At first glance, The World's End feels like an amalgamation of the previous installments. Gary King seems a bit like Shaun - both are kind of slackers who don't take control of their lives. At the same time, the overall plot feels a bit similar to Hot Fuzz in that there is this big conspiracy that engulfs the town. These are obvious similarities, but they're surface level only. Gary is much darker than Shaun. We eventually figure out that Gary was probably dealing with drug addiction and depression, which is probably a huge reason why his life didn't get better than "that night." His friends grew up and moved on while he held on, desperate to just "have a good time." Meanwhile, Shaun had his loyal friend Ed the whole time. While Shaun had problems with his step father, he himself was at least trying to "grow up." He was engaged - to some extent - in the "real world."
With the conspiracy theme, there were a few key differences. Firstly, it was the people of Sandford who chose to create that system. Sure, those who disagreed were removed in the same way as with Newton Haven, but overall, no one came into Sandford to tell them what to do. This brings the biggest difference: the definition of "greater good." In Sandford, they wanted to stop the town from changing. It was essentially a social conservatism. They wanted to protect the "good old days." Yet the Network went the opposite route. They believed the "greater good" meant rapid technological progress, essentially at the cost of a real cultural identity and even culture itself! When you look at these two movies independently, you get different messages, but looking at them together - as a whole work - it seems they are suggesting that it doesn't even matter, "greater good" is a ridiculous concept to quantify.
If you've never seen an Edgar Wright movie, you need to be aware that everything is intentional, everything is thought out, and everything has multiple meanings. (Edgar Wright might just be a modern day Stanley Kubrick in this regard!) Because everything has double (sometimes triple) meaning, it's probably not a bad idea to rewatch these movies. The World's End seemed to be chalk full of this, more than the previous works.
The most glaringly obvious example of double meaning is the very title of the movie. The World's End is the name of the bar at the end of the "golden mile." Innocent enough. When you get to the end of the movie, sure enough, the world as we know it comes to an end.
Ok, simple enough. But that's not the only bar that follows that pattern. What's the first bar in the Golden Mile? Yep. "The First Post." Pretty straight forward. After that, each bar has a name that will predict what is going to occur there. Following the First Post, the gang move to The Old Familiar. What happens there? They meet up with Oliver's sister Sam - an old acquaintance that no one other than Oliver has seen in ages. From there, they move on to the Famous Cock. This, of course, is the first bar where Gary is recognized as he was banned from there after their initial attempt at the Golden Mile. Gary is nothing short of the definition of the British slang term "cock." (Andy even calls him that at the end.)
After quickly getting kicked out of there, they move on to the Cross Hands. This, of course, is where the movie takes its sci-fi action turn. Gary and the gang get into a bathroom brawl with five youth robots. Then, it's onto the Good Companions! Not much of note happens here, but this is also where Gary decides that the best plan is to keep going with the pub crawl in an effort to avoid suspicion from the town of robots. As they walk to the Good Companion, they walk together in stride wearing fake smiles. This pub is especially symbolic from its sign, which shows four blue masks with worried expressions surrounding a golden mask with a giant smile. Of course, at this point, only Gary King is still having a good time while his companions are reluctantly tagging along, anxiously waiting to leave. But they continue to follow Gary King - like good companions.
Onto the Trusty Servant, where they run into the Reverend Green who is not a robot. Instead, he is a human who chose to follow the rules in order to remain human. There are only a few humans left, but they essentially serve the robots. By The Two-Headed Dog, they are looking at everyone with suspicion knowing that any one of those people could really be robots. Indeed, the overly chipper bartender seems to bring much suspicion. Oh, and they also fight twins.
Then they move on to the Mermaid. This one is a little more obvious from the rest as this is where the robots attempt to seduce Gary, Andy, Peter, and Sam. This scene runs as something of a parallel to the story of Odysseus and the Sirens. The Mermaids were trying to tempt the remaining group to join them - in an effort to snatch them and replicate them - while Steven and Sam wind up acting a bit in the Odysseus role as saviors of their "crew."
The Beehive is also pretty straight forward. The crew's old teacher, Guy Shepard, is a robot and I think he even uses the metaphor of bees in a beehive to explain the goal of the Network. They want to work together to build something greater. And of course, this is also the set of the biggest action sequence, where the group is nearly overrun by the "swarm" of robots.
