The Remaining (2014) movie

Imagine the Christian "Rapture" event as a horror film and you have The Remaining, a 2014 Christian-horror movie. Combining elements of cinéma vérité, mainly the handheld camera, the film follows a group of 20-somethings after the events foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation unfold following a wedding reception. The movie is graphic in some of its imagery. As with many of these movies based on someone "documenting" the events with a video camera, the end of the film leaves many questions unresolved.

The Mist (1980) novella

Stephen King's 1980 novella The Mist, originally published as a short story of the same title and later a 2007 movie, contains a far bleaker ending than what was depicted in the movie, though that too was pretty horrific. The movie pretty well follows the novella up until the point at which the group of characters including the "hero", David Drayton, leave the supermarket to try and escape. The impression you are left with in the novella is that The Mist has enveloped all of Massachusetts and possibly even more of the New England states so that the end of the world may very well be at hand. The Mist is in many ways a precursor to Stephen King's epic novel Under the Dome (2009), except in the latter there are no extra-dimensional monsters. Quoting Stephen King, the Wikipedia entry on Under the Dome notes that the novel "concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they've always belonged to." This is exactly what happens in both the novella and movie versions of The Mist.

Carriers (2009) movie

In the 2009 movie Carriers, a virus outbreak in the United States has decimated just about everyone, at least in what appears to be the western half of the continent. A road movie starring Christopher (Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk) Pine as an extremely unlikeable protagonist, he and his younger brother, along with their respective girlfriends, are on their way to the ocean (California?) to recapture their childhood and teenage years when their family vacationed there. At the end of the journey only two of the four are left alive at their destination. This is a grim and unrelenting look at an apocalyptic future.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

I Am Legend (1954) novel

Richard Matheson's 1954 horror novel I Am Legend so scared me just from its description that I never read it. It was adapted into three film versions: The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston, which I have seen and I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith, which I have also seen.

The Aftermath (1982) movie

The Aftermath (1982) is a direct-to-video movie about two astronauts who return from a mission to find a gang and mutant-infested Los Angeles as the result of a nuclear war.

Legion (2010) movie

In the 2010 movie Legion the Angels of the Lord return to exterminate Mankind. And just when we thought things could not get any worse, humanity's only salvation is a single angel, Michael, who decides to help us and some strangers, including the mother of the unborn Savior, in a desert diner. I suppose the food there is just as bad.

Terminator movies (1984-2009) and TV series (2008-2009)

The Terminator movie and TV series are among the most powerful, post-apocalyptic dramas ever created. The basic premise is an age-old science fiction theme, that of sentient or intelligent machines that decide to eliminate humanity. The first three movies starred California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as the unstoppable Terminator robot sent back to kill a single human in order to effect a change in the future. He also made a digital cameo appearance in the 2009 Terminator movie. The first three Terminator movie were co-written and directed by James Cameron and made him a major player in Hollywood.

Here are the existing live-action movies and TV series up to December 2009:

The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV series, 2008-2009)