Viggo Mortensen & Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) - Interview

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It is more than ten years since the world was destroyed—by what, nobody can say. Whatever it was, is that there is no energy, no power, no vegetation, no food.

The Man (Viggo Mortensen) and The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are on the move with all their precious possessions—whatever food and clothing they can scrounge—on their backs and in a shopping cart outfitted with a bicycle mirror so they can see who's coming up behind them. Their desperate, improvised traveling gear and their scruffy unwashed bodies give them the look of the homeless. And that is what they are. That's what everybody is in this lifeless frontier.

Even in this bleak universe, there are moments of happiness. The child's innate goodness, his compassion and his sense of wonder and curiosity remind the man of why he must keep on going no matter what, even when he has forgotten why he must do it.