It’s in these post apocalyptic scenarios that we witness the breakdown of order and civilisation, so much so that we question our own beliefs, even as viewers. In fact, more than any other genre of film, we lose ourselves in these narratives. Plotting our own escape plans, hideouts and what rationed tin of beans to eat for dinner, hypothesising the cataclysmic end of the well oiled societal machine is something we all ponder from time to time, even if we don’t like to admit it.
Like any other type of narrative, the demand for the apocalypse has had its peaks and troughs. Of late, the genre’s rise in popularity can be largely attributed to the turbulent epoch known as the 20th Century. Two world wars, a cold war, the Vietnam war, missile crises, a great depression, nuclear fallouts and a whole bunch of other catastrophes, all within the space of a hundred years. If these anthropogenic catastrophes can teach us anything, it’s that human beings, as a species, have a remarkable ability to push themselves uncomfortably close to the brink of extinction. It’s the reason apocalyptic stories have slowly become conceivable in recent times. Their ability to adopt a strain of topicality and address the social dilemmas of their era allow films such as Dr. Strangelove, which reflected the chaotic atom-bomb era of the 1960’s, to truly drive the idea home to their audiences: what if this situation was real? If there are two words that support any apocalypse story, it’s what if. It gives artistic thinkers a decimated sandbox to create a structured yet bleak world that has meet its end. Consequently, it becomes relatively easy to identify the ingredients in the formula. Many of these worlds revolve around a sole, or group of survivors that trudge across a barren wasteland, enduring a traumatic state of lawlessness. Social structures have become irrelevant. Great architectural achievements are nothing more than devastated ruins. But it is what these stories are built on that draws a means for comparison.
Each narrative has an existential horror element in their foundation. A unique, pioneering feature that elevates them beyond the shackles of your typical genre film. They frighten their audience in a way horror movies can only dream of. Forget non-diegetic music and clever editing, instead, this brand of fiction presents a portrait of humanity’s wicked, primal nature (exactly what would you do to stay alive?). A world without order or morality demands a reaction from the audience. Films such as The Quiet Earth and Mad Max portray dystopian worlds that are a consequence of the greed and corruption of the past. So much so, that in each narrative, the subliminal and collective thought process of our society is played out across the broadest, cinematic medium: what excessive foible will bring about our downfall?
If there’s one thing that’s certain, humanity will be brought to its knees by an ecological crisis in the future; post apocalyptic fiction is merely an imagined extension of this societal paranoia. Denial is either nonsensical or just downright oblivious, and I’m hoping it’s the latter. Bear in mind that 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on planet Earth, have been eliminated by an ecological disaster; be it volcanoes, asteroids or tsunamis. So, once you step back and consider the facts, it becomes utterly apparent that the doomsday clock ticks ever closer to midnight and, more often than not, the factors accelerating it aren’t what popular culture would have you believe. Consider how billions and billions of Dollars, Pounds, Euros and Yen are pumped into any given economy, foreign war and corporate enterprise, leaving only a minute percentage of a country’s GDP to be invested in sustaining the environment. As an example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently presented the scientifically clarified fact that sea levels will rise between 18cm and 50cm this century alone, and yet, it felt as though this alarming truth blurred in society’s peripheral vision. In the report, it states that Greenland is losing five times as much ice today as it was in the early 1990’s. The writing is on the wall. Any potential argument against melting ice caps has become rather redundant against the overwhelming wave of evidence. Although, it still hasn’t initiated an environmental outcry. Al Gore attempted to push climate change into the mainstream with his controversial documentary An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, but, after a brief spell of car pooling and recycling; it slowly disappeared from our culture’s shared priority.
Albeit, protecting the environment for our future generations isn’t determined by global warming alone, it also has to consider the overpowering influence of the food industry.
Continue reading on the next page…
