Every day, I wake up, eat breakfast, shower, kiss my wife goodbye, drop my daughter off at school, and go to work. I spend a large chunk of the day in an office writing computer code. I come home, kiss my wife hello, help my daughter with her home work, maybe get some exercise in, help with dinner, watch TV and go to bed - all to do the same thing the next day.
Millions of other families have a very similar daily snapshot. It's the routine aspect of the American dream, and though it sounds dull, it's what most Americans strive for, work for, even fight wars to protect.
So it's no surprise that the most interesting stories are the ones that turn this routine on its head. Imagine the vast majority of the American or even the world's population is thrust into a scrum that their daily routines have not equipped them to survive. A cataclysm of the proportions described in The Book of Revelation instantly changes the operations of our society forever. Those families and individuals that found themselves on the outskirts of regular society are exalted in the hierarchy that marginalized them. Likewise, those who choose not to abandon their routines sacrifice their lives trying to preserve them.
You bet your ass it's interesting.
The best apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction bakes the challenges faced by a major societal upheaval right into the plot - dealing with loss of modern comforts like easy access to food, water, shelter and heat; searching for information in a world that loses phones, television, and the Internet; continuing hobbies, relationships, philosophical and spiritual customs so that there's a reason to survive.
The event that causes the Armageddon is almost inconsequential: nuclear war, pandemic disease, zombies, runaway asteroid, mass food or energy shortages - they all raise the same basic questions of a good apocalyptic story. The first question is "How are things different now?" The second question: "How do we survive?"
And it's the ingenuity, toughness, fortitude, and preparation of the characters that makes survival the interesting part of the apocalypse. Here are some of my favorite apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic pieces (warning: minor spoilers):
Red Dawn
The Cataclysm: An alliance of communist forces invades the United States and occupies a small town.
How Things Changed: Basic freedoms of the town are suspended, a group of teenagers is forced to survive in the wilderness.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Amazon, DVD on Amazon, Streaming on Netflix
While not a pure apocalyptic piece, Red Dawn was the first fictional story I encountered that really exposed the nature of surviving a cataclysm. The residents of the small town of Calumet, Colorado have their lives turned upside down when Communists from Cuba, Honduras, and the Soviet Union drop into their town and start shooting.
The Eckert brothers along with their friends quickly gather supplies and flee into the wilderness to escape the violence. They call on survival skills taught to them by their parents to live in the wilderness and make regular attacks on the communist forces that invaded their town.
Central to any good work of apocalypse is a lack of complete information about the outside world, and when Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner enters the picture, we are treated to a glimpse of the details of World War III. Such illumination of details to the survivors of an apocalypse is one of the great payoffs of any apocalyptic work.
Jericho
The Cataclysm: Denver and Atlanta and possibly other US cities are destroyed by nuclear bombs.
How Things Changed: Roads and highways become infested with gangs and are unusable. Food, water, and power become scarce. Government authorities are dissolved.
Survival Tactics: Farming, hunting, trading, scavenging, alternative energy sources, militia training, teamwork
Where to Watch: DVD on Amazon, Streaming on Amazon, Streaming on Netflix
In contrast with Red Dawn, Jericho is possibly the purest work of apocalyptic fiction ever to hit hit the TV screen. The first episode introduces us to the town of Jericho and the mayoral family it revolves around before plunging the town into the most violent terrorist attack in human history.
Jericho is immediately severed from the outside world and the community must band together to survive lack of food, power, and information. As the nature of the attacks and who caused them are slowly revealed over two seasons and 29 episodes, the people of the town of Jericho must learn to survive food shortage, a severe winter, sickness and disease with lacking medical resources, gangs, rogue military groups, rival towns and the rise of new governments.
If it sounds like one of the most entertaining pieces of fiction ever put together, that's because it is.
The Walking Dead
The Cataclysm: A disease that causes extreme fever and eventual death has infected most of humanity, eventually resurrecting the victims as mindless, flesh eating zombies.
How Things Changed: Civilization breaks down due to most civilized people becoming zombies.
Where to Watch: DVD on Amazon, Streaming on Amazon, Streaming on Netflix
The Walking Dead is the current holder of the torch for post-apocalyptic fiction. The wildly popular AMC series features all of the staples of the genre. A mysterious disease turns most of humanity into flesh-eating zombies that quickly spreads the disease to others. The survivors retreat into the wilderness without full understanding of what caused the disease, or what it's doing in the rest of the world.
At the center of the story is badass cop, Rick Grimes, and his wife and son. He joins them after escaping his home town hospital, which had been overrun by zombies. The group they found to survive with escaped to the mountains to avoid massive zombie infestations in the cities - effectively turning large cities into death traps.
The cause or the breadth of the virus is unknown, although all signs point to it being a worldwide catastrophe that seems certain to end the human race. Information on the nature of the disease and its spread and the status of the rest of humanity is precious and extremely sparse. All the survivors can do is hope to avoid large swaths of zombies and exterminate the smaller groups when they attack.
If you have any suggestions on post-apocalyptic fiction, whether its movies, books, TV or comics, let me know. I'm always on the lookout for another apocalyptic fix.
