At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to choose which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.

Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• Eric Zimit: James D’Arcy
• Petra: Sophie Lowe
• James: Rhys Wakefield
• Georgina: Bonnie Wright
• Chips: Daryl Sabara
• Kavi: Abhi Sinha
• Jack: Freddie Stroma
• Bonnie: Katie Findlay
• Andy: George Blagden
• Parker: Jacob Artist
• Vivian: Erin Moriarty
• Beatrice: Maia Mitchell
• Poppie: Philippa Coulthard
• Russell: Toby Sebastian
• Omosedé: Hope Olaidé Wilson
• Plum: Melissa Le-Vu
• Toby: Darius Homayoun
• Mitzi: Chanelle Bianca Ho
• Nelson: Taser Hassan
• Yoshiko: Natasha Gott
• Young James (Age 7): Asger Mariager
• Young James (Age 12): James Moriarty
• Young James (Age 16): Chamroeun Bustraan
• Best Friend on Tower: Julia Hodges
• Best Friend on Tower: Katherine Robertson
• Student on Trolley Tracks: Kory Brown
• Student on Trolley Tracks: Jack Hooker
• Student on Trolley Tracks: Piper Hinson
• Student on Trolley Tracks: Melissa Kaskel
• Student on Trolley Tracks: Michael Rougeau
• Street Vendor (voice): Endang Pratiwi
• Utami: Cinta Laura Kiehl

Film Crew:

• Casting: Anne McCarthy
• Editor: William Yeh
• Producer: George Zakk
• Assistant Editor: Sherwood Jones
• Digital Intermediate Producer: Alan Pao
• Supervising Sound Editor: Paula Fairfield
• Production Design: David Ingram
• Writer: John Huddles
• Dialogue Editor: Mark L. Mangino
• Music: Jonathan ‘JDevil’ Davis
• Digital Intermediate Colorist: Michael Eaves
• Title Designer: Damian Drago
• Music: Nicholas O’Toole
• Art Direction: T. Moty D. Setyanto
• Director of Photography: John Radel
• Digital Intermediate Editor: Taylor Mahony
• Casting: Kellie Roy
• Producer: Cybill Lui
• Costume Design: Shani Gyde
• Makeup Department Head: Rolf John Keppler
• Assistant Art Director: Dondy Adrian
• Set Designer: Ross Perkin
• Property Master: Imam Dharmawan Santoso
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Gary Coppola
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: J. Stanley Johnston
• Foley: Maciek Malish
• Sound Effects Editor: Jeffrey A. Pitts
• Boom Operator: Ade Rahman
• Boom Operator: Ikbal Wahyudin
• Special Effects Coordinator: Paul L. Nanlohy
• Compositing Supervisor: Natalia de la Garza
• Visual Effects Supervisor: Charlie Iturriaga
• Visual Effects Producer: Robin L. D’Arcy
• Visual Effects Supervisor: John Attard
• Stunt Coordinator: Jonathan Ozoh
• Camera Operator: Peter Stott
• Location Manager: Abdul Manaf
• Script Supervisor: Oksana Sokol
• Digital Intermediate Editor: Sebastian Perez-Burchard
• Visual Effects Coordinator: Raffaele Apuzzo
• Visual Effects Producer: Andrea Marotti
• Special Effects Supervisor: Adam Howarth
• CG Supervisor: Lluis Barcelo
• Gaffer: Zac Murphy
• Art Department Production Assistant: Angela Halim
• Compositor: Gilberto Arpioni
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Marco Augusto Comba
• Set Dresser: Ade Rusman
• Set Dresser: Muhammad Syarifudin
• Digital Compositor: Francesco Dell’Anna
• First Assistant Camera: Bambang Purnomo
• First Assistant Director: Andy Howard
• Matte Painter: Enrique Sandoval Castro
• Visual Effects Coordinator: Kim Quiroz
• Makeup & Hair: Widya Rusnaeni
• Makeup & Hair Assistant: Abdullah
• Makeup & Hair Assistant: Rino Chaniago
• Makeup & Hair Assistant: Vina Rasiane
• Makeup & Hair Assistant: Pipin Supinah
• Construction Manager: Lee Chee Kiong
• Graphic Designer: Yulian Syahramadhan
• Costume Assistant: Sofa Mahendra
• Costume Assistant: Galih Suhanda
• Costume Assistant: Rully Suteja
• Costume Standby: Diana Kertamihardja
• Tailor: Iming
• Clapper Loader: Handri Sujarwo
• Electrician: Mulyadi
• Electrician: Solekhan
• Key Grip: Johansyah
• Second Assistant Camera: Habib Bolqiah
• Additional Editor: Emerson Moore
• Additional Editorial Assistant: Donald Baldie
• Production Accountant: Nardi Basuki
• Production Coordinator: Yustina Anita Sandrayanti
• Still Photographer: Syamsul Hadi
• Travel Coordinator: Emma Gunawan
• CG Artist: Paolo Li Causi
• CGI Supervisor: Andrea Trovato
• Compositor: Mario Raini
• Lead Animator: Ernesto Paganoni
• Matte Painter: Giuseppe Moro
• Matte Painter: Sonia Moggi
• Storyboard Artist: Mayumi Roshika Haryoto
• Visual Effects Technical Director: Max Ruggio

