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My fascination with the end of the world

Discussion in 'Archive: SF&F: Films and Television' started by malkieD2, Mar 29, 2006.

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  1. malkieD2

    malkieD2 Ex-Manager and RSA star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 7, 2002
    There's one sci-fi genre that I love - movies which deal with the end of the world.

    However, I need there to be a degree of reasonable science behind the end of the world, or I start to cringe.

    I love Deep Impact and Armageddon for different reasons. One focuses on the political and soci-economic impact of an asteroid threat, whereas the other is a simple action flick with a couple of good performances.

    I hated The Core largely because it was complete nonsense. Centre of the earth in a submarine - yeah, ok.

    Recently The Day After Tomorrow impressed me - nice idea and some genuine gripping moments.


    So, does anyone know of any upcoming end of the world movies ?
    And can someone explain why NYC always gets destroyed first ?
     
  2. Boba_Fett_2001

    Boba_Fett_2001 Chosen One star 8

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    Dec 11, 2000
    Well, Roland Emmerich definitey has a thing for destroying NYC in his films (ID4, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow). I guess it's just a good city to ravage. :p
     
  3. ObiWan506

    ObiWan506 Former Head Admin star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Aug 5, 2003
    New York City always gets destroyed because it's the icon of America that everyone can easily recognize. If you lose New York, you lose the a huge part of America.

    As for 'end of the world' movies, I like them too. If gives us a sense of suspense with the notion that the Earth could finally end. Obviously it's just Sci-Fi, but they always seem to have a hint of truth into all of them which most of the time makes you walk away thinking, "Could that really happen?'
     
  4. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

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    Nov 13, 2000
    Terminator 3?

    and The Core, lol
     
  5. TwiLekJedi

    TwiLekJedi Pretty Ex-Mod star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 14, 2001
    I loved The Core because it was complete nonsense [face_laugh] That movie is so funny :p


    do you only like movies in which the world is going to end or post-apocalyptic ones, too?
     
  6. Tabula Rasa

    Tabula Rasa Administrator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 8, 1998
    I've always been interested in stories where they tap into the world as we know it ending or having ended. The Time Machine and Planet of the Apes don't focus on the world ending directly, but they're definitely my favorite movies when it comes to getting a glimpse of a distant future where civilization as we know it has come to an end. Knowing that it was Earth all along really adds alot to the first hour or so of Planet of the Apes, as they trek across big strips of alien looking land. Even the shabby sequels appealed to me in regards to the characters discovering ancient ruins of our times.
     
  7. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    About Deep Impact, there was a speech given by the President as I recall in which he mentions that certain people were picked to survive and were to be gathered into underground bunkers. I wish they had spent time on how they determined who the worlds population would be that they picked above everyone else.
     
  8. RebelScum77

    RebelScum77 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Aug 3, 2003
    One of the films of this genre that most hits a chord with me is "12 Monkeys". There's a lot going on in that film, and much of it is figuring out what our own accountability is for the destruction of our known way of life.
     
  9. Son of the Suns

    Son of the Suns Administrator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 6, 1999
    I think my favorite movie that deals with the end of the world is A.I.. It's more subtle than a lot of these other movies in its depiction of mankind's demise, but this approach is far more effective in my view.

    Deep Impact was pretty good, though. And while cheesy, The Day After Tomorrow had its moments.
     
  10. Moleman1138

    Moleman1138 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Aug 18, 2004
    Except for the Day After Tomorrow, I really haven't found apocalyptic films to be that fun. It's the same plot over and over again. Even though it's cliche for the heroes to survive, I want to see a disaster film where nobody survives. At least then it'd be realistic. Who needs an up ending anyways.
     
  11. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 21, 2001
    I like a lot of the movies that have been mentioned if only because I enjoy seeing how the various disasters are portrayed. While a lot of that comes with the fascination for visual effects I have, it's neat to see how they tell some sort of story with the chaos. I agree some of them get a bit old or cheezy at times though.
     
  12. jangoisadrunk

    jangoisadrunk Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Mar 7, 2005
    I've always loved these kinds of stories as well.

    Deep Impact had the potential to be great, but they sold themselves out at the end. I would have been such a stronger movie had the larger asteroid actually hit Canada. I hated the way the astronauts just decided to fly their ship into the asteroid and set off the nukes because: A) I hate noble suicide in disaster films, and B) It totally negated the dramatic effect of the Tea Leoni character killing herself via death by tsunami. In the end, though, I like the film.

    Armageddon was just plain stupid. It illustrates all that can go wrong with summer blockbusters. I thought the science was bad (Billy Bob Thorton's science advisor says the asteroid will kill ALL life on Earth, even bacteria! - What?). The acting was melodramatic (aka, the Curse of Liv Tyler). And don't even get me started on Bruce Willis' noble suicide. :mad:

    I, too, like The Core because it was complete nonsense. I felt it was an homage to films like Fantasitic Voyage and Journey to the Center of the Earth where science takes a backseat to wonder.

    I also really liked The Day After Tomorrow. I felt it was way better than Independance Day since the science was stronger and the charcters were slightly less cliched. It also had much better music, in my opinion.

