It’s amusing in some sense how the end of the world will be brought about by mankind in many movies. We are the authors of our own destruction and our own worst enemies after all since we tend to think too far ahead and assume that we’re smarter than everyone else around us. That however gets us in trouble quite often since it’s been observed in many humans that being two to three steps ahead is not always the perfect plan. But in movies the end of the world is more of a knee-jerk reaction something that people tend to think is an act of aggression and things get out of control very quickly. In the 80s, nuclear war was still a very popular subject when it came to entertainment because it got people thinking and it managed to get a reaction out of just about everyone. The fact is that the threat of nuclear warfare has been real for a long time now and is still kind of a sore spot for those that had to live through these times.
End of the world movies don’t always come as a result of bombs, but it’s still a popular method.
5. The Day After
This is one of those films that just looks too real for a lot of people and goes around showing how the war, when it finally happened, affected so many different people in different situations. The bombing leveled cities and left many people dead, dying, or adrift as the destruction of the nation managed to wipe out a good number of people and left the others without any hope that things would go back to normal. The US never surrendered but the losses were so heavy that picking up the pieces would be extremely difficult, not to mention heart-wrenching as the survivors would have to live with the idea that there was nothing they could do.
4. Night of the Comet
This is definitely a twist and a movie that a lot of people likely don’t remember. When the earth passes through the tail of a comet, something that only happens every once in 65 million years apparently, everyone that’s not protected by something steel that can block the radiation is turned to dust. While zombies that are slowly decomposing into the same dust are still evident in the world and there are survivors trying to figure out how to cure the disease, two sisters and a few stragglers are trying their best just to survive and cope with the fact that they are among the few that are left.
3. Miracle Mile
This is not the movie for you if you happen to like happy endings. When a young man hears a phone call meant for someone else saying that nuclear war is about to break out he can’t help but get a little hysterical. Worse than this though is the fact that even with impending doom headed towards LA, he’s not willing to leave the woman he loves and just met, and so begins a trek across the city the ends in death, misery, and a failed rescue attempt as he tries to rescue her. While they do end up together the helicopter in which they find themselves is struck by an EMP that is given off from one of the missiles as it explodes, sending them, the pilot, and the helicopter into the La Brea Tar Pits, where they are all slowly consumed.
2. Testament
The horror of the end of the world isn’t in the initial happening, but in the fallout that comes shortly after. Radiation poisoning is one of the absolute worst effects of nuclear war that can be imagined and aside from the uncertainty, doubt, and pain of losing loved ones it seems as though it would have to be one of the worst ways to die. Moving on in a world that has become incredibly hostile after a war that could end up nearly wiping out humanity is something that we, as humans, need to contemplate more often before fingers starting itching to push the wrong buttons.
1. WarGames
There is such a thing as being too smart. When one young man decides to try and change his grades he stumbles into a system that he doesn’t fully understand. He might be a wizard at video games but when it comes to figuring out just when to stop and look around to see what he’s doing his judgment is pretty poor. Of course it’s also highly disconcerting to realize that the computers controlling a war game scenario would be so easy for someone to hack into. Perhaps this is why tech has been improving so quickly throughout the last couple of decades.
The world will end someday, but all we can do is hope that we’re not the initial cause.
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