One thing I didn't get... (Spoilers)

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Putting it simply. He comes back, and his daughter is gone. He has a matter of hours to live, during which he had also planned to meet up with the rest of his family. As is confirmed, the plan was for them to meet at her Aunt's place following any separation. To me, all occurred as anticipated.

So the dad didn't leave a note for his daughter on the car.

He didn't wait around to see if she made it.

He didn't leave a note for her before he killed himself.

They didn't address these issues which made the film feel more contrived. They could have still have what happened happen, if only they'd acknowledged these things.

Probably would have been more of an impact if they'd gotten to the Aunt's house and some people had just attacked and killed the family for their petrol (the thing James had been coming into conflict over the whole film). Then the dad wouldn't seem so irresponsible.

They could have arrived just after the family had been killed and caught the people leaving with the petrol. James could have attacked and overpowered them, and the thieves could have begged for mercy as they only needed petrol so they could reach their loved ones (but the Dad wouldn't give it up - because he had decided to go back for his daughter).

James lets the thieves go (or the girl convinces him to let them go). But the Dad is still dead. And James now has the petrol he needs to return to his girlfriend. The girl decides to stay with her dead dad because that's what he wanted.

So, in the beggining, the creeps took the little girl from her father. And the dad just goes on with his life? Like, "my daughter has just been kidnapped... well, too bad.

Let me just go on my way to meet the rest of the family and kill myself. Nevermind the kid."

I mean, WTF? I would hunt them down and use their carcasses as a godd@mn heat shield.

Instead, he goes to Aunt what's-her-name house

I'm not sure how the "resources" to find and steal a car translates into the ability to track down a kidnapped girl in a chaotic city full of crazy people where even the cops are losing their minds and shooting themselves. But you're right, it was a little contrived. Rose claims that her father told her to go to Aunt Janice's house if they got separated, but it seems a bit far-fetched that he'd actually think she could get there on her own.

I doubt he went to Janice's actually expecting Rose to meet him there, but under the circumstances it was probably desperation. Maybe his plan was to round up the rest of the family to help look for her, but whatever happened happened.

I'm assuming the Dad chose the lesser of two evils when he left her to go get petrol. Deciding it would be safer for her to be in the car in an isolated area that seemed to be away from the chaos as opposed to taking her out into all the craziness that was happening in the streets, risking getting himself and her killed. He probably told her to meet him at the Aunt's house "in case of separation" thinking if anything happened to him, she shouldn't just continue to sit in the car and wait for him, but do her best to make it to the rest of the family. Of course, when he returned she was gone. Why leave a note, either she made her way to the Aunt's or something happened to her and who knows if he had a pen. He obviously not finding petrol could have walked to the Aunt's hoping for the odds to be in his favor. Obviously they weren't. But they were in Rose's, if James had of stayed with Zoe at the beach, Rose would have been messed over.


Of course all that crumbs under the weight of, if James' friend had enough time to plan and build a shelter, then how come "Dad" couldn't plan to have a full tank of gas in the first place.

I HATE reading idiotic comments like these made from people who are checking their phones and talking throughout the movie, oblivious to the answers to their questions being presented in the movie they should have been paying attention to.

As some people have already explained, the dad left the girl to look for gas. It's the end of the world, people aren't thinking completely rationally, which is what would REALLY happen if we all found out we only had so much time left. In his mental state, he probably thought his daughter was safer in the car in an empty parking lot rather than going in neighborhoods and abandoned homes to steal gas while maniacs are roaming around with guns and machetes. Also, if he came back and found her gone, he HAD left instructions for her to go to her aunt's if they got separated, so why waste precious time burning gas roaming around looking for her when she could have well been on her way to her aunt's after he didn't come back in a certain amount of time. He probably found her gone and raced to the aunt's. The other scenario is he came back to find her gone with her things still there and came to the sad realization that she was dead and felt hopeless and went to his family . In his despair, he probably didn't see any other choice but to kill himself with the rest of the family.

This is one of those scenarios where everyone can be a critic and say "I would have done this..." or "That's stupid, you SHOULD have done this..." but we never know what we would actually do in a certain situation. I always said I would fight back if someone with a knife or gun tried to take my car or wallet but when I was actually mugged, I didn't do any of those heroics. Some of your project far too much onto fictional works. It's a movie, you should sit and enjoy it. It's not a biography or "based on a true story" or "a real documentary sent from the future," it's a fictional world with fictional characters and fictional scenarios that play out using the physics, history, and current events of THAT fictional world. Get over it.

One angle to approach it is he may have gone back to Janices place to get everyone together to find Rose, but someone came and killed them as mentioned they are all shot, there was no guns and if you look at the scene where they arrived to the house a couple of the cars have their petrol caps opened.

Her Dad clearly found some way to get back there so it is possible it was one of the relatives or he promised some rouge person petrol if he gets them to X place and that person/s killed the rest of the family and took off with their fuel.

To quote Rose "there is still time" so in theory especially with less traffic there may have been time to get back to Janice's house and go back, keep in mind I have nfi of Perth Geography.