The Omega Man is an extremely literate science-fiction drama starring Charlton Heston as the only survivor of a worldwide bacteriological war, circa 1975. Thrust of the well-written story [adapted from Richard Matheson’s novel] is Heston’s running battle with deranged survivors headed by Anthony Zerbe.
The deserted streets of LA through which Heston drives by day while Zerbe’s eye-sensitive mutations hide until nightfall, provide low-key but powerful emphasis on what can and does happen when the machinery of civilized society grinds to a halt.
An Oriental missile war has caused a worldwide plague. Zerbe, formerly a TV newscaster, has become the leader of the mutations, whose extreme reaction to the science which caused the disaster has led to wanton destruction of cultural and scientific objects. Rosalind Cash provides romantic interest for Heston as a member of another band of rural survivors not yet under Zerbe’s control.
