The Crystal Skull (2008) novel

British novelist Manda Scott in her 2008 novel The Crystal Skull tackles the 2012 Mayan Long Count calendar "prediction" of the end of the world by mashing it up with the mysterious and completely fabricated Mesoamerican crystal skulls (all known examples that have been authenticated were created in the 19th century present era and later, not by Aztecs or Mayans). She claims that the Mayans "carved thirteen crystal skulls" (paperback back cover blurb) and that the Mayans "to protect humankind ... sent them to the four corners of the globe" (paperback back cover blurb). The Mayans are not known to have had deep seafaring capabilities, so she must an ingenious explanation as to how they got the skulls to the four corners of the globe.

Shades of Grey (2009) novel

Jasper Fforde's highly imaginative and satirical look at a post-apocalyptic world organized around color scheme is one of the few novels to take a lighthearted approach to doomsday. In Shades of Grey, Fforde slowly reveals the strange workings of the Colortocracy that rules Chromatica, the world that exists after Something That Happened and where to be a Yellow, Red, Blue or any of the other acceptable colors, even Grey, defines one's sole being.

Skyline (2010) movie

The 2010 Hollywood movie Skyline, in which an alien invasion centers on Los Angeles, California, will bear comparison with the 2011 movie World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles (2011) movie

To help us prepare for the end of the world in 2012, Hollywood will release yet another alien invasion film, this time centered on Los Angeles, California. The film is titled World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles. It focuses on a platoon of United States Marines who mount a defense.

The Sony Pictures Web site for World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.

The film premieres in the United States on March 11, 2011.

The film is also partly based on an incident described by the title of Terrenz Sword's book The Battle of Los Angeles 1942: The Silent Invasion Begins (2003). One of the film trailers begins with purported news footage of this "battle".

2012 Supernova

In the 2009 movie 2012 Supernova, the wavefront of a supernova explosion reach the Earth where it will produce the end of the world. Various heroic efforts involving spacecraft, astronauts and scientists attempt to stave off the inevitable demise of all life as we know it. According to one reviewer on the Internet Movie Database, the film has no connection with the year 2012!

Meteor Storm (2010) TV movie

In the 2010 Meteor Storm TV movie created for the SyFy Channel in the United States, a meteor shower from a comet oribiting the Earth threatens to destroy San Francisco and then the world.

World Made by Hand (2008) novel

James Howard Kunstler's 2008 novel World Made by Hand examines the impact of an oil-less world and how infrastructure could be rebuilt.

One Second After (2009) novel

William R. Forstchen's 2009 novel One Second After is set in an idyllic North Carolina town where his hero, a retired military officer who teaches history, turns survivalist in the wake of a electromagnetic pulse from a atmospheric bomb that destroys our fragile computerized world. Some but not all of his novel is plausible as the U.S. military has long known about EMP devices and supposedly much of their gear, particularly in command and control structures, is hardened against this kind of force.

The Mammoth Book of the End of the World (2010) anthology

Editor Mike Ashley has compiled an apocalyptic fiction anthology titled The Mammoth Book of the End of the World (2010). The collection includes several original pieces for this anthology and the oldest work is Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" from 1951. For any collector of apocalyptic tales, this is an essential publication.

Flood (2009) novel

British author Stephen Baxter's 2009 novel Flood sets the stage for a stunning apocalyptic nightmare: a global flood of Biblical proportions that covers nearly the entire world, turning it into a water world not too unlike the film Waterworld starring Kevin Costner. This novel sets the stage for a sequel titled Ark (2010).

A Culture of Conspiracy (2003) non-fiction book

Professor Michael Barkun tackles millennialism and conspiracy theorists in his 2003 non-fiction book A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America.

Novels of the Change series by S.M. Stirling

The Novels of the Change series by S.M. Stirling are set in the 2020s (for example, Change Year 22) of North America, part of a brilliantly imagined post-apocalyptic world.

