Essentialist of... End of the World Movies - Disaster

With the possibility of apocalypse by contagion so prominent in everyone’s minds right now, I thought it might be timely to offer up an essentialist series that delved into films about the end of the the world. However, the big screen really loves a disaster and worldwide threat… so there are a lot. Seriously, there are bucket-loads. As such, this is the second in my series of posts which cover the Earth’s impending or past doom by disease, aliens and disaster, whether they be classic, animated or comedy.

Alongside my last list of Disease-based catastrophe films and Comedy-apocalypse movies, this time I will be featuring Disaster movies. Here’s my Essentialist of the world-ending disaster films that I’d recommend, and a few I’d warn against.

2012 (2009)

Roland Emmerich does what he does best with 2012, smash the world up. In his typical style, it is identified that a solar flare has caused the Earth’s core to become unstable and a plucky hero must save his family, while iconic locations are successively obliterated. John Cusack is the writer hero, somehow at the forefront of the disaster and hurtling heroically through the catastrophe as the world literally collapses around him. As for iconic locations, this film has them all; Los Angeles collapses into the San Andreas fault, Christ the Redeemer in Rio falls and the Dalai Llama watches as tidal waves crash over the Himalayas. It’s all predictably preposterous but great fun to watch.

Sunshine (2007)

In Danny Boyle‘s Sunshine it is 2057 and the world is suffering a slow death by nuclear winter as the Sun slowly darkens. A group of scientists aboard the Icarus 2 are sent to deliver a thermonuclear payload to the dying star’s heart in an attempt to reignite it. The strong cast, including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh and Benedict Wong deliver fantastic performances as they struggle against engineering accidents, human errors and whether to investigate a distress call from the ship’s believed-lost predecessor. The usual issues of an isolated crew slowly turning mad or against each other are well dealt with here, but the real star (pun intended) is the Sun itself. The cinematography is radiant and sublime, portraying its sheer immensity, mesmerizing beauty and destructive power.

The Road (2009)

Almost as bleak as the Cormac McCarthy book it is based on, The Road follows the journey of a father and son through a post-apocalyptic world that has been destroyed by a cataclysmic extinction event. Viggo Mortenson plays the father, pushing their shopping trolley of possessions and evading predators, cannibals and desperate survivors, along a road that will eventually lead them to the sea. He has two bullets left, both saved as a last resort. As the father struggles to protect and provide, the son fears they are becoming the ‘bad guys’ they are meant to be wary of. The Road is disturbing, depressing and brilliant.

Waterworld (1995)

When it was made, Kevin Reynolds’s Waterworld was the most expensive film ever made, costing a then eye-watering (ha ha) $175 million. It was billed as Mad Max on the sea, as Kevin Costner’s Mariner, complete with mutants gills behind his ears, survives aboard his catamaran, fishing, scavenging relics from the ocean floor and fighting Smokers, the jetski-riding pirate villains of the piece. The early part of the film is actually quite interesting, with Mariner’s life on the sea and survival processes portrayed. It soon falls into derivative, over-blown Mad Max 2 farce, as Mariner aids the inhabitants of a trading atoll from the hilarious, preposterous Dennis Potter and his ridiculous pirate raiders.

The Time Machine (2002)

This heavily-embellished adaptation of H.G. Wells’s classic novel is sometimes quite beautifully delivered but ultimately lacking. Guy Pearce, a New York scientist from 1903, builds a time machine in an effort to save the life of his fiancee. He travels to two future times to try and discover why he is unable to do change the past, before an accident hurtles him 800,000 years into the future, where a catastrophe which has sent chunks of the moon crashing to earth has split civilisation into two distinct groups. The Eloi are a beautiful, passive people living in the bowers of trees and eating fruit while the Morlocks, who retreated underground when catastrophe struck, emerge from sinkholes to capture and eat the Eloi. Pearce and Jeremy Irons cannot save this film from being flawed and somewhat vapid but it is visually captivating so worth a watch if you come across it.

