The Last Bus

"Returning to the past, he found his future."

2021 1h 28m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 102

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.

“Returning to the past, he found his future.”

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Cast

Timothy Spall
Tom
Phyllis Logan
Mary
Natalie Mitson
Young Mary
Ben Ewing
Young Tom
Patricia Panther
Tracy
Saskia Ashdown
Imogen
Colin McCredie
Graham
Marnie Baxter
Alice

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Writers: Joe Ainsworth
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

88 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, shot by George Geddes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Nick Lloyd Webber. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Anne Sopel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan and Natalie Mitson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Returning to the past, he found his future.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt9410034 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gillies MacKinnon directs. George Geddes behind the camera. Nick Lloyd Webber scores. Anne Sopel cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Released 5 years ago.
3Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, shot by George Geddes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Nick Lloyd Webber. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Anne Sopel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan and Natalie Mitson carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Returning to the past, he found his future.".
8IMDB entry: tt9410034 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: George Geddes
Original score: Nick Lloyd Webber
Editing: Anne Sopel
Production design: Andy Harris
Costume design: Gill Horn
Makeup / hair: Anita Anderson
Sound: Sven Taits
Runtime: 88 min · 1h 28m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Last Bus (2021)

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Gillies MacKinnon

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Peter McGinn2021-11-19
★ 10/10
This is a slow-paced movie where not much exciting happens. You can see that just by reading the reviews: the negative ones that use words like boring, and nothing happens! This is perhaps why there is such an audience out there for end to end action movies. A lot of viewers want movies with simple plots, where every problem is caused and solved by acts of violence. Those movies are easier to watch if you have talkative friends over for movie night, or want to constantly text while viewing and — sorry, I seem to have fallen into rant mode. Timothy Spall does his usual sublime work, and it is easy to forget the actor is 30 years younger than this role. The rest of the cast are not too shabby either. The dialogue rings true most of the time. I am not sure it pieces together the social media connection as well as it could have, but that is quite minor. This is a great character study of a normal guy, with backstory about his marriage added in through gradual flashbacks. One of my favorite elements of this film is the way they keep Spall’s elderly character consistent. He is a bit of a curmudgeon right from the start of his journey, at least until the people he encounters get beneath his outer shell, and he is the same way at the end. It would have been easy to have him be Mr. Sunshine at the end, affected by the kindness and approval he encountered along the way, but his character stayed true to himself. It is a movie of neat small touches; too quiet for many, just right for others, like me.
CinemaSerf2024-01-02
★ 6/10
Having recently lost his wife to cancer, "Tom" (Timothy Spall) decides to meticulously follow a route they took many years earlier from John O'Groats in Caithness all the way down the island of Great Britain to his hometown near Land's End in Cornwall - some 800-odd miles away. Armed only with a thick coat and a tiny suitcase, he determines to use his bus pass and along the way meets a wide variety of caring - and not so caring - individuals who engage with him, invite him into their lives, or just throw him off the bus for not having a ticket! As his journey continues he starts to attract the attention of local media but he's pretty ambivalent to any of that - he has just become a man with a mission. Along the way we are treated to some flashbacks of their early life - Ben Ewing and Natalie Mitson providing the acting - as we learn of their early lives, love and, of course, of their traumas and tribulations along the way. The story takes it's time and though never exactly dull, it's not especially lively either. Some of the events on his bus trip come across as a little overly contrived and Spall has precious little by way of dialogue to enliven this often rather plodding drama. At times, though, it presents a poignant opportunity for a man to reflect on a lifetime spent with the woman he loved and I'm sure will resonate widely with people dealing with loss and grief.