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Synopsis

The breakthrough feature of experimental filmmaker Gregg Araki, The Living End also marked a seminal moment in the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s. A startling synthesis of thriller, love story, comedy and road movie, it's a consciously political and uncompromising work that confronts mainstream America's fear of AIDS.

Luke (Mike Dyrti) is a rootless hustler who's determined to "live fast, die young, and make a beautiful corpse" while Jon (Craig Gilmore) is a freelance writer whose life and stability are devastated when he finds out he's HIV positive. They meet by chance (or is it fate?), and when Luke kills a cop, they take to the road, embarking on a wild odyssey with devastating consequences.

Peppered with film references, specifically to other movies featuring couples on the run and powered by a soundtrack heavy on industrial music, Araki's blistering independent opus is propelled by rage and indignation.