Where Have All the People Gone (1971)

Primary Genre: Science Fiction

Secondary Genres: Post Apocalyptic Road Trip Adventure, Survival Fiction, Where is Everybody?, Made-for-TV Movie

Plot: A father (Peter Graves), his teenage son (George O'Hanlon), and teenage daughter (Kathleen Quinlan) are vacationing in the mountains when their local guide (Noble Willingham) suddenly becomes sick, dies, and turns to dust.  As they make their way back to civilization, they discover that most other people have turned to dust, leaving very few other people (some of them are more dangerous than others).  They begin to realize that an unexplained global event has has literally wiped out most humans and rendered electrical devices inoperable.  (Were you expecting zombies?  Not this time around.)

The Good Stuff: 

• The story doesn’t tell you outright what happened to the world.  While the characters work out how they will survive, you get to figure it out along with the characters.
• 
  One of the random survivors is a catatonic woman (Verna Bloom) who only comes out of her state when she sees dogs (and becomes terrified) and children (and becomes motherly).  The main characters take her in.  When she finally comes out of it and explains what happened to her, my God...
• Some good science here.  While travelling cross country, the characters find abandoned cars that still run, have good batteries, but their generators are burnt out.  Also telephone systems no longer works.  One character figures out that there had been a massive solar flare that knocked out electrical systems with an EMP, then realizes that electrical systems that hadn’t been turned on at the time of the flare should still be fine.

The Bad Stuff

• Some bad science here: Humans were wiped out by the flare because it caused a virus to kill most humans everywhere, and when they die, they turn to dust.  (No muss, no fuss)  Yes, we know that’s there to set up the situation for the plot (most humans gone, packs of wild dogs, etc.), and this unlikely convenience for the sake of the plot can't be ignored.

The Who Cares Stuff:

• This was a pilot for a proposed TV series that wasn’t picked up.
• The Where Is Everybody genre: Although the resultant situation is better suited to the fantasy genre, when made into a movie or a novel, it's given a science fiction rationale.  But see also, Home Alone (1990), wherein a boy wishes his family would disappear and....

See Also:

• Twilight Zone: "Where is Everybody?" (1959) - First episode of the series. An amnesiac comes to his senses and realizes that there are no other people anywhere, as if he and the entire world had been suddenly abandoned. The realization and loneliness begin to drive him mad.
• The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959) - Man who’d been trapped in a mine emerges to find all of humanity has simply vanished; however, he eventually finds a woman and another man; bad love triangle follows.  Compare with Roger Corman's Last Woman on Earth (1960) and The Quiet Earth (1985).
• Panic in the Year Zero (1962) - Family on their way to a camping site in the mountains realize there has been a nuclear strike and must band together to survive the instant collapse of civilization.
• The Omega Man (1971) - A virus wipes out most of humanity, leaving behind an empty New York City.  Compare with The Last Man on Earth (1964) and I Am Legend (2007).
• Day of the Animals (1977) - When nature attacks because reasons.  Higher than normal UV radiation makes some animals (including people) more dangerously aggressive and vicious; story follows a group of mountain campers attacked by animals while their pushy leader goes mad.
• Damnation Alley (1977) - Post apocalyptic road trip.  Along the way, they find other survivors.
• Night of the Comet (1984) - Two teenage girls survive a global phenomenon that has turned most people to dust while turning a few others into zombies.

The Bottom Line: Memorable, mostly original example of the "Where is Everybody" genre and survival fiction. Some good science fiction thrown in with some bad science fiction.  Has some honestly compelling moments.  Catch it if you can.