Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged: eddie marsan, edgar wright, martin freeman, nick frost, paddy considine, rosamund pike, simon pegg, the worlds end

12 Pubs, 12 Things, The World's End

Alasdair Stuart writes for Bleeding Cool.

Earlier today, Brendon did a comprehensive breakdown of the first The World's End trailer which looked at the clues coded into it. I'm still reeling from how much information he spotted in there (Why are so many stores in Newton Haven called Martins?) Now, the second, longer trailer has hit, we know a lot more and Brendon clearly needs to hit Vegas because he was pretty much bang on.

So, here are 12 things about the second, longer trailer.

1.Trailer Guy!

I grew up in a fishing village on a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea. For most, Father Ted was a comedy, for me, it was pretty much a hard-hitting documentary series. With that in mind, I have a near Pavlovian reaction to any movie trailer that opens with trailer guy (Whichever incarnation this actually is). It's not 'IN A WORLD' certainly but this is better. This is using the structure of the trailer to double back and re emphasize the time period the characters grew up in.

2.The King's Head (0.50)

Is now officially part of the pub crawl. We see the 12 pubs, six by six, and there it is dead center. Brendon's theory about something major happening there is looking more and more likely and I think we may see what it is at 1.26.

3.Circles (0.55)

I've looked at the map Gary holds up of the Golden Mile a few times and there's…something there. It looks like the X marks form a shape and my first instinct would be a crop circle. It goes by too quickly to tell though and it's not an even-sided shape so I may be way off beam here.

4.Fences And Hedgerows (0.59)

King jumps over, through and off an awful lot of things in this trailer and I wonder whether its either the set up for a gag, or a gag expressing character. As Brendon said, Gary's still wearing the same Sisters of Mercy t-shirt he is in the flashbacks. Combine that with his inability to jump and it symbolizes he's stuck in the past? Or maybe he has to take a leap of faith at some point? Or maybe he's just crap at jumping over things now?

5.Hot (Glowing, Terrifying, Screaming Eyes and Mouth) Fuzz (1.24)

Steve Oram as the police officer who we've seen in full 'bloom' in the previous trailer. Looks like a pleasant enough chap here. Wonder if no one ever tells him nothin'.

6.Clever Boys (1.26)

In a trailer filled with shrieking, light-filled creatures, explosions and a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt, the dead-eyed teenagers stand out as one of the scariest bits. This is ground Pegg and Wright have covered before in Spaced, but imaginary gunfights won't get them out of this one. Also top marks for the fight scene being equal parts Matrix style sticky hands and inept British arm flapping and facegrabbing. Also, given that we see Gary get his head bounced off the mirror, is this the moment where he remembers what happened during the first crawl?

7.Siren (1.30)

This legitimately freaked me out, for two reasons. Firstly because it's finally clicked that the open mouth/scream/extended arm is a callback to the 1978 Philip Kaufman-directed Invasion of the Bodysnatchers remake. That, and the original (And I'd argue, the Abel Ferrara-directed 1992 version) are stunningly good pieces of paranoid, small-town SF so if they've been using those as references then The World's End is build on rock solid foundations.

Secondly because, if you listen closely, the cop's scream is also a bestial, distorted version of the siren on his bike. Simple yet completely terrifying, especially with how rapidly he goes 'blue'.

8.Doing the Bodysnatcher (1.32 and 1.34)

This is the other genuinely disturbing moment. Not only do you get the regimented movements of the 'bees' in the pub but listen to the scream. Again, it's sampled, but this time it's the sampled screams of a real human in real pain. Are the Newton Haven residents alive somewhere? Is that where Gary's standing doing his special move at the end of the first trailer?

9.Last Chances

Another structural joke here, given the tendency for a lot of straight to video SF movies in the '80s and '90s to grind to a halt for the obligatory sex/shower scene. It's a neat wink to the movie's forbears and also either weirdly sweet or another indicator of Gary's lack of emotional growth. Or, perhaps, both.

10.Twins (1.42)

A callback to Spaced, which is also a callback to The Shining. I do wonder though, whether these nods to one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time aren't just nostalgic. Could this be the one that ties it and the rest of the Cornettoverse together? Will we get a reference to the Zombie outbreak? Or Nicholas Angel? Did King stay with Tim and Daisy for a bit before Tim pointed out they had the same face and it was getting a bit awkward?

11.Happy Goth Day Everyone (1.52)

It really is too. We get a nice reveal on this movie's 'You've got red on you.' and we also get another hint of Gary's musical and stylistic preferences with the fingerless gloves. Which are covered in blood. Or ink. Either way it's on his hands.

12.Giant Robot (2.29)

That's a really smart use of CGI, especially when you don't have the GDP of Ecuador to throw at your special effects budget. Also the thing looks weird and wrong, spindly and arachnid and very nasty. Sort of the speed freak younger brother of this chap. Also Paddy Considine's voice sounds completely different for 'What the hell is that?!' Is he referencing something? I want to say Predator 2. Also his character's alive at this point which looks like it's near the end of the movie. Is he the third man in the back of the car from Brendon's piece?

The World's End is due for release on July 19th in the UK and August 23rd in the US and I can't wait.

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