Daniel von Bargen as Pineview Sheriff Briscoe.Her speech, along with modern clothing and technology, reveal that the Postman and his mail carriers' actions have helped rebuild the United States. Rose, Oregon in tribute to her father, who has recently died (1973–2043). Thirty years later, the Postman's grown daughter, accompanied by other public figures and servicemen (including postal workers), speaks at a ceremony unveiling a bronze statue by territorial waters in St. Getty then surrenders, and the rest of the Holnists follow his lead. Bethlehem tries to attack the Postman from behind but is shot dead by his own lieutenant, Col. The Postman wins the fight but spares Bethlehem's life to maintain morale. Knowing the casualties will be great if the armies meet in battle, the Postman instead challenges Bethlehem for leadership, with their troops as witnesses. The mounted Carriers and Holnists meet across a field. In a recitation of King Henry V's speech prior to the Siege of Harfleur, the Postman rallies himself and his troops to war. Before leaving, he and Abby reciprocate their feelings and fall in love. When Bethlehem's scouts catch up, the mayor helps the Postman escape on a cable car to find volunteers for a resistance army. The Postman and Abby, closely followed by young carriers Eddie, Ponytail and Billy, travel to Bridge City. However, Bethlehem learns to his dismay that the Postman's example has spread farther than he could have anticipated when his men capture a carrier from California, and he redoubles his efforts to find the Postman. In the face of mounting casualties, the Postman orders the service to disband and writes a surrender letter to Bethlehem. They have established communications with other settlements, creating a quasi-society and inadvertently spreading hope.īethlehem is still fighting to suppress the postal carriers, who are being executed one by one. She reveals that Ford Lincoln Mercury organized others to join the postal service. When spring arrives, they leave and run into a girl, who claims to be a postal carrier. A pregnant Abby and an injured Postman ride out the winter in an abandoned cabin.
The Postman surrenders, but Abby saves him from execution, and the two escape into the surrounding mountains. He has the post office burned to the ground, kills Michael, abducts Abby, and raids Benning looking for the Postman. When the Postman leaves for the town of Benning, he carries a pile of mail left at the post office door by the townspeople.ĭuring a raid of Pineview, General Bethlehem learns of the Postman’s tales of a restored government in Minneapolis and becomes afraid of losing power if word spreads. The Postman also meets spouses Abby and Michael, fulfilling their clinical request to impregnate her.
The Postman inspires a teenager named Ford Lincoln Mercury, swears him into the postal service, and even sets up a post office. He convinces town sheriff Briscoe to let him in by showing a letter addressed to elderly villager Irene March. With the postman's uniform and mail bag, he arrives in the settlement of Pineview claiming to be from the newly restored U.S. When the nomad escapes, he takes refuge in a long-deceased postman's mail vehicle. The Holnists, under their leader, General Bethlehem, are the de facto authority in the area, collecting tribute and recruits from local towns. At one town, the nomad is forced at gunpoint into the ranks of the Holnists, a neo-fascist militia, and is branded on his shoulder with their symbol, a figure 8.
In 2013, an unnamed nomad enters the Utah flatlands, trading performances of long forgotten Shakespearean plays for food and water. It was nominated for three Saturn Awards but won all five of its Golden Raspberry Award nominations including Worst Picture. Released on Christmas of 1997 from Warner Bros., The Postman was a major critical failure and a box-office bomb, grossing a total of $20 million worldwide. Like the book, the film follows the story of a nomadic drifter (Costner) who stumbles across the uniform of an old United States Postal Service mail carrier, and unwittingly inspires hope through an empty promise of a "Restored United States of America" and starts his path to become a national hero. It is set in a post-apocalyptic and neo-Western version of the disestablished United States in the then near-future year of 2013, sixteen-plus years after unspecified apocalyptic events, followed by plagues, left a huge impact on human civilization and erased most technology. The film also features Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, and Tom Petty. The screenplay was written by Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland, based on David Brin's 1985 book of the same name. The Postman is a 1997 American post-apocalyptic action adventure film produced and directed by Kevin Costner, who plays the lead role.