Don McKellar, Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley

A group of very different individuals with different ideas of how to face the end come together as the world is expected to end in six hours at the turn of the century.

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85% liked it

6,480 ratings

Critics

83% liked it

48 critics

R, 1 hr. 9 min.

Directed by: Don McKellar

Release Date: June 1, 1998

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DVD Release Date: March 28, 2000

Stats: 404 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (404)


  • March 16, 2008
    I think this accurately depicts what a lot of people would do in the last few hours on earth. Well done, I especially liked the last few seconds.
  • January 27, 2008
    The game plan in Last Night, an overlooked and wry Canadian treat, is that there are only six hours until the end of the world.

    Writer and first-time director Don McKellar, also one of the film's stars, makes the plot gimmick an inventive jumping-off point for an explorat...( read more)ion of humanity in a state of quiet panic. Instead of cowering, screaming or rising up against their doomsday Armageddon-like, McKellar's funny, touching and convincing characters just sort of carry on. Some want to destroy things, of course, or party all night, but most keep doing what they've always done.

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    Set in Toronto, Last Night's depiction of a coming cataclysm is so unconcerned it almost turns doom into a lovable comedy of human aberration - and that's McKellar's point. We're pretty much slugs about our fates, players in a soap opera of the mundane. But people can get awfully strange facing the end of existence.

    McKellar (who wrote François Girard's The Red Violin) plays Patrick, a young widower who wants solitude. But his elderly parents want to have him over for a last old-fashioned turkey dinner, and they'll give him back all his toys stored in the attic. A buddy, Craig (Callum Keith Rennie), has decided to have sex with as many people as possible. One partner is his former high school French teacher (Genevieve Bujold), correcting grammar as she departs. In the film's most inspired moment, Craig asks Patrick to have sex with him - his only way of expressing true buddy love.

    Sandra (Sandra Oh), on the other hand, wants to show her own trump card against the final vaporizing moment - she and her husband plan to murder each other simultaneously as a way of determining their destiny. But since the city is largely shut down in a gridlock of abandoned cars and deserted buses, she can't get home.

    Meanwhile, in a wonderful satire of bureaucratic doggedness, a gas company employee (David Cronenberg) calls customers to assure that the utility will deliver the stuff until the end. He repeats the courtesy call over and over like an insect. Then he goes home and blows his head off.
  • May 2, 2007
    So what would you do if you knew the world were coming to an end? It's that kind of question younger friends might ask when they've had few. You know what I mean, right? Hey, Craig, this is set in Toronto. What would you do if you knew you were in the final hours of your life...( read more)?

    Me? I have no clue. But I can almost guarantee you that I would probably be doing not one of the things the folks in this movie choose to do. That, however, is not one of my problems with Last Night.

    Now when I say I have problems with Last Night, I want to preface my grievances with this: I have seen this movie probably half-a-dozen times -- or more. In order for me to give up that many hours of my life to one movie, the movie needs to be pretty powerfully affecting. Last Night is that and then some. The final montage of the "end" for the people we've been following is very moving.

    No, my problems with Last Night lie elsewhere. I'll spare you a blow-by-blow, but I'll give you two pet peeves. First -- and this is about as petty as a pet peeve can get -- I am tremendously irritated by the fact that the world ends exactly at midnight. That's right, flixster friends, the world ends at 12:00 a.m. on the proverbial dot. And I think we all know that this is exactly how nature works . . .

    Okay, so that's a minor irritation. My major irritation is -- and I hate to be down on a fellow Korean -- Sandra Oh. I'm not universally down on Sandra Oh, but I am very specifically down on her here. Everyone is delivering lines in a truly believable way -- everyone except Sandra Oh. Is it her? The director? I don't think it can be the director. The directing, to me, is brilliant. If the directing truly sucked, everyone in Last Night would be acting as oddly as Oh. She's caught up in her own mind, I believe, with the "seriousness" of the end of the world, and for some peculiar reason, she feels she has to deliver all of her lines accordingly. It's not that she's over the top. It's more like she's stilted in her seriousness-ness.

    Sorry, Sister Oh, but that's the way I see it. Overall, however, -- and I really mean it -- this movie is well worth the watch.

  • July 19, 2006
    It's 6PM, and the world is about to end at midnight. How will you spend your last night? The final 30 seconds of this film made me want to give it 5 stars; I was that moved. Having a few days to sit on it, it's a very powerful piece of work, incredibly original, but comes just...( read more) shy of being completely brilliant. As I can't narrow down exactly what is keeping this movie from earning the last star, sadly, I can only attribute it to personal preference and annoyance at the family scene.
  • August 16, 2008
    No special effects for this 'end of the world' movie. Just a look at what these people did during the last hours.
  • October 14, 2009
    I didn't get anything out of this movie except being discouraged how people in general will behave when the end of the world is coming.
  • September 23, 2009
    The idea of the movie ( the last 6 hours on earth ) was what made me see the movie. But I didn't expect such a good screenplay and acting. The characters are funny and in a lot of ways realistically pathetic and irrational......but in their situation nobody knows what one could h...( read more)ave done . The interconnection of the characters ties the movie together and makes one feels more attached to them. Great camera technique and editing, with no much of a budget, and a very coherent ending.
  • September 4, 2009
    It's seriously a weird movie, but there is something about it that makes you like it.
    I liked the relationships between people and how they all seemed to be connected to each other.
    The emotions of the characters were played well the story and makes you think about how people wou...( read more)ld react when the world would really end. I also loved the ending scene, it was beautiful.
  • July 10, 2009
    Funny, poignant, and one of the best casts ever assembled. Some great Canadian iconongraphy here. In what other film can you see the shameless derailing of a Toronto streetcar? As everyone's tries to make the most of their final hours before the world ends, Don McKellar captures ...( read more)some truly human moments. Hollywood blockbuster fans beware, this is not an action flick like Armageddon. Instead, McKellar sticks to the subtle drama, focusing on the emotional aspects of various characters as they tie up the loose ends of their relationships with loved ones. An incredibly intelligent work of art.
  • January 27, 2009
    FANTASTIC MULTICHARACTER FILM

Critic Reviews


January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

As the final hour approaches for the characters in Last Night, there are moments of startling poignancy. full review

View more Last Night reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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Last Night Trivia


  • Crispin Glover tells Michael J Fox - Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain. - In what movie??  Answer »
  • 'Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.' Name the film  Answer »
  • Last night it was like trying to sleep beside a paint shaker. <-- What movie?  Answer »
  • where does this quote come from?? Last night you were a small annoyance but today you are growing into a large nuisance. Now leave me alone and don't call me again ever.   Answer »

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