Andy winds up having to knock out Gary to get him to his car so they can leave, but the car is parked on the other side of The King's Head. This pub is a bit of a call to that fact, but also to the general state of mind Gary is in. At this point, they've lost two friends. The situation has escalated exponentially. They know that they need to leave, but the moment Gary regains consciousness, he goes right into another pint before running off to the next pub.
At The Hole in the Wall, Steven comes to save the day by driving the car through the wall creating a hole to escape from. And then, of course, we end up at The World's End.
And that's just the pub names!
Also something that comes up a lot are seemingly throw away lines or jokes that also predict the future. The most obvious of the jokes being the five musketeers. When Gary picks up all his friends, he calls them the five musketeers. Of course, they point out that there were three musketeers (four if you include d'Artagnan, Peter adds). Gary then jokes that there should have been five, that way two of them could die and they'd still have three left. This, of course, stands out more upon the second viewing - and even at the time it seems a little odd and foreboding. And since everything is super intentional, indeed this statement does predict the future: Peter and Oliver are replaced by robots, with Gary, Andy, and Steven surviving as the three musketeers (four if you count d'Artagnan/Sam).
A more subtle reference is to the failing phone networks. Regularly throughout the night, several people try to call someone. No one can get through to anyone despite having several bars. "Must be the network," they say. Little do they know how accurate that is. The robots are part of an alien robotic civilization called - you guessed it - the Network.
Even more, Gary King's statement when they are on the road overlooking Newton Haven at the beginning. "Feast your eyes on her original colors," Gary says, "for tonight we paint this town red!" Of course, he's using the expression to mean having a good time. But by the end, that is literally what they've done by destroying the network and subsequently, setting the entire town on fire.
And more subtle still: when Gary points out that Oliver has made it beyond the bar where last time he fell off, Oliver nervously asks for clarification on what he is saying. Gary then gets enthusiastic and responds, "I like the new you!" Even though we are meant to assume something is up with Oliver, no one fully understands just how accurate the idea of "new you" is.
Everything about this movie - moreso than other Edgar Wright works - is incredibly intentional. It's not just puns and double meanings. Consider the names of all these characters. Gary King. Andy Knightley. Oliver Chamberlain, Peter Page, and Steven Prince. King, Knightley, Chamberlain, Page, Prince. These are all names that call to mind the Dark Ages (which Andy later says the world is in during the aftermath). It calls to mind Arthurian times. Gary King is their king. "Didn't we agree to stop calling him 'our fearless leader'?" Steven asks when they all get off the train to meet him.
This on its own is neat, but inconsequential. But then look at the overall theme of the movie. When you think about Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead, it's pretty much about adjusting to your surroundings. Shaun finally gets his act together to become more responsible and reliable. Nick Angel learns how to relax and unwind. But here, Gary King resists change. Actually, he is the only true character in the movie. Everyone else has grown up and become adults, and they all think less of Gary for being stuck in the '90s. But when you watch, you realize that Gary is the only one living truthfully. He lives how he wants. He rejects the notion that "growing up" means leaving fun behind. In fact, everyone who has "grown up" seems to be a little bit more miserable than Gary. And at the same time they mock him for being stuck in the past, it's clear that none of them have truly let go of it either - Peter still harbors ill will towards the guy who bullied him, Steven is still in love with Sam, et cetera - they've just gone to great lengths to mask it.
By all means, Gary is a man out of time. He hasn't found his place in this world because he doesn't belong in this time. It's not a simple case of "getting it together," nor "unwinding." Gary acts like a king among the group. Even his speech tends to take a relatively high brow tone. He often breaks into strange turns of phrase that feel straight from Arthurian times. This is one of the larger overarching themes of the movies, and the characters names are directly tied in. (These guys clearly know what they're doing!)
The film itself follows certain patterns and cycles. Not only does practically everything come back (from every early line to even minor things like Basil quietly drinking his beer through a crazy straw), but the present parallels the past. On the present pub crawl, they lose Oliver at the same bar (The Trusty Servant) as the first time. Andy gets drunk and goes crazy, ripping open his shirt in the Beehive, same as in their youth. The remaining four get paranoid in the Smoke House just like last time. And then they finally have to abandon Peter in the park, same as before. History repeats itself, but in much more serious fashion.
