This Is the End Information

This Is the End is a 2013 American apocalyptic horror comedy film written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, starring Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson as fictional versions of themselves in the aftermath of a global apocalypse. The film was released on June 12, 2013, and was a critical and commercial success.

Plot

Jay Baruchel arrives in Los Angeles to visit his old friend and fellow actor Seth Rogen, who invites Baruchel to attend a housewarming party hosted by James Franco. At the raucous party, many celebrities and others drink, take drugs, have sex, and commit other hedonistic acts. Baruchel is uncomfortable being around many people he does not know well—including Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Cera, Craig Robinson, and Emma Watson—so Rogen accompanies him to a convenience store for cigarettes.

Beams of blue light from the sky suddenly carry away several store customers. The frightened Rogen and Baruchel flee to Franco's home amid explosions, vehicular crashes, and mass chaos, but find the party undisturbed. The partygoers scoff at Baruchel's account, but rush outside because of a powerful earthquake and see the Hollywood Hills on fire. A large crack opens in the earth, and Cera, Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Martin Starr, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Jason Segel, and David Krumholtz are among those killed. Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Hill, and Robinson survive, and learn that the largest earthquake in California history has struck Los Angeles. Believing that as famous actors they will soon be rescued, the five take inventory of the available supplies, including food and water, various drugs, and a pistol. They set up a ration system, board up the doors and windows, and await help.

The next morning, Danny McBride—who, unknown to the others, crashed the party and fell asleep—wakes up first. Ignorant of the crisis he wastes much of the supplies, and disbelieves the others' accounts until a desperate outsider seeking aid is decapitated in their presence. The men pass the time by taking many drugs and filming a homemade sequel to the 2008 film Pineapple Express, which most of the group had appeared in. Tensions rise, however, due to various conflicts, including Baruchel and Rogen's growing estrangement, and the others' skepticism of Baruchel's belief that the disasters might be the Apocalypse the Book of Revelation predicts.

An armed Watson returns and reports mysterious animal noises. Due to a misunderstanding she quickly leaves, taking all of the drinks. Robinson is chosen to travel outside to the cellar for water, but is frightened by something monstrous. The group successfully reaches the water but McBride's boorish behavior results in much being lost, and the others decide to evict him. McBride tries to kill the others with the pistol but fails as the gun is a prop; he then angrily leaves the home.

Robinson's experience causes him to believe in Baruchel's theory of the Apocalypse and that the blue beams have, as part of the Rapture, taken good people to Heaven. He volunteers to explore a neighboring home for supplies with Baruchel. Hill, angry at Baruchel for his theory, is raped by a male demon after secretly wishing for Baruchel to die. Now demonically possessed and supernaturally strong, Hill chases Franco and Rogen while Robinson and Baruchel flee a demonic bull. The group subdues Hill, but during an exorcism attempt a fire destroys the home and Hill's body, forcing the four outdoors.

Regretful for the mistakes in his life that kept him from Heaven, Robinson volunteers to sacrifice himself so his friends can escape a large winged demon. The plan succeeds but, unexpectedly, Robinson is taken in the Rapture because of his good deed, giving hope to the group. When cannibals led by McBride capture the men, Franco similarly volunteers to sacrifice himself. Although the plan succeeds and a blue beam begins to take Franco, his taunting sneers to McBride cause the beam to vanish, and the cannibals eat Franco. As Satan prepares to consume Rogen and Baruchel, they reaffirm their friendship and await death. A blue beam suddenly strikes Baruchel, but Rogen's presence prevents him from reaching Heaven. Rogen sacrifices himself to save his friend, and just before death is also taken by the Rapture.

Robinson, now an angel, welcomes Baruchel and Rogen. He explains that Heaven is a paradise where any wish comes true. Baruchel wishes that the Backstreet Boys would reunite, and the film ends with the band performing "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" for a raucous heavenly party.

