It’s the End of the World! Or Is It?

It’s 2020 and humanity is still standing. For decades, storytellers have imagined and reimagined the doom of society and the world. An intrepid group of panelists convened on-screen at Dragon Con Goes Virtual on Saturday at 12AM, Fan Track channel, to chat about “Sci-Fi Apocalypses We Avoided So Far.” Moderator J.C. De La Torre led the discussion with input from Michael G. Williams, Jonathan Williams, Gary Mitchel, and John Hudgens.

Going back to the year 1995, the panelists began with A Clockwork Orange. Though we may have avoided the event that caused the dystopia, the panel joked that they’re not so sure they can differentiate between the “droogs” and some people of today.

Moving on to 1997, the panelists visited Escape From New York, which they said could possibly reflect the current environment.

The panelists decided to take this opportunity to make some clarifications between types of apocalypses. In a social apocalypse, they said, only people are affected. In a world apocalypse, on the other hand, everything is affected.

The next question put to the panel, what is your favorite apocalypse movie, was widened to television and books for a list including The Terminator, Max Headroom, Mad Max, Dawn of the Dead (both the original and the remake), Cloud Atlas, Children of Men, 28 Days Later, Waterworld, 12 Monkeys, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Thundarr the Barbarian.

One panelist mentioned The Jetsons, which led the rest to ponder since we never see the ground in The Jetsons if Thundarr the Barbarian is happening down there.

Next, the panelists were asked to share something they enjoy that is not necessarily apocalyptic but could be apocalypse adjacent. Answers included A Boy and His Dog, Highlander II, and Brazil.

Several questions the panel discussed ended up being answered by, “It depends on the story.” For example:

  • Do you prefer a happy or grim ending?
  • Should the apocalypse itself be the villain or do you prefer others taking advantage of the protagonist?
  • Is it better to know what happened to cause the apocalypse or just be tossed in the middle of it?

Before sharing more favorite apocalypse stories, the panel considered whether Red Dwarf could be considered a post-apocalyptic story. They determined it was a personal apocalypse that only affected the crew of the Red Dwarf.

Finally, a list of more apocalyptic entertainment:

  • Footfall
  • Fallout
  • Where the Wind Blows
  • The Day After
  • Damnation Alley
  • Metropolis
  • A Quiet Place
  • Battlestar Galactica

Happy apocalypsing!

 

 

Author of the article

Colleen Callahan is a freelance content writer and social media consultant specializing in food and beverage, writing blog posts, newsletters, and managing social media accounts. She recently sold her house and most of her possessions and moved into an RV with her two doggos. They live the full-time nomad life, traveling the US and chasing 70 degrees. Starting with A Wrinkle In Time and never looking back, Colleen is a huge fan of science fiction, fantasy, and the supernatural. Favorite time burners are anything by Joss Whedon, the entire Outlander universe, the occasional Neil Gaiman rant, and as many geeky TV shows as she can lay her eyes on. Recently, Colleen has decided to go back to her first love - writing. Since the third grade, creating neighborhood newsletters with a typewriter and copying them with a mimeograph machine (remember those?), the writing flame has been kept alive through short stints in industry magazines, copywriting for marketing projects, and writing on her blog, www.Sunrise2SunsetRV.com. Volunteering for the Daily Dragon was the first stepping stone in a journey towards her Destiny. Colleen can also be seen on her YouTube channel, Sunrise 2 Sunset RV.