We keep talking about Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway having big years, but sneakily Tom Hiddleston’s having a pretty solid one, too. He’s coming off the return of The Night Manager and he was already one of Marvel’s chair reveals for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie. Amidst these high-profile roles, he also executive produced and narrated a documentary for National Geographic and Disney+ called Pompeii: Out Of Time.
Hiddleston’s been very candid that he’s been obsessed with Roman history and the famous Italian archaeology site for a long time. He’s the person who recommended Loki’s Pompeii-related events be set there. Later, National Geographic came calling after working with his MCU brother Chris Hemsworth on Limitless, and Hiddleston was inspired to discover more about what happened at Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 A.D. His approach? Use historical facts and sites to tell stories of real-life people who’d been alive on the day the infamous event happened.
His hook is immediate upon watching, as he tells the audience exactly what drew him to the narrative:
We all know the story of Pompeii, right? The story of Pompeii is a story of death -- but that isn’t exactly true.
Of course, many of us know some people did survive Mount Vesuvius’ eruption, but I personally had never taken that journey a step further and wondered what happened next during that historical day. In Pompeii: Out Of Time, Hiddleston and a group of experts follow clues from graffiti and records to scabbards and tombstones to follow three people who were in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the time the volcano erupted, walking us through what we know happened and connecting dots that have not been connected formally before.
I thought the concept was really cool even before I threw on the three-part docuseries with my Hulu+ subscription this weekend. (You can also get it with a Disney+ subscription or YouTube TV subscription.) However, I did not understand and could not prepare for how emotionally Pompeii: Out Of Time wrecked me.
In fact, I was sobbing in the first five minutes of the Out Of Time, and the emotional moments only continued until the third episode when we learned the fates of the three characters: a soldier just known as The Praetorian, female landowner and renter Julia Felix, and the young apprentice Avianius Felicio.
It’s The Final Moments Of Pompeii Out Of Time That Will Stick With Me
Surprisingly, the project hasn’t resonated with audiences as much as it seems to have with me. The Rotten Tomatoes score from the audience is only 49%, while critics have it ranking at a 92%. The doc’s IMDB rating is an OK 69%. Personally, I just thought it was wonderful.
I’d be willing to bet the low scores come from the disconnect between regular documentary viewers and critics who are less into history and more want a good narrative throughline. Pompeii: Out Of Time doesn’t follow a traditional documentary style, format or structure when it comes to sharing what truths we know about the history of the world. It’s more of a storytelling vehicle to help give us a better understanding of the city, the place, and the time just before and after the volcano erupted. It helped me to fill in a lot of blanks in my own knowledge bank. Clearly, it also took me on an emotional journey.
In this case, it’s also true the documentary does take some creative liberties. For example, Hiddleston and co. paint The Praetorian as a hero who tried to evacuate those in Herculaneum. We don’t know if The Praetorian was a good man and helping or if he was scared and huddled in the background; we only have an idea of what soldiers who had seen hardships at the time were like. As for the other two followed characters, and without giving to much away, we don't know why Julia made the choices she did or exactly how Avianius' tale played out. Much of what really happened in the moment is still lost to history, but the impact of Avianius’ story, in particular, is one that will stick with me for a long time.
In its final moments, Tom Hiddleston invites us backstage on the soundstage where Out of Time was created. He sits down in a chair with his name on it, and watches as the young actor who plays Avianius stands by a forge with his mentor Marcus Masurius. We see the actor himself flub his line, and we’re reminded that we’re only given a window into the past, and we’ll never have quite the full picture.
I think acknowledging this is key to the story and how it unfolds. Yet, putting names to these events helped me to see Pompeii come alive in a way I’ve never been able to see it before. It was the story Hiddleston says in the doc he wanted to tell, rather than one for the history buffs who already know so much about the Roman Empire. I found this to be a gift, and I watched the whole thing in one sitting. Now, please excuse me while I replenish my Kleenexes.