The novels are:

The Sword of the Lady (2009)

Daybreakers (2010) movie

The 2010 movie Daybreakers movie starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas and Sam Neill asks the burning question: what if almost the whole human population had turned into vampires? We find out in all the bloody details as we look at the world in 2019 through Hawke's vampire character who works for a company that both farms humans for their blood supply and which is also working on a blood substitute because there is simply not enough human blood around for all the vampires to survive. Naturally, there is a cure, but it is a very painful one for any vampire to endure and for many vampires, the virus that gave them immortality is no longer seen as a disease but a blessing if only those last humans would cooperate.

Blind Faith (2007) novel

According to the Amazon description of Ben Elton's 2007 novel Blind Faith, he "imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a confessional sex-obsessed, self-centric culture to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion."

The Walking Dead (2010) TV series

America overrun by zombies?! A TV series!? Talk about an original doomsday scenario. But zombies are hot right now in 2010, so watch for this new TV show The Walking Dead set to premiere on ... Halloween (October 31) 2010 on AMC. The series is based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series of the same name.

February 24, 2015 Update: The show is still in production and is one of the most watched shows on TV. As I tell people, it's not about the zombies, as gruesome as they are and the endless re-deaths they go through at the hands of the survivors, rather the show is about a small band of survivors led by a sheriff named Rick Grimes. At the time of this writing his wife, who had survived, is long dead and he, along with his group whom he calls his family, and his young son are caring for their baby girl.

The Quiet Earth (1985) movie

The 1985 New Zealand movie The Quiet Earth is based on Craig Harrison's 1981 novel The Quiet Earth. As with the 2009-2010 TV adaptation of Robert Sawyer's 1999 novel Flash Forward, which begins with the premise of a science experiment gone wrong, in The Quiet Earth its experiment causes nearly everyone who had not been on the verge of death to disappear from the world. Three survivors, possibly the last humans in their part of New Zealand, including a Maori man, emerge and try to make sense of what has happened. In the end, one of the scientists involved in the experiment sacrifices himself to try and turn the world back to its previous state. Only the consequences for him are literally out of this world.

The Year of the Flood (2009) novel

The Year of the Flood in Margaret Atwood's 2009 sequel to her Oryx and Crake (2003) novel refers to a manmade pandemic that destroys most of our species.

Oryx and Crake (2003) novel

Margaret Atwood's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. It's an end-of-the-world tale caused by a manmade pandemic and she continued the story from a different perspective in The Year of the Flood (2009).

The Passage (2010) novel

The Passage (2010), a lengthy, rambling novel by Justin Cronin, combines some familiar apocalyptic plot elements into an end of the world odyssey. We have a military-induced virus that turns people into vampire-like creatures, beginning with test subjects who are soldiers in an underground installation (shades of Resident Evil), we have errant nuclear bombs going off and we have a future earth, largely depopulated, but with enough survivors to carry on.

Left Behind (2000) movie

Left Behind: The Movie is a 2000 feature film based on the first of a series of novels of the same name by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Badly acted, badly plotted and with just enough visual elements to give it some substance, Left Behind will appeal to Christian Bible literalists who see the Apocalypse just around the corner and fervently hope that they will be among the chosen few who will not be left behind during the Rapture.



It's after the mysterious disappearance of people all over the world, including many on an airline flight and lots of children -- far more than the 4400 that have also been the subject of a TV series and novels -- that the movie turns preachy. By the end of the film one of the characters has a complete conversion experience having witnessed first-hand the work of the Anti-Christ in the form of the Secretary General of the United Nations. The idea that the United Nations and two individuals, who are murdered by the Secretary General in front of UN delegates and security officials, can somehow plot to take over the world and dictate seven years of peace through the food supply is one of the most unrealistic and far-fetched conspiracy theories I've ever encountered.

For those who can't get enough of the Christian Apocalypse, two other movies based on the novels, Left Behind: Tribulation Force and Left Behind: World at War, are also available singly or as a collection with the first movie.

Sins of the Assassin (2008) Novel

Sins of the Assassin (2008) by Robert Ferrigno is the second of a trilogy set in a post-nuclear apocalyptic United States. The first novel is Sins of the Assassin and the third novel is Heart of the Assassin. The novels bear some superficial resemblance to Jeff Carlson's Plague Year, Plague War and Plague Zone novels.

