End of the world Now is a 1979 American epic mental conflict movie coordinated and delivered by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, and Dennis Hopper. The screenplay, co-composed by Coppola and John Milius with portrayal composed by Michael Herr, is approximately founded on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late nineteenth century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a stream venture from South Vietnam into Cambodia attempted by Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen), who is on a mysterious mission to kill Colonel Kurtz (Brando), a rebel Army Special Forces official blamed for homicide and who is assumed crazy.