First we have a a young girl left to her own devices by her dad and brother to go find other people. Right off the bat this makes no sense. I'm not buying a father leaving his young daughter to her own devices.
Well, actually, it was her father AND her mother who left both Ann and her brother together to look after the farm ("keep the farm going") while they went off to look for survivors...as it seems they believed it was their religious "duty". So, technically, it was her brother who left Ann all alone on the farm.
Second and Third, in this apocalyptic wasteland a year or so after this event two people find their way to Happy Valley (sorry Penn State fans). The black guy is from NY. How the heck is he going to make it from NY to the South with just a radiation suit and his feet? But okay at least he has the suit, how did Caleb do it? And if he could do it why haven't more people shown up? Just so inconsistent.
Although in the novel Loomis came from New York...the movie never specified where he came from...just that he was a mile underground when it happened and that he was afraid of walking south afterwards. Caleb says he came from 50 miles and two counties away. He apparently still has his mining jump suit and a full-face gas mask (I presume for mining purposes, but it could have been military) attached to his gear.
Maybe Loomis got directions from Ann's brother. Maybe Caleb saw Loomis on the road (and intended to ambush him for the suit) and merely accidentally followed him into the valley?
I guess the valley is geographically isolated thus it isn't on any main road. Which might also explain how Loomis manages to find it...as he was careful to avoid main roads.
Fourth, a guy presented with a gorgeous girl throwing herself at him, possibly the last woman on earth, turns her away. Unless he was impotent this is perhaps the most unbelievable part of the whole movie.
Ha! Yeah. It's a tough sell to any male in the audience. ...but I will add on to his theoretical reasoning:
a. he still probably has a case of the guilts for killing her brother,
b. he apparently had some unresolved issues with the girl in the picture that Ann found,
c. he wants her to make this decision while sober.
d. he wants to schedule any conception and births for the most advantageous times. Summer for conception and anything but winter for the birth.
Fifth, Loomis actually encounters her brother. Huh? So somehow her brother survived out there and they happened to run into each other? This is beyond ridiculous bordering on the absurd.
Well...supposing her brother was in a RELATIVELY radiation free zone (Loomis mentions the readings were low) but could not or would not venture out of it again, that might explain his survival. ...and maybe the acute effects are beginning to diminish with time. They meet up somewhere near the valley, but the brother is stuck in that particular enclave...too weak to get out and get back to Ann.
Sixth, Caleb is a little too quick to put his life in the Jealous guys hands. I mean he has to realize if he's out of the way Loomis will have Ann all to himself again.
...on the other hand maybe he THINKS:
a. Loomis needs him for labor...as Loomis mentions that he is not sorry Caleb came, because he was instrumental in finishing the waterwheel generator.
b. Loomis is too weak a person to kill anyone. He might have gathered that from not hearing Loomis say that he actually did kill the boy on the side of the road.
I get the feeling that we are supposed to draw the conclusion, from the things that he does, that Caleb is not evil just very young and dumb and full of cum. ...a historically dangerous combination.
Oh, and for what it is worth Loomis seemed off. Just the way he greeted Ann and Caleb made me wonder how many people he killed in his travels or were all the survivors he met the types who had to have guns pulled on them?
yeah...that was intentional. In the novel Loomis has seen all kinds of bad shít out there. I don't think a person would ever be normal again after seeing the end of the world.
Finally the payoff just isn't that interesting. Loomis and Ann are left alone. World ends because two people aren't going to be able to repopulate the earth (and neither were three) so it kind of takes the steam out of the whole movie.
yeah, it's not a crash/bang climax, but that wasn't the style of the whole movie anyhow. The resolution is that he comes to an accomodation with her religion, because as Caleb says "...you gotta have faith or you won't survive." So they survive...and if they can survive....maybe somewhere else on earth other believers do also. So surviving, for now, might be good enough of an ending.
On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again.
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