This Is the End

This Is the End is a 2013 American apocalyptic comedy film written, directed and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg in their directorial debuts. It is a feature-length film adaptation of the short film Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse (2007), also written by Rogen and Goldberg, with the short's director, Jason Stone, serving as an executive producer. Starring Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson, the film centers on fictionalized versions of its cast in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse.

This Is the End
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • Seth Rogen
  • Evan Goldberg
  • James Weaver
Written by
  • Seth Rogen
  • Evan Goldberg
Based on
Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse
by
  • Seth Rogen
  • Evan Goldberg
  • Jason Stone
Starring
Music byHenry Jackman
CinematographyBrandon Trost
Edited byZene Baker
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • June 3, 2013 (2013-06-03) (Fox Village Theater)
  • June 14, 2013 (2013-06-14) (United States)
Running time
107 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$32–41.9 million[2][3]
Box office$126.5 million[2]

Produced by Mandate Pictures and Rogen and Goldberg's Point Grey Pictures, This Is the End premiered at the Fox Village Theater on June 3, 2013 and was released theatrically in the United States on June 14, 2013 by Columbia Pictures. The film was both a critical and commercial success, grossing $126 million worldwide against a $32 million production budget.

Plot

Jay Baruchel arrives in Los Angeles to visit old friend and fellow Canadian actor Seth Rogen, who invites him to a housewarming party hosted by James Franco. There, Jay is uncomfortable at the crowded party, so Seth accompanies him to a convenience store for cigarettes. When beams of blue light come down and suck numerous people into the sky, Seth and Jay flee back to James' house and find the party unharmed. An earthquake strikes and the crowd rushes outside, witnessing a sinkhole opening up in James' yard. Several celebrities and party guests are killed as Seth, Jay, James, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson run back inside the house, where Jay tells the remaining partygoers that the earthquake has destroyed most of Los Angeles. They then take inventory of their supplies, set up a ration system, board up the house and await help.

The next morning, Danny McBride, who crashed the party and fell asleep, wakes up first and wastes much of the group's food and water due to his ignorance of the crisis. He disbelieves what the others tell him of the previous night's events until a man outside is decapitated by an unseen creature. Tensions rise due to various conflicts, including Jay and Seth's growing estrangement and the others' skepticism of Jay's belief that the disaster might be the Apocalypse predicted in the Book of Revelation. Emma Watson makes her way back to James' house, but due to a misunderstanding, she believes the group is planning to rape her and leaves with the group's remaining drinks.

Craig goes for water stored in James' cellar, but he encounters an unknown being, causing him to believe Jay's theory. Jay and Seth dig through the floor and find water, but Danny wastes most of it out of spite and the others kick him out of the house. Before leaving, Danny reveals that Jay was in town two months prior, but stayed at a hotel instead of with Seth because of their strained friendship. That night, Jonah prays for Jay to die and is possessed by a demon. Seth and James are attacked by the possessed Jonah, but Jay and Craig subdue Jonah and tie him up. During an exorcism attempt, Jay and Seth fight and knock over a candle, starting a fire that engulfs Jonah and the house and forces the others outside.

James suggests driving to his home in Malibu, California, but finds his car guarded by a demon. Craig volunteers to sacrifice himself and is raptured into Heaven when the plan succeeds; the others realize they can save themselves by performing a selfless act. On the way to Malibu, the three encounter cannibals led by Danny and his gimp, Channing Tatum. When James volunteers to sacrifice himself, a blue beam begins to pull him to Heaven, but when he taunts and insults Danny, the beam vanishes and Danny and the other cannibals eat James alive while Seth and Jay escape and encounter Satan. Jay apologizes to Seth for his wrongdoings while Satan attempts to eat them. A beam strikes Jay and he begins to ascend while Seth does not. Jay grabs Seth's hand, but his presence prevents them from ascending into Heaven; Seth forces Jay to leave him behind whereupon another beam appears around Seth.

The pair finally arrive in Heaven where they are reunited with Craig, who tells them that any wish comes true. After Jay wishes for the Backstreet Boys, the band performs "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" as everyone in Heaven dances.

