Where Have All the People Gone

I remember seeing this movie on TV when I was about 7 or 8 years old. This is a movie that will stick with you for life! I wish that I could find it on VHS somewhere. TV movies were something special back then. Maybe it was just my age but movies like Where Have All the People Gone, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Omega Man, Crowhaven Farm, Gargoyles, Bad Ronald and Trilogy of Terror stick out in my mind as the coolest movies ever made!

With video stores dumping their videotapes in favor of DVDs (even if they do not have DVDs to replace many of the titles they're getting rid of), and with large video store chains putting mom 'n' pop stores out of business, some unusual videos are turning up for sale.

I'd never heard of this movie, and wasn't even a year old when it was originally broadcast, but when I saw it as an ex-rental for sale for $2... well, actually I passed it up at first, just writing the title down to look up on the IMDb. The comments are pretty favorable on it, and I'm usually intrigued when a movie on the IMDb has relatively few user ratings and no external reviews, and a subsequent internet search fails to turn up any reviews online elsewhere. Consequently, I went back and bought it; I'm glad I did!

It starts off with a voice-over by the young woman Deborah Anders, and occasionally throughout the movie we get some voice-over by her, though the movie is not entirely her narrative. The Anders family is camping in the High Sierras, but Mrs. Anders heads back to their home in Malibu. Mr. Anders, his two children, and a family friend remain. While the Anderses are fossil-hunting in a cave, their friend prepares a rabbit stew and he sees a bright light, which is followed by a short earthquake. The Anderses flee the cave during the earthquake, and they witness their friend's health deteriorating, and can't get and stations on their radio anymore, and can't reach anyone on their walkie-talkie. They make their way back to civilization: Rainbow, California, population 250. Nobody is there.

What happened?

The movie held my attention pretty well. It is definitely a made-for-TV movie, fading to black for commercials, then fading back up again. In spite of that, it works pretty well. As in a number of other movies of this subgenre, there are spooky shots of deserted towns, encounters with dangerous animals and other survivors.

Four people have gone camping and while three members of a family are inside a cave looking around, a bright light appears outside followed by an earthquake. The other person, "Jim Clancy" (Noble Willingham) just happened to be outside when it happened and not long afterward he gets sick and dies. Totally on their own, the father, "Steven Anders" (Peter Graves) decides to take his teenage son, "David" (George O'Hanlan Jr.) and his daughter, "Deborah" (Kathleen Quinlan) back to Malibu in search of their mother who left the campsite earlier in the day headed for home. On the way back they find that what happened to them wasn't an isolated incident as entire towns are totally deserted and empty. Everybody is gone. Anyway, rather than answer the question of "what happened to everybody" I will leave it to the viewer to see for themselves. I will say however, that even after watching the film in its entirety I still thought there were one or two unanswered questions. Additionally, one particular drawback was the fact that it was narrated in the past tense by one of the family members, which took some of the mystery out of it in my opinion. But even so the film managed to maintain suspense for the most part. I especially liked Peter Graves' calm and collected demeanor throughout the movie as it added a solid character to the film. In short, for a low-budget made-for-television movie this one wasn't too bad and I give it an average rating.

I have been looking for the title of this movie for nearly 30 years! I saw it as a nine year old back when it first aired. I remember being creeped out to no end. In my teen years I got into scifi and somewhere in my head I always remembered watching this movie - perhaps one of the best apocalyptic films ever made, even if it was for TV. I couldn't remember the name, and no one I asked seemed to recall it - so went high school, college, even grad school... no one could help me find the title. Then, the Internet, a late night search on Google, and thanks to TV Tome and IMDb, I have the title. Now to get a copy! People have commented that it reminds them of the Trek episode... nah, this film is far more effective. It reminds me of The Quiet Earth, but the scenes where the clothes are found is eerie and outstretches TQE, imho.

Thank you all! My 30 year quest is over! Yippee!!!!!

I was eight years old when I saw this movie (actually I saw it once again about a year after I first saw it). Anyway, I have NEVER forgotten it. The image of the clothes laying inside a car was one scene that ALWAYS stuck with me. BUT, I never knew the name of the movie. And for years I lived with this movie in my head never knowing it's name. Until about five years ago, a friend and I were talking about weird movies when I happened to mention this one. I told him about the clothes and that it starred Peter Graves. He said very nonchalantly.."oh..'Where Have All the People Gone'". OH-MY-GOD. I couldn't believe he remembered it too. This was one of the eeriest, scariest and realistic movies I've ever seen. The sense of the survivors desolation was palpable. The feeling of dread it instilled in me was incredible. Why don't they put out a whole bunch of these great 70's TV movies out on DVD? There's a huge market for this. Great to see so many people remember it like I did. If you liked the Twilight Zone, you'll like this one.