utterly mesmerising. She appears at one point wearing a pleated white nightie, that has a crocheted openwork top with the word LOVE in the centre, with scrolls and hearts. There's no way they got that off a hanger somewhere, it's got to have been made by a pop artist, quite the most glorious thing I've seen in a hundred years. She mentions at one point that she always gets the best out of people, well she manages to convince a gorgeous associate to tinkle the ivories with baroque music whilst naked, so I can quite see her point! She has these gorgeous red curls, pink lipstick, gold eye shadow, covered in pink ruffles over a starred white tunic. Sorry to obsess, but well, she obsesses me.
The movie stars Jon Finch as Jerry Cornelius, he's like a more sprightly Oliver Reed, extremely charismatic, and I've no idea why his career didn't take off after this movie, but it doesn't seem to have. He's just hilarious as well, he walks up to a spike with some blood on it at one point, touches it and says "ah rhesus negative", ludicrous yet he carries it perfectly. He spends half of the movie eating chocolate digestive biscuits, just crazy. The movie also contains half of my favourite character actors ever, including Patrick Magee (Mr Alexander in A Clockwork Orange - the guy whose wife is raped) and Hugh Griffith (sheikh in Ben-Hur). I just can't believe what I was watching. Unusually for sci-fi the technobabble and philosophobabble actually seemed to be pitch perfect! Truly a strange experience for me, saw Dmitri at one point reading the Larousse Encyclopedia of World Mythology, one of the most splendid books in existence, something that hypnotised me as a child. It almost appeared like Fuest had made this film for me personally, even though at the time I hadn't been born.
Best of all, this appears to be on DVD!
Clapton on soundtrack?
tulsatv28 May 2005
Very stylish tongue-in-cheek sci-fi. I don't recall it being a midnight movie in the 70s or 80s, though it should have been a cult classic here in the U.S.
After watching it for the first time last night, I can understand why it didn't see much action on American TV: it is permeated with drug use, irreverence toward religion, nudity, and generally perverse attitudes. As noted by others, it is in the style-sphere of "Modesty Blaise" and "The Avengers" (for which director Fuest wrote and directed in the Linda Thorson and Joanne Lumley eras.) The movie looks great, especially considering the small budget.
As a computer programmer, I took it as a nice joke that the computer is depicted as a realistically nondescript box, rather than the usual sci-fi flashing-light monstrosity.
Jon Finch seems like a lost member of Led Zeppelin, charismatic, offhand and saturnine. Jenny Runacre plays the imperious Miss Brunner (a nod to SF writer John Brunner?) with a lot of relish.
Nice to see two Kubrick actors here: Sterling Hayden (Gen. Jack Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove") and Patrick Magee from "Clockwork Orange". Also, George Coulouris from "Citizen Kane" and a young Sarah Douglas, who later played one of the Kryptonian criminals in the "Superman" series.
On the DVD commentary, it is mentioned that Eric Clapton performed the blues guitar on the soundtrack. He is not credited, but the two composers for the film, Beaver and Krause, share music credits with Cream on a 1970 picture, "Pacific Vibrations". So it seems plausible, and I wonder if the solo drum portion of the soundtrack might then be Ginger Baker? Jazz baritone saxist Gerry Mulligan's contribution is wonderful. The diverse music is a strong point of the film.
The ending didn't really pay off for me. Maybe it was intended to be a sly nod to "2001"; maybe they just needed to wind things up. But I found the movie very worth seeing.
After watching it for the first time last night, I can understand why it didn't see much action on American TV: it is permeated with drug use, irreverence toward religion, nudity, and generally perverse attitudes. As noted by others, it is in the style-sphere of "Modesty Blaise" and "The Avengers" (for which director Fuest wrote and directed in the Linda Thorson and Joanne Lumley eras.) The movie looks great, especially considering the small budget.
As a computer programmer, I took it as a nice joke that the computer is depicted as a realistically nondescript box, rather than the usual sci-fi flashing-light monstrosity.
Jon Finch seems like a lost member of Led Zeppelin, charismatic, offhand and saturnine. Jenny Runacre plays the imperious Miss Brunner (a nod to SF writer John Brunner?) with a lot of relish.
Nice to see two Kubrick actors here: Sterling Hayden (Gen. Jack Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove") and Patrick Magee from "Clockwork Orange". Also, George Coulouris from "Citizen Kane" and a young Sarah Douglas, who later played one of the Kryptonian criminals in the "Superman" series.
