The Hollow Men in Popular Culture - Film, Television and Gaming

Film, Television and Gaming

• Eliot's poem was also a strong influence on Francis Ford Coppola and the movie Apocalypse Now. In the film, antagonist Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando) is depicted reading parts of the poem out loud to his followers. Furthermore, in the Complete Dossier DVD release of the film, there is a 17 minute special feature of Kurtz reciting the poem in its entirety. The poem's epigraph is "Mistah Kurtz - he dead" which is a quote from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, upon which the film is loosely based.

• The CBS television show, Beauty and the Beast, created by Ron Koslow also shows influence of Eliot's poem. The nineteenth episode in season two was entitled "The Hollow Men" and featured two young men who murder women soullessly and without remorse.

• The Hollowmen is an Australian comedy series on ABC1 about a small group of government advisers.

• The BBC science-fiction programme Doctor Who references both the "Falls the Shadow" section (the words had also been used previously as the title of a Doctor Who novel) and the "This is the Way the World Ends…" conclusion in the 2007 episode The Lazarus Experiment.

• Barry Evans' character in the film Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967) states "This is the way the world shall end. Not with a bang, but with a Wimpy."

• The final stanza is printed one line at a time at the beginning of the Television production of Stephen King's The Stand. The poem is also referenced in part by the character who feels responsible for the deadly 'Captain Tripps' virus being unleashed.

• In the game Myth: The Fallen Lords, the Soulless units were nicknamed Hollow Men, floating ethereal skeletons that served as ranged attack units for the antagonist in the single player campaign, and as controllable units in the multiplayer portion.

• Before the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, a series of emails were transmitted to a gaming website. The emails contained what would later be known as the Cortana Letters. In the first transmission, the letter makes reference to Eliot's last stanza when it states: "Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong: THIS is the way the world ends." The cryptic message would be elaborated upon in the game's sequels, another appearance in promotional material for Halo 3, spoken by the character Cortana. The aforementioned scene was included in the final version of the game with Cortana speaking the line at a critical moment in the story when all hope seems lost. Also, the character Gravemind is heard speaking broken-up lines from this poem in the background at various points in Halo 3. Towards the end of the game, Sgt. Johnson states "Send me out with a bang" as he dies. The final section of the last level is titled "The Way the World Ends". Also, there are three reversed messages in the Halo 3 Soundtrack, one of them making reference to lines from the poem.

• In Metal Gear Solid 2, near the end, the protagonist, Raiden, has a conversation with an A.I. construct about the saturation of information caused by the internet, and other modern communication advancements. The A.I. tells Raiden: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper."

• The trailer for the 2007 film Southland Tales, directed by Richard Kelly, plays on the poem stating - "This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a bang". The film also quotes the line a number of times, mostly in voice overs.

• In White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness roleplaying game Mage: The Ascension, the "Hollow Ones" are a Tradition of Mages named after Eliot's poem.

• The poem appears in the PC game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! during a cutscene in which Dylan Klebold remembers how he was always the only one sitting alone in the cafeteria.

• In the 1954 movie A Star is Born when James Mason (as Norman Maine) kills himself, the film studio publicist quotes from the poem, saying "This is the way the world ends; not with a bang but with a whimper."

• The Broadway play August: Osage County quotes passages from "The Hollow Men," stating "This is the way the world ends", and "Life is very long."

• In the June 3, 2009, episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert signed off by reciting the poem's last four lines, with the word "show" substituted for "world". He then added, "See? You did use your English degree."

• In Shadow Man, if one loses the battle to Legion, he quotes the final stanza to Michael just before he begins the Apocalypse.

• In the episode "My Old Kentucky Home" of Mad Men the character Paul Kinsley recites the concluding part of the poem.

• The penultimate episode of the TV series Dollhouse is titled "The Hollow Men," and concerns the characters' failure to avert a coming apocalypse.

• In an episode of the television series Frasier entitled You Scratch My Book..., Frasier's short-time lover Honey Snow dismisses him by quoting the last line of The Hollow Men, telling him "the world ends not with a bang, but a whimper".

• In the mini series version of The Stand, it features the ending lines of the poem.

• In the anime Highschool of the Dead, the line "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper" was quoted at the end of episode 12.

• In the movie Easy A, Emma Stone is making a webcast that has different parts, and at the start of each part is a short introduction written on a notebook. The last one was "Not with a fizzle, but with a bang", referencing the poem.

• The sixth season finale of Dexter, which deals with religious and apocalyptic themes, is titled "This is the Way the World Ends."

• The poem was used in the R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour episode "Scarecrow," in which a scarecrow salesman's wares are the cause for mass disappearances.

• In an episode ofThe Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper says, "To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a nephew."

• In the 2013 BBC drama The Fall, the murderer quotes a verse from the poem in a journal he maintains relating to his acts and pertaining to his state of mind.