Comments on: A New Utopian Post-Apocalypse

By: Sci Fi Double Feature Recommendation #04 | Beer and Sci-Fi

Sci Fi Double Feature Recommendation #04 | Beer and Sci-Fi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:25:55 +0000

[...] partly by my recent post about how post-apocalyptic movies should start focusing on rebuilding the world after it [...]

By: AZMos

AZMos — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:43:09 +0000

Can’t think of movies that do what you ask, but can think of two books.

One is Nightfall by Asimov. The short story ends with an “apocalypse” of sorts. The book, written later and inferior to the short story (imo), continues with the story of the rebuilding.

A great book that does this is “A Canticle for Leibowitz” which goes through the rebuilding process after nuclear war. Over three generations time periods it really shows how society develops after destroying itself.

By: Prakash

Prakash — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:50:47 +0000

Postman by david brin does take into account a little re-building after the apocalyptic events. the movie, though not great is still quite an OK watch.

By: VanRabbit

VanRabbit — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:12:15 +0000

We’re talking about a very wide range of films here, both in where they derive their archetypes and also narrative structure. It’s almost silly to imagine a version of Mad Max where he settles down and gets fat tending the land, or a world where Snake Plisken decides to reform and become the government’s bitch etc.

I honestly believe most of these movies would actually do the inverse of improve if the end were to be that drastically altered or extended to include a “rebuilding” section. I think that’s missing the point. Even with the most delicate of additions to the plot you’d be drastically altering the tone of these films. While it is might be viable to produce a good film based on what you describe as lacking from the genre I think it’d have to be specifically written as such.

I will concede that you can modify a lot of post apocalyptic conventions to fit a film more focused on rebuilding etc. Zombie films would be an easy first choice, many of which have already broached the topic of rebuilding if not confronted it directly.

Waterworld almost has the kind of ending you describe as being too abrupt. It’s worthy to note the film is built on the western genre’s themes and archetypes and as such it’s not totally unrealistic for me to envision a post apocalyptic film that is essentially a rehashing of the kinds of western films that dealt with the Reconstruction era of the United States (forgive the wiki verbatim).

In the end I’m not sure if the “Gone With the Wind” of post apocalyptic movies really needs to be made but I suppose I’d give it a shot.

By: Ian Pattinson

Ian Pattinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:03:50 +0000

Please allow me a little self promotion.

Not a movie, and not a full on apocalypse, but I’m currently working on a novel about rebuilding society after a war between the US and Old Europe. The narrator returns home after five years chronicling the war to find out how it has affected family, friends and the city he left in the (officially) neutral UK.

Firt drafts of the chapters are going up at http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk/labels/Sounds%20of%20Soldiers.php as they’re written.

It’s the first of what could be a series of stories looking st standards from a different angle. Next up, possibly, is a less militaristic space opera- taking the sort of premise often found in military SF but giving the weaponry and hardware to people other than the US government. Then there’s the virus that doesn’t turn people into zombies, but does change their bodies significantly.

By: Andre Canivet

Andre Canivet — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:15:09 +0000

Eric (is that right?) you’ve got it right on the money. I’ve felt the same way for some time–there’s all these stories about the end of the world, but almost never one about the beginning of a new and happier one.

By: Chris Hunt

Chris Hunt — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:51:01 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I’m currently working on a comic right now that focus’s on the restructuring of a post apocalyptic world after an economic collapse. My main issue is that if its not a dystopian story, the story seems like it HAS to involve world wide destruction, zombies, or radiation. What if infrastructure just went away along with law and order? What would appear in the vacuum? To me, those are the more interesting questions to ask.

By: Eriq Nelson

Eriq Nelson — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:46:24 +0000

I just finished reading a book that spends a good deal of time confronting a post-apocalyptic scenario. The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk ( http://tinyurl.com/apan86 ) does a good job of explaining the political and social structures that evolve in a ruined world. Some of the methods the characters employ are pure fantasy, but the social structures are quite in tune with human nature. I’ve been thinking a lot about utopia/dystopia recently and there is precious little beyond this book that fills both roles adequately.