Movie Reviews:

• tmdb28039023: I’ve watched a lot of dumb movies, but never had I seen one that defends the notion of ‘ignorance is bliss’ as zealously as After the Dark. Director John Huddles sets the action, such as it is, at an international school in Jakarta; specifically in Mr. Zimit’s (James D’Arcy) class.

  Zimit’s is ostensibly a philosophy class, but it might as well be called ‘Exposition 101’. “Do we feel like recapping some of our favorite thought experiments?,” Zimit asks rhetorically on the last day of school to his 20 students, some of whom proceed to do exactly that, also explaining what each experiment consists of.

  Now, a classroom is as good a place for an Info Dump as you’ll ever find, but this feels like something more appropriate for the first day of school, not the last; this unfortunate timing turns this into a transparent case of As You Know.

  Anyway, someone mentions the infinite monkey theorem: “if you put a monkey at a typewriter and let him bang away at it forever, he’ll eventually, almost surely, completely randomly type out the entire play of Hamlet, word for word.” I’d make the obvious joke about how that’s the way this movie was written, except I’m convinced a monkey could do a much better job, and it wouldn’t take forever either.

  All of this is just a preface to Zimit’s own thought experiment, which is a mix of Survivor, Big Brother, and Dungeons & Dragons. Basically, there is a fallout shelter with a capacity of ten people and the class must decide which ten go in and which 11 — counting Zimit — are left out, based on the fictional professions that Zimit randomly assigns them.

  This exercise is done thrice, and the repetition only succeeds in highlighting how stupid the movie and its characters really are. For example, Zimit states about the shelter’s inhabitants that “They cannot share oxygen. Every cubic centimeter of breathable air here, once the outer door is sealed, comes from these compressed tanks. This place has been designed to hold 10 people for a year; one more person means death from hypoxia” (to save time, everyone pictures the exact same shelter).

  Additionally, the specifications established in the first exercise carry over into the second and third; e.g., the code to open the shelter door at the end of the year is always the same number. Despite this, the class decides that “we need a pregnancy as soon as possible … produce a healthy baby during the course of the year of confinement” because “having children becomes the No. 1 job after the apocalypse.” Guys, have you already forgotten that “one more person means death from hypoxia”?

  These characters are nowhere near as smart as Huddles would have us believe, especially James (Rhys Wakefield), boyfriend of Petra (Sophie Lowe); when it becomes apparent that she and Zimit are going to have to repopulate the planet by themselves, James reacts as if they are actually going to have sex (a reaction that makes no sense even within the simulation, considering he’s supposed o be gay in it).

  Fortunately for James, Petra likes them dumb, and to this preference is that we owe everything we see here; Zimit, with whom Petra has been cheating on James, believes “he’s not smart enough for you.” Thus, the whole thing is just a juvenile attempt to expose James’s lack of intelligence, which in turn doesn’t speak very highly of Zimit’s own cranial capacity.

  This Petra is something else, by the way; first she plays with Zimit’s feelings, and then gets offended that he, philosophy professor and all, is still as human as the next guy and takes her stringing him along personal.

  From what we see of James, he wouldn’t react much more maturely if he found out about Petra’s duplicity, but she rationalizes keeping the truth from him thus: “Punishing [James] doesn’t make sense because he doesn’t know about us. I’m not sure he needs to know. Especially after how you behaved today.” How she has behaved, however, doesn’t trouble her in the least.

  All things considered, After the Dark’s message is that “being smart isn’t everything,” which is exactly what a fool would say. What else is there apart from intelligence? Physical beauty fades, and sense of humor can only take you so far. I, for one, would never date a person who thought this movie is any good at all.