Humanity In Post Apocalyptic Films

Humankind will eventually come to an end, it is a reality faced to all people. Yet, no one wishes to experience it nor truly wish it to happen yet people still imagine the possibilities of this terror everyday. They create their own tales of how the world will end and if possible what it will be like during the grave aftermath. Two stories that have portrayed this scenario are the stories written by Cormac McCarthy in his book The Road and the movie Mad Max:Fury Road by George Miller. To each its own tale however the tales are quite similar in the way they portray the apocalypse both in setting and in style.

I have always enjoyed movies. But at some point I started to think of movies as more than just entertainment. I began to view them as a movie critic would, rather than just a casual viewer. Because of this perspective, I think of "Apocalypse Now" as one of the best American made movies I have ever seen. As a student of and an active participant in the late twentieth century media age, I feel justified in making this statement. In my lifetime of observation of American media, including fourteen months of intense movie watching in conjunction with my employment at a local video store, I have had an opportunity to observe a broad sampling of the films, and feel more than qualified to make this statement. By referring to

Why are so many people fascinated by end-of-the-world prophecies? Why do so many people believe in them? This is because people are curious- they want to know when the world will end. They want to be prepared for the end of this world. Everybody has this instinct of wanting to know what will happen in the future. The future is unpredictable and nobody wants to travel towards this unpredictable, thus unstable future. We want to travel to a future that it already predicted.

We received no food. We lived on snow; it took the place of bread. The days resembled nights, and the nights left in our souls the dregs of their darkness. The train rolled slowly, often halted for a few hours, and continued. It never stopped snowing. We remained lying on the floor for days and nights, one on top of the other, never uttering a word. We were nothing but frozen bodies. Our eyes closed, we merely waited for the next stop, to unload our dead. (100)

Towards the end of the era we see excessive blood and gore, victims, violence and sadism and finally torture, Saw (2004) and Hostel (2002).

A viewer of this film can put themselves in this movie (which 2022 is only four years in the future) and get the sense of hopelessness and fight to survive. Rust writes.

Humans are constantly reminded that the world is changing in many ways. But always seem to forget that situations can occur where life as we know it can change in an instant. Many popular science fiction movies and books tap into our deepest fears. For example, the movie Frankenstein (1931) where a fatal accident causes the creation of a monster who is capable of destroying a whole town and the Bradbury story, “Usher II” where a man goes against society on the topic of banning books and censorship. The two stories show the common fear of losing the world as we know it.

Notable writer, José Saramango, once said that, “a human being is a being who is constantly ‘under construction,’ but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of destruction.” Through this dualism, it can be seen that the individual, through external challenges and experiences, is in an ever evolving state of mental alteration. While these changes can create growth, or a construction of the mind, through the introduction of both internal and external conflicts, the individual can tend not towards development, but instead, destruction. In both Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried and Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now (1979), the creators explore this concept through the evaluation of how the structured mind collapses

To begin, Children of Men has a society that is placed in an apocalyptic world, which sets the dystopic setting of the entire film. When considering an apocalypse, viewers must know that it is an event involving

Action-packed and highly-rated, Mad Max: Fury Road is a critically-acclaimed film about a journey of survival through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There is no doubt that post-apocalyptic films are becoming increasingly popular among audiences as seen with movies such as the Hunger Games. However, Leggatt (2012) describes another variation in the post-apocalyptic genre, one that has been dubbed post-9/11 after a string of patterns prevalent in some post-apocalyptic films. Leggatt’s definition of post-9/11 apocalyptic films are ones that have a pessimistic tone towards the future of a society. As the world evolves and progresses, many new issues overlap and outgrow previous issues that have plagued the world before - though this transgression, the film industry follows suit in order to invent stories and media that is thought-provoking and relevant to changing society. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is a film that encapsulates many elements of Leggatt’s post 9/11 apocalypse film genre through the apocalyptic setting, derailment of redemption, and societal obsession with apocalypse over utopia.

The good thing about films is that we not only have the opportunity to choose from a wide selection of different genres, but also compare them and understand their purpose in the world. The Horror genre has used the basic principles throughout time, and as a result, films of this type have not proven to be as timeless as another genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy. At first, these two genres might at times seem similar as they have at several occasions been blended together, but their basic, common theme serves different meanings about humans. I shall compare and contrast these two genres and focus on both classic films and modern films. From the Horror genre perspective I shall discuss Psycho (1960) and The Mist (2007), while in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre I will examine 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Serenity (2005). Although the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre and the Horror Genre share some similarities, the differences lie in their focus on human progress.

The apocalypse is a common subject addressed in films and such Doomsday scenarios have become increasingly popular since the beginning of the Cold War. These films provide a different cause for the downfall of human kind and approach the subject with various degrees of despair and hope. Despite the obvious differences in approach that different directors take, these films all serve to highlight not only the negative qualities of human kind that led to and are represented by the agent of destruction but also to highlight the strength of the survivors who keep the will to fight for their lives despite the bleak circumstances. For the most part, The Mist, adapted from a Stephen King novella, sticks closely to the archetype. The Mist, a

As a culture we are obsessed with the concept of the end of the modern world as we know it. We contemplate what would happen if everything we love and care about were to suddenly disappear and never come back. The everyday commodities we enjoy gone in the matter of days, and left in its place is a sinister survivalistic world where no one is safe and the only thing that matters is surviving day by day. Doesn’t matter what caused the world to come to an end, only matters what we do after in order to survive. This genre of movies and films is known as post-apocalyptic. Although the film may delve into the causes of the apocalypse through flashbacks or memories, the film will generally revolve around the characters struggle to survive the aftermath. The genre is riddled with hundreds of films with unique twists and turns, but the majority share similar patterns that help us identify the fears of our culture. The major fears of our culture which post-apocalyptic movies portray is the fear of loneliness, major change in routine, losing our humanity, and losing the feeling of security present in our modern day society.

Most of the science fiction works contain a crucial message that the writer wishes to convey to the viewers. There are two categories of film message, one is positive and the other is negative. A positive message is one that is expected to have favourable outcome to the audience, and continuously aiming to promote better societal changes. In contrast, a negative message is one that could deliver threats or unpleasant information to the audience, which could have significant impact on the normal order of the society. This essay will argue that if the message contains positive elements, then it is not a bad sign to embed science fiction works with a message. First, this essay will suggest that the well-integrated message within a particular

“Interstellar” (Obst,Thomas & Nolan, 2014) a great science fiction story with so various elements. It takes us traveling through wormholes, into planets in other galaxies, and black holes. The characters keep colliding into the effects of relativity, which is thoroughly explained in numerous scenarios. It’s also a story about love and family, but there is a villain, whose actions result in shocking consequences for the other characters. There is a great deal of emotion expressed by the character, which make a great impacted on how the movie is viewed. The movie will take place sometime in the future where the earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable for the reason that of a global crop plague and a second dust bowl occurring. The science fiction movie “Interstellar” (Obst,Thomas & Nolan, 2014) does an excellent job portraying advancements in technology, astrophysics and real-life issues that could eventually happen, such as, food scarcity and catastrophic natural disasters.