- Post-nuclear-war dramas centering on a small group of survivors now constitute an entire genre in science-fiction films. All of them, in some way or another, can be traced back to this seminal film from 1951 in which five people deal with the possibility they are the only human beings left alive on the planet. While most of the later movies exploited this possibility for B-movie thrills, Five adopts a quiet, contemplative tone which some may find dull but which thoughtful viewers are more likely to find, for want of a better word, haunting. There is something about this movie which gets under the skin and which lurks in the corners of the mind long after it's over.
- Robbins is sentenced to prison for the assassination of his general officer, a prison you leave only when you die. Since nobody ever leaves the prison, nobody knows what the prison is like. The prison manager realizes this and buys himself an island playground called Absolom, where the worst prisoners are free to create an isolated barbaric society, and where the strongest men rule...a living hell. Robbins is sent to Absolom after he almost kills the prison manager.
- ISABEL SULLIVAN (15) has just moved to a small town to live with her uncle PAUL who is the town's mayor. Isabel has recently lost her parents in a car accident. Feeling very alone and friendless, Isabel befriends a stray robot dog named ARCHIE. Though he looks like a normal dog, he is anything but. He can talk. He can run at blinding speed. He's got super strength and x-ray vision. Isabel and Archie become fast friends. She teaches him how to be a normal dog while he helps her to fit in with the cool kid clique. Most of all, Isabel can confide in Archie about what happened to her parents. Archie can relate. He's never had a family - until now. As the summer progresses, things start to get tricky. Paul is up for re-election and finds himself running against VERONICA TAYLOR who happens to be in cahoots with BURGERTROPOLIS - a national fast food franchise that has been trying to buy Paul out for years. What's worse, an evil man named HUGH JABLONSKI shows up in town claiming to be ...