Line #58 Literature/OnTheBeach


1	[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/on_the_beach_cover.jpg]]
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3	''On the Beach'' is a 1957 novel by Creator/NevilShute that explores the aftermath of a nuclear war that wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere was left untouched by the bombs, but not the fallout: each year more radioactive material is moved south by seasonal winds, and as the fallout accumulates, life slowly dies off, latitude by crawling latitude.
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5	The story follows a group of people in [[UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}} Melbourne]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} Australia]] who go on about their lives as they wait for the inevitable end. With only a handful of years left, desperation is sliding into acceptance. When a Morse-like code is received and identified as coming all the way from Seattle, a stranded US submarine is sent to investigate this glimmer of hope - small and unlikely though it is.
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7	The book was adapted into [[TheFilmOfTheBook two movies]] by the same name, first in 1959 and then in 2000. The 1959 version was directed by Creator/StanleyKramer and starred Creator/GregoryPeck, Creator/AvaGardner, Creator/FredAstaire, and a pre-''Film/{{Psycho}}'' Creator/AnthonyPerkins, who [[OohMeAccentsSlipping struggles with an Australian accent]]. The first movie has inspired the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers to write ''Literature/FarRainbow'' in 1962.
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9	Not to be confused with BeachEpisode, or at least not what normally comes to mind when one thinks of that. It has nothing to do with [[{{Fanservice}} bikini girls]], and is anything but upbeat. It's also unrelated to the Music/NeilYoung album of the same name.
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11	!!Tropes featured in the book or movie include:
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13	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Both the novel and its adaptations are set just a few years after each of them was created (the biggest leap being in the 2000 adaptation, set in 2014). The technology in them is so slightly ahead of their own time that it actually became a successful prediction of future technology in all three cases.
14	* AfterTheEnd: The Northern Hemisphere is already dead. [[JustBeforeTheEnd And soon, the Southern Hemisphere will be dead too]].
15	* AgeLift: In the 2000 adaption, John, Moira, Jennifer and Dwight are older than in the novel.
16	* AdaptationalNameChange: USS ''Scorpion'' SSN-589 in the book becomes USS ''Sawfish'' SSN-623[[note]] The real ''Sawfish'' was actually a Gato-class diesel submarine with a postwar GUPPY upgrade, and was scrapped in 1960. The production crew used HMS ''Andrew'', [[WeaponsUnderstudies which loosely resembled a GUPPY boat,]] and gave her a fictional hull number. ''Sawfish'' was SS-276. There was no SS- or SSN-623; the real SSBN-623 was the ballistic missile submarine USS ''Nathan Hale''[[/note]] in the 1959 film. The change from ''Scorpion'' was perhaps fortuitous, as that ship was lost at sea in 1968 under unsolved circumstances.
17	** The 2000 film changes again to the fictional USS ''Charleston'' SSN-704[[note]] The real SSN-704 is USS ''Baltimore''[[/note]].
18	* ApocalypseAnarchy: Somewhat downplayed. The society never really disintegrates, but at the end, people were just taking stuff from stores. Also, hosting a lethal car race.
19	* ArcWords: "Never a dull moment" for the first half of the book. "We all go a little mad" for the second.
20	* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: Nuclear fallout would be a serious problem for the immediate areas surrounding the bombing sites, but even with the total destruction of the northern hemisphere, it's highly unlikely that enough fallout could be carried to the southern hemisphere to completely poison the planet. It's mentioned that the bombs used included cobalt, which would increase their radioactivity, but this wouldn't be a problem for the people in the southern hemisphere if it couldn't reach them. Only the lightest particles from the fires produced by the bombings could reach the far-flung areas of the planet and they would be so light that they'd stay in the upper atmosphere, contributing instead to a resulting nuclear winter.
21	* ApocalypseHow: At the very least, the world is facing humanity's extinction in the wake of the nuclear war - that's a given. Characters in-universe argue if all life on Earth is about to perish, or if there could be some species to survive.
22	* BetaCouple: Peter and Mary Holmes.
23	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: The {{cyanide pill}}s. Depending on personal convictions not everyone takes them, and some commit suicide in other ways.
24	* CosyCatastrophe: There's nothing left alive in the Northern hemisphere, but inhabitants of the Southern are inconvenienced at worst. Subverted, though, because the fallout will reach them eventually, and everybody knows it.
25	* CyanidePill: The Australian government provides cyanide pills to its citizens so that they need not die slowly of radiation poisoning.
26	* DeathOfAChild: Graphically so in the 2000 adaptation, where several children are seen dead of suicide poisoning.
27	* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:John Osborne]] becomes one over the course of the story.
28	* DeathWorld: By 1964, everything outside of Australia, New Zealand and the southern tips of Africa and South America is an uninhabitable, radioactive wasteland. And the fallout's still moving south.
29	* DespairEventHorizon: The impending death of humanity. [[spoiler:And when the radio transmission proves not to be the result of human activity.]] And towards the end, when people start developing symptoms of radiation sickness, and know the time has come.
30	* DownerEnding: Obviously. Never once does the book's tone deviate from calm acceptance.
31	* DrivenToSuicide: ''Everyone''. First, mankind, of course, committed (unintentional) suicide via nuclear war, and the last survivors in Australia eventually decide to kill themselves, usually by taking cyanide pills, as they start to finally succumb to radiation sickness.
