Panic in the Year Zero (1962) and The Man From Earth (2007).
Welcome to the 4th installment of the sci-fi Double Feature Recommendation. To see more recommendations, click here.

Inspired partly by my recent post about how post-apocalyptic movies should start focusing on rebuilding the world after it disintegrates. The movies I’m recommending are not exactly what I was suggesting in that post, but they have elements of people attempting to address the problems and issues that face them.

Start the night off with Panic in the Year Zero. I’m not sure whether you should get yourself some popcorn for this or a can of spam, baked beans, and canned green beans. This is a post-apocalyptic film where Los Angeles has been bombed and survivors pack up and head for the country and begin practicing a little game theory. So when it’s time to start everything over, and everyone will be fighting for survival, do you go into seclusion and try to rough it out, or do you work with a group of people, pooling resources and skills? What worldview do you develop?

The next movie for the night is The Man From Earth. For this movie you’ll need either a couple bottles of your favorite beer, or a cup of coffee or tea. Caffeine it up if you’re tired. A man was born blessed/cursed with inability to age and he claims to have been alive for 14,000 years.  He’s living in his own post-apocalypse. The apocalypse for this man happened during his first 1,000 or so years of living when he felt that there was something wrong with him. He eventually moves on, playing various roles in history where he tries his hand at having a positive effect on people’s lives. This movie takes place entirely as a conversation that this guy is having at 14,000 years with a group of his friends. No flashbacks or anything, but the conversation is great. At times it may just feel like philosophy 101 but most of the time it’s a pretty fun movie and wild idea.