Customer Reviews

Where Have All the People Gone?

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Peter Graves from Mission Impossible stars in this made-for-tv mystery thriller fropm the 1970's. A family is on holiday in a remote mountain region. While they are exploring a deep cave, outside the sun suddenly flares up intensely and a minor earthquake occurs. The family hastily return to town, only to find that all the people have vanished...

There have been a lot of films with this theme, but this relatively humble offering is held quite fondly in a lot of people's minds ...I was lucky enough to see it again recently, and guess what? It still works.

Graves and his two children seem to be the only people left alive on earth, and their mounting distress as the enormity of the situation hits them is chillingly conveyed. Part of the plot has them desparately looking for evidence that the mother of the family may have somehow survived too, and this personal edge gives the film some very touching scenes. Luckily all three can act effectively, and you really feel for them as they trudge though deserted roads and towns, finding nothing but silence and everything in disarray. The film manages to hold your interest for the whole of it's running time, which is quite a feat given the limited extent of what is actually happening on screen. The depiction of a dead world is limited to a very small town and a couple of dusty streets purporting to be Los Angeles. But to be fair, the film is dressed very effectively with empty cars everywhere and empty houses with doors hanging open, plus a few crazed vicious dogs on the rampage...it's not difficult to feel drawn into the action.

All in all a rewarding thriller that could easily have benefitted from being longer, or even the pilot to a whole TV series. See if you can find a copy.

I saw this movie on TV when I was a kid and have never been the same since. It's not that it is such a great movie, but I think it was the idea of "end of the world" panic we all were living in the 70's. Whatever the reason, I was quite excited when I finally found the title and ordered it here on Amazon. I watched it with my 11 year old son and he liked it as well. That says a lot considering the choices we have to watch now.
It still holds up as an entertaining way to kill an hour or so.

This made for TV movie did leave a mark on me as I am now 43 and remember watching it when I was just a kid like it was yesterday. Too bad someone in hollywood didnt pick this one up instead of spinning out the same "Astroid hits earth" crap every 2 years.

The mystery of the light hitting people made it memorable for me. I thought it was the rapture at first. Wild household dogs going crazy cause they've been abandoned and are starving makes sense and I believe if something happened where they were left alive with no one to care for them they would form packs and roam like rabid killers.

All in all the storyline was awesome, the acting was ok, kind of like the waltons meets doomsday, lol. Not worth $145.00 to me though.

Peace

could have had a better finale. Such as a positive ending, like finding others and banding together and forming a brand new society looking for a chance to right the wrongs of the past.
Non the less, in my opinion, I thought this story is a great example of survival after a holocaust. The science of solar flares was spot on. Also, it shows that it is possible to have hope of survival.
Not a great movie, but a decent story and performance from the cast, like Noble Willingham (Walker, Texas Ranger) and Kathleen Quinlan. For fans of Peter Graves (RIP), this is a treat. Another under-rated movie with PG is Five Man Army.
Another thought, at the inflated used price of: $84.95, from the lone seller of this VHS movie, fat_frog_books, I think a person can do better by searching the internet, or even Amazon.
Just a thought.

The video arrived as advertised in used condition. When played it showed signs of wear and tear, especially in the tracking, but it was still fun to watch a classic.

See Peter Graves wrestle a small but very unhappy cat! Witness Peter Graves fight a rabid Lassie with his bare hands (and, uh, a tire iron)! Revel in the sight of Peter Graves kicking it old school with a genuine horse and carriage! Try to figure out why the title screen displays no question mark following the title when it oh so obviously needs one! All of this and more is just waiting for you in Where Have All the People Gone, a made-for-TV movie from 1974. It's the end of the world as Peter Graves knows it - and nobody feels all that fine. It's one thing to suddenly find yourself seemingly alone in the world, but it's even worse when you have no idea what the heck happened. One minute you're running out of a cave during an earthquake, and the next thing you know everyone has been reduced to a mere pile of salt crystals. I don't mean to poke too much fun at this movie, though, because it actually holds up pretty well all these years later.

Thanks to Steven Anders' (Peter Graves) unusual idea for a family vacation, he and his two teenage children are exploring a cave when the hand of apocalypse touches the earth. They run out, thinking it was just an earthquake - until their friend back at camp tells them there was a huge flash of light before the earth started moving. All too soon, this fellow takes ill, so Anders and his kids try to get him to a hospital - but they have no transportation available and have to carry the man. The closer they get to "civilization," the more serious their situation becomes. The nearest town is a ghost town, and there are no means for communication or transportation. Anders and his kids can only speculate about what happened - perhaps some type of nuclear disaster or radiological event, although nothing would seem to adequately explain what they are witnessing. Determined to get home to Anders' wife - holding out hope that she, like them, somehow survived the disaster - they set off on a somewhat epic journey. Along the way, they do encounter other survivors, albeit a precious few of them - and not all of them are friendly.

Take out a couple of overly melodramatic moments by Ander's kids and you've got a pretty decent movie, especially when viewed in the context of its origins. Obviously, it lacks the pizzazz and special effects of modern-day thrillers, but this story- and character-driven film retains the viewer's interest throughout. It seems to have left a lasting impression on a number of viewers who first saw it on TV during their childhood years, and that gives the movie an added nostalgic value. The youth of today will probably find the film rather boring (since it lacks a lot of the action they have come to expect in apocalyptic thrillers), but those of us with a little gray creeping in up top should really appreciate this made-for-TV movie on its own terms.