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On the Beach (1959 film)

1959 film by Stanley Kramer

On the Beach is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film in which, after a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.

Directed by Stanley Kramer. Written by John Paxton, based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name.
The Biggest Story Of our Time!taglines

Julian Osborn

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  • The trouble with you is you want a simple answer. There isn't any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained — by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use — without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb, and counter-bombs, and counter-counter bombs. The devices outgrew us; we couldn't control them. I know, I helped build them. God, help me. Somewhere, some poor bloke probably looked at a radar screen and thought he saw something. He knew that if he hesitated one-thousands of a second — his own country would be wiped off the map. So, So, he pushed a button - and the world went — crazy. And, and...
  • I shouldn't drink, you know. I inevitably say something brilliant.
  • Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the Earth?
  • In the end, somehow granted the time for examination, we shall find that our so called civilization was gloriously destroyed by a handful of vacuum tubes and transistors. Probably faulty.

Moira Davidson

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  • There isn't time. No time to love... nothing to remember... nothing worth remembering.
  • I wouldn't really mind... if you could forget entirely who I am... I don't like myself very much anyway.

Dialogue

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Julian Osborn: There was a choice. It was build the bombs, and use them — or risk the United States, the Soviet Union, and the rest of us, would find some way... to go on living
Morgan: [scoffs] That's wishful thinking if ever I heard it.
Julian Osborn: [softly] I'm not against wishful thinking. Not now.
Morgan: They pushed us too far! They didn't think we'd fight, no matter what they did!
Julian Osborn: And they were wrong. We fought. We expunged them. And we didn't do such a bad job on ourselves.
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.
Peter Holmes: Now, this is a special kind of — sleeping pill. I had a devil of a time getting 'em. But, I wanted you to have them on hand and to make sure you knew how to use 'em. What happens with the radiation is that you get — you get ill — and you start feeling sick and then you are sick and you go on being sick. You can't keep anything down. You may feel better for awhile; but, but it always comes back. You get weaker.
Mary Holmes: And this cures it.
Peter Holmes: Darling, you know nothing cures it. This ends it.
Julian Osborn: We're all doomed, you know. The whole, silly, drunken, pathetic lot of us. Doomed by the air we're about to breathe. We haven't got a chance!
Mary Holmes: Stop it! I won't have it, Julian. I won't! There is hope. There has to be hope. There's always hope. We just can't go on like this. We can't. We - we...
Dwight Towers: Well... how'd you recognise me?
Moira Davidson: I love Americans. They're so naïve.
Peter Holmes: You remember when we first met? It was on the beach. I thought you were everything I'd always wanted.
Mary Holmes: I thought you were underfed.
Mary Holmes: It's all over now isn't it?
Peter Holmes: Yes. It's all over.
Peter Holmes: Darling.
Mary Holmes: God, God forgive us. Peter, I think I'll have that cup of tea, now.

Taglines

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  • The Biggest Story Of our Time!
  • IF YOU Never See Another Motion Picture In Your Life You Must See ON THE BEACH

Cast

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  • John Meillon - Sawfish crewman Ralph Swain
  • Joe McCormick - Ackerman, radiation sickness victim
  • Lou Vernon - Bill Davidson
  • Kevin Brennan - Dr. King
  • Keith Eden as Dr. Fletcher
  • Basil Buller-Murphy - Sir Douglas Froude
  • Brian James - Royal Australian Navy officer
  • John Casson - Salvation Army captain
  • Paddy Moran - Stevens (club wine steward)
  • Grant Taylor - Morgan

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