Ha- I love a good apocalypse scenario! Ever since I was a kid and read "On the Beach" and "Alas, Babylon," I've wanted to write one. Achievement unlocked with "Light's End," which in a way was my answer to "Independence Day," the world's dumbest alien invasion movie IMO.
Thanks for this recommendation. Just finished, can see where the inspiration for The Stand came from. A good read, some sections really show there age but overall interesting.
Titanic should be way more terrifying, not just because it was a real disaster, but because most of us would be in steerage on that voyage as the peons we are, and discovering that the gates to the deck and the life boats were locked and we were going to be left to drown is the stuff of nightmares. JB of course would be the only exception, swanning it in first class. We'd have to hope he'd come downstairs and speak sternly to the functionary with the keys...
The thing that got me about Dante's Peak was the moment in the flashback to Pierce Brosnan's tragic back story where he's very sensibly in his SUV getting the hell out of dodge with a different volcano, and a rock smashes through the roof of his car, strikes his partner and fractures her skull and she dies in his arms. The actress did a great job, looking quite baffled as she puts her hand to her head and then blood starts running down her face and you see the lights go off in her eyes. The sheer mundanity of that accident haunted me about that movie.
Screw the dumb kids and the dog putting themselves in unnecessary danger, the real terror of natural disaster movies are the random and inescapable ways people die in them, despite their best efforts and expertise. I want to see a natural disaster movie where the expert who should have been the hero and got everyone to safety buys it in the first 5 minutes and then it's 90 minutes of idiots like me trying to survive when odds are we absolutely should have bought it 40 minutes earlier.
Survival books should center around normal people. Loathe the whole "Navy SEAL with arcane skills leads talented crew with hidden depths to safety" paradigm. See "Light's End" for my take on that.
Sea ones probably top the list for me. Asteroids are pretty much extinction event unless its only a couple of cities worth and therefore fall out of the brains capacity to deal with it. Tornadoes seem like they'd be at the lower end only because they seem like the equivalent of yelling at the person running away from a falling tree "just step to the side!". I actually had a real life brush with a mini tornado here outside Bathurst. I was in a meeting at the time it went down the valley (not over my place) and i had to stop the meeting because the giant hailstones were too loud on the tin roof over the phone. We did end up with bits of someones shed on our block. The thing that was eerie was going outside in the sun after the hail stopped and the sound of it in the valley - i guess the wind and the sound of ice pounding the ground like the roar of the ocean with the absence of all other sound like birds etc., but on the western side of the blue mountains. So maybe tornadoes should go up the list - i'd be the arrogant business guy who gets a chunk of ice plowed into my head, or a sharp piece of shiplap skewering me when i thought the storm was over, or ripped off the toilet through the now non-existent roof while yelling "buy buy buy" into my comically large headphone microphone setup. (ending with a surprised sell sell sell before the wilhelm scream is inserted to show my demise)
i think not being able to breathe is the problem. That might have its origins in the skivvies and itchy wool jumpers my parents used to try and make me wear - cant stand ties and by extension business suits as well.
Do Kaiju movies count as "natural disaster" movies? Because Brisbane doesn't fare so well in the Pacific Rim sequel, I seem to remember. Or "Look Up", probably.
I did like the way that all of the plutocrats were eaten, 17k years later, at the end of that one.
There was a book by Richard Ryan called Funnel Web that didn't impress me at the time. Giant mutated spiders take over Australia. Red Backs, Funnel Webs, Wolf, White Tails all the size of cars. I am not sure that would be a good way to go.
I think that one of the things that makes "Perfect Storm" so compelling is that there were any number of plot points where they could reasonably have turned back and saved themselves, but hubris or machismo or whatever drove them on to the (their) end. Quite relatable, I think.
There’s one glaring omission from the list . Maybe the most significant apocalypse movie of all time . You guessed it ….,Sharknado. 6 sequels I think but none as good as the original.
Ha- I love a good apocalypse scenario! Ever since I was a kid and read "On the Beach" and "Alas, Babylon," I've wanted to write one. Achievement unlocked with "Light's End," which in a way was my answer to "Independence Day," the world's dumbest alien invasion movie IMO.
