Plagued by wars, pollution and natural disasters, is man destined to self-destruction before the 20th century folds? Or can he escape the total annihilation the future may hold?
Production
Grainy stock footage montages that feel like a fever dream.
Writing
Schallert's narration: urgent, theatrical, unironically dramatic.
Director
James Thornton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of a 1970s eco-doom documentary boom that included 'The Late Great Planet Earth' and 'Koyaanisqatsi'—this one just got buried.
Linus Pauling filmed this between his second and third Nobel Prize campaigns; his genuine terror makes the academic credibility hit harder.
US
