THE WORLD'S END...
End of the world narratives entice audiences – call it a morbid fascination or cathartic release, we can’t help but be drawn to them, to borrow a cliché, like a moth to a flame.
The 1950s played on our fears of the atomic age, the 1980s exemplified it further with the threat of World War III based on the rising tensions between America and our friends in the East, Russia. Today, we are inundated with messages of doom and gloom because of climate change.
2020 hasn’t been kind to any of us – from all corners of the world (as if that makes sense, but then since when did 2020 care about being coherent), we have had to hunker down much to the amusement of our leaders I’m sure. H.G. Wells often prophesised in his narratives of a dystopian future – he was certainly more accurate than Nostradamus – I thought it would be apt to close the year outwith my top five world ending movies.
5. TAKE SHELTER (2011)
Michael Shannon gives a terrific performance of a man who has a premonition of the world coming to an end, so he sets out to build a bunker to hunker down in, only for no one to believe in his insanity. The mood is bleak as is the rising tension, as his warning looks to bear fruit.
4. MIRACLE MILE (1988)
Anthony Edwards of E.R. fame, stars in this mostly shot in ‘real time’ narrative about a man who is mistakenly told that the world is about to be nuked in 70 minutes. The resultant mass hysteria as word breaks paints a horrifying picture of our potential final moments before the warheads hit.
3. KNOWING (2009)
Nicolas Cage plays an M.I.T. professor who stumbles upon a list of numbers recovered from a time capsule only to determine that it pertains to the coordinates of each major disaster covering the previous 50 years, including ones that have yet to happen. Director, Alex Proyas throws everything, and the kitchen sink at this one. Highly entertaining and frightening at the same time!
2. SNOWPIERCER (2013)
Chris Evans stars in this Korean film directed by Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho about a train that travels around the globe after a failed climate change experiment has left the world a snowy, iced up ball. The last remaining people are sectioned off in a hierarchal split from the lowest of lows at the back of the train cars to the wealthy elites further up the front of the train – bring on the revolution. Social commentary on the way our world is now couldn’t be more on point!
1. The Road (2009)
https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=479046078465836926
My Movie Recommendation!
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