10 Types Of Cinematic Apocalypse

1. The Non-Specific Apocalypse The non-specific apocalypse may initially feel like a bit of a cop out. These films, by their nature, pick up after the world has ended and documentary a society living in the shadow of whatever tragedy has come to pass. We may know its symptoms - blindness (Blindness), infertility (Children of Men) -, but we never discover the cause. Of all the types of apocalypse movies, this is the most existential, less concerned with how and why than what it means for humanity. John Hillcoat's The Road (based on the book by Cormac McCarthy) is about a man and his son traveling through a hostile, almost deserted world after some unknown cataclysm. What is responsible what this state of being is besides the point; The Road focuses on the journey, on man's inhumanity to man, and what they experience along the way. Other films, from War of the Worlds to the Andromeda Strain, are about spectacle: they're blockbusters in which the ramifications of what they're showing you is secondary of what you're being shown. The non-specific apocalypse is primarily existential. Two films this year, After Earth and Oblivion, have dealt with the notion of an Earth abandoned by humanity, but rather than explore this concept they obfuscate with action sequences. With the alien/monster apocalypse card to hide behind, neither film feels obliged to say anything. The non-specific apocalypse is, as such, perhaps the purest apocalypse of all: without genre tropes to hide behind, they're forced to deal with the biggest question of them all - us. So, that about does it for the cinematic apocalypse, but what do you think? Are there any key types I've missed, any particular movies you think I should have mentioned? Does my failure to specifically differentiate between apocalypse and post-apocalypse annoy you (as well it might)? 'Cause when we're all living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland after all the lights go out or during the apocalypse when the ficus start eating us, what you'll really regret is not commenting on the Top 10 Types of Cinematic Apocalypse. In all seriousness, though, feedback = much appreciated.