Cast

Most of the film's cast portray fictional and exaggerated versions of themselves:[4]

Additionally, Brian Huskey portrays a survivor who attempts to enter Franco's home and Ricky Mabe appears as one of McBride's cannibals dressed as Santa Claus.[5] Jason Trost makes an uncredited appearance as JTRO, a character he portrayed in The FP (2011).[6]

Production

Regarding why they made the film, Rogen and Goldberg told interviewers that "We always wanted to do a movie where people played themselves and something extraordinary happened; the initial version of the film was Seth Rogen and Busta Rhymes were filming a music video and a film respectively, on the Sony lot, and Antmen attacked from the center of the earth."[7] The film is also based on Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse, a short film created by Rogen, Goldberg and Jason Stone in 2007.[8]

In an interview with The Guardian, Goldberg commented on influences contributing to the film, "If you drilled down to the core of what I do, it's just ripping off little bits of Charlie Kaufman. Seth and I always loved The Larry Sanders Show too. And the popularity of reality television now also feeds into that idea of whether what we're watching is actually real. We thought working with our friends in that situation would be awesome because they're all comedians willing to take stabs at themselves."[9] The actors play exaggerated versions of themselves, with only James Franco having no objections to doing what the script wanted him to do.[10]

While the film is set in Los Angeles, principal photography took place in New Orleans due to financial incentives from that city. Filming rolled from February to early July 2012.[11] The film had a production budget of $42 million, with $32 million spent in Louisiana.[3] Modus FX made over 240 visual effects for the film, such as natural disasters, set extensions for the house, computer-generated demons and the Rapture beams.[12] After filming wrapped, Rogen and Goldberg were displeased with their ending; they considered putting Morgan Freeman in Heaven, but he declined.[13] Since "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" already played in an earlier scene and Rogen and Goldberg wanted to close on an over-the-top note, they decided to feature the Backstreet Boys in the scene instead.[14]

During production, the film's working title was The Apocalypse, which was later changed to The End of the World.[8][15] The name was then changed to This Is the End on December 20, 2012 upon the release of its first trailer and poster.[16][17] This was done at the request of Rogen's Paul co-star Simon Pegg, who wrote to Rogen in concern that The End of the World was similar to his comedy film The World's End, which was also released in summer 2013 and centered around an apocalypse with an ensemble cast. As The World's End was the name of a key location in that film, Pegg felt worried that he couldn't change the name of his film.[18]

Music

Soundtrack
This Is the End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedJune 11, 2013
Recorded2013
GenreFilm soundtrack
Length48:43
LabelRCA

This Is the End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack of the film. It was released on June 11, 2013[19][20] by RCA Records.

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Take Yo Panties Off"Snoop Dogg & Craig Robinson5:06
2."Step Into a World (Rapture's Delight)"KRS-One4:50
3."Tipsy (Club Mix)"J-Kwon4:05
4."A Joyful Process"Funkadelic6:17
5."Love in the Old Days"Daddy4:18
6."When the Shit Goes Down"Cypress Hill3:11
7."Watchu Want"Belief & Karniege2:57
8."Easy Fix"K.Flay3:36
9."Spirit in the Sky"Norman Greenbaum3:58
10."Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"Backstreet Boys3:45
11."Please Save My Soul"Church Friends Choir featuring Pamela Landrum2:07
12."I Will Always Love You"Whitney Houston4:33
Total length:48:43
Songs featured in the film, but not in the soundtrack

Score

The score by Henry Jackman,[21] with additional material by Dominic Lewis and Matthew Margeson and conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith, was not officially released on its own, not even as bonus tracks on the CD or digital releases on RCA's album. Despite that, a promotional album for the score does exist, according to Soundtrack.net.[22]

No.TitleLength
1."Rapture on Melrose"1:47
2."Hills on Fire/The Sinkhole"3:36
3."Foreboding News Report"0:22
4."Can't Sleep"0:43
5."Head Guy"0:30
6."The Sinkhole Remains"0:35
7."This Shit is Biblical"0:58
8."Boredom Montage"0:36
9."Emma Returns"0:15
10."Drawing Matches Part 1"0:42
11."Craig Gets the Water"1:37
12."Creepy Basement Memorabilia"0:25
13."The Devil Rapes Jonah"1:17
14."Drawing Matches Part 2"1:05
15."Jay & Craig Go Outside"1:22
16."Something's Wrong with Jonah"0:37
17."Jonah is Possessed"0:35
18."Demonic Chase Sequence"4:01
19."Lights Out, Jay's Got a Plan"0:22
20."The Exorcism of Jonah Hill"0:37
21."Fire Chase"1:12
22."Craig's Last Stand"2:15
23."Franco's Demise"1:31
24."The Rapture of Seth & Jay"2:25
Total length:29:30

