This Is the End: How Movies Prepare Us for the Apocalypse

This Is the End: How Movies Prepare Us for the Apocalypse

What does it say about humanity that we love a disaster movie? In this presentation, film critic Robert Horton shows, with film clips, how doomsday movies can provide a guide on surviving disaster—or at least a blueprint for what not do to if the sky falls. Whether the cause is environmental factors (The Day After Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, Contagion), nuclear disaster (On the Beach), or unexplained doomsday (Midnight Sky, Children of Men), film has explored what it looks like when the “Big One” hits—and how we might react. This presentation is sponsored by Library U, a program of the Bainbridge Public Library, with funding from Humanities Washington.

Robert Horton, a member of the National Society of Film Critics, was the longtime film reviewer for the Seattle Weekly, Everett Herald, and KUOW.

This event is part of the Bainbridge Island Film Festival.