 After the Abbot 's death , the scene flashes to Joshua and the Quo Peregrinatur crew launching as the nuclear explosions begin . Joshua , the last crew member to board the starship , knocks the dirt from his sandals ( a reference to Mt . 10 : 14 , If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words , leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet ) , murmuring " Sic transit mundus " ( " Thus passes the world " ) . As a coda , there is a final vignette depicting the ecological aspects of the war : seabirds and fish succumb to the poisonous fallout , and a shark evades death only through moving to particularly deep water , where , it is noted , the shark was " very hungry that season . " 
