Fearful of the end revealed by the huge popularity of some films that dealt with apocalyptic themes, culminating in films such as Doomsday and The Book of Eli, Hollywood producers took advantage of the situation to devote enormous space to work on films that scare humans from the future.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, Hollywood has been playing on the chord of intimidation, so Hollywood prophecies always come to link the reality of the world with its crises, and a fantasy that may lead it to crises that end its existence.
Filmmakers, especially in the United States, are trying to imagine a post-end world, ranging from a colony entirely under someone's control to a ruined jungle-like place, or a space capsule where survivors live.
The Road in 2009
In this film, based on the novel by American writer and novelist Cormack McCarthy, the events take place after America is destroyed and its inhabitants abandon their homes. Agricultural crops die, the infrastructure of civilization disappears, and a man and a boy make their way towards the sea, which represents hope for a new life away from the savage populations that survived.
The flashback scenes show the man's memories with his wife and son, in times of total destruction, memories remain what a person clings to, especially since the man knows that he can die at any moment, leaving his son alone facing a world of terror, which is what we have come to expect, especially with water wars and climate change that push the world to conflicts over water, food and survival.
Logan's Run (1976)
The film is based on the novel of the same name by writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Set in the future in 2274, the film depicts an ideal society whose citizens follow the instructions that lead to reincarnation, citizens are sacrificed at the age of thirty to prevent a population explosion, and those who try to flee are tracked down and forced to return to fulfill their duties.
Today, nearly 47 years after its premiere, the film cannot be watched in isolation from the context of reality, with artificial intelligence taking control that is no longer just a virtual obsession.
Contagion 2011
Although the film premiered in 2011, it became popular again after the spread of the Corona virus, and revolves around a global outbreak of a virus that begins in Hong Kong. It looked so similar that the film matched what the world experienced during this pandemic.
The film is not a documentary, but Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown University's Center for Global Health and Security Sciences, says the end of the film is shown to students in infectious disease classes when they learn how infections are transmitted from animals to humans, and how closely the elements of the entire environment are interconnected.
"Artificial Intelligence" (A.I) in 2001
The film tells the story of the decline in the world's population after climate change caused the destruction of coastal cities, and to compensate for this shortage, human robots were used that perform their tasks accurately but are unable to compensate for human emotions.
Scientists are able to develop a baby robot capable of love, and hand it over to a family whose son suffers from a rare disease and stays with them. Events continue until a new ice age hits the planet, and the inhabitants of another planet find the robot child and work to modify it. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and the screenplay was written by Stanley Kubrick with Spielberg.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
It depicts catastrophic climate changes that it exhibits during a climate scientist's expedition to Antarctica. This scientist asserts that global warming will eventually lead the planet to a new ice age without anyone listening.
Predictions prove correct, American citizens gradually leave as refugees for Mexico to escape the freeze sweeping the country, New York turns into a subarctic city, and eventually astronauts look at Earth from the space station and the northern hemisphere appears covered in ice and snow.