Okay, so first of all, Independence
Day. I like my “the world is about to end” to come with an extra-large side
of funny with sassy sauce to spare. ID4
has this in spades. From Will Smith welcoming an alien pilot to Earth with a
knuckle sandwich to the face to the fat lady singing, Independence Day provides
the laughs. Also, I like that literally everyone does something heroic. There’s
a president with the most motivational speech I’ve ever heard that makes me
want to kiss babies and fly a jet; a stripper with, yes, a heart of gold (fyi,
she OWNS that job like nobody’s business); an alcoholic washed up crop duster
who is, erm, let’s say intimately acquainted with the aliens; a cranky Jewish
dad and his super-nerd son; etc. It’s an amazing ensemble cast that includes
Tinkerbell (her voice, that is), Ian Malcolm, Jayne Cobb, and Eleanor Waldorf,
and I am obsessed (FYI, none of those names are the actors. Look them up if you
don’t know them, and then give yourself a Netflix education!). There is
literally nothing to not like about ID4 except maybe its
long-awaited-but-surely-disappointing sequel.
Not from ID4, but the sentiment remains.
I do like my funny stories, but I’ll forgive a lack of humor if there’s
an excessive amount of fight sequences and also gratuitous Idris Elba, and Pacific Rim has those in spades.
Basically, more bad aliens invade the earth so countries create ginormous machines
to play rock em sock em robots with these dudes. One of the Jaegers
(the human-controlled robots) literally picks up a cargo ship and uses it like a baseball
bat to smack one of the monsters in the face. It’s quite glorious, if you haven’t
seen it. Plus, it’s full of delicious trope-y goodness: a cranky mentor, a
reluctant hero, a badass babe, adorable fighting nerds, etc. BRB, fangirling!
Told you.
ROCKET ELBOW!!!!!1!
You're welcome.
GET IT
It wouldn't be a true apocalypse post without mention of one of the most popular causes: zombies. I couldn't handle
The Walking Dead because of reasons and stuff, but again with the humor.
Shaun of the Dead is an irreverent spoof of all things zombie. I enjoyed much of
Zombieland, but instead of going sincere the way that one did,
Shaun of the Dead is basically non-stop ridiculousness. Simon Pegg is brilliant as the atypical action hero leader-of-the-resistance, and I love how the movie juxtaposes his perfectly mundane British existence with the end of the world.
Now auditioning for "Thriller"
Step 1: open
this video in youtube & let it play while you read this.
I saw
Terminator 2 when I was crazy young (not sure how my parents okayed that, but whatever), and I still adore it. Arnold plays a not-quite-cuddly-but-all-around-good-guy-robot who has come from the future to save John Conner (John Connah, if you're saying it in Ahnold's voice like I am rn) from the clutches of an evil robot from the future and thus, save the world simultaneously.
T2 merges the takes-itself-a-little-too-seriously apocalyptic flick with the silly as teenage punk John attempts to teach the terminator a little bit of pop culture and humor even as he just runs around blowing shit up. FYI, you should pretend the series ends here bc things are so worse later on, but also RIP Anton Yelchin, who was WAY better as Kyle Reese in
Salvation than I expected. Mad respect, man.
*cries forever*
No list about the apocalypse would be complete without mention of the greatest treasure of the 90s (behind Nickelodeon, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, etc etc): Armegeddon. 10 year old Mary had a huge crush on Ben Affleck, and 28 year old Mary still has a huge crush on 1998 Ben
Affleck. Again, this movie takes itself waaaay to seriously, but at least the
supporting cast kept things fun. From Owen Wilson as a drugged up cowboy to
Michael Clarke Duncan as the lovable Bear in touch with his emotions, Steve
Buscemi as a sexed up maniac to Peter Stormare as the cranky and bitter
Russian, the movie kept some humor, which I appreciate. Plus, Bruce Willis is so stereotypical action hero dude, and I love it!
Also, in case you didn’t know, Mr. Malfoy plays the genius in this one.
How I feel every time I watch Armageddon
Now for the bookish portion of my list. We'll start with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's weird, sassy, space opera mindf*ck.
Illuminae starts off with the destruction of a planet, and things just go down from there for the main characters. You could argue this series isn't *quite* apocalyptic because there is still a society and other worlds, but there's some stuff that happens in
Gemina and WOO BUDDY, come at me. This book will tear a hole through your mind faster than a wormhole can tear a hole through the universe so.... yeah. You have that to look forward to. Go with God, friends.
I liked Julie Kagawa's
Iron Fey books, but I *love*
The Blood of Eden series. Written in a time when both vampire books and dystopians had worn out their welcome, you wouldn't have thought a series like this could be successful or original, but nope.
The Immortal Rules and its sequels proved that you CAN take popular and even tired elements and combine them into something fresh. The world is one I would not want to be in. It's hostile to just about everything and everyone, and your options (for humans) are to be a blood slave or die horribly. Also, three cheers for another badass warrior chick who has to save the boy sometimes, super snark (thanks, Jackal), and a beautifully if horrifically created world full of intrigue and danger.
Again with the zombies. I could have put
Warm Bodies on the movie list because I like both the book and its movie. Warm Bodies is sweetly unexpected for a zombie story. The way to create
an interesting zombie mc is to have one who can think and dream and change.
Although the book faintly alludes to
Romeo
& Juliet, the book stands on its own merit with complex characters and
an intriguing (if slightly squicky because zombie romance???) premise. The long-awaited sequel release next year, and I hope it addresses more of the world.
Remember that time they made a movie of my favorite book of all time? Let's pretend that did not happen. Say what you want about Stephenie Meyer, but she did so much good for YA and continues to help support female creatives. Plus, in all honesty, I love her books.
The Host is a NOT YA (I get irrationally angry when I see in the teen section at bookstores or libraries) story about aliens taking over the planet. The first 100 pages are basically equal to pre-Hogwarts in
Harry Potter, but the rest of the story is so full of heart and excitement and intrigue. It's part sci-fi, part romance, part survival story, and all amazing. Ian O'Shea is one of my favorite literary dudes, and both Wanda and Mel kick absolute ass as co-MCs (but in v different ways!). Sure, the love square is messy, but hey, it's fiction. It's science fiction. Messy is implied. At the end of the book, I feel satisfied by Wanda and Mel's story arc, but I would like to see more of the world, so Steph, if you're not to busy, can you please publish
The Seeker and
The Soul already? That'd be great.
