Lifted Synopsis
The main character, Darwin Hayes, is introduced in the prologue as the last man on earth. He flashes back to when he and his friends from NYU, Aimee Larson and Ellizabeth Karman, meet in Washington Square to discuss the recent news about severe carbon dioxide poisoning. As they talk, they encounter a psychic, Diana Santanda, who has set up her stand in the Square and is preaching about the world’s destruction. Ellizabeth is in the process of making a photography portfolio and insults Diana when she tries to photograph her. The three friends believe Diana is a scam and get into an argument. Diana moves her stand, insulted, and Darwin decides to return to his apartment.
As he is studying, Darwin uncovers his video camera and decides to attempt recording the remainder of human life. As he sets up his camera, he gets a call from his friend, Ian Sakae, who invites him to have dinner with him at the bar where he tends. The two of them, plus a tugboat captain, Jeff Daniels, further discuss the news, which Ian doesn’t believe. Darwin is afraid to continue talking about the disease and decides to leave.
While walking around town that night, Darwin meets Aimee and Ellizabeth across the street from Central Park. They are later joined by a new student, Lora Yazzie, a Botanist who has transferred to NYU from Arizona to study the environment in the city. They are distracted by a strange man lurking around the park and crouching by a small rose garden. They later learn the man's name is Cresig and his brother is illegally buried in the Park. Cresig tells them a rumor that the New York senator, James Slayter, is planning to destroy Central Park, while also continuing to run his large, carbon dioxide-releas
ing, companies as he is running for re-election. Slayter defends himself a few days later by making a speech to the masses, claiming that the New York government has deemed the carbon dioxide news untrue. He tells the masses that there is nothing to worry about and the crowd continues to support Slayter. Darwin is not satisfied with Slayter and decides to personally visit Cresig. Cresig convinces Darwin that the threatening poison is very much real.
Darwin once again meets Ian and Jeff, who explains that as he sailed his tugboat up from Florida, he noticed that the news was just as big on the other coast. The fact that the news is so wide-spread begins to disturb Darwin and he decides to go find Diana. He asks her for a prediction and while she is at first reluctant because of their first encounter, she also confirms that the news could be serious. She confides in Darwin and gives him elm seeds, which Darwin initially is confused by. As far of a stretch that he thinks the seeds are, he decides to keep them for fear of further insulting her.
The next few days around campus, Darwin, Ellizabeth and Aimee can’t find Lora. She finally sees them and announces that she will be leaving for Minnesota to assist in an experiment to help slow the carbon dioxide down. She decides to go to Cresig and find out his take on the experiment. She leaves the next day and Aimee decides to keep track of the experiment and write articles about the updates. Aimee’s articles earn a spot in the Times and the group gets together to celebrate her success.
Things stay constant for about two months until Slayter makes a public announcement about his plan to cut down the trees in Central Park. Because his party doesn’t believe in the CO problem, they plan to build a “consolation building” in the area, where people can come to “relieve their stress” over the problem they refuse to believe is true, just to make money from it. However, Slayter’s party has gained so much support just from the overall fear in the society, so the majority goes along with the plan.
As the situation worsens, the majority is thinking about moving out of most urban areas. Jeff reports it to the group as many people have asked him to charter groups out of the city on his boat. Aimee comes into the group meeting late with new information on the experiment. Part of Lora’s experiment involved the decrease in a wolf breed’s food supply and a small portion of the wolves broke loose and resorted to other food sources. Aimee tells everyone that she contacted the Minnesota local area and discovered that Lora was killed in the wolf incident.
As people begin to die from the poisoning, the majority begins to follow Jeff’s idea and Jeff prepares to charter a boat load out of the city. Ian decides to join Jeff’s boat and they leave the city.
After Lora’s death, Ellizabeth, who has been researching Slayter's plan, decides to visit Cresig. Cresig calms her but Ellizabeth decides to become an activist against the government. As she leaves, Slayter comes to visit Cresig and claims to know about his brother's illegal burial in the park. He makes an offer that the grave will remain intact if Cresig pays him a large sum of money. After Cresig declines his bribe, Slayter brings out a gun and shoots Cresig in the head. As Ellizabeth stands far back watching, she captures the image on her camera.
Meanwhile, Jeff has set off with his passengers and is sailing down toward the southern coast. They come across another boat load that has crashed. Jeff decides to take them onboard but there are too many people and too much panic and chaos and the boat is overturned and capsizes. Jeff and Ian, as well as all the rest of the passengers, drown in the middle of the ocean.
Back in the city, Slayter is making another public announcement about the progress of the Central Park reconstruction and the news of Cresig's mysterious death (which he calls a suicide). Ellizabeth stands and shows the picture to the masses, proving his guilt in Cresig’s death, convincing the masses to join her protest, which she dedicates to Cresig. In the recent mass chaos, the crowd has become crazy and careless with the upcoming prospect of death and begins to riot throughout the city. The majority, once controlled by Slayter, now turns on him and rips him to shreds in the middle of Central Park. As the carbon dioxide poisoning is continually and suddenly getting worse, most of society begins to die from the epidemic. Over the next few weeks, more and more people begin to die of the poisoning with no cure. Ellizabeth’s health continues to worsen and she finally dies next to her completed portfolio.
A few days after they find Ellizabeth, Darwin and Aimee sit in his apartment as Aimee’s health deteriorates. The two talk about how they wish they could have changed things before it was too late. Aimee recalls owning a copy of Dr. Seuss’ book, The Lorax (a story about the Lorax leaving his land before it becomes polluted), and she shows it to Darwin before turning in for the night. Aimee finally dies as well in her sleep and Darwin is left alone. With everyone else dead, Darwin decides to find Diana. He finally discovers her in the city amidst the rioters, who are mocking and abusing her, and has a final discussion with her, including an apology, before she accepts her fate and walks among the rioters where she is eventually killed by one.
On the final night of humanity, the riots continue and after Diana’s death, Darwin realizes he is running out of time. He wanders the streets, watching the rioters burn and destroy all the building as one by one, they all drop from the poison. Darwin seeks peace and quiet in the Washington Square, where he and his friends would meet on campus, and watches all that he caught on film in the previous six months of the epidemic. When the film is over, he remembers the elm seeds from Diana in his pocket and, as his final act, plants them around the destroyed Square.
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