Features and Columns · Movies

Why 21st Century Apocalypse Fiction Hits Different

It’s the end of the world as we know it and survival isn’t enough.
The Last Of Us Ellie
By  · Published on May 3rd, 2023

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that explores why apocalypse fiction on the small and big screen feels different these days.


It’s a little trite, but it’s also true: the way we picture the apocalypse says a lot more about our present than it does about our future.

One of the best examples of this phenomenon is the rise of environmental horror films in the 1970s. In many ways — especially in America — the ’70s were the decade in which the other shoe dropped. Free love failed to fulfill its untenable promise; Vietnam had thoroughly muddied the myth of imperialist heroics, and a mounting number of environmental disasters resulted in the creation of the EPA. I’m oversimplifying. But understanding the through-line between the “70s scourge” of acid rain and the rise of environmental catastrophe flicks like No Blade of Grass (1970), Z.P.G. (1972), and Soylent Green (1973) isn’t hard to follow.

All this to say: we shouldn’t just be looking to our apocalypse fiction for visions of what’s to come. And, if you’ve been paying close attention (especially to apocalypse media created around/after the COVID-19 pandemic), you may have noticed a shift. There’s a good deal of 21st Century apocalypse fiction that argues we’ll immediately turn into animals the moment governments and institutions fall. Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope right before the credits roll, but generally speaking: it has been the style, until recently, to showcase how primal, selfish, and individualistic we’ll become the moment society goes bust.

But, as the video essay below argues: this is starting to change. Survival isn’t enough, or even possible, without community. We have an instinctive drive to feel human, even while the world is crumbling around us. And an inextricable part of feeling human is feeling connected to others.

Beware slight visual spoilers for The Last of Us, The Leftovers, and Station 11.

Watch “Why Apocalypse Stories Feel Different Now”


Who made this?

This video essay on why survival movies and television shows feel different was created by Like Stories of Old, a video essay channel run by Tom van der Linden. You can follow van der Linden on Twitter here. And you can subscribe to his YouTube account here.

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Based in the Pacific North West, Meg enjoys long scrambles on cliff faces and cozying up with a good piece of 1960s eurotrash. As a senior contributor at FSR, Meg's objective is to spread the good word about the best of sleaze, genre, and practical effects.