On the DVD commentary, it is mentioned that Eric Clapton performed the blues guitar on the soundtrack. He is not credited, but the two composers for the film, Beaver and Krause, share music credits with Cream on a 1970 picture, "Pacific Vibrations". So it seems plausible, and I wonder if the solo drum portion of the soundtrack might then be Ginger Baker? Jazz baritone saxist Gerry Mulligan's contribution is wonderful. The diverse music is a strong point of the film.
The ending didn't really pay off for me. Maybe it was intended to be a sly nod to "2001"; maybe they just needed to wind things up. But I found the movie very worth seeing.
John Steed drops acid
drifkind26 December 1999
A shortened version of the film first released as The Final Programme, from Michael Moorcock's novel of that name. Jerry Cornelius is the perfect universal hero/anti-hero in a disintegrating world. His search for his father's invention involves him with his mad brother Frank and the sinister programmer, Miss Brunner. The acting is over the top (one reviewer described it as "rug-chewing"), hip, and outrageous. The flip, self-mocking style owes a great deal to The Avengers, The Prisoner, and possibly even the Beatles.
Jerry Cornelius in search for his fathers invention.
baz-2223 June 1999
A weird Sci Fi movie about Michael Moorcock's creation Jerry Cornelius. In this movie J.C. is finally doomed to merge with a woman to make a new kind of man, the result is bizarre. The movie is a mixture between the style of Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" and Luining's "Feed." What makes the movie really different from both mentioned is the dialogues that are full of a strange kind of black humor.
Under-appreciated 70s classic
archie295 December 2003
Michael Moorcock may not like it, but it made me start reading his books after I first saw it on TV in the late 70s.
Yes, the change from the ending of the book is a joke in every sense of the word, but you have a lot of fun getting there. Dozens of sly gags along the way will reward a repeat viewing. The design is a total work of art in itself.
Yes, the change from the ending of the book is a joke in every sense of the word, but you have a lot of fun getting there. Dozens of sly gags along the way will reward a repeat viewing. The design is a total work of art in itself.
A very hip, funny and on the money enjoyable sci-fi black comedy blast
Woodyanders10 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Satire comes no darker, meaner or more malignantly funny than this strange, bold, brutally on-target end-of-the-world lampoon based on Michael Moorcock's corrosively sardonic cult novels about hipster anti-hero supreme Jerry Cornelius. Jon Finch (the sullen, untrustworthy lead cat in Roman Polanski's magnificent "Macbeth") is stone cold aces as Cornelius, a brilliant, carefree, easygoing and dry-humored bon vivant rich dude who gets involved with ruthless corporate tigress Jenny Runacre. Runacre wants to mate with irresistible stud muffin Cornelius in order to produce a New Messiah who will save the planet, which has really gone to seed, from impending mass destruction. Assisting Jerry on his perilous mission are a striking trio of horridly grotesque caricatures of specific establishment types, each one expertly hammed to colorful perfection by a well-chosen character actor: Sterling Hayden doing a deft reprise of his batty army general from "Dr. Strangelove" as a salty warmonger general, Patrick Magee as a melancholy professor, and George Coulouris as a cold-hearted, unscrupulous scientist are every bit as deliciously wicked and enjoyably broad as they should be.
Adeptly written, directed and designed in an appropriately baroque and garish style by Robert Fuest, "The Final Programme" savagely sends up pride, greed, apathy (all the characters treat the world's unavoidable end like it was a minor, harmless inconvenience!), religious hypocrisy and omnipotence, self-indulgence taken to an appalling hedonistic extreme (y'know, partying your life away with an endless stream of sex, drugs and booze), and, most delightfully, even pretentious, self-important, overly solemn science fiction pictures (the uproarious conclusion, with the New Messiah turning out to be a wisecracking, blue-fingernailed apeman who impersonates Humphrey Bogart, mercilessly mocks the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"). The net result of all this acrimonious bile is a devilishly amusing and frequently black-as-coal pip. Appearing in nice bits are Derrick O'Connor as Jerry's estranged, out of it dope fiend brother, Ronald Lacey as an icy assassin, Julie Ege as an ill-fated tart, and Sarah Douglas (Ursa in the first two "Superman" movies) as one of Jerry's numerous squeezes. Acidic, incisive and unsparingly mordant, "The Final Programme" overall cuts it as a bracing, ferociously funny, uncompromisingly bleak, and bloody fine example of that rare odd bird: a genuinely successful sci-fi black comedy.
