After the Dark (2013)

James D'Arcy: Mr. Zimit

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mr. Zimit : Do you know what apocalypse actually means?

  Petra : Tell me.

  Mr. Zimit : It's from the Greek "apokálypsis", meaning to uncover what you couldn't see before... a way out of the dark.

  Petra : Your sweet talk still needs work.

• [Mr. Zimit just announced to the class that they'll conduct a final big thought experiment, about survival during a global cataclysm] 

  Chips : But what kind of cataclysm are we talking about? Gamma ray burst? Pandemic? Erupting super volcano? A sudden shift in the Earth's axis rotation? Grey goo?

  Mr. Zimit : Hang on, Chips, we'll get there.

  Chips : But is it biological? Geological? Thermo-nuclear? Meteorological?

  Mr. Zimit : Let's go old school. Say... atomic.

• Mr. Zimit : So here we are, at the end of it all. I've done what I can for you, now you have to go out and think on your own. Time to fly or die.

  Georgina : Still defending Aristotle, Mr. Zimit? Up or down. Zero or one. True or false. Fly or die. You're a slave to binary logic, you know that?

• Mr. Zimit : The good news is, although we're about to part ways: Not one of you leaves here lacking the credentials to thrive in the world. You're all well-equipped to push on to university and become happy energetic members of a post-industrial twenty-first century society. On the other hand: what if that society ceases to exist? What if your credentials don't mean what you expected, and your expectations mean nothing at all? I know it's hard to conceive of everything you've based your plans on being wiped away at a single stroke; but it's happened before and it can happen again... So let's say things do change. I propose one last "Gedankenexperiment", a final thought experiment, for our final session together. Something on a grand scale, something juicy. Let's envision... a global cataclysm. In the event of which: how do you survive?

  Jack : Uhmm... the last day of the year is, you know, traditionally sort of a chill experience for seniors. This is starting to feel not-so-chill.