In which the world ends, anonymously

If there's one thing cinema has taught me, it's that sooner or later we're going to face one almighty fuckaroo of an apocalypse. And if it's taught me two things, then the other is that not knowing how the planet buys the farm is a far scarier prospect than being clued-in to our imminent demise.


Take "The Road", for example. All we're given is a bright orange glow through Viggo Mortensen's window, and then BLAM. It's toe-tag time for 99% of the populous. Were the film not so rigidly stuck to Cormac McCarthy's original prose, then you could maybe accuse the film-makers of being cheapskates and skimping out on showing us wanton global destruction. Fact of the matter is, I don't know what happened prior to enduring (and as good as the movie is, you do endure it rather than enjoy) two hours of Aragorn and his whiny brat traipsing towards The Coast. And for that reason, it's an ultimately more terrifying situation.

Far too many movies are geared towards finger-wagging as they bring about The End of Times. Roland Emmerich has had the bare-faced cheek to scream "Finish him!" at the planet twice in the last decade alone, and both times it was our own damn fault. I'm very aware that global warming is an ongoing threat, but showing me just how fucked we really are is less likely to encourage good recycling habits, and more likely to make me spend the next thirty years cowering under my bed.


One of the greatest apocalypse movies I've seen is Don McKellar's 1998 film "Last Night." A character piece through and through, it takes place during - hey! - our last night on Earth. Eschewing any kind of explanation, instead it gives us vignettes of how ordinary people are spending their final hours. By keeping the apocalypse as a backdrop rather than making it the central plot of the movie, it keeps things constantly uncertain and perpetually intriguing. At times I even questioned if the world really was about to end. Spoiler alert - it does, or at least the film ends right when it's supposed to.

"Donnie Darko" employed a similar tactic, although the later director's cut went someway to unraveling any air of mystery. Compare and contrast with a film like "28 Days Later..." - okay, pretty gripping throughout (save maybe the third act, when it derails horribly), but the whole time I'm thinking, "All this? From monkeys?" Not exactly the most fear-inducing catalyst for the apocalypse, surely?

Point being - unless you've got Bruce Willis and a space rocket on hand to fill out your plot, then don't bother explaining why exactly it is we're doomed. Things are far scarier that way. It's the end of the world as we don't know it, and I feel terrified.