Adeptly written, directed and designed in an appropriately baroque and garish style by Robert Fuest, "The Final Programme" savagely sends up pride, greed, apathy (all the characters treat the world's unavoidable end like it was a minor, harmless inconvenience!), religious hypocrisy and omnipotence, self-indulgence taken to an appalling hedonistic extreme (y'know, partying your life away with an endless stream of sex, drugs and booze), and, most delightfully, even pretentious, self-important, overly solemn science fiction pictures (the uproarious conclusion, with the New Messiah turning out to be a wisecracking, blue-fingernailed apeman who impersonates Humphrey Bogart, mercilessly mocks the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"). The net result of all this acrimonious bile is a devilishly amusing and frequently black-as-coal pip. Appearing in nice bits are Derrick O'Connor as Jerry's estranged, out of it dope fiend brother, Ronald Lacey as an icy assassin, Julie Ege as an ill-fated tart, and Sarah Douglas (Ursa in the first two "Superman" movies) as one of Jerry's numerous squeezes. Acidic, incisive and unsparingly mordant, "The Final Programme" overall cuts it as a bracing, ferociously funny, uncompromisingly bleak, and bloody fine example of that rare odd bird: a genuinely successful sci-fi black comedy.
the jerry cornelius movie
jher26 December 2000
Moorcock hates this movie and says its a travesty. I'd heard that Mick Jagger was supposed to play the role but turned it down. Personally, I find this movie to be great! I've been a long-time fan of "The Cornelius Chronicles", the first story of which this movie based on. Granted, I think the director/writer's modification of the book's original ending SUCKS but up until that point it is a great movie. I especially enjoyed the needle gun design. Very clever indeed. I think that this movie captures the essence of the original story and tries very hard to get as close as possible to the book, however it does lack in several areas. If you are a Moorcock fan (Elric, Corum, Carnelian, etc.) check out this movie.
Cult science fiction fantasy in the tradition of late 60's - early 70's
pmapson2 December 2001
I first saw this film when it came out in 1973, and just watched it for the second time on DVD. Excellent production values and camera work. Stars Jon Finch as androgynous (but heterosexual) dandy-dressing Jerry Cornelius, with black nail polish; looks a bit like a cross between an older Johnny Depp and Billy Zane. Also stars Sterling Hayden, Julie Ege and the evil (duh) Nazi guy from "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The film itself is a cult science fiction fantasy in the best tradition of the late '60's - early '70's, with similarities in style to The Prisoner, early James Bond (slightly), Clockwork Orange, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and The Avengers (the director worked on the last two of those also). It is years ahead of its time in theme and science, but lapses into camp several times, especially as it progresses. It is rather disjointed, but the acting and sets are both good. Based on a story by Michael Moorcock.
The future's weird...
Red-Barracuda27 October 2017
I first became aware of this movie at a young age when a couple of stills from it were replicated in a sci-fi book I owned. One of those pictures showed an elaborate colourful nightclub set with giant inflatables and girls in large translucent spheres. Needless to say, I had to check this movie out! I was aware of the character Jerry Cornelius without actually having read any of the Michael Moorcock books which featured him; in fact I first became aware of the character when Games Workshop brought out a metal figurine of him for use in role playing games. Anyhow, I am digressing somewhat, so back to the movie. Its story isn't really its strong point to be perfectly honest. It essentially boils down to Cornelius hooking up with a computer expert called Miss Brunner in order to retrieve a micro-film containing details of the Final Programme, which is a revolutionary scientific process conceived of by Cornelius' late father, which will lead to the creation a self-replicating hermaphrodite messiah. But first the micro-film must be taken by force from Cornelius' deranged brother Frank.
The director for this one was Robert Fuest, who was responsible for the 'Dr. Phibes' movies. Like those inventive horror films, this one is visually very interesting, with great set designs and lots of colour. It's a mid-70's future, so it is wild and over-the-top in the manner that many of the best sci-fi films from the period were. The night club for instance is a pop art masterpiece with gaudy décor aplenty and a fantastic colour overload all round. It also has nuns playing fruit machines, and seemingly the members of the space rock band Hawkwind lurking in the background. You could almost say that this scene encapsulates the film as a whole, as it has a primary focus on visuals and a healthy dose of humour, with narrative logic a distant third. This basic formula is maintained throughout with cool detached characters played with distant ironic performances populating a highly stylized world in a story with a screenplay which could charitably be described as 'uneven'. So in order to get anything out of this one I would suggest that you really have to be interested in its visual ideas and overall weird ambiance, as opposed to the narrative itself. Like many of its 70's peers it is a slice of pessimistic sci-fi, set in a possible post-apocalyptic Earth where there is a suggestion that there is an impending disaster yet to come. The ideas don't truthfully seem to be treated entirely seriously, with the jokey tone suggesting that you shouldn't pay too much attention to the story-line. The odd, half-baked ending merely cements this notion further.
