SHTF: The Road Trailer 2009

Well, the trailer for end of the world story, The Road is now available



It is a fairly long trailer for a movie we have only seen stills of for the past year and a half and a good review of what to expect.

The Road, a best selling novel by Cormac McCarthy, follows the travels of a father and his son after a civilization ending event across the globe. The world is dark, burnt and nearly everything, plant or animal, is dying. It is a cold, dirty and depressing read, but is strangely one of the best books I have read in the past year.

If you have not read The Road and are unfamiliar with what you are seeing in the trailer, the father, his wife and their son are survivors of this catastrophic event which was never clearly explained in the book (McCarthy said in an interview later that it was caused by a massive asteroid strike on the earth).

In the book, the mother takes her own life early in the story - nope not a spoiler, it is a foregone conclusion in the first page of the novel. In the movie, it appears that there are more scenes, probably flashbacks, which involve the mother. With a power star like Charleze Theron, a movie producer is not going to limit her to five minutes of screen time.

Back to the story. The Road follows the father and son as they make their way south to hopefully warmer climates and the sea. They have no idea what they will find when they reach the coast and have limited supplies for the journey.

While the book features three or four very harrowing passages, most of the book concentrated on the relationship between the boy and his father. The father's deep and undying love for his son and his desire to find a better life for the boy somewhere else.

The movie appears to focus more on the adventure with chases, explosions and conflict which makes total sense; audiences like action in their movies.

Some of The Road's classic scenes are preserved:

From the trailer, we do see that the discovery of the can of Coke is included in the movie. Hopefully, for us "preppers" the shelter scene will be faithfully portrayed as well. (I have been wondering what that place looked like having a hard time comprehending it in my mind while reading the book).

Also, the discovery of the capsized ship during the end of the journey is in the film as well.

I am not looking forward to some of the other scenes involving the eating habits of the rest of the survivors of the end of the world. I can't think of anyone who would want to.

I suggest that you read The Road before seeing the film. Its on Amazon of course, but can also be found at the local library.

The Road the movie opens October 16th and stars Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Robert Duvall.