Plague War (2008) Novel

Plague War (2008) by Jeff Carlson is the sequel to Plague Year (2007) and was followed by Plague Zone (2009). As you might expect the titles, the cause of humanity's near extinction was a plague, this one caused by nanotechnology run amuck. Luckily the nanotech could not survive above 10,000 feet. Plague War is set in United States and features a joint Russian and Chinese invasion of the devastated country.

Judgment Day (2005) Novel

Judgment Day (2005) is a novel by James F. David, that, like the Left Behind series, takes the New Testament's Revelation to John (the last book of that part of the Bible) as a starting point for a fictional romp through apocalyptic times.

Before the Fall (2008) Movie

Before the Fall (2008) is a Spanish film that revolves around a meteorite strike that will wipe out all life on earth. A handyman and his family have more to contend with than just a world gone crazy over the public announcement that the end is nigh within 72 hours as a convicted serial killer who escapes during a prison riot stalks members of his family.

The Armageddon Factor (2010) book

The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada (Random House Canada, 2010) by Marci McDonald is the first book-length examination of the link between Christian fundamentalism and Canadian national politics in particular. The author, a journalist, has investigational expertise in this area through past interviewing and reporting on the issues she addresses in her book.

Southland Tales (2006) movie

The ensemble 2006 movie Southland Tales starring former wrestler Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson is set in a post-nuclear-bomb USA, Los Angeles, specifically and in particular the Venice Beach area. It's a very weird tale indeed with echoes of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and The 6th Day (2000).

Solar Attack (2006) TV movie

The premise of the 2006 Solar Attack TV movie is that the sun is ejecting enormous solar flares that are disrupting life and electrical equipment on and above the earth. The fear is that multiple flares reaching the Earth could ignite the vast volume of methane gas in the atmosphere, creating a gigantic overhead firestorm that would suffocate all life on the planet's surface.

A Boy and His Dog (1975) movie

The 1975 post-nuclear apocalyptic movie A Boy and His Dog stars a young (obviously) Don Johnson as Vic, a loner wandering the desolated United States of 2024 after World War IV. He's accompanied by his telepathic dog Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire, who also co-wrote the music) who helps him ferret out a woman and food. The movie is based on a novella by acclaimed science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.

Right at Your Door (2007) movie

The 2007 movie Right at Your Door is about a series of possibly biological bomb attacks on the city of Los Angeles. The focus of the movie is one woman's fight to reunite with her husband who's trapped in their home.

The Prophet and the Astronomer (2001) book

Marcelo Gleiser's 2001 book, The Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of Time, examines the relation between predictions of the end of the universe by cosmographers and astrophysicists and religious and philosophical revelations of the apocalypse. This work was originally published in Portuguese under the title O fim da Terra e do Céu: O apocalipse na ciência e na religião, and was translated into English by the author.

The End of the World (1998) book

Edited by Lewis H. Lapham with Peter T. Struck, The End of the World (1998, c1997) is an anthology of essays, memoirs, and extracts from historical writings about events that were considered apocalyptic at the time of their occurrence. The first of these is the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh from around 3000 BC. The book is divided into three parts:

1. The Ruins of Empires


2. The Fall of Nations


3. The Twentieth Century: The End in a Void

The last part includes reference to and information from the Rapture Index.

There is also an "End Times" table with predicted dates for the end of the world. This table does not include the supposed Mayan calendar prediction of the world's end in 2012 AD.

Condolences and concerns about the Chile 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

My heart goes out to Chile and all those affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake early Saturday morning in Chile. I'm particularly concerned about Hawaii and the possibility of tsunami damage there.

Racing Toward Armageddon (2009) book

Michael Baigent's book Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World (2009) looks at the apocalyptic fervor around the city of Jerusalem, Israel, inspired by the centuries of teachings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Bring on the Apocalypse (2008) anthology

George Monbiot's anthology Bring on the Apocalypse: Essays on Self-Destruction (2008) is a collection of his scathing commentaries on the ways we're heading into the toilet tank of mutual, self-assured destruction.

Judgment Day (2007) novel

James F. David's Christian apocalypse novel, Judgment Day (2007), is the first in a series touted as rivaling the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins that began appearing almost a decade earlier.