Mad Max Fury Road (2015)

This frantic, unrelenting action juggernaut is one of my favourite action films ever. It’s set in the Mad Max world, a sun-baked desert landscape where the future civilisation, consists of regional clans, biker gangs and its foremost villains, The War Boys. Tom Hardy plays the titular hero who, having been captured by their leader Immortan Joe, is strapped to the front as they pursue Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, who has kidnapped his breeding wives. The chase is on. Tom Hardy is as brilliant as ever and, typically, muzzled for much of the film. However, it is the utterly badass Furiosa, the wives and the Vuvalini who steal the show. The entire film is a stunningly balls-out, bonkers action-fest, with insane chase scenes and stunts from start to finish. Grab your popcorn; the end of the world brings insane, marauding heavy-metal bikers… and I bloody love it.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Another world-ending blockbuster from Roland Emmerich, this time with the earth facing its impending doom by means of climate disaster, and the ushering in of a new ice age. Dennis Quaid is the scientist whose warnings of the coming catastrophe are brushed aside (as they always are). A series of super-storms cause widespread destruction (the Royal family are killed en route to Balmoral, nooo…) and begin flash-freezing the northern hemisphere. Quaid somehow manages to make it to Washington to rescue his son (as the hero always does) and blah, blah, blah. Utterly typical nonsense but the destruction scenes, as New York and Los Angeles are ripped apart, are suitably satisfying.

Snowpiercer (2013)

It is 2031 and the earth has been plunged into nuclear winter, after climate-engineering attempts to avert global warming have disastrously failed. The remnants of human civilisation live aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that circumnavigates the world endlessly. The train has developed a class system whereby the poorest passengers live in the tail-end, with tightly-regulated food and supplies being distributed to the rear from the elite at the front. Chris Evans leads a revolt to secure better rights, but must battle their way forward through the train to achieve it. Bong Joon-ho‘s train-based sci-fi is brilliant, mixing high-end societal concepts and a stellar cast that includes John Hurt, Ed harris and Jamie Bell and boasts a particularly fantastic, outlandish performance from Tilda Swinton. A must-see.

The Book of Eli (2010)

Some catastrophe has reduced the Earth’s population, water has become the number one resource (and, for Eli, batteries for his iPod) and motorcycle gangs ravage the desolated highways of the US. Don’t they always? This does not bother Eli much, due to his skill with knives, guns and general badassery. Eli is on his way west to the sea (aren’t they always?) and passes through a town ruled over by evil gang boss Gary Oldman. Oldma wants Eli because he carries the final copy of a special book that can help him rule over many towns with ease (what can it be?). Despite all this predictable nonsense, it’s pretty cool, martial artistry action-apocalypse fare and worth a watch.

Armageddon (1998)

Well, Michael Bay had to be on the list somewhere. At least this one is a popular classic to most of us. It’s preposterous and cliched, of course it is, but it’s a rollicking blockbuster romp and the star-studded ensemble cast satisfies all tastes. Bruce Willis and his deep-sea drilling team (including Billy-Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson) are, improbably, the only ones capable of landing on an asteroid destined to hit Earth and drill a deep enough hole to plant nukes and knock it off course. Spoiler: they succeed. Universally-adored nonsense.

Interstellar (2014)

I feel like Interstellar is a film that I really should enjoy but just can’t be bothered to. Christopher Nolan (and brother Jonathan) wrote the epic’s script, where in 2067 the Earth is becoming a dust-bowl and society has regressed to a blinkered, post-truth state. Involving worm holes, black holes, time travel and long-distance space missions results in a well-constructed, convoluted (not something I necessarily hold against a film) and sometimes turgid plot. It’s interesting but I just can’t seem to care. I absolutely love how they envisioned the two robots though.

The Core (2003)

This is the kind of ridiculous I like. Aaron Eckhart, with the eventual help of lead government scientific advisor Stanley Tucci, has discerned that recent disturbances in the Earth’s electromagnetic field (Trafalgar Square pigeons losing it, pacemaker-users dropping dead and a space shuttle’s corrupted guidance system sending it crashing back to Earth) indicate that the planet’s liquid-metal core has stopped rotating. Fortunately, a series of nuclear explosions set off in close proximity to the core will get it started and Delroy Lindo has designed a probe (made of, I shit you not, Unobtainium) that can cut rock with lasers. Deep core probes with frickin’ laser beams! Movie gold.

Essentialist of… End of the World Movies – Disaster