I really liked this movie! I can't believe I just found it and had never heard of it before a few days ago. I have a 50 movie DVD set of "classic chillers," and just pulled this one out at random the other night. Win! I love disaster/post-apocalyptic movies and this one takes the cake. It really has it all. I like to call it a mix of the Andromeda Strain, Mad Max, and On the Beach with some extra oval office drama thrown in. It even reminded me a little of El Topo in some parts. Unfortunately the version I have is the all cut up U.S. version I've been reading about. For whatever reason, several important pieces of plot were cut out, nearly an hour. I was able to watch the full version on Youtube and if you are going to watch it, there's no point in watching any version but the original Japanese directors cut, which runs over 2.5 hrs but is well worth it. I've also heard you can watch this version on archive.org.
So here is a question for people who have seen this and it is spoilery so is only for those who have seen this: In the original ending, how are our hero and the refugees from Antarctica able to survive the nuclear fallout? As far fetched as it is that he made it from DC to the southern tip of South America on foot, at least that is somewhat plausible. I just can't get past how none of the survivors were affected by fallout. The scientist who invented the vaccine even says that the radiation would have likely killed off the virus, so why not the humans too?
So here is a question for people who have seen this and it is spoilery so is only for those who have seen this: In the original ending, how are our hero and the refugees from Antarctica able to survive the nuclear fallout? As far fetched as it is that he made it from DC to the southern tip of South America on foot, at least that is somewhat plausible. I just can't get past how none of the survivors were affected by fallout. The scientist who invented the vaccine even says that the radiation would have likely killed off the virus, so why not the humans too?