Tabloid media the world over and Internet message boards are of course buzzing about the supposed Mayan apocalypse that's going to abound some time this Friday, and so we thought it worthy to run-down 10 films that might be able to help you prepare for it, just in case of the small chance - however unlikely it is - that we're overrun by a race of alien overlords, a nuke is detonated, the Rapture takes place, or any other such event obliterates the world as know it. You never can be too careful, so once you've stocked the cupboards full of tinned, non-perishable food, ensured your flashlights all have working batteries and boarded up the house, rifle through your DVD shelf or load up Netflix and take a gander at these sctinatiling and diverse end of the world movies. Given how this is uncharted territory for all of us, here's 10 movies you absolutely have to pay attention to.
10. War of the Worlds (2005)
Though an alien invasion is a lot less likely to occur than a giant black hole swallowing the Earth or, you know, some crazy dictator starting a bout of nuclear tennis, it's still something worth thinking about, and what better film to use as a blueprint for the attack than Steven Spielberg's glossy, surprisingly entertaining sci-fi actioner based on H.G. Wells' classic text, War of the Worlds. In 2005, 9/11 was still very fresh in the world's collective consciousness, and so these scenes of destruction on a gargantuan scale couldn't help but hit a nerve; indeed, the aliens would be seen as terrorists on an entirely unthinkable scale, and if anything like this, would promptly force us underground while they vaporise everything in sight. What it tells us: don't trust your fellow man, especially if it's Tim Robbins; trust only your family, and even then, if your daughter is an overly precocious little brat, or worse still, Dakota Fanning, then it's probably best using her as bait during your eventual chance to escape.