Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Final Programme, The

Tagged: Film.

(vt The Last Days of Man on Earth US) UK movie (1973). Goodtimes/Gladioli. Produced by John Goldstone, Sandy Lieberson. Executive producers: Roy Baird, David Puttnam. Directed by Robert Fuest. Screenplay by Fuest. Based on The Final Programme (1968) by Michael Moorcock. Starring: Jon Finch (Jerry Cornelius), Jenny Runacre (Miss Brunner). 89 mins. Colour.

A high-camp Technofantasy caper set in the time leading up to the End of the World. After much James Bond-parody chasing, Jerry Cornelius and Miss Brunner (an awesomely efficient, awesomely strong near-superhuman who initially at least resembles Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians [1961] and who, like a Spider, devours her sexual partners) are fused by means of the Final Programme to form the shambling, immortal (see Immortality) Neanderthalish Monster who will inherit the new world. Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novels are not noted for their adherence to narrative conventions: The Final Programme, its plot complicated by what may be judged either gallant Surrealism or irrelevant trendy psychedelia, perpetuates the tradition. [JG]

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