Why are there so many post-apocalyptic or....

[Aviation Pro]

...apocalyptic movies being served up? Is this the vision we want to see? To whit:

1. 2012
2. Knowing
3. The Road
4. Terminator Salvation

This is a sick and twisted notion and indicative of the effects the sick and twisted Rapture crowd have had on society.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Simple

1. It's 2009, that 2012 woo woo nonsense is fast approaching, and like with all good woo woo, there's somebody cashing in.

2 Nicholas Cage has never met a bad script he didn't like.

3. The book came out a couple of years ago. For some reason a lot of people like it. So they made a movie. Like all those stupid Nicholas Sparks or Dan Brown movies.

4. Typical franchise sequels. The first one was about the end of the world twenty some years ago, so are the sequels.

"This is a sick and twisted notion and indicative of the effects the sick and twisted Rapture crowd have had on society."

Say what? They're just movies. Most people who aren't sick and twisted are able to tell the difference between fiction and reality.

[optimal-tomato]

2. Prepare to hate the History Channel for three years.

They're knee deep in the MAYAN CALENDAR ENDS AT 2012 bullshit, and are going to pump out daily specials on how the world ended yesterday.

Some of the end of the world stuff is Rapture-based, sure. But don't forget that the people in their mid-50's now, who control Hollywood and much of the media, were raised in an environment where nuclear holocaust was always moments away. My own father has been psychologically scarred by bombing drills where he and his schoolmates had to hide under their desks at school. It's deeply ingrained in our society's psyche right now.

It'll fade.

[optimal-tomato]

4. Also: sometimes it's cool.

Watchmen was all about the end of the world, and brilliantly used the atmosphere of global destruction as a backdrop.

My favorite scene was when Walter Kovacs, carrying a sign that said "THE END IS NIGH" picked up his daily magazine from a newspaper vendor. Kovacs reminded him to hold a copy for him the next day. The next day, he picked up his magazine, and the vendor laughed. "I guess the world didn't end yesterday, huh?" Kovacs deadpans: "Are you sure?"

It's a great, high-stakes backdrop for a story to be set it, honestly.

[woo me with science]

14. History Channel also has the "Life After People" documentary series,

which is pretty interesting.

http://www.history.com/content/life_after_people

[Skip Intro]

3. My favorite genre,

2012 looks interesting. I'll definitely see it.

Knowing was ok.

Haven't seen the other two.

But what about zombie movies?

They just keep coming, new one coming out, Zombieworld. And one after that.

28 Days was an effing awesome take and so was Shaun of the Dead.

But any movie that depicts the crash and failure of our societal crutches, the complete breakdown of society as we know it, and the aftermath, I mean, if it's apocalyptic, I want to see it.

[DRoseDARs]

5. H.G. Wells' 1936 film Things to Come must really just chap your ass...

How about don't WATCH such movies if they bother you so? You're acting like this is a recent phenomenon, or even the product of the influence of religious nuts. It is neither. Get a grip. :eyes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_film

[Donnachaidh]

6. Things to Come is a GREAT film

Hell, it's thought-provoking, unlike the endless zombie body count movies.

[wickerwoman]

7. They've been around forever because people get off on them.

Who doesn't secretly fantasize about 99% of humanity being wiped out and suddenly being a VIP in a much smaller pond with the added responsibility of having to repopulate the species with the hotty of your choice?

[Forkboy]

17. I actually think it goes deeper than that.

What you say has some truth to it, for sure, but I think these tales have always had an element (like a lot of horror) of confronting our biggest fears in a safe way. In the last century we've developed the means to destroy ourselves, making the fear even more real than ever before. The Sword of Damocles hangs over us daily, and now we can add fears of emerging pandemics, knowledge that a meteor might end us all this afternoon, etc. These fears and neurosis manifest themselves in the stories we tell. And if they want to throw some zombies into the mix, who am I to complain? :)

[LostInAnomie]

8. I really doubt the "Rapture crowd" has much to do with it.

It's and interesting and useful plot device.

Quite a few more people than the fundies are disgusted with society for various reasons and would like to see it torn down (fictionally of course). A lot of people are bored with their sanitized, artificial, and soulless 9 to 5 life. They would like to see all the stupid constructs that they have no control over (yet run their lives) be brushed away so they can start all over, test themselves, and make their own way.

Eschatology has been around since the beginning of time.

[notesdev]

9. It's to prepare you

for what is about to happen to the economy.

[armyowalgreens]

10. The Road was an excellent book. Please don't compare it to the other BS.

[Swamp Rat]

11. 2112

[Forkboy]

16. Well, now I have The Temples of Syrinx in my head.

:)

[Statistical]

12. Seeing enemies behind every rock?

The rapture crowd?

Don't the rapture crowd believe they would be raptured before the end of the world?
Why would they give a flying crap about what happens after they are gone?

[DRoseDARs]

13. Why would they give a flying crap? Oh that's easy: Spite. n/t

[Forkboy]

15. Every generation has it's end of the world tales. Revelations ring a bell?