Release

On April 1, 2013, Sony released an April Fools' Day trailer for Pineapple Express 2, which was actually a teaser trailer for This Is the End.[23] According to Rogen and Goldberg, however, the homemade Pineapple Express 2 film in This Is the End depicts what they envision for the actual sequel.[24]

The film was rated R for "crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence" by the Motion Picture Association of America; this rating shocked both Rogen and Goldberg, who expected an NC-17 rating for the film. Goldberg stated: "All the ratings stuff doesn’t make sense in the first place, but this is like ludicrous," Rogen then commented: "We actually made it even a little worse than we wanted and that [original] version got approved. Insanely, [we] didn’t have a ratings issue."[25]

Sony re-released the film in 2000 theaters across North America on September 6, 2013.[26]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 1, 2013.[27] It was the last film to be rented by Blockbuster Video before they went out of business at 11:00 PM on November 9, 2013.[28] The Blu-ray release fully contains the original short the film was based on, Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse, as a special feature.

Reception

Box office

This Is the End grossed $101.5 million in the United States and Canada and $25.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $126.5 million, against a production budget of $32 million.[2] It made a net profit of $50 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.[29]

The film was released in North America on June 14, 2013, alongside Man of Steel, and was projected to open to around $12 million from 3,055 theaters.[30] The film made $7.8 million on its first day and went on to debut to $20.7 million in its opening weekend (a five-day total of $33 million), finishing second at the box office behind Man of Steel ($116.6 million).[31] In its second weekend it grossed $13.3 million, dropping to 4th.[32]

Critical response
Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Jonah Hill at a screening for the film in June 2013

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 224 reviews with an average rating of 7.14/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Energetic, self-deprecating performances and enough guffaw-inducing humor make up for the flaws in This Is the End's loosely written script."[33] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on reviews from 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[35]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a letter grade of "A", saying, "You could sit through a year's worth of Hollywood comedies and still not see anything that's genuinely knock-your-socks-off audacious. But This Is the End . . truly is. It's the wildest screen comedy in a long time and also the smartest, the most fearlessly inspired and the snort-out-loud funniest."[36] Brian D. Johnson of Maclean's wrote, "There could be worse ways to experience the apocalypse than with a party of stoned celebrities at James Franco's house. For one thing, his epic art collection can be used to board up the cracking walls against demons and zombies. That's the screwball scenario of This Is the End...The film unfolds as a profanely funny showbiz parody. But with perfect timing, it also sends up a genre that has recently gone viral at the multiplex: the apoca-blockbuster."[37]

Rick Groen of Canada's The Globe and Mail gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of five, comparing the film to the interminable wait for a cancelled bus and referring to the actors in the film as "the lazy, the privileged and the mirthless".[38]

Unproduced sequel

When Evan Goldberg was asked whether a sequel to the film was probable, he said, "If you ask me, I'd say there's a pretty good chance of a sequel. If you ask Seth Rogen, he'd say no." In June 2013, Goldberg announced some ideas for a sequel in which the apocalypse occurs at the premiere of the first film. "Seth's a cokehead in this version, Michael Cera is a calm dude with a boyfriend, Rihanna and The Backstreet Boys are back," Goldberg said in an interview. "We have a lot of ideas: a heaven and hell for example and a Garden of Eden version where Danny [McBride] is Adam."[39] Despite this, Goldberg has also stated that it would be difficult to recreate the casting conditions from the first film due to different schedules, believing them to be a stroke of luck by saying: "I honestly don't know if we could get the guys together [again]." In May 2014, Rogen posted a status of the sequel, saying: "I don't think we'll make a sequel to This Is the End, but if we did, it would be called No, THIS Is the End."[40]

Attraction

This Is the End was adapted into a 3D maze titled This Is the End 3D for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2015. The maze served as the event's first horror/comedy-based attraction.[41]

gollark: Actually, you can be safe if you train in all combat sports ever for several years retroactively.
gollark: Graphene oxide? Why are people being thing about graphene oxide, of all things?
gollark: People can get used to basically arbitrarily bad things.
gollark: Well, what I'd actually want is to have COVID-19 be mostly insignificant, not for it to still be quite bad but for people to be used to it.
gollark: Oh, another issue is that it's not really possible to test that unless you do challenge trials or something, which people are unwilling to.

