Apocalypse Cinema

Movie audiences know exactly how the world will end because popular cinema has never stopped rehearsing the apocalypse. In this clear, concise account, Stephen Prince illuminates the appeal of apocalypse cinema, its roots in literary and religious tradition, its presence throughout cinema history, and the existential fears and anxieties that motivate it. In four elegant chapters, Prince examines the key threats to human existence that bring about world’s end - collisions with giant asteroids, invasions by planet-devouring aliens, nuclear war, global warming and deadly pandemics. Touching on films ranging from The End of the World (1916), The Rapture (1991), Signs (2002), Armageddon (1998), Deep Impact (1998), Melancholia (2011), These Final Hours (2015), The War of the Worlds (1953), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Independence Day (1996), Annihilation (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and many more, Apocalypse Cinema shows how apocalypse movies explore fundamental questions of existence that never go out of fashion.