Catching Fire (2009) novel

Suzanne Collins' second young adult novel in her trilogy about a future, post-apocalyptic North America is called Catching Fire (2009). In this part one of the heroes of The Hunger Games (2008) becames a symbolic leader of a rebellion against the rule of Panem, the nation that has replaced the United States.

Dollhouse TV series finale (January 29, 2010)

In the Dollhouse TV series finale broadcast on January 29, 2010, the heroes are living in or have copied themselves into the nightmarish world of 2020 after something they did created zombies out of much of the world's population. At the end of the show the world's set right though the apocalyptic devastation remained.

SocialVibe badge removed

There seemed to be a problem with the SocialVibe Web site and as a consequence the SocialVibe badge in the sidebar was not displaying anything. I've removed it for the time being. Use the Help Support Disaster Relief page instead to find agencies and organizations to which to donate in aid of victims of disasters.

Doomsday Clock moved back by one minute

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock back by one minute on January 15, 02010 according to this CNN.com report.

NYC: Tornado Terror (2008) TV movie

New York City gets destroyed by a tornado-like storm cell that's likened to the superstorm on Jupiter that creates the Red Spot and is also reminiscent of, ok, actually it was ripped from the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow in which tornadoes destroyed Los Angeles. That's the premise of the 2008 TV movie NYC: Tornado Terror broadcast on Canada's Showcase network on January 14, 2010.

Children of Men movie (2006) and novel (1992)

Set in London, England, in 2027, the 2006 movie Children of Men, based on the P.D. James novel The Children of Men (1992), projects a world in which children can no longer be conceived. The last child at age 18 has just died and London is descending into chaos until a woman is discovered who is pregnant. Fanatics want her dead but her protectors will do anything to keep her alive and deliver her to a safe haven.

The Hunger Games (2008) novel

Suzanne Collins young adult novel The Hunger Games (2008) is set in a post-apocalyptic North America. Out of the ashes a new nation called Panem emerged. Panem consists of Capitol and twice numbered districts, the thirteenth having been destroyed by Panem during an uprising. In retribution the rulers of Panem created the Hunger Games in which youth between 12 and 18 are selected by lottery to participate in a survivalist game to the death in a vast wilderness area and broadcast on live TV. This sounds like a cross between the Vietnam War lottery and other games-based post-apocalyptic entertainments such as the movie Deathrace 2000 (1975) and Death Race (2008), which is, oddly enough, set in 2012.

The Book of Eli (2010) movie

Denzel Washington stars in the 2010 post-apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli. His character Eli, a former Kmart employee, is protecting a book with information that can assist in the rebuilding of civilization, at least that of the nuclear war devastated United States through which he's been traveling for three decades. The book is The Book, a King James Bible. Traveling alone he encounters bandits a la the Australian post-apocalyptic trilogy movies Mad Max and a warlord (Gary Oldman) who's been looking for his own copy of the Bible so he can use it as a weapon to control more minds and places.

There's an unusual twist at the movie's end, so I won't spoil it by giving away the finish, but there is hope for humanity, ironically found in Alcatrez Prison on an island with a ravaged San Francisco landscape for a backdrop.

One of my criticisms of the movie is that given the level of bomb damage, it seems unlikely that anyone would even still be alive or that individuals such as Eli or Oldman's character, whose name is Carnegie, would not have succumbed to radiation sickness long before. In a voiceover Eli indicated that survivors had spent up to a year underground after the war.

As the movie opens we see what appears to be a kind of nuclear snowstorm falling, at least that was my interpretation, and Eli's character is there in a gas mask with no other protection other than his clothes. A while later and he's out of this forest and into a desert-like landscape.

One interesting thing is that although there are young people around, we see very few children. In one poignant scene in the town controlled by Carnegie that Eli visits, a shopkeeper asks him if he has any toys with which to barter the recharging of his portable long-life battery that powers Eli's iPod.

It's also odd that there's virtually no vegetation and we also see no evidence of underground or indoor farming activities, so just how and where are all these people getting their essential food groups? Given the level of violence in the film and the several hints and mentions of cannibalism, I was surprised not to see anyone munching on human flesh, something we see plenty of in horror films, especially of the zombie variety.