GENRE RESEARCH – POST APOCALYPTIC By szymon czajka

Overview Post Apocalypse is in itself a sub-genre of science fiction, it focuses on what life would be like after a supposed ‘end of the world’. Each of these scenarios would possibly be considered a Sub-Genre, thus I will analyse each one. A post-apocalyptic film could be set immediately after a disaster (or have the disaster happen near the start of the film) or even a thousand years after one. Films from this genre often focus on the life and psychology of survivors. In some films set centuries or millennia after a apocalyptic event, it is common for our modern (pre-apocalyptic) civilisation has either been forgotten or has been turned into a myth.

(Nuclear) War This sub-genre is about humanity destroying itself via war, a fear that we have faced since the first world war. This scenario reflect what we predict life after a catastrophic event where a nation collapses via world war. it mainly splits into either humanity creating a weapon we could not control, Such as Skynet in the Terminator series. The other popular version is nuclear war wiping us out such as in the fallout games or adventure time (cartoon set around 1000 years after a nuclear war). much media forms have used this scenario, it was especially popular in japan after the 1945 nuclear bomb dropped by the USA. An example of this is a 1954 film called Gojira (later known as Godzilla) where the title monster is a analogy for nuclear weapons, something japan experienced less than a decade before the film came out.

Pandemic This scenario/sub-genre focuses on our fear that one day a virus might arise, immune to everything we throw at it, manages to infect a majority of humanity, This sub-genre almost always focuses on the survival of a lone survivor/ a group of survivors either directly after the outbreak or a few years after the outbreak (typically never more than 20 years). Like the previously mentioned war, this sub-genre divides into two types. The first is a virus or bacteria that simply kills any who become infected, this is seen less nowadays in favour of the other type, but occasionally pops up from time to time. The other type is a disease that turns the host into some form of zombie, this type is Hollywood's bread and butter when it comes to apocalyptic film. As we know the properties of zombies differ from film to film, some walking while others can run, some made by a virus while others by brain-fungus, an example of a movie that most fits both zombie and post apocalyptic would be I am Legend (2007).

Failure of modern technology This sub-genre focuses on one of our other fears, the fear of becoming too dependant on technology. Followed by an event where something goes wrong and humanity looses the technology we depend on. The technology in mention differs from film to film, while some focus on a future where our supercomputer goes rouge (Terminator fits into this sub-genre too), Or possibly a singularity where an AI (artificial intelligence) overpowers humanity and entraps them in a creation of its own (like in The Matrix). Other films from this sub-genre choose to focus one something more close-to-home, such as humanity trying to survive if the power grid shuts down.

Astronomical Astronomical focuses on the constant threat hanging overhead that earth might- at any second –crash with another celestial body, leading to a repeat of the extinction of the dinosaurs, with us being the main target Not many films focus on this scenario in recent times, the most recent film was a 1977 production called Lucifer’s Hammer. Whist other forms of media have talked about this scenario more in recent times. While most media tend to have an unnamed celestial body or the infamous “planet X” be what earth collides with, id Software’s 2011 game Rage decides to base the story on earth colliding with a real asteroid, one in mention being called Apophis.

Aliens While more Apocalyptic than Post-Apocalyptic, Aliens are still as popular as zombies in modern culture, which can clearly be seen in modern films. This sub-genre plays on our fear of the unknown, of the possibility something might be out there that is much more advanced than us. Most alien films focus more on attempts to stop aliens from destroying humanity, however a few films decided to focus on what would happen if we lost. An example of a film is Oblivion (2013) which I decided to focus on during my textual analysis. While Oblivion does not focus on the aliens an awfully lot, it still acknowledges that earth is in ruins due to a war with an alien race. One bonus to this subgenre is that unexplainable alien technology can be used.

Environmental Disaster This sub-genre focuses on a catastrophic environmental event such as extreme climate change or mass flooding destroys the world, like (most of) the other sub-genres, it plays on a the possibility of a real threat, but unlike the others, we can tell that one day such an event might happen, perhaps not as extreme, but the events in this subgenre are built on very possible scenarios. An example of a film purely from this subgenre is The Day After Tomorrow (2004), where climate change results mass destruction across the world, resulting in an ice age. Another film from this genre (while also getting some influence from other subgenres) is 2012 (2009) where a solar flare heats up the earths’ core, making the Yellowstone super volcano erupt, leading to the crust collapsing in the area around the volcano (leading to a majority of the west coast of the US being destroyed), all this triggering a flood the swooped the entire world, flooding everything in its path, with the last remnants of humanity having to get on arks to survive. Now that’s one indecisive apocalypse.

Post-peak oil This subgenre focuses on the inevitable fate that oil will run out. The focus of these films is either the disappearance of oil, fights for the last remains or life after oil has disappeared. Not many films have been created in this subgenre, the only well known example is the Mad Max series, looking at how the exhaustion of oil supply could possibly lead to the collapse of society. Sometimes this sub-genre is mixed in with others leading, mainly war. Such is the case in the Fallout series where china invades Alaska in hopes of securing the last oil deposit in the world.