The World's End

The World's End is a 2013 British science fiction comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan. It is the third in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). The film follows a group of friends who discover an alien invasion during an epic pub crawl in their hometown. Wright has described the film as "social science fiction" in the tradition of John Wyndham and Samuel Youd.

The film is produced by Relativity Media, Big Talk Productions, and Working Title Films. Filming began in September 2012 at locations in Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City. Part of the film was also shot at High Wycombe railway station in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Filming ended on 22 December 2012.

The film premiered on 10 July 2013 at Leicester Square in London and was released in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2013. It was released in the United States on 23 August 2013.

Plot

Gary King (Simon Pegg), a hedonistic alcoholic, resolves to track down his estranged friends and complete the Golden Mile, an infamous pub crawl encompassing 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. The group attempted the crawl as teenagers over 20 years earlier, but failed to reach the final pub, The World's End.

Gary persuades Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), Oliver "O-Man" Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), and Andy Knightley (Nick Frost) to join him in Newton Haven. While his friends have adult lives and responsibilities, Gary has changed little since 1990, remaining untrustworthy and impulsive. In the first pub, The First Post, the group and their mission are not met with the hero's welcome Gary expects. They are briefly joined at The Old Familiar by Oliver's sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), who rejects a sexual advance from Gary. Steven has always loved Sam, and has never forgiven Gary for sleeping with her during their first attempt at the crawl many years prior. Gary is tossed out of The Famous Cock, having been barred from it during his first crawl. He drinks some beer left on a table outside to satisfy his goal of drinking at every pub. In The Cross Hands, Gary gets into a fight with a local teenager and is surprised at his strength and agility. Gary accidentally knocks the teen's head off, exposing him as a robot. Gary's friends join him and fight more robot youths, after which Andy abandons his teetotaling ways and drinks an order of shots meant for the whole group. Unsure how many robots there may be, they decide to continue the pub crawl as Gary had announced to the locals, so as to avoid attracting suspicion.

At The Two Headed Dog, the group runs into Sam and Gary warns her of the robot invasion. Though skeptical of the news at first, Sam is convinced after Gary saves her from twin robots impersonating her friends. At The Mermaid, robots attempt to seduce the men and steal their DNA. When Sam's childhood crush Adrian appears, she panics and drags the others from the pub, explaining that Adrian had died in a motorcycle crash years previously. At The Beehive, Guy Shepherd (Pierce Brosnan), a teacher from the gang's high school, encourages the group to accept their fate and become robots. After the reappearance of a long-since-removed birthmark on Oliver's face, the group realize that he has been replaced with a robot, initiating a brawl. Despite the danger, Gary insists on drinking a pint during the fight. Overwhelmed, the group scatters and Gary takes Sam to her car, telling her to leave Newton Haven. Once reunited, the friends accuse each other of having been replaced by robots like Oliver. Steven, Peter and Andy prove their humanity with scars from their past, but Gary refuses to roll his sleeves up to reveal his elbow scar. Instead, he repeatedly headbutts a pillar to prove that his skull is tougher than those of the robots. The robots close in on the group and capture Peter; despite this, Gary is determined to finish the pub crawl and runs towards the final pub. Abandoning Steven, Andy chases Gary through the streets, fighting hordes of robots along the way.

At The World's End, Andy confronts Gary. He reveals that he had never forgiven Gary for an accident that occurred whilst he was trying to save Gary after a drug overdose. They begin to quarrel and Andy notices an armband from a rehabilitation clinic from which Gary had evidently fled. Andy questions if Gary can distinguish between his drunkenness and sobriety anymore; Gary tearfully tells him that finishing the Golden Mile is the only thing that matters in him and that he is jealous of Andy for having an ideal life. Andy reveals that his marriage is falling apart. Andy pleas with Gary to give up the crawl and get help, but Gary ignores him and tries to draw his final pint. The tap lever instead lowers the bar into a hidden chamber, where the two are reunited with Steven. A disembodied entity called "The Network" (Bill Nighy) reveals that the robot invasion of the town is one of several on Earth, as part of a "civilizing" process for humanity's own good, and that it had been responsible for all of humanity's advances in telecommunications in recent decades. The Network offers the men eternal youth should they choose to become robots, but the three friends decline, arguing that humans should be allowed to be free. Seeing that humans are more trouble than they are worth, The Network abruptly ceases communication and abandons the invasion. Sam arrives to drive the trio to safety as the town begins to self-destruct.

Some time later, Andy is recounting the story around a campfire in the ruins of London, explaining how the destruction of Newton Haven was accompanied by a worldwide electro-magnetic pulse that wiped out modern technology and sent humanity back to the Dark Ages. The remaining robots have reactivated and are regarded with mistrust by surviving humans. Andy's marriage has recovered, Steven is in a relationship with Sam, and Peter and Oliver (though now robots) have returned to a semblance of their old lives. In the ruins of Newton Haven, the now-sober Gary enters a pub with robot duplicates of his younger friends and orders five glasses of water. When the bartender refuses to serve any non-humans, Gary draws a sword and leads his robot friends into a brawl.

Cast

Simon Pegg

Nick Frost

Paddy Considine

Martin Freeman

Eddie Marsan

Rosamund Pike