See also

References
  1. "THIS IS THE END (15)". British Board of Film Classification. April 23, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  2. "This is the End (2013)". The Numbers. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  3. "Initial Certification Search" (Type "The End of the World" in the search box). Fastlane NextGen. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  4. Chitwood, Adam (December 20, 2012). "First Red-Band Clip and Poster for Seth Rogen's THIS IS THE END Starring Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, and Many More". Collider.com. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  5. Rogen, Seth and Evan Goldberg (directors) (2013). This Is the End (Motion picture). Sony Pictures Releasing.
  6. Francisco, Eric (February 4, 2016). "Indie Director Jason Trost Wants His Rematch in 'The FP' Sequel". Inverse. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  7. Rogen, Seth; Goldberg, Evan (June 14, 2013). "We are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg - Ask Us Anything". Reddit. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  8. Chitwood, Adam (April 6, 2012). "Aziz Ansari Joins Seth Rogen in THE APOCALYPSE". Collider. Archived from the original on August 15, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  9. Gilbey, Ryan (June 6, 2013). "This is the End: why actors love to play themselves". The Guardian. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  10. Good friends made 'This Is the End' into a real party, USA Today
  11. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's New Orleans: 'This Is the End' co-directors dive stomach-first into city, Times-Picayune
  12. "Modus FX Creates Monsters and Mayhem for 'This Is The End'". Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  13. How This Is the End Was Originally Going to End, The Vulture
  14. Seth Rogen This Is The End Interview, Entertainment Weekly
  15. "Aziz Ansari Joins 'The Apocalypse'". Spill.com. April 8, 2012. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  16. Lussier, Germain (December 20, 2012). "'This Is The End' Red-Band Teaser Clip and Poster: Seth Rogen's End Of The World Comedy Debuts, Before Possible End Of The World". /Film. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  17. Lussier, Germain (December 20, 2014). "'This Is The End' Emma Stone Movies: Best Netflix Movie, End Of The World Comedy Debuts Before, Action New Movies On Netflix, End Of The World". /Film. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  18. Vineyard, Jennifer (February 12, 2014). "Simon Pegg Didn't Love Man of Steel's Ending". Vulture. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  19. "This Is The End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Explicit]: Various: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  20. "iTunes Music – This Is the End (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists". iTunes Store. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  21. "Henry Jackman to Score 'The End of the World'". FilmMusicReporter.com.
  22. ""This Is the End" Original Score (Promotional Album) 2013". Soundtrack.net. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  23. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS 2 - Official Trailer. April 1, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2013 – via YouTube.
  24. Rogen, Seth; Goldberg, Evan (June 14, 2013). "We are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg - Ask Us Anything". Reddit. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  25. "'This Is the End' filmmakers: We expected NC-17, not R, rating". Los Angeles Times. June 5, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  26. "Seth Rogen And Evan Goldberg's "This Is The End" Is Returning To Theaters". CinemaBlend.com. September 3, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  27. "This Is the End Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  28. This Is The End (The Guardian)
  29. "Sony Hack Reveals Top-Secret Profitability of 2013 Movies". The Hollywood Reporter. December 5, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  30. "Box Office: 'This Is the End' Laughing its Way to $30 Million-Plus Start". Variety. June 11, 2013.
  31. "Weekend Box Office Results for June 14-16, 2013". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  32. "Weekend Box Office Results for June 21-23, 2013". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. June 24, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  33. This Is the End at Rotten Tomatoes Fandango Media. Retrieved December 21, 2019
  34. This Is the End at Metacritic CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 6, 2013
  35. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  36. Gleiberman, Owen (June 8, 2013). "Movie Review: This Is the End". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  37. Johnson, Brian D. (June 7, 2013). "Was Armageddon always this complicated?". Maclean's. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  38. Groen, Rick D. "This Is the End leaves viewers asking: When will it be over?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  39. "Evan Goldberg Thinks 'This is The End' Sequel is Entirely Possible". Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  40. "Seth Rogen on Twitter". Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  41. "Halloween Horror Nights Event in Los Angeles". Retrieved August 14, 2016.
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