BY THE EDITORS |
10 Films From 2012 That Predicted The End of the World
For the year's end, we've asked Tribeca's staff to share their Top 10 Lists. Today, Tribecafilm.com's Design Director Jon Chonko on this apocalyptic year in film.
Worried about the Mayan Calendar and Nibiru slamming into the earth? You weren't the only one. End-of-the-world scenarios dominated films this year. 2012's movies were packed plenty apocalyptic imagery. Here are our top ten 2012 end-game scenarios.
(Warning: ton's of spoilers, but if the world is ending anyway, what is there really to spoil?)
10) Prometheus
Whether audiences could follow it or not, the main conflict, the horrible revelation, was that our alien creators decided at some point they no longer want us to exist. Whoa.
9) Resident Evil: Retribution
The Resident Evil franchise has been dragging out the end of the world for close to a decade and Retribution bring us one step closer to it's full destruction. As usual it's at the hands of zombie flesh monsters and a unstoppable virus. It's up to Milla Jovovich to stop them. As usual she barely does and the world is spared a reprieve from total destruction, until next summer, at least.
8) Battleship
Aliens land on earth and fight it out with the best our military has to offer.
7) The Avengers
Same conflict as Battleship, actually. Except Avengers has a Hulk.
6) Ice Age: Continental Drift
Not since The Land Before Time has a childrens movie been structured around such a bleak story. The Ice Age is ending, the ground beneath the characters' feet is literally crumbling apart and the lives they knew are shattering around them. The movie seems to end on an optimistic note but, like The Land Before Time, any viewer with a kernel of knowledge about geologic history knows the characters' are ultimately doomed to extinction. Bummer.
5) The Lorax
Another kids movie about climate change. Except in this film it's humans that are destroying the world around them. If you didn't see the movie you probably saw one of the thousands of commercial tie-ins and sponsor partnerships the film generated.
4) Beasts of the Southern Wild
A huge hit at Sundance and one of this year's indie darlings. Beasts tells the story of a young girl living in isolated swap community. A storm destroys their town and forces the villagers to confront the modern world across the levee and decide if they will give up their lives of independence for the sterile world of modern society. While it's not as globally world-threatening as other films on this list, Beasts paints the picture of a personal apocalyptic scenario that comes across more emotionally earth-shattering than aliens, asteroids, or virus-infested zombies managed to this year.
3) Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
It may not have been part of the film but for millions of Twihards, Breaking Dawn Part 2 was the end of their world and the last time they'd probably ever see Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, and the one werewolf kid tell the story of a clumsy girl who falls in love with a brooding old man trapped in a teenager's body.
2) Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
The name is in the title. Spoiler: an astroid hits Earth at end of the film.
1) The Cabin In the Woods
I don't want to tell you about this. I can't if you haven't seen it and someone hasn't already told you about it, count yourself lucky. Watch it before the world ends.