    I loved the [new] BSG miniseries (which I just watched for the second time) and it's treatment of the end of the world. All the confusion among the survivors was portrayed in a very realistic fashion. Everything was portrayed so hard edged and matter-of-factly without melodrama or pity. For my money, the BSG mini when viewed as a 3 hour movie beats all the other movies we've mentioned hands down.
     
  13. Walken

    Walken Jedi Padawan star 4

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    May 3, 2004
    Escape from LA is my "cult classic".
     
  14. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 27, 2005
    I like ID4. It established the characters and their relationships to each other fairly quickly and by the end of the movie I was sad for the characters that died.

    I used to like a lot of end of the world movies before 9/11.
     
  15. JediTrilobite

    JediTrilobite Jedi Grand Master star 7

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    Nov 17, 1999
    I hated Armageddon with a Passion. Deep Impact was so much better. Day After Tomorrow was rediculous, the science there was horrible as well as the Core.

    Titan AE is my favorite end of the world story.
     
  16. Lobot_Omy

    Lobot_Omy Moderator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 9, 2001
    Independence Day is the most believable end of the world movie.
     
  17. jangoisadrunk

    jangoisadrunk Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Mar 7, 2005
    Ah, yes I forgot Titan AE. That was a very underrated movie. I keep seeing it on DVD at places like Target in the 5 dollar range but haven't got around to picking it up yet. It had a excellent story and very good traditional animation.
     
  18. Baron-Soontir-Fel

    Baron-Soontir-Fel Jedi Knight star 5

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    Jan 15, 2005
    New York is the densest city in the country, so it's the best place for showing a ton of buildings getting blown up or what have you. :p

     
  19. Jedi_Master_Conor

    Jedi_Master_Conor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 24, 2005
    i have to say Independance Day and Armageddon are my favorite end of the world movies. next in line would be Deep Impact. the music for Independance Day and Armageddon was done really well. i really like the music during the launch of the Shuttles in Armageddon
     
  20. Walken

    Walken Jedi Padawan star 4

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    May 3, 2004
    Well, according to physics, the shear scale of the spacecraft alone hovering over the cities would have created enough force to crush the buildings, they didn't need a lazer.
     
  21. Baron-Soontir-Fel

    Baron-Soontir-Fel Jedi Knight star 5

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    Jan 15, 2005
    And I'm still not gonna buy Randy Quaid actually accomplishing something. [face_not_talking]
     
  22. malkieD2

    malkieD2 Ex-Manager and RSA star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 7, 2002
    Good point. I loved the original Apes movie - really grasped the concept of a dark future -only in the final shot do you realise exactly what happened. Must have been awesome to have seen that in the theatre when it originally came out and not know the ending.

    The sequels were poor, but I did appreciate certain aspects. I loved the concept of them worshiping the nuclear warhead in Beneath. They cover what sorts of mad religions might develop if society crumbled.


    Too true - another great movie.

    Sadly I must confess to not 'getting it' properly until I watched the DVD extras and Gilliam explains it all. (ie the circular paradox of Willis's character seeing himself die being required for him to be the sort of person he is in the future and hence is able to save the future)
     
  23. Walken

    Walken Jedi Padawan star 4

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    May 3, 2004
    Ah but we don't know f he saves the future, we just end up with the scientist woman sitting next to virus guy on the plane, left with the sense of not knowing what will happen. Either she captures him and exploits him for a cure, or the path to the future of widespread death happens again. The film is based on another film (I can't remember the name) in which a man is tortured by his police captors and is able to go back in time (although it seems more like a dillusion) to attempt to save the woman he loves on some pier, then his child self is there and witnesses the whole tragic end (or something like that, my memory of the thing is really vague).
     
  24. malkieD2

    malkieD2 Ex-Manager and RSA star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 7, 2002
    Ah but we don't know f he saves the future, we just end up with the scientist woman sitting next to virus guy on the plane, left with the sense of not knowing what will happen. Either she captures him and exploits him for a cure, or the path to the future of widespread death happens again

    I disagree.

    Early in the movie we're told that they need to find a pure source of the virus from when it was first released to be able to produce a cure in the future. They don't need the virus guy - just a sample of virus, which he had with him on the plane.

    However, they didn't know where and when the virus was released, but believed it has something to do with the Army of the 12 Monkeys. They send Willis back in time to find out where the virus came from, and what role the Army of the 12 Monkeys had. If he succeeds in finding the original source of the virus then they intended to send a scientist back in time to that point and gather a source of the pure virus to return to the future with.

    Willis was selected because of his ability to accurately remember facts, figures, times and places. Willis was a bit strange, and had these abilities, but lacked a certain degree of social abilities. His development was a result of him seeing a man getting shot dead infront of him at a very early age. At the end of the movie we realise that it is himself that he sees being shot, and hence his own death was the cause of his abstract development. The paradox is that without him seeing his own death he wouldn't grow into the social reject with amazing recall abilities, and hence wouldn't have been able to save the future.

    That was my take on the plot of the movie, and Gilliam agrees with me. (or rather I agree with him ;) )
     
  25. MariahJade2

    MariahJade2 Former Fan Fiction Archive Editor star 5 VIP

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    Mar 18, 2001
    Charlton Heston in Omega Man. :p

    Ok to be serious.


    It was a TV movie, but The Stand seems even more chilling in todays world with Bird flu and bio-terror.
     
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