Five is a 1951 American independent horror science fiction film that was produced, written, and directed by Arch Oboler. The film stars William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubeš, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin, and Earl Lee.
Following an atomic war that seemingly wipes out the rest of humanity, five survivors come together in a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house on a California mountaintop. The five are Roseanne Rogers, a pregnant woman who was in an X-ray room when the bomb went off; Michael, a sensitive young poet and philosopher; Charles, a black man and Mr. Barnstaple, a banker, who had been locked in a bank vault during the explosion; and Eric, a cosmopolitan mountaineer with fascist sympathies who was saved from the radioactive dust because he was climbing Mt. Everest at the time of the explosion and fall-out. The five survivors try to figure out how to survive and come to terms with the loss of their own personal worlds and their clashing philosophies.
Tropes:
- Adam and Eve Plot: At the end of the film, Roseanne begins the long walk back to the house, but along the way, her baby dies. Michael, who has been searching for her, eventually finds her. After burying her son, they return to the house. Michael silently resumes cultivating the soil, and Roseanne joins him.
- After the End: Five people are miraculously spared when the fall-out from a super-atomic bomb eventually kills all of the rest of humanity on earth.
- Alliterative Name: Roseanne Rogers
- Apocalypse How: A Class 4. An atomic Depopulation Bomb wipes all of humanity (barring the five known survivors) and almost all terrestrial vertebrates (some birds are noted as having survived). Its effect on marine life and invertebrates is unknown (although the survivors manage to propagate some plants, implying the survival of some insects).
- Apocalyptic Montage: The film opens with an atomic explosion followed montage of intact world landmarks with fallout drifting across them.
- As the Good Book Says...: The film opens and closes with quotes from the Bible.
- Broken Bird: After the disaster that wipes out humanity, the pregnant Roseanne eventually makes her way to her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael already living there. At first, she is too numb to speak and slow to recover.
- Circling Vultures: It is established that some birds survived the apocalypse. On seeing a circling vulture, Michael curses it as a horrible scavenger and tells Rosemarie how he saw flocks of them in the cities full of dead bodies after the bomb went off.
- Contrived Coincidence: Eric washes ashore on a beach that is occupied by what well may the only four people still alive on Earth.
- Cosy Catastrophe: Averted. Eric is opposed to Michael's attempt to set up an sustainable agrarian homestead, believing that they should be seeking out other survivors to establish a superior breed of humanity to rule over the world that he believes will rise out of the ashes, and pointing out that there is no need to grow their own food as there are tons of food sitting in warehouses just waiting to be taken. Michael, however, points out the cities are where the radiation is, and wants to establish a Thoreau-like existence of self-sufficiency that doesn't rely on supplies that will eventually rot and run out.
- Death of a Child: Roseanne's baby—the first child born after the apocalypse—dies while she is trekking back to the cliff house from the Ghost City.
- Depopulation Bomb: Involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster that appears to have wiped out the rest of the human race while leaving all infrastructure intact.
- Earth That Was: Involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster that appears to have wiped out the rest of the human race.
- "Everyone Is Gone" Episode: Roseanne, Michael and Eric all believed they were last person on Earth until they encountered the others. Charles and Barnstable survived the apocalypse together but thought they might be the only two. The film opens with a distraught Rosanne staggering along the road past abandoned cars and through empty towns.
- Evil Is Petty: Eric maliciously drives the group's jeep through the group's cultivated field, destroying part of their crops.
- Ghost City: Eric and Roseanne travel to Oak Ridge and find the entire city deserted, populated only by the skeletons of those who died in the atomic blast. The air raid sirens are still blaring because there has been nobody to turn them off.
- Go Mad from the Apocalypse: Oliver P. Barnstaple is an elderly bank clerk who has fallen into denial since the end of the world; he believes that he is simply on vacation, and his mind refuses to acknowledge anything that does not fit his delusion, such as the complete absence of any other people.
- Hard-Work Montage: Used to show the survivors, primarily Michael and Charles, trying to establish their settlement: clearing the land, tiling the soil, building houses, etc.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: One of the five survivors of the atomic war is Roseanne Rogers; a pregnant woman.
- I Reject Your Reality: After the apocalypse, Barnstable's mind snaps and he refuses to acknowledge that almost all of humanity has been wiped out. Instead, he believes that he is on vacation and talks about he will soon have to go back to work at the bank, despite there being no work to go back to.
- The Last Man Heard a Knock...: At the start of the film, Roseanne Rogers trudges from place to place, searching for another living human being. She eventually makes her way to her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael already living there. Later, two more survivors arrive in a car, attracted by the smoke from the house's chimney.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: Three of the five survivors of the Depopulation Bomb survived because of what would otherwise have been misfortune. Charles and Barnstable were accidentally locked in a bank vault when the bomb went off, while Eric was trapped on the upper slopes of Mount Everest after being separated from his party by a blizzard and was too high up to be effected by the fallout.
- Minimalist Cast: The entire cast consists of the five survivors (plus a baby born halfway through the film that is more of a Living Prop).
- Near-Rape Experience: Michael attempts to force himself on Roseanne before she tells him that she is pregnant.
- Never Given a Name: Roseanne never gets around to naming her son—the first child born after the Depopulation Bomb wiped out almost all of humanity—possibly because naming the child by herself would force her to admit that her husband is dead. As a result, the infant dies without ever receiving a name.
- No Healthcare in the Apocalypse: None of the five survivors have any medical training, nor do they have much in the way of medical supplies. As a result, the completely unqualified Michael is forced to deliver Roseanne's baby,and they have no way of treating Barnstable when he develops radiation poisoning and it eventually kills him.
- One-Word Title
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Eric reveals himself as a racist (and most likely a former Nazi); he can barely stand living with the African-American Charles and attacks Charles when Charles objects.
- Safe Zone Hope Spot: While trudging through the empty town at the start of the film, Roseanne hears a church bell chiming and hurries to the church hoping to find more survivors. Instead she finds that bell rope is being jerked about by the wind, causing the bell to ring.
- Screaming Birth: Roseanne goes into labor after being knocked to the floor in the fight between Eric and Charles. She gives birth to a boy—delivered by Michael—accompanied by loud screams.
- The Smurfette Principle: Of the five survivors of the Depopulation Bomb that wipes out the rest of humanity, Roseanne is the only female.
- The Social Darwinist: Eric believes that the reason he and others survived the atomic blast is because they have a natural immunity, and believes that they have a duty to hunt out other survivors and rule the Earth as a superior breed of humankind; likening them to the people who survived The Black Death in Europe.
- Sole Survivor: Charles and Barnstable were together when the bomb went off and so knew at least one other person had survived, but Michael, Roseanne and Eric each believed they were sole survivor of the Depopulation Bomb that wiped out humanity until they encountered each other.
- Superweapon: The story line involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster. It appears to have wiped out the rest of the human race while leaving all infrastructure intact.
- Villainous BSoD: Happens to Eric when his shirt is torn open during his struggle with Roseanne in the Ghost City; revealing signs of advanced radiation poisoning. In despair, he runs away.
- Wrong-Name Outburst: Roseannne yields to her attraction to Michael and the two of them kiss. However, as they are doing so, she calls him 'Steve'; her husband's name. Realising what she she has just said scares her and she runs away.
