Category Archives: Apocalypse

Apocalypse, Disaster

Charting the Apocalypse

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Chanda Phelan has a great piece on Io9 about how apocalypses have evolved, complete with a graphical timeline.  She finds that the balance continually shifts between natural, human-induced, supernatural, and unexplained ends of the world.


Phelan argues that the genre have deeply optimistic undertones: “Stories of the End have never been about ending – they’re about the beginning that comes after.”


It isn’t clear from the article how “apocalypse” is defined, but seems to entail some drastic disruption to society, though not necessarily full destruction of the world or of humanity.  (See this post for a scale of apocalypse.)


Curiously, in charting 423 instances over the last 200 years, she does not include movies, though movies surely dominate the public consciousness of ways humanity might come to an end.


(Image copyright FuturistMovies.com — usable with attribution and link)

Follow on Twitter: @Geofutures


Apocalypse, Space

Supernova in our backyard?

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Astronomers have discovered the brightest supernova ever seen, and there is a star “near” Earth thought to be a candidate for a similar explosion.

This would have its positives and negatives:

  • On the positive side, it would be possible to read a book at night by the light of the dying star.
  • On the negative, the proximity of the blast — 7,500 light years — could make Earth vulnerable to a gamma ray blast that could severely damage the atmosphere and biosphere, even inducing an ice age. Fortunately, the odds of the blast being pointed directly at Earth are low.

Cosmiclog notes that two movies have covered supernovas:

There was a “Supernova” movie starring James Spader and Angela Bassett, as well as a “Supernova” made-for-TV movie with Tia Carrere and Luke Perry — but neither made much of a scientific or a critical splash.

Apocalypse, Disaster, Science fiction

Apocalypse in 7 Not-so-easy Steps

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Open the Future has devised an 7-level “apocalypse scale,” grading the threat to humanity and the planet of 7 levels of disaster.

Given the popularity of mega-disasters in movies, we can consider which of the levels have been depicted — or at least threatened — on screen.

LEVEL — SCALE
0 — Regional catastrophe
Movies depicting:

  • 28 Days Later

1 — Human die-back
Movies depicting:

  • The Day after Tomorrow
  • The Postman
  • The Road Warrior
  • Terminator

2 — Civilizational extinction
Movies depicting:

  • Deep Impact
  • 12 Monkeys — due to a madman aiming for a 3A
  • Planet of the Apes
  • The Matrix

3A — Human extinction–engineered
Movies depicting:

  • On the Beach — the apparently imminent fate of humanity after a nuclear war
  • Children of Men — global sterility of unknown cause
  • Independence Day — or so the aliens intend

3B — Human extinction–natural
Movies depicting:

  • none known

4 — Biosphere extinction
Movies depicting:

  • none known

5 — Planetary extinction
Movies depicting:

  • Armageddon — “nothing will survive” unless the giant asteroid is deflected, though a Texas-sized asteroid might be more like a level 4

X — Planetary elimination
Movies depicting:

  • Star Wars — Alderaan at the hands of the Death Star