Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly begins as a hardboiled detective story and ends as a nuclear nightmare. Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer is a thuggish opportunist whose encounter with a terrified hitchhiker plunges him into a maze of gangsters, spies and a coveted glowing briefcase. As Hammer blunders forward, violence escalates and Los Angeles feels increasingly unstable, as if the city itself were fraying.

The film’s restless night drives, dangerous women and explosive finale have resonated deeply with later filmmakers. Its vision of LA as a paranoid labyrinth sits comfortably alongside Lynch’s Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Kiss Me Deadly shows noir mutating into something wilder and more hallucinated: a world where the MacGuffin at the story’s centre might literally destroy everything.

With an accompanying essay and introduction by Cinema Year Zero.

Doors open at 18.30, for a 19.30 start.

Refreshments will be available in our licensed cafe/bar.

TICKETS & PRICING

Tickets £10.

Advance tickets may be purchased from Ticketlab, or direct from the Museum by calling 020 7840 2200 in office hours.