32	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Played straight by John Osborne when he's on the streets. His ImprobablyCoolCar was never designed for transportation, and tends to stall below 50 miles per hour, so he tears around the streets of Melbourne like a madman, only avoiding accidents by being the only car on the road. Averted on the racetrack, though - his caution behind the wheel saves his life at least once, [[spoiler:and is the main factor in his Grand Prix victory.]]
33	* DyingRace: ''The human race, along with all remaining life on Earth''. As a result of nuclear war, the last humans are confined to Australia, but eventually the radiation ''will'' reach Australia and kill them all as well, and the Australians know that they have only a few months left before the last human dies.
34	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: And Australians largely decide to go out doing whatever makes them most comfortable.
35	* EverybodyDiesEnding: And in this case, that really does mean ''everybody''.
36	* ExactTimeToFailure: Averted -- the estimate of when people in Melbourne will start dying of radiation poisoning turns out to be inaccurate.
37	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Numerous characters stoically face the situation and the incoming end. Even the 2000 adaptation, which was the closest to display ApocalypseAnarchy, has the two looters calmly share a meal of stolen baked beans cans with Towers, rather than fight each other, knowing they are all going to die soon.
38	* FalseFlagOperation: In the novel and the first adaptation, the United States and Great Britain are drawn into the war when Egypt attacks them with Russian bombers.
39	* GaiasLament: The planet’s biosphere is irreparably damaged by nuclear war, the northern hemisphere is already dead, and all life in the southern hemisphere will die as well from radiation poisoning in a few months.
40	* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Moira, bordering on TheAlcoholic.
41	* HumanitysWake: The inevitable end of humanity occurs, with those who survived WorldWarIII all eventually dying from violence, suicide, or radiation sickness.
42	* IronicNurseryTune: "Waltzing Matilda".
43	** "Waltzing Matilda" is a song about suicide, which makes grim sense given that the story's theme is the entire world's (unintentional) suicide.
44	* JustBeforeTheEnd: The northern hemisphere is toast; the book narrates the Australian population's attempts to live out their last days in joy.
45	* JustFollowingOrders: Discussed and angrily thrown back at the submarine's captain. Mostly, Australians don't really care if the USSR (China in the 2000 film) or the US fired first. At least in the 2000 adaptation, when Osborne calls Towers out on taking part in wiping out life on Earth, [[spoiler: the XO points out that Towers ''didn't'' follow orders and they still have their entire nuclear payload on-board]].
46	* LostInTransmission: In the book and in the first movie, the Australians hear garbled Morse Code radio messages from the United States (Seattle in the book, San Diego in the first movie), which turn out to be [[spoiler:caused by a broken window frame striking a telegraph key.]] In the second movie, the submarine crew receive a garbled message every day at roughly the same time. They're tracking it to see if it's from a group of survivors, but it turns out to be [[spoiler:a solar-powered laptop transmitting on its own]]. Doubles as an ApocalypticLog.
47	* MassOhCrap: When the submarine's crew finds the radio message was [[spoiler: not the result of human activity -- a broken window in the book and first film, a solar-powered laptop in the second film.]]
48	* MildlyMilitary: Both played straight and averted by Commander Towers. He's completely by-the-book, but goes easy on his men when they begin to show signs of this themselves. Played straight by pretty much every other member of the American and Australian navies. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the circumstances: there are no enemies left to fight, all missions are scientific in nature, and everybody's going to be dead soon anyway.
49	* NuclearOption: The story opens ''after'' the nuclear war already happened a few months ago, wiping out the norther hemisphere, while the unharmed Australia is bracing for the unavoidable fallout to eventually reach them.
50	* PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd: Even though they're all fully aware they're going to die within a few months, the characters continue to plant gardens for the following year, talk about getting new clothes and accessories for their growing children, and generally maintain the polite fiction that the world isn't ending in order to LetThemDieHappy.
51	* RiddleForTheAges: In the 2000 film. How did a standoff over Taiwan escalate so quickly? Which side fired first?
52	* SafeZoneHopeSpot: The transmission coming from the United States.
53	* SaltTheEarth: The nuclear version. When the story opens, northern hemisphere is essentially ''gone'', devoid of any life that can't handle the radiation. And the clouds of fallout particles are inevitably heading down south each day...
54	* SettingUpdate: The 2000 adaptation is set in 2014. As a result, the nuclear war is between the US and China over Taiwan, while the radio signal is provided by [[spoiler: a solar-powered laptop]].
55	* SuicideByPills: The Australian Government starts issuing cyanide pills for everyone in order to avoid a slow death from the deadly radiation.
56	* TitleDrop:
57	--> '''Peter:''' Do you remember how we met? \
58	'''Mary:''' It was on the beach.
59	* VomitDiscretionShot: Averted in the 2000 film. Towards the end when the cast develops radiation sickness, most of them are shown vomiting, huddled in vomit-stained clothing.
60	* WorldWarIII:
61	** It began with an Albanian nuke being dropped on Naples, then another bomb on Tel Aviv, followed by Russian-made bombers piloted by Egyptians flying over and attacking Washington and London. Afterward, a full exchange between Russia, [=NATO=] and China was inevitable.
62	** In the 2000 adaptation, US-China conflict over Taiwan turns into a full-scale war, which turns into a limited nuclear exchange, which triggers a full-scale nuclear holocaust.
63	* WrongNameOutburst: In the 1959 film, everyone's having fun frolicking outside, including Dwight. Then he accidentally uses the name of his dead wife when he is affectionately calling Moira an "outrageous liar". The mood becomes subdued very quickly after that.

Context Literature / OnTheBeach