Time's Up

That’s the question raised by the apocalyptic Australian drama These Final Hours, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Zak Hilditch. As the world-ending event that’s already claimed much of life on Earth approaches Perth, people are giving in to their most hedonistic impulses with no mind to the consequences, simply because there’ll be none. However, for James, played by Nathan Phillips, surrendering to self-indulgence proves harder than he thought.

“Drawing on my own fears as a now 30-year-old man coming to terms with shifting adult responsibilities, I developed James, a man unwilling to accept responsibility, but [who] when forced to, realises his own self-worth,” Hilditch writes in his director’s notes. 

“I wanted to explore the last day on Earth through the eyes of an everyman like James. He’s a guy unable to face the end head-on, who just wants to go to the party to end all parties and numb the pain, but ultimately he realises that it’s never too late to find redemption, even in the face of the apocalypse.”

"I wanted to explore the last day on Earth through the eyes of an everyman like James"

Phillips, whose credits include Wolf Creek and Australian Rules, was attracted to These Final Hours for multiple reasons: he was impressed by Hilditch’s short film, Transmission, he was intrigued by the premise (“the story, so surreal yet it’s believable, not that far from a reality that could happen now”) and he saw a valid, valuable message in the journey of James, who connects with something greater than himself when he takes lost child Rose (Angourie Rice) under his wing.

“James represents the human condition,” says Phillips. “He lives in a part of the world he doesn’t want to be in, he has some very meaningless relationships, his life is fuelled by sex and drugs and alcohol and that can only last so long, so James is at this precipice of life. And playing a character like that, my job isn’t to judge him but play him honestly, to link up the dots. We all get lost and we all forget how simple life really is and how important it is just to be connected with each other. James has that opportunity through Rose; she’s the catalyst for change, for growth. Making this film, we all talked about what we would do with our remaining time, and it was always fundamentally the same: be around people you love and do something special. What we should do every day.”

Based in the US, he’s currently appearing in the second season of American TV drama, The Bridge, but Phillips is finding that he prefers to be more engaged with life than with work, a point of view only reinforced by his involvement in These Final Hours.

“It just confirmed that I only want to work on projects and productions that move me.”