Forget Coronavirus for Now: 5 Ways the World Could Really End

Flickr / U.S. Marine Corps
April 4, 2020 Topic: Entertainment Region: Americas Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: EntertainmentMoviesCoronavirusPandemicApocalypse

Forget Coronavirus for Now: 5 Ways the World Could Really End

At least, according to the movies.

I am with Annie (1982). The sun will come out tomorrow.

This is not in any way to make light of the tough times we are going through now. Thousands have lost loved ones. Millions have lost jobs and don’t know when they will see their next paycheck. We can’t forget that.

What we also cannot forget is that fear, pessimism, and doubt won’t make anything any better. What will help us defeat the invisible enemy is the confidence, courage and determination to persevere.

And why not?  Humans can be incredibly resilient in the face of all kinds of adversity. Human history is studded with all kinds of plagues. We survived all of them. We will get through this one, too, and we’ll get through it faster and in better shape if we all pull together and follow the best advice.

And remember, if you get down and feel things can’t get any worse, there’s one authority you can count on to tell you that yes—it really could be far, far worse. That authority is, of course, Hollywood, the cinematic seer of the Apocalypse. And, here are five doomsday tales you can doubtless find lurking on a streaming network near you.

#5. The Road (2009). They never say exactly what happened, but one suspects an EMP weapon was detonated somewhere in the backstory. The modern world can survive pretty much anything, but that doesn’t include the prolonged loss of the electrical grid. If the grid goes down for good, most of us will die. And this movie is there to assure us that, for those who survive, life won’t be worth living.

#4. Armageddon (1998). If the world got whacked by a massive asteroid, no one would have to worry about their mortgage. Here’s hoping NASA has a handle on the situation. No one wants to go the way of the dinosaurs.

#3. Sunshine (2007). If the sun goes out, so do we. In this film, set in 2057, a spaceship deploys on a desperate mission to reignite the sun. Good luck if it comes to that. Odds are, however, the sun will still be shining brightly in 2057 and for millennia after.

#2. On the Beach (1959). If you’re looking for end times, a global nuclear war would probably do it. Of course, radiation doesn’t really work like it does in this classic film, where Australians are the last to die.  But you get the point.

#1. Legion (2010). A true end-times story, this one is chock-full of supernatural evil-doing and violence. Lots of violence. This one strains credulity; that’s par for the course in apocalypse tales. Then again, as I once told Glenn Beck in an interview, “people have always been predicting the end of the world. Someday, somebody will be right.”

These movies exist for one reason: to entertain us. Rather than worry about being the last generation, let’s ask ourselves what we can do to be the next Greatest Generation. We have it in us. We can springboard from plague ship to a free, safe, and prosperous nation stronger than when we started.

A Heritage Foundation vice president, James Jay Carafano directs the think tank’s research in matters of national security and foreign relations.

Image: Flickr / U.S. Marine Corps