Apart from the incredibly tight and detailed film making, they also tackle an even greater theme: the "Starbucking" of culture. Here, they are essentially making commentary on how things seem to be going more corporate - watered down to be easier for consumers to digest. You see this in the bars, none of which have any discernible identity - especially noticeable in the Old Familiar, which looks virtually identical to The First Post. But it's more than just the bars. Everyone in the town - especially the kids - look like they come straight out of an ad for the Gap! The cultural identity is either nonexistent or entirely shallow and pointless in nature. Everyone is devoid of individuality.
In the end, the world as we know it stops. Humanity loses its main technology (which we got from the Network) and we are thrown into a new Dark Age. This comes from the final confrontation, the final conversation between Gary and the Network. The Network argues that Earth is the least civilized planet in the galaxy and that they need to come and save them from themselves by absorbing them into the Network. But Gary and Andy point out some of the many flaws with this idea. First, they point out just how many people refused to conform and thus had to be replaced by robots. Then, Gary points out just exactly why it is the Network hasn't been successful in getting willing supporters.
Since everything comes back, the last part of their conversation mimics the lyrics of Primal Scream's "Loaded" (itself the song playing over the opening "present day" shots). "Just what is it you want to do?" the Network asks him.
"We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! We wanna get loaded. We wanna have a good time!" (This is not the first time, or even the second time Gary quotes the song.)
And in this moment, Gary is speaking for more than just himself. He is speaking on behalf of the humans. He is the king. The Network even refers to him with royal tone: "Gary King of the Humans." Gary - the extremely flawed man who initially seemed stuck in the past - is telling the Network what we all think (on some level at least). We just don't want people to tell us what to do - a very human feeling.
Of course, this causes the technology we've become so reliant on to disappear. The world falls to ruin. We are left to pick up in the ashes. For as bleak of an ending as it was, it retains an air of hope. Not everything is bad. Andy got back together with his wife. Steven and Sam finally got together. And Gary found himself in a time fitting of him. He found his place.
Everything comes back. Andy's serious line about ordering water in a pub comes back too. At the First Post, he orders a tap water to the displeasure of Gary. After being ridiculed, Andy responds to something along the lines, "It takes confidence to order a water in a pub. When you come in with the boys after a rugby match and everyone is here dressed in war paint. It takes balls to order a tap water."
So what is the last shot of the movie? Gary King, leading a group of robots abandoned when the Network left Earth, hitting up a bar that only serves humans. Gary walks up to the bartender, calm and confidently. He is surrounded by guys who look like they came off the set of Mad Max. They look tough. They look mean. They're dressed in literal war paint. And what does Gary ask for? A tap water.
Boom! Everything has come full circle. All of these seemingly insignificant lines and jokes come back with new-found meaning. In a way, these serve to prove you don't need to regularly replace the old with the new. You can use the same lines and jokes as before, but give them new meaning.
This is a level of film making competence that seems increasingly rare in the Hollywood summer blockbuster fare. Not to say you don't get pieces of tight film making, but certainly, you don't find many with that level of depth, that many layers, and that much attention to detail. There's definitely a lot of rewatch value. You can pick up new things each time. For example, I noticed that in one of the bars, some kids are playing an arcade version of Monopoly. Kind of a strange choice for an arcade game, right? But consider that the Network is essentially a cultural monopoly, making everyone fall in line or be replaced. You can't retain individualism or any individual identity. It seems pretty clear given the attention to detail that this was an intentional choice of a game put in by Wright. Then there are other things, such as how the posters on the Mermaid showing shadowy figures dancing show them with glowing blue eyes. These sorts of background gags give you yet another thing to watch for. Certainly, you're doing yourself a slight disservice if you go into The World's End thinking it's going to be an easy viewing.
The World's End is darker and more serious than Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, but it is just as funny. It has a lot of heart. It has multiple ways to interpret certain thematic elements. The movie is just all around great. To my mind, it stands as the best in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. Actually, it is the best piece of work from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg entirely.
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