The first twenty minutes were the usual last man walking around on earth movie. It didn't do anything for me and I thought I was in for a pretentious slow bore. I was happy that some energy and even humour came from scenes of a breakdown. I expected the movie to be about this. But then another character enters the movie and it changes direction again and the time flew by. I was glued.

What this movie excels at is when its finished you question what you've seen. Did an American government project destroy the earth with the energy network (kind of like a cloud network of energy?) But in the end the network is still up. Unless not all the earth was effected. It could have been a secret weapon.
Maybe Zac is dead but he is somehow trapped in an alternate universe? The other characters remember dying ao perhaps they died at a specific time when the energy project was doing something and they ended up together.
That ending image? It'seems a mystery. Can Zac not die? Does he travel universes or realities upon death? Did he kill himself at the right time again to still be alive? The planet near on the horizon looks like Saturn. Is he on an Earth like planet or Earth? Why does he have his tape recorder? Is he really still on Earth and all this time has been used in a project without his knowing and is provided with a tape recorder for feedback? I don't know.........
The science is pretty vague in the movie but the experience will make you think and look forward to a second viewing.

Straightforward New Zealand science fiction from the mid 1980s with more interest in concept than storytelling. Zac Hobson, a balding government lab grunt, wakes up one morning to discover that every other human being on the planet has suddenly, spontaneously, vanished into thin air. Naturally the first place he goes is the office, where it quickly becomes clear that the project he'd been working on - a large-scale theoretical WMD - was successfully deployed while he slept.

Given the quality and costs of special effects at the time, the film's decision to focus on the eerie aftermath is prescient, but for that kind of direction to work requires an engaging, interesting thread or two as compensation. Instead, this is basically an exercise in pointless wheel spinning. Like a kid in a candy store, Zac lives the high life for the next hour, aimlessly enjoying the remnants of society and doing everything he was too polite to imagine when the streets were still busy. Even the grand finale, in which he finally decides to get up and do something of consequence, is ultimately pointless and harshly under-explained. I really shouldn't have been surprised, but it's always disappointing when a premise with promise sputters out before going anywhere.

A man wakes up one morning to a world untouched other than every human alive has disappeared. I will leave most of this movie alone so not to ruin what I consider to be one of the strangest and most glorious endings that I've ever seen.

Most of this movie is pedestrian and you've seen it before. The main character is equipped with a convenient set of skills that assist him in deciphering the mystery. I suppose it's not convenient really, after all, the story needs to pick a character that matters. The explanation for what has occurred to bring about the disappearance of billions of people was sort of like "The Mist" in the sense that it's a "science gone wrong" scenario.

The action and character conflict is off-kilter, which detracts from the story a lot. Let's just leave all of that behind, though, because this movie is all about its ending shot. It's marvelous and awe-inspiring. I have no idea what it is or what it means, but I love it.

Other viewers will first try to decipher what it means. Then, when that effort proves fruitless, will have to resign in knowing that it means exactly what they want it to. This alone gives "The Quiet Earth" a lasting impact.