In honor of the Apocalypse tomorrow, I give you Slate's list of the most likely apocalyptic scenarios with some recommended watching. 6. Abandonment: After a series of devastating attacks, Washington admits it can no longer protect large swaths of the nation. The United States contracts to a smaller core that's easier to defend. I kind of extrapolate this one to Escape from LA/New York or District B13 (the last is highly recommended and comes at you courtesy of Netflix streaming). 11. Information War: A rogue state, terror organization, or group of malevolent hackers takes down America's infrastructure by infiltrating every system that's controlled by computers: television stations, traffic signals, telecommunications, the stock market, the power grid. As seen in Live Free or Die Hard. Well, we're all fucked if that's our muse for survival. "Sir, they're taking our Internets!"
"How many of them?"
"All of them, sir!" 13. Peak Oil: Petroleum production reaches terminal decline. Oil becomes too expensive to extract, and alternative energies can't maintain our fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle. The developed world goes kaput, with gas-happy America leading the way to the gutter. The Mad Max series goes along way to survival training for when we run out of oil. (That's right, I said "when"!) 18. Obesity: One of the fattest nations in human history keeps getting fatter. An increasingly sedentary society beset by health problems can no longer compete with the world's fitter nations. I picture the fatties in Wall-E for this one. 21. End of English: Chinese economic power combined with an influx of non-English-speaking immigrants to the United States leads to the decline of anglophone American culture worldwide. This one is sorta captured in Serenity. 27. Intelligent Design: Creationists succeed in getting evolution pushed out of textbooks. Scientific illiteracy dooms America to second-class status. No movie comes to mind, but it definitely starts in Texas or Georgia. 33. Drug Boom: Americans turn to advanced, hyper-addictive recreational drugs that are tailored to each individual user's body chemistry. Civilization dies in a drug-induced haze. Add masturbation theaters and you've settled in a Brave New World. 42. Synthesized Super Virus: In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman suggests one scenario for the end of humanity: "a psychotically obsessed, biochemically trained terrorist creatively splice[s] something together that evolves faster than we develop resistance—maybe by clipping genetic material into the versatile SARS virus, which could spread both sexually and via the air." Check out The Stand for a close approximation. Of course, you'll have a tough time ignoring the hot 90s fashions as you learn how to survive. 49. Alien Invasion: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev once discussed banding together to fight off a UFO attack. For all the happy talk about cooperation, when the tractor beams come down, it's every country for itself. Try the MST3K version of This Island Earth. 56. Floods: As temperatures rise, more of the country is at risk of massive, regular flooding. Particularly flood-prone areas—New Orleans, Miami, Houston—must be abandoned. Don't laugh! Waterworld is actually not too bad (plus there's Costner hotness for the ladies). 57. Food Supply: An engineered wheat virus devastates America's staple crop. We all starve. ...until turning to "Soylent Green". Classic film, but you have to wait until the end for the famous line. 62. Neo-Humans: Life extension becomes attainable for the superrich, creating a long-lived aristocracy. Resentment builds up in the poor, leading to class warfare between the living gods and the earthly peons. Alas, all we have here is The Island. /// Unbelievably, Slate left out the most likely scenario -- Zombie Apocalypse! Hundreds of [good] movies here (28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc.), but for more recent fare, check out The Walking Dead TV show (set in my hometown, the ATL). In this scenario, of course, even the CDC can't save us, but there's at least plenty of survival guides to get you prepared in advance. /// I left several post-apocalyptic films out (Cool Hand Luke, all dystopias, etc.), but I'd be really interested in any that you particularly enjoyed. Acidus and I have something of an obsession with them. :-) -janelane Slate's "Choose Your Own Apocalypse" | 