Did you ever read Earth Abides? It's like a test run for The Stand, but without the paranormal content.
Thanks for this recommendation. Just finished, can see where the inspiration for The Stand came from. A good read, some sections really show there age but overall interesting.
I need to check this out
Loved Light's End!
Thanks, Dave!
Titanic should be way more terrifying, not just because it was a real disaster, but because most of us would be in steerage on that voyage as the peons we are, and discovering that the gates to the deck and the life boats were locked and we were going to be left to drown is the stuff of nightmares. JB of course would be the only exception, swanning it in first class. We'd have to hope he'd come downstairs and speak sternly to the functionary with the keys...
The thing that got me about Dante's Peak was the moment in the flashback to Pierce Brosnan's tragic back story where he's very sensibly in his SUV getting the hell out of dodge with a different volcano, and a rock smashes through the roof of his car, strikes his partner and fractures her skull and she dies in his arms. The actress did a great job, looking quite baffled as she puts her hand to her head and then blood starts running down her face and you see the lights go off in her eyes. The sheer mundanity of that accident haunted me about that movie.
Screw the dumb kids and the dog putting themselves in unnecessary danger, the real terror of natural disaster movies are the random and inescapable ways people die in them, despite their best efforts and expertise. I want to see a natural disaster movie where the expert who should have been the hero and got everyone to safety buys it in the first 5 minutes and then it's 90 minutes of idiots like me trying to survive when odds are we absolutely should have bought it 40 minutes earlier.
Haha. That is a great idea for a film.
Then fast forward 5000 years to the new civilisation founded by the survivors and suddenly the current mess makes sense.
Survival books should center around normal people. Loathe the whole "Navy SEAL with arcane skills leads talented crew with hidden depths to safety" paradigm. See "Light's End" for my take on that.
Sea ones probably top the list for me. Asteroids are pretty much extinction event unless its only a couple of cities worth and therefore fall out of the brains capacity to deal with it. Tornadoes seem like they'd be at the lower end only because they seem like the equivalent of yelling at the person running away from a falling tree "just step to the side!". I actually had a real life brush with a mini tornado here outside Bathurst. I was in a meeting at the time it went down the valley (not over my place) and i had to stop the meeting because the giant hailstones were too loud on the tin roof over the phone. We did end up with bits of someones shed on our block. The thing that was eerie was going outside in the sun after the hail stopped and the sound of it in the valley - i guess the wind and the sound of ice pounding the ground like the roar of the ocean with the absence of all other sound like birds etc., but on the western side of the blue mountains. So maybe tornadoes should go up the list - i'd be the arrogant business guy who gets a chunk of ice plowed into my head, or a sharp piece of shiplap skewering me when i thought the storm was over, or ripped off the toilet through the now non-existent roof while yelling "buy buy buy" into my comically large headphone microphone setup. (ending with a surprised sell sell sell before the wilhelm scream is inserted to show my demise)
You could extend 'sea' to include space. Anywhere you're isolated from somewhere you can stand up.
i think not being able to breathe is the problem. That might have its origins in the skivvies and itchy wool jumpers my parents used to try and make me wear - cant stand ties and by extension business suits as well.
Do Kaiju movies count as "natural disaster" movies? Because Brisbane doesn't fare so well in the Pacific Rim sequel, I seem to remember. Or "Look Up", probably.
I did like the way that all of the plutocrats were eaten, 17k years later, at the end of that one.
There was a book by Richard Ryan called Funnel Web that didn't impress me at the time. Giant mutated spiders take over Australia. Red Backs, Funnel Webs, Wolf, White Tails all the size of cars. I am not sure that would be a good way to go.
I think that one of the things that makes "Perfect Storm" so compelling is that there were any number of plot points where they could reasonably have turned back and saved themselves, but hubris or machismo or whatever drove them on to the (their) end. Quite relatable, I think.
There’s one glaring omission from the list . Maybe the most significant apocalypse movie of all time . You guessed it ….,Sharknado. 6 sequels I think but none as good as the original.