With the Mayan calendar predicting our doom and gloomy ending this December, throughout the month of November Biff Bam Pop will be taking a look at some of our favourite pop culture apocalyptic moments. Marie Gilbert got things started with a look at Stephen King’s masterpiece, The Stand. Today, I’m listing off five of my favourite end of the world scenarios in films. Here’s your warning – there will be spoilers starting now.
Kicking things off is a film that I didn’t necessarily love when I watched it. The Divide is a brutal movie about a group of people trapped inside a building after a massive nuclear war. We watch as society and sanity crumbles until only one person is left, Eva, who, clad in a hazmat suit, manages to make it out of the building only to see the smoldering remains of the world before her. Though it may not be a classic, the ending will stick with me long after I forget the rest of the film.
Find out what other films make my list after the jump!
I’m nowhere near being a Planet Of The Apes fanatic, like so many people are. Hell, I actually enjoyed a lot of Tim Burton’s film from back in 2001. However, I don’t think any self-respecting pop culture geek doesn’t have a total fondness for the final moments of the original 1968 classic, which leaves us with the question of what did we do to the world to have it overrun by brilliant monkeys.
You know a movie resonates with when you’ve only seen it once and you still site its ending as one of your favourites years late. Such is the case with Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines. While I doubt that its anyone’s top pick in the venerable franchise, for me I’ve always thought it had a perfect and poignant ending (which I’ve written about previously, as it makes my list of favourite all time endings too). In T3, everything is futile. You can’t stop judgement day, the film tells us, you can only prepare how you want to live your life once it happens.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m last man standing when the end of days hits, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my sanity for too long. Especially if there are Elder Gods or Old Ones roaming the streets. Just ask John Trent, the protagonist in John Carpenter’s Toronto filmed classic, In The Mouth Of Madness. Trent, an insurance investigator, is hired to track down missing horror novelist Sutter Cane, whose various works have a strange effect on his massive readership. It makes them crazy, violent, and even mutates them. The film, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft asks us, what is reality, and by the time it finishes, leaves us with a fairly frightening answer.
The final film on my list is also the most recent. Another Lovecraftian influenced extravaganza, The Cabin In The Woods starts off with a handful of horror clichés before transforming into a clever and creepy flick about sacrifice. Human sacrifice, that is. By the time we reach the final third, the people who we really should be cheering for are being off by a horrifying assortment of ghouls, demons and fish men, before finally delivering, what else, by the end of the world. Literally.
You’ve seen my favourite apocalyptic endings, now show me yours? Do any of these make your personal cut?
I’ve seen all the films except “The Mouth of Madness” and “The Divide” I have to add these to my list of movies to watch.
The Good Earth is one of my favourites
The ending of Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia”. Yikes.