The Arc

Engineer Walter Fahr has constructed a massive passenger submarine, the 'Gloria'. The vessel undertakes a test journey with various esteemed invitees aboard, together with several animals, and the blind passenger Professor Keigo Sotuma. […] When those aboard the 'Gloria' return to the surface, they find a ship whose entire crew is dead. It is the astronomer Sotuma who figures out what has happened: during their undersea journey, the Earth was scorched by the tail of a comet, and all life extinguished. The 'Gloria' sails back to shore, carrying the final humans into a dead world…

Directed by Richard Oswald, The Arc leans on a strong ensemble — Leo Connard, Eva Speyer, Georg H. Schnell — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about science fiction titles of 1919.