Charlie Jordan

The film opens in the last city on earth "with the lights still on", thanks to a subterranean nuclear plant where Ethan works extra shifts to support his sick girlfriend. Up at street level, Earth's oxygen has been exhausted and everyone has to wear breathing apparatus, topped up at kerbside O2 ATMs. Despite the lack of air, large numbers of skyscrapers burn merrily, but this is not a film for science geeks, as becomes apparent when Ethan is compelled to travel into the future "to save mankind". Entering a machine that bears an unnerving resemblance to that of '60s TV series 'The Time Tunnel', Ethan jumps 400 years and wakes up on fire (?) in a forest, where he marvels at nature, hugs a tree and establishes that he has no satellite reception. In short order, he finds what appears to be his own corpse, manages to light a fire and poisons himself with some forest berries. On the brink of death, his mate Jude arrives to save him with an epi pen, having somehow monitored events despite the WiFi failure. Things become more confusing as the pair find the ruins of the city, filled with skeletons including Ethan's now definitely ex fiancée, and the miraculously still-functioning time machine. However, it turns out the evil corporation wants to use the facility to transport it's favoured few into the future, rather than a cure for the oxygen problem back to the past. It further transpires that the evil corporation's boss woman planned it all along and killed Ethan's father, who built the machine in the first place. After a punch-up between the two mates, Jude suddenly decided to shoot himself through the head, leaving Ethan to send a large quantity of plants and bushes back to the original time zone and thwart the boss woman. Back in the future, Ethan's corpse disappears and the ruined city is transformed into a grandiose version of Welwyn Garden City, so the plant ploy worked! In conclusion, a low budget Aussie sci-fi that has some interesting ideas but is badly let down by unconvincing performances and a seriously holey plot.