Cast

The cast includes the following who, with the exception of Huskey who plays the character "Headless Man", portray fictional versions of themselves:

• Seth Rogen
• Jay Baruchel
• James Franco
• Craig Robinson
• Jonah Hill
• Danny McBride
• Emma Watson
• Michael Cera
• Rihanna
• Jason Segel
• David Krumholtz
• Paul Rudd
• Mindy Kaling
• Channing Tatum
• Martin Starr
• Kevin Hart
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse
• Aziz Ansari
• Evan Goldberg
• Brian Huskey
• Backstreet Boys

Production

According to Rogen and Goldberg, "We always wanted to do a movie where people played themselves and something extraordinary happened; the initial version of this movie was Seth Rogen and Busta Rhymes were filming a music video and a movie respectively, on the Sony lot, and Antmen attacked from the center of the earth." The film is also based on Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse, a short film created by Stone and Goldberg in 2007. In an interview with The Guardian, Goldberg commented on influences contributing to the film, saying "[i]f you drilled down to the core of what I do, it's just ripping off little bits of Charlie Kaufman. Seth and I always loved The Larry Sanders Show too. And the popularity of reality television now also feeds into that idea of whether what we're watching is actually real. We thought working with our friends in that situation would be awesome because they're all comedians willing to take stabs at themselves."

During production, the film was titled The Apocalypse, a name later changed to The End of the World (20th Century Fox owns the rights to the title The Apocalypse). The film entered post-production in July 2012. The name changed to This Is the End on December 20, 2012, upon the release of its first trailer and poster.

In March 2013, the release date was pushed forward two days to June 12, 2013. On April 1, 2013, Sony released an April Fools' Day trailer for Pineapple Express 2, which was in fact a teaser trailer for This Is the End. According to Rogen and Goldberg, however, the homemade Pineapple Express 2 film in This Is the End depicts what they envision for the actual sequel.

Music

Soundtrack

This Is the End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack of the film. It was released on June 11, 2013. Songs featured in the film, but not in the soundtrack, include "Gangnam Style" by Psy, "Hole In The Earth" by Deftones, "Disco 2000" by Pulp, "Spiteful Intervention" by Of Montreal, "Paper Planes" by M.I.A., "End of the Beginning" and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, and "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre.

Score

The score by Henry Jackman, with additional material by Dominic Lewis and Matthew Margeson and conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith, was not officially released on its own, not even as bonus tracks on the CD or digital releases on RCA's album. Despite that, a promotional album for the score does exist, according to Soundtrack.net.

Reception

Critical response

This Is the End received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 84% based on 196 reviews; the site's consensus states: "Energetic, self-deprecating performances and enough guffaw-inducing humor make up for the flaws in This Is the End's loosely written script." On Metacritic, the film has an average rating of 67/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a letter grade of "A", saying: "You could sit through a year's worth of Hollywood comedies and still not see anything that's genuinely knock-your-socks-off audacious. But This Is the End (opening June 12) truly is. It's the wildest screen comedy in a long time and also the smartest, the most fearlessly inspired and the snort-out-loud funniest."

Brian D. Johnson of Maclean's wrote: There could be worse ways to experience the apocalypse than with a party of stoned celebrities at James Franco's house. For one thing, his epic art collection can be used to board up the cracking walls against demons and zombies. That's the screwball scenario of This Is the End...The film unfolds as a profanely funny showbiz parody. But with perfect timing, it also sends up a genre that has recently gone viral at the multiplex: the apoca-blockbuster.

At the other end of the scale, Canada's The Globe and Mail compared the film to the interminable wait for a cancelled bus, giving it one and a half stars out of five, referring to the actors in the film as "the lazy, the privileged and the mirthless".

Box office

This Is The End was a box office success. As of July 31, 2013, This Is the End has grossed $95,693,725 in North America, and $11,900,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $107,593,725. In North America, the film opened to #2 in its first weekend with $20,719,162, behind Man of Steel.

Home media

This Is the End will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on October 1, 2013.

Sequel

On June 26, 2013, Evan Goldberg announced ideas for a This Is the End sequel in which the apocalypse occurs at the premiere of This Is the End.