It's the end of the world as we know it. Certainly there's no secret about the fact that Watchmen has a dramatic ending, as there's been a lot of controversy over the way Zack Snyder has altered it from the book. The change was probably a necessary one, as there's a big difference between the world presented in Alan Moore's graphic novel and what we're used to seeing in the cinema, where life as we know it ends every other week. As cinema-goers, we love a bit of drama, and it doesn't come much bigger than that. But which apocalypses do film-makers like most?
World War Whatever
Ever since the invention of the atomic bomb, the threat of an all-ending war has hung over the Earth, with our shared fear of it leading to films as diverse as the despairing Threads and the blackly comic Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Sometimes there's a danger of nuclear destruction at the hands of a madman, as in Superman 4: The Search For Peace, and sometimes, as in War Games and the Terminator series, it's out of human hands altogether. But don't despair - as Herr Doktor pointed out, there can be life after the bomb, albeit perhaps a bleaker one than he imagined for the likes of A Boy And His Dog. Planet Of The Apes suggests that humans might not get the best of it, but, as Batman noted in 1966, it can be hard to get rid of a bomb.
Alien Threats
If the bomb doesn't get us, how about an alien invasion? This one has been running high in the movie sweepstakes ever since HG Wells wrote War Of The Worlds. They may be subtle, Communist invaders like those in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, out to get you when you fall asleep, or, as when Mars Attacks!, they may place little value on subtlety. Despite the blockbuster status of the likes of Independence Day, films like Earth Versus The Flying Saucers and Plan 9 From Outer Space proved that they don't need a big budget to be a big threat, so keep watching the skies!
Class Action
Whilst you're gazing heavenwards, don't lose track of what's going on down here on Earth. That's been the message of countless films, from The Time Machine and Metropolis to Blade Runner and Equilibrium. Though its forms have changed over the years, the danger of extreme class division leading to building resentment and violence has been around for centuries and has found vivid expression in film. The position you take on these things probably depends on which side you're on, but often they prove a threat to everybody, just as excessive oppression by the ruling classes - seen in films from Caligula to Star Wars - can result in the destruction of whole ways of life.
It Came from Outer Space
When it comes to non-sentient threats from space, it's not just our way of life that's at stake, but the very survival of our species. A big extraterrestrial body making a Deep Impact has been an ongoing concern in film ever since 1951's classic When Worlds Collide, in which a whole planet - and possibly a star - threaten to squish our poor little planet. From the Cold War concerns of Meteor to the star-spangled Armageddon, we've been looking to scientists and spacefaring heroes to save us - not forgetting, of course, Flash Gordon, who boldly fended off Emperor Ming's deadly debris assault with nothing but a Queen soundtrack and a pair of silver underpants, or the brave young Starship Troopers who fought off our rock-hurling arachnid enemies. Just don't stare at the pretty meteorites in the sky for too long, or you might end up as plant food on the Day Of The Triffids.
Deadly Viruses
The thing about meteors is that, even if we don't get very long in which to prepare, we can see them coming. A stealthier and potentially equally deadly enemy is the voracious virus, as featured in such popular hits as Outbreak and The Andromeda Strain. Sometimes viruses lead to other kinds of problem - 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil films demonstrate the way they can lead to zombie outbreaks - but there are other cases where a few individuals, like the post-Apocalyptic government in Twelve Monkeys, find the damage they do worryingly useful. That's when - unlike in I Am Legend, or so it would seem - there are that many people left.
Rampaging Monsters
As 20th Century Boys recently demonstrated, if you ask a child how the world should end, nine times out of ten they'll point you to a giant monster attack (robots count too, okay?) Whether it's Godzilla or the creature from Cloverfield, you can guarantee that it'll like nothing better than to stomp on some buildings and roar. Sometimes there's more than one of them, as in the classic Destroy All Monsters, and sometimes they can lurk in unexpected places, like in the Ray Harryhausen classic It Came From Beneath The Sea. As Van Helsing discovered, if giant monsters are not around, undead ones can still be a problem - you'd better watch out for those zombies again.
Environmental Destruction
Curiously, when it's probably the biggest real threat we face, this end of the world scenario is rather less common in the movie world. This may be due to the slow nature of its onset - one can choose to speed things up, so that they start happening just The Day After Tomorrow, or to set the action afterwards, as in Waterworld and the forthcoming The Age Of Stupid. The Happening suggests that nature might strike back at us before things get to that stage, and, indeed, films like Earthquake, Dante's Peak and Volcano serve to reminds us that disasters are not always of our own making.
Screwfly Solutions
Sometimes the world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Children Of Men asks what we'd do if children simply stopped being born, and there are a number of films out there in which things get complicated when one sex (usually men, conveniently making way for the hero's ego) mysteriously dies out. So what would you do if this was your Last Night on Earth? Do you think you could still find time to catch a movie?
