10 Types Of Cinematic Apocalypse

4. The Technological Apocalypse

The Terminator

Okay, we done fucked up: we gave birth to AI €“ we wanted it to coordinate our military/missile defense/laundry cycles €“ and now it€™s decided to kill us. This scenario is the most common amidst all technological apocalypses (The Terminator series, The Matrix), though it tends towards the post-apocalyptic. It€™s rare we actually get to see the bombs falling; usually films in this genre deal with the fallout, literal and otherwise, with mankind€™s struggle to survive. There may or may not be genocidal robots striding the landscape of a devastated L.A., we may or may not be serving as giant human batteries. It can mean a chance to rebuild, bigger, better, somewhat organically deficient (Blade Runner), but mostly it ends with a lone wanderer strolling through the wasteland (Mad Max 2, The Postman, Six-String Samurai, Equilibrium).

The subtext here is Luddite, the idea that we€™d all be better without our laptops, iPhones, ready brew, and maybe they have a point. Then again, if it weren€™t for the Internet you wouldn€™t be able to read insightful little gems like this article here and is that really a world worth living in? It might end in us being overtaken by monkeys (Planet of the Apes), but at least well be able to Tweet about it.

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Robert Wallis hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.