When the world ends
With the holidays looming in the near future and 2009 coming to a dreary close, the political and economic climate seems to be reflected in the abundance of dark, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movies coming out by the end of this year or the beginning of next. 2012, The Road, Daybreakers, The Book of Eli, and Legion all present different scenarios for the world coming to an end or what life will be like for the few survivors.
Movies about the end of the world, or, in turn, a bizarre world after what we know has ended, have always been around and always been popular. If you believe, as I do, that we watch movies to experience emotion, then it is easy to understand why these movies prevail. They play into one of our most primal emotions-fear-in a realistic and terrifying way that cuts deeper than any monster or slasher movie ever could. A crazed serial killer is something a few unlucky teenagers may have to deal with, but if the world ends and civilization is wiped out, we are all affected, either killed or forced to adapt to a horrifying and unknown new reality.
At the same time, these movies offer a sense of relief to people who feel overwhelmed and burdened by the current state of their personal lives, or the world at large. A catastrophe would wipe out all of the petty problems and issues we all deal with in our normal lives. No one will care about your credit card debt, your missed mortgage payment, that promotion you didn’t get, or that speeding ticket if aliens, God, a virus, a natural disaster or some self-aware computer system destroyed everything. If aliens decided to attack, we would no longer be at war with other nations, but united as humans fighting a common enemy. And since when watching a well-made film, we identify with the hero and not the masses of sacrificed extras, most of us feel deep down that we would survive, as the hero inevitably does, and make the best of this new reality. All of our personal as well as our society’s problems would be wiped away, with the promise that eventually something better could be created.
The best of these movies present logical scenarios for the destruction of civilization, or at least are so well told that we are able to suspend our disbelief and feel that the events portrayed are actually happening. Often times it is man-made events that lead to the apocalypse-computers or robots who turn on us, viruses or vaccines going wrong, natural disasters brought on by our activities, or war and mass use of nuclear weapons.
With the current unrest in the world, as well as the turmoil we’re facing domestically with the economy and divisive political battles being waged on all sides, people are eager to watch the worst possible outcome played out on screen. In addition to allowing us the catharsis of feeling these emotions in a safe way, and getting a subconscious sense of relief at the possibility that we may be offered a clean slate, these films help us deal with our fears about the possibility of a nuclear war or some other horrible disaster, but putting these very real potential futures on screen, they are made less terrifying, as we can reassure ourselves that it is only a story, it’s not real.
