Last Cab to Darwin

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jeremy Sims directs. Steve Arnold behind the camera. Ed Kuepper scores. Marcus D'Arcy cuts. Produced in Australia. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 11 years ago.
• 2Directed by Jeremy Sims, shot by Steve Arnold. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Ed Kuepper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Marcus D'Arcy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Michael Caton and Jacki Weaver and Emma Hamilton carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "It's never too late to start living.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt3680410 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Only 82 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 9Classified under 13 themes, including "australia", "suicide", "taxi", "cancer".

The technical file

Cinematography

Steve Arnold

Original score

Ed Kuepper

Editing

Marcus D'Arcy

Runtime

124 min · 2h 4m

Status

Released

Original language

EN

IMDB

Last Cab to Darwin (2015) ↗

Also by

Jeremy Sims

• 
  Rescue: Special Ops

  2009 · ★ 9.1
• 
  RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service

  2021 · ★ 8.7
• 
  Doctor Doctor

  2016 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Beneath Hill 60

  2010 · ★ 6.8
• 
  Rams

  2020 · ★ 6.3
• 
  Wayne

  2018 · ★ 6.0

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Last Cab to Darwin Official Trailer 1 (2016) - Jacki Weaver, Michael Caton Movie HD

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-02-14
  ★ 7/10

  Some discoveries come at the last hours of the life. When a movie is based on the play, setting wise it will be a tight narration. But the advantage is, movies can expand its screenplay in the natural world where stage plays has a limitation with the fake backgrounds. And obviously movies can reach any corner of the earth in the todays digital world while plays are for a limited live audience. So I think that is how this play turned into a motion picture, importantly, it was funded by the government and all the above it won a couple of Australian Academy Awards. It was a cancer themed thin comedy-drama with a little road adventure in the backdrop. A story that follows a 70-year-old cab driver Rex from Broken Hill. He has never been outside his town until he finds he has a cancer, so he takes a 3000 kilometer drive to Darwin looking for a doctor who can help him with his suffering. At the dusk hours of his life, he encounters some strangers and many stuffs for the first time. So this film is all about his final and best experience in the end of the life journey. I like sentimental films, I chose it because I haven't felt the emotions through my heart for a movie in the recent time. I expected it to fulfill my desire, but it only fell short. To me it was a decent movie in the first half, but it got better in the next half. The opening was kind of slow and dry, the cast was totally unfamiliar to me. I needed time to get used to a sudden change of accent after watching so many Hollywood flicks. Because you know we don't watch Aussie movies everyday and so the style of comedies differs with the different region. "You want everything to be black and white, but it's not. It's gray." The best thing ever happened was the introduction of the characters Tilly and Julie. One is an aboriginal and the other is a British who joins Rex, the Aussie. They are the main source for the story to grow in the right direction. Because of them the narration had a subplot to focus their perspectives as well. Without them definitely it would have been a worthless flick. The end was not at its best. It hat many options, but they decided to finish it in an uncertain manner. Since it was a road movie, I also anticipated exhibition of beautiful Australian landscapes, that never came. I understand they don't want distraction from the main plot, because this was one of those films that took time for the characters to settle down. Even though it approaches the conclusion, the characters had kept deepening in its development. My upset with the movie was, it was a quite different from the usual cancer films. Precisely to say, it was very weak in the exhibition of character feelings. Certainly it won't make you weep. Just like one of the lines at the beginning that says 'everyone gets cancer', the movie was too casual like this is a regular thing. But the scenario where the story sets in and takes us with it was exceptional. I have a hesitation to recommend it, but it is a good movie if you're okay with the thing I expressed which are lacking. 6½/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• LA

  Last Cab Productions

• PO

  Pork Chop Productions

Key crew

• Script EditorAndy Cox
• Second Assistant DirectorChristopher Turner
• Camera OperatorJohn Platt
• Still PhotographerWendy McDougall
• First Assistant "B" CameraDaniel Foeldes
• Script EditorDavid Roach
• Production AccountantSamantha Scowcroft
• First Assistant "A" CameraSteivan Hasler
• Third Assistant DirectorEmma Masters
• First Assistant DirectorSteve E. Andrews
• Key GripMarcus Bosisto
• Executive ProducerAndrew Myer
• Executive ProducerIan Darling
• ProducerLisa Duff
• Executive ProducerChris Cuffe
• Executive ProducerJon Adgemis
• Theatre PlayReg Cribb
• EditorMarcus D'Arcy
• Executive ProducerPrue MacLeod
• Executive ProducerEdward Simpson
• Executive ProducerNatasha Cuffe
• Executive ProducerMark Nelson
• Executive ProducerMichael Burton
• ProducerGreg Duffy

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• australia
• suicide
• taxi
• cancer
• doctor
• dog
• outback
• road movie
• australian outback
• euthanasia
• assisted suicide
• broken hill
• darwin, australia

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2016-01-10· Palm Springs Internation Film Festival