But I definitely got a kick out of this one. The performances are commendably game, with Jon Finch really very good as Cornelius, the chocolate biscuit addicted dandy of the future. Even better was Jenny Runacre in a thoroughly commandingly sexy performance as Miss Brunner, a bi-sexual predator who literally absorbs her lovers (somehow). There are also some solid cameo appearances from the always weird Patrick Magee as an associate of the demented Frank and Sterling Hayden giving a somewhat bizarre turn as an unhinged military expert. This very strange British sci-fi movie can fairly be described as a cult item. Its anarchic devil-may-care presentation, with some interesting characters and pop art future stylings make it one for fans of weird 70's sci-fi in particular and of strange 70's movies in general. Definitely something of an acquired taste though that is for sure but if you have a taste for baroque, left-of-centre movies and don't mind flippant disregard for trivialities such as plot, then you could have a good time with this one!
The director for this one was Robert Fuest, who was responsible for the 'Dr. Phibes' movies. Like those inventive horror films, this one is visually very interesting, with great set designs and lots of colour. It's a mid-70's future, so it is wild and over-the-top in the manner that many of the best sci-fi films from the period were. The night club for instance is a pop art masterpiece with gaudy décor aplenty and a fantastic colour overload all round. It also has nuns playing fruit machines, and seemingly the members of the space rock band Hawkwind lurking in the background. You could almost say that this scene encapsulates the film as a whole, as it has a primary focus on visuals and a healthy dose of humour, with narrative logic a distant third. This basic formula is maintained throughout with cool detached characters played with distant ironic performances populating a highly stylized world in a story with a screenplay which could charitably be described as 'uneven'. So in order to get anything out of this one I would suggest that you really have to be interested in its visual ideas and overall weird ambiance, as opposed to the narrative itself. Like many of its 70's peers it is a slice of pessimistic sci-fi, set in a possible post-apocalyptic Earth where there is a suggestion that there is an impending disaster yet to come. The ideas don't truthfully seem to be treated entirely seriously, with the jokey tone suggesting that you shouldn't pay too much attention to the story-line. The odd, half-baked ending merely cements this notion further.
But I definitely got a kick out of this one. The performances are commendably game, with Jon Finch really very good as Cornelius, the chocolate biscuit addicted dandy of the future. Even better was Jenny Runacre in a thoroughly commandingly sexy performance as Miss Brunner, a bi-sexual predator who literally absorbs her lovers (somehow). There are also some solid cameo appearances from the always weird Patrick Magee as an associate of the demented Frank and Sterling Hayden giving a somewhat bizarre turn as an unhinged military expert. This very strange British sci-fi movie can fairly be described as a cult item. Its anarchic devil-may-care presentation, with some interesting characters and pop art future stylings make it one for fans of weird 70's sci-fi in particular and of strange 70's movies in general. Definitely something of an acquired taste though that is for sure but if you have a taste for baroque, left-of-centre movies and don't mind flippant disregard for trivialities such as plot, then you could have a good time with this one!
our programming ran out!
wh2828-130 January 2007
i saw this gobbler in my early twenties(I'm 55) and remember it as a movie where everyone is going to die because our genetic code is coming to an end, so as a result, no one has anything to lose(nuns at a slot machine)and mayhem is the order of the day.i also seem to remember the lead)sarrazin) and the female protagonist getting together and fusing into one advanced next-stage human. I cant remember what happens to everyone else, but the sarrazin/female character delivers a Bogart-like remark like "shee ya around' shweetheart"or something like that.I'd sure like to see it again, but i don't think this one made it to tape, let alone DVD**notice veteran actor Sterling Hayden(Gen.Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangelove) as Major wrongway lindbergh in this one-of-a-kind film.
One of the weirdest sci fi movies ever
lfdewolfe27 August 2020
I really don't know what to make of this, just... wow! I'm not saying that this movie is bad, it's good, I just don't get it. But maybe that's the point? I don't know, just forget it. The story is weird and I like it because if that, the acting is great, and the ending is... well.
Do I need to explain? The only problem is the tone, it goes from psychedelic sci fi to poor attempts at comedy. And don't give me that excuse that it's just British comedy and I don't understand it. I love Monty Python and even I find it really unfunny.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
