| One Night Stand | |
|---|---|
 Poster | |
| Directed by | John Duigan |
| Written by | John Duigan |
| Produced by | Richard Mason |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Tom Cowan |
| Edited by | John Scott |
| Music by | William Motzing |
Production company | Hoyts-Edgley |
| Distributed by | Hoyts Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Countries |
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$1.4 million [1] |
| Box office | A$111,978 (Australia) |
One Night Stand is a 1984 science fiction film directed by John Duigan. [2]
Just before Christmas, Sydney Opera House usherette Sharon and her friend Eva meet best mates Brendan and Tony in the midst of an anti-war protest in front of two United States Navy ships. Despite being dressed as Santa Claus, the men chat up the women. Brendan attempts to impress Sharon by claiming to be a singer who has performed at the Opera House. The four go on a double date to see Midnight Oil and later the women kick the men out of their flat after overhearing them (falsely) claim to each other to have seduced their dates. There are news reports of growing tension between the United States and Soviet Union with fears that one mistake could lead to nuclear war.
On New Year's Eve, Sharon is working at the Opera House and after the performance, Eva meets her so they can go to a party. They find a U.S. Navy Sailor asleep in one of the theatres, who identifies himself as Sam. Having known for months that war was imminent, he deserted his ship and has been hiding in the Opera House. Sharon recognises him from a newspaper article which describes him as "missing". While the three talk in the control room of the theatre, Brendan comes onto the stage and attempts to sing, revealing that he works as a cleaner in the Opera House. While the women talk to Brendan, Sam overhears on the radio that war has broken out in Europe and tactical nuclear weapons have been used in Germany. There are further news reports that four military targets in Australia – North West Cape, Pine Gap, Nurrungar and Jervis Bay – have been hit by nuclear weapons.
Ordered to stay in the Opera House, the four try to figure out the best way they can survive the escalating conflict, initially hiding in the basement then going to a bar (for which Brendan has they key), getting drunk and playing strip poker, as well as dancing to the cinematic backdrop of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927 film) during one of its later scenes when an underground workers community faces an apocalyptic flood scenario of its own. Through a series of flashbacks and talking about their past, the four begin to bond. The following morning, Brendan and Sharon pair off and have sex in a storage room, and Eva finds a television and learns that the war in Europe has escalated to a full-scale nuclear exchange, with much of Europe and the United States devastated. The newscast then shows footage of horribly burned and disfigured victims of a nuclear blast near New York City. As the sky begins to turn red from firestorms around Sydney and air raid sirens go off, the four, upon hearing an emergency announcement on the radio, join thousands of others taking refuge in the underground Martin Place railway station. As Sharon and Eva sing "It Might as Well Rain Until September" to entertain the crowd, the lights go out and a loud explosion is heard above them. The frame freezes and it is uncertain whether Sydney has been hit by a nuclear weapon in its turn.
Richard Mason and John Duigan brought the script to Hoyts Edgley who agreed to back it. Simon Wincer called Duigan "a highly talented filmmaker and a brilliant writer" who was "an utter joy to work with". [1]
The Opera House was only used for ten days of filming because it was too expensive to hire. The rest of the movie was shot in the Seymour Centre. [3]
The film includes a performance by Midnight Oil.
Paul Hester, drummer for Split Enz and Crowded House, appears in the film uncredited.
One Night Stand grossed $111,978 at the box office in Australia, [4] which is equivalent to $284,424 in 2009 dollars.
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time and can have a long-lasting radiological result. A major nuclear exchange would likely have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to a "nuclear winter" that could last for decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack. Some analysts dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis, and calculate that even with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War highs, although there would be billions of casualties, billions more people living in rural areas would nevertheless survive. However, others have argued that secondary effects of a nuclear holocaust, such as nuclear famine and societal collapse, would cause almost every human on Earth to starve to death.
The War Game is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subsequently withdrawn before the provisional screening date of 6 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences..."
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. A hypothetical global catastrophe is represented by midnight on the clock, with the Bulletin's opinion on how close the world is to one represented by a certain number of minutes or seconds to midnight, assessed in January of each year. The main factors influencing the clock are nuclear risk and climate change. The Bulletin's Science and Security Board monitors new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.
World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical third worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at least as early as 1941. Some apply it loosely to limited or more minor conflicts such as the Cold War or the war on terror. In contrast, others assume that such a conflict would surpass prior world wars in both scope and destructive impact.
Midnight Oil are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by Hirst, Moginie and original bassist Andrew James as Farm: they enlisted Garrett the following year, changed their name in 1976, and hired Rotsey a year later. Peter Gifford served as bass player from 1980 to 1987, with Bones Hillman then assuming the role until his death in 2020. Midnight Oil have sold over 20 million albums worldwide as of 2022.
