After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
In 1964, atomic war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other?—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>
In the aftermath of an atomic war, much of humanity has been destroyed. Only Australia remains, but time is short as the winds will inevitably spread nuclear fallout and everyone knows they have only a few months to live. Among those coming to terms with the inevitable is a U.S. navy officer, Cmdr. Dwight Towers, whose submarine and crew were at sea when the holocaust occurred; Moira Davidson, a free-spirit who develops a close attachment to Towers; Julian Osborne, whose dream is to win the Australian Grand Prix automobile race; and Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes, who is as concerned about his wife and newborn child's future as his own. All cope with the inevitability of death in their own way, but also with love, dignity and affection.—garykmcd
In 1964, the nuclear submarine USS Sawfish arrives in Australia after the worldwide nuclear holocaust. Commander Dwight Lionel Towers confirms that the world has been destroyed and the nuclear dust is coming to Australia. The widower Cmdr. Towers, who grieves the death of his wife and children, is befriended by Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Peter Holmes, who is a family man with wife and the newborn baby Jennifer. He has a lover affair with the local Moira Davidson, a still beautiful alcoholic woman with a past, and she falls in love with him. Cmdr. Towers and his crew invite the drunkard scientist Julian Osborne to join them in their reconnaissance voyage to the further North and to the United States, and they return hopeless and aware that Australia and the rest of the mankind has very few days until the doomsday.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A US submarine is on patrol when the Northern Hemisphere is destroyed by atomic war. They land in Melbourne, Australia where they live with the rest of the city which has less than 12 months to live. They travel back to the west cost of the US and witness the holocaust.—Anonymous
The year is 1964. The nuclear war that was waged in the northern hemisphere has ended. An American nuclear submarine, the USS Sawfish, at sea in the mid-Pacific makes its way down the coast of Australia where there appear to be survivors. Docking at the port of Melbourne, the crew, commanded by Lt. Commander Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) live out their lives waiting for the radioactive winds from the North to slowly make their way towards them, ending all life as we know it.
The Australian Government and scientific community, hopeful that life might go on in the Southern Hemisphere or in Antarctica, ask Towers and his crew to take the sub north again to check on radiation levels and a mysterious Morse code signal emanating from near San Diego, California. Towers is assigned an Australian Ensign, Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), who will act as liaison officer for the mission.
Feeling sorry for Towers and the loss he has experienced up north, Peter and his wife Mary (Donna Anderson), throw a party. They bring in a friend, Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner), to distract Towers so he won't become morbid and depressed. Towers slowly begins to fall in love with Moira. However, he still has the mission to think of and is still very much devoted to his wife and kids, who resided in Connecticut. He has difficulty reconciling their loss and at one point confuses Moira for his late wife, Sharon. Moira offers to become "Sharon" if it will help him deal with it and also serve the purpose of assuaging her loneliness and fear of the future, impending doom awaiting. Towers refuses. He leaves on the mission north without telling Moira. She finds out where he has gone from her cousin Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire, in his first dramatic role), who will be serving as a scientist checking on the radiation levels during the mission.
The Sawfish first arrives at Point Barrow, Alaska, in the Arctic Ocean, only to find that the radiation levels are actually intensifying. Next they visit an untouched but ghostly quiet San Francisco. One of the crew, yeoman Ralph Swain (John Meillon), who had family there, deserts the sub through an escape hatch and swims ashore. Osborn informs Captain Towers that Swain's contact with the radioactive environment will make it impossible for him to return without killing everyone else aboard. The next morning, the sub surfaces from the bottom of San Francisco Bay, and when Captain Towers looks through the periscope, he finds Swain fishing from a small boat, and uses the sub's intercom to send him a greeting. Swain tells Captain Towers that he found his parents are dead, confirms that there are no other survivors, and apologizes for deserting but says he would "rather be here to have it", preferring to die in his home town now than on the other side of the world later on. Towers understands his feelings and bids Swain farewell.
The Sawfish heads south to the San Diego area, where Radio Officer, Lt. Sunderstrom (Harp McGuire) goes ashore in a full radiological suit with oxygen tank. He is given one hour to find the source of the mysterious, random signals, with the Sawfish blasting its horn every 15 minutes, and must return immediately after the third horn blast. Sunderstrom discovers that there is no survivor to make contact with - the signals are coming from a silent radio room at a power station, where the window pane had broken and a window shade pull cord had wrapped around a partially empty Coca-Cola bottle which bumped into a telegraph key when the ocean breeze blew through the window, generating the gibberish Morse code signals. Sunderstrom stands the bottle upright and uses the telegraph to send a message to the sub about what he has found. He starts heading back to the Sawfish before it blasts its horn for the third time, and on the way he shuts down the power station's main generators, which had been running on automatic control and were close to failing due to a lack of maintenance.
Resigned to their fate, the Sawfish crew return to Melbourne and Towers meets up with Moira at her father's farm. They spend time together, during which Towers receives a phone call - all of the US Navy personnel who had been based at Brisbane have now died, giving the hint that the winds have blown the radiation poisoning to the northern parts of Australia, and Towers is promoted to Admiral of all US Navy personnel remaining in Australia.
Towers and Moira then go to the Australian Grand Prix, where Osborn is racing. Many of the racers, who have nothing left to lose, are killed in crashes, and Osborn fulfills his dream by winning the race. When Towers and Moira learn that the fishing season has opened early due to the radiation making its way further south, they head north-east to Narbethong to begin a long-planned fishing trip. The fishing grounds are crowded with people and they spend a stormy evening together having dinner in their room in an inn, where they share a romantic interlude. In the background, more drunken revelers can be heard singing "Waltzing Matilda" in the bar room below, which turns into an a capella solo rendition of the final verse as they, unseen, begin to pass out.
Returning from the fishing trip, Towers learns that one of his crew, Seaman Ackerman (Joe McCormick), has developed radiation poisoning. The radioactive-laden winds have finally arrived in Melbourne, and the symptoms will soon start to spread. and he now must consider what he is going to do about his crew and Moira. With little time left, Towers says goodbye to Osborn, who closes himself inside a sealed garage with his Ferrari, bearing the plate he received as the winner of the 1964 Australian Grand Prix, starts the engine and repeatedly revs it, preferring a death by carbon monoxide poisoning to a death by radiation poisoning.
Towers speaks to his crew, who have already taken a vote and tell him that they would like "to head for home." He realizes his responsibility and duty is to his crew. He phones Moira who has been helping Peter deal with Mary, who becomes emotionally unbalanced when she can't accept the reality of their present situation. Upon learning that Towers is leaving, Moira speeds off in her car to the Naval Base. Mary regains lucidity and realizes that she and Peter must face their end and that their infant daughter Jennifer will never have the chance to experience the love and happiness that she has had. She tells Peter that she has had a good life with him and that she will "have that cup of tea now." The tea is laced with a coma-inducing sedative, provided free at the Queen Victoria Hospital to the residents of Melbourne by the government to help them deal painlessly and quickly with the end.
Moira finds Towers at the dock and embraces him. He tells her he loves her but has to go with his crew. She realizes that their relationship is now over but is thankful for what they had. She speeds her car along the coast so that she can catch sight of Towers as he takes the Sawfish down for one last time. Standing on a cliff she gazes off into the distance as the submarine submerges.
The final scenes take place days later, after the last remaining pockets of humanity have died. They show an empty, wind-blown and desolate Melbourne, before the movie ends with a rise of dramatic, strident music over the powerful image of a close-up of a banner seen previously at a Salvation Army gathering in the city centre only days before. The banner prophetically reads "There is still time...Brother".
