What doomsday films tell us about ourselves

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Apocalyptic films can tell us a lot about what scares us as a society, and what it is we think is important and worth saving. Even if you don't agree with those who believe the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on Dec. 21, you may still want to witness the end with a good doomsday movie. read on...

Yes, who can stay away from a really good end of the world movie!
Come on, sure you make fun of them, but we still watch them.

I even bought 2012 ($5 bin) but I still bought it cause the special effects are so cool.
Maybe that's why we love them so much, because its the only place where you can do the most over the top effect without Arnold in the movie and the audience only groans a bit.

So which end of the world movie in cinematic history is the one to watch, or not watch in homage to the 2012 season?

Don't hold back ATS tell us what you really think

I think one reason people like end of the world films is because the end of the world fantasy is as such that it creates a desire and perception of freedom (as far as the aftermath is concerned).

For one, there are few if no laws, few perceived constraints that come from "out there" (government, rules, society, etc); and another, the typical boring lifestyle is gone, there is a perceived sense of risk, and living day to day, this perceived freedom, that (for men), is will to be manly again in the traditional sense.

I believe it's largely to do with throwing off constraints and the perception of being free.

As far as our interest in seeing destruction and death on a large scale, i think it's because we are sadists, even if we won't admit it to ourselves. Our society (western/US) THRIVES on sadism, every day in every form. Look at the Sandy Hook coverage, for example.

Endnote: 2012 is a CRAP film, lol. You paid $5 for it? lol
I wouldn't take it for free, and i love Cusack.

But yeah, I really enjoyed "Knowing." "The Day After Tomorrow" was good too.

reply to post by winterkill


I'll bite..I loved 2012 myself, because I love destruction movies and well that's just me. Woody Harrelson was just awesome, and some of the other characters fit the movie nicely.

My favorite movie, is called Knowing, with Nicholas Cage in it...I think it's one of the best movies, mainly because there is destruction but also hope for humanity. I loved the angels/aliens saving certain people before the sun destroyed the earth. The ending was awesome where the two kids go onto another planet like ours and start re-populating that earth again. Now look we have found another planet like ours out there.

The rest are just we will live Bull crap.

But the 5 bucks was worth seeing the worst Arnold imitation for Governor of all time LOL

the day the earth stood still. (with keanu reeves)

to me it shows how the US government would react
to an alien visit, alien tech and the extermination of human life


melancholia (with kirsten dunst)

although not the best of movies, this one shows you end of the world
from a countryside perspective. as opposed to the chaos of a city

reply to post by winterkill

Apocalyptic films can tell us a lot about what scares us as a society....

That↑ can be said about almost all movies, really.

........and what it is we think is important and worth saving.

Twinkies!!!
[color=696969] . . . . . . . . . . . lol



During the beginning of a film, you may have thought it was a real possibility, but then once you get to this↓ part, there's no denying that it is 100% Fiction.

Another doomsday theme, with some uplifting value, is that many of these films allow us to feel like a unified human species by pitting us against a common enemy.

Enter alien, mutant, monster or supernatural beings and suddenly we're ushering each other into underground shelters, standing shoulder to shoulder with shovels and sticking up for total strangers.
■

It tells us we all probably have some type of anxiety disorder, in addition to thanaphobia.

reply to post by winterkill


For me it was The Road. I thought it was a very powerful movie even though it was extremely depressing.

I've got to go with "Deep Impact" as my first cataclysm "End of the World" (as we know it) movie.

At first when this movie came out in 1998 (if not, about that time) my fist reaction was that the movie wasn't set in some futuristic time. Life was pretty much the same as it was, so it must not be too far into the future. Yet, I still remember the gasps from many in the crowd and the whispering in the audience when they revealed that Morgan Freeman was the president.

Now at that time in 1998. It seemed to some if not most of us that a black man as president was still too far out in the future for our society to achieve. I even thought, why would they introduce this concept in the film, when it already needed us to get to the point for us to believe it's possible for an asteroid to be on a collision course with earth and it was being kept from our knowledge by the government. Seemed like adding in the fact that we also had a black president too, in the not so distant future was kind of a stretch.

Well, fast forward just a few short years and I started learning about the possibility that yes, it could be possible for government to hide stuff from our knowledge. They are building underground seed vaults, and D.U.M.B's to prepare for what? Nibiru, floods, pole-shifts, solar flare? Then 2008 came and now we indeed have our first black president. My mind went straight back to that movie "Deep Impact" and thought...will there be an asteroid next?

Just the possibilities I could play with in my own mind, has made it my favorite "End of the World" movie.