Apocalypse constantly: The perverse reasons we love to watch ourselves die on screen
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Why we love movies about the end of the world
- The End, a new musical film starring Tilda Swinton, explores humanity’s last days in an underground bunker after a climate change-induced apocalypse.
- Director Joshua Oppenheimer uses the apocalypse setting to examine themes of guilt, denial, and the human capacity for self-destruction.
- The film reflects a trend in “cli-fi” cinema, focusing on the bleak realities of climate breakdown rather than alien invasions or other external threats.
- Apocalypse films, while depicting the end of the world, are a surprisingly enduring genre, reflecting society’s anxieties and offering a perverse form of escapism.
- These films can serve as both a distraction from real-world anxieties and a strange source of comfort, reminding us that even in fictional disasters, there’s a sense of familiarity and continuation.