Red Sails in the Sunset is the fifth studio album by Australian group Midnight Oil which was released in October 1984 under the Columbia Records label. It was recorded and produced in Tokyo, Japan and is significant for becoming their first No. 1 album in Australia – it also entered the United States Billboard 200. The cover image, by Japanese artist Tsunehisa Kimura, depicts Sydney Harbour after a hypothetical nuclear strike. Some of its tracks were performed live in January 1985 at a Sydney Harbour Goat Island concert to celebrate radio station Triple J's 10th birthday, which was simulcast on ABC Television and subsequently re-broadcast on their then-Tuesday night music program Rock Arena. In 2004 the film footage later became part of a DVD album, Best of Both Worlds. Red Sails in the Sunset contains the only Midnight Oil tracks with lead vocals provided by their drummer Rob Hirst, "When the Generals Talk" and "Kosciusko". The album spawned two singles, "When the Generals Talk" and "Best of Both Worlds" but neither appeared on the Australian singles chart.
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States.
Flirting is a 1991 Australian coming-of-age comedy drama film written and directed by John Duigan. The story revolves around a romance between two teenagers, and it stars Noah Taylor, who appears again as Danny Embling, the protagonist of Duigan's 1987 film The Year My Voice Broke. It also stars Thandiwe Newton and Nicole Kidman.
Bryan Neathway Brown AM is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include Breaker Morant (1980), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), F/X (1986), Tai-Pan (1986), Cocktail (1988), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), F/X2 (1991), Along Came Polly (2004), Australia (2008), Kill Me Three Times (2014) and Gods of Egypt (2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his performance in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based on the work of the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime around Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney Harbour.
The Year My Voice Broke is a 1987 Australian coming of age drama film written and directed by John Duigan and starring Noah Taylor, Loene Carmen and Ben Mendelsohn. Set in 1962 in the rural Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, it was the first in a projected trilogy of films centred on the experiences of an awkward Australian boy, based on the childhood of writer/director John Duigan. The film itself is a series of interconnected segments narrated by Danny who recollects how he and his best friend Freya grew apart over the course of one year. Although the trilogy never came to fruition, it was followed by a 1991 sequel, Flirting. The film was the recipient of the 1987 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film, a prize which Flirting also won in 1990.
John Duigan is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He is mostly known for his two autobiographical films The Year My Voice Broke and Flirting, and the 1994 film Sirens, which stars Hugh Grant.
Vicki Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Emma Herry from the character's birth in 1986 to 1988, Samantha Leigh Martin from 1988 to 1995, and Scarlett Alice Johnson from 2003 to 2004. She is the daughter of Michelle Fowler and Den Watts. The character is born in the serial, conceived in a controversial storyline about teenage pregnancy. Exploiting a whodunnit angle, at the time of the first showing, viewers were not initially told who was the father, and press interest in the fledgling show escalated as journalists attempted to guess. The audience finally discovered his identity in October 1985 in episode 66. Written by series co-creator/script-editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith, it was considered a landmark episode in the show's history. Early suspects were Ian Beale and Kelvin Carpenter, but then four possible suspects are seen leaving the Square early in the episode: Tony Carpenter, Ali Osman, Andy O'Brien, and Den Watts. As Michelle waits by their rendezvous point, a car pulls up and the fluffy white legs of the soap landlord's poodle Roly leap out of a car to give it all away: Den Watts is the father of Michelle's baby. After this storyline the programme started to appear in newspaper cartoons as it moved more and more into the public mainstream.
Seven Days to Noon is a 1950 British drama/thriller film directed by John and Roy Boulting. Paul Dehn and James Bernard won the Academy Award for Best Story for their work on the film.
The WANK Worm was a computer worm that attacked DEC VMS computers in 1989 over the DECnet. It was written in DIGITAL Command Language.
Simon Barlow is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street and has been played by Alex Bain since 2008. The character was originally played by twins, Jake and Oscar Hartley, on his birth in 2003. Simon is the son of Peter Barlow and Lucy Richards, the adoptive son of Leanne Battersby and the grandson of Ken Barlow. His storylines have included his mother's death, a custody battle between Peter and his maternal grandfather, a custody battle between Peter and Leanne, Simon physically abusing Leanne, and Simon dealing drugs.
For the Term of His Natural Life is a 1927 Australian film based on the 1874 novel by Marcus Clarke, directed, produced and co-written by Norman Dawn. It was the most expensive Australian silent film ever made and remains one of the most famous Australian films of the silent era.
Saskia Post was a US-born Australian actress. She is best known for her leading role in the 1986 film Dogs in Space. Post also acted in the 1985 film Bliss and the 1991 film Proof, as well as numerous Australian television series.
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em is a 1988 Australian short feature. It is a cult movie.