Laura Barcella - The End. 50 Apocalyptic Visions from Pop Culture That You Should Know About...Before Its...

). And perhaps the most useful bit of information I gleaned while writing this book (or not): If a human-sized plant that resembles asparagus begins to walk toward you, run.

As I immersed myself in writing The End, I realized just how many interesting ideas there are about the number of ways the world could end. It was overwhelming at first, having to narrow the list down to just fifty! People have been depicting the apocalypse through their art since, well, forever. And seeing these movies, listening to these songs, and reading these books was eye-opening, to say the least.

It was also a little scary! I found myself pondering the end of days way more than I ever had before. One night, a friend and I were driving home after a movie. It was after midnight on a Friday night and the usually bustling streets of our San Francisco neighborhood were surprisingly empty. Then we noticednone of the stoplights or streetlights were working. The usually super-busy Mission Street was eerily dark and quiet. My first thought? Something like this: We're done; it's finished; sayonara. Something terrible must have happened during those two hours we were in the movie theater and now game over.

Fortunately, those fears passed quickly enough as we realized that certain apartments had lights on inside. Apparently the power had gone out; it was nothing more sinister than that. It made me realize, though, how deeply this apocalypse stuff had invaded my subconscious.

And that's probably the reason why the end of the world strikes such a nerve with artists. The idea of the apocalypse happening (and happening in our lifetime) is so major, so unthinkably big, that most of us can't handle dwelling on itinstead we just freak out, and spend the rest of the night watching reassuring sitcom reruns as an antidote. But the creators of these fifty works showed no fear; they tackled the apocalypse head-on, making it seem not only a little more imaginable, but a little less paralyzing. And some of them depict what might happen after an apocalypsean idea that's both dour and hopeful.

No matter how you feel about the end of the world, I hope you enjoy reading this celebration of other people's ideas. There's something in here for everyone, and if you're a pop-culture junkie or an apocalypse buff, I don't think you'll be disappointed. And be sure to tell me what you think!

Laura Barcella
www.LauraBarcella.com

12 Monkeys (1995)

DIRECTED BY Terry Gilliam

WRITTEN BY Chris Marker, David Webb Peoples, and Janet Peoples

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN USA

A mind-bending sci-fi classic, 12 Monkeys is set in a post-apocalyptic 2035, approximately forty years after most of the earth's population was destroyed by a mysterious virus. Because the surface of the Earth is now uninhabitable for humans, survivors live underground in cellars and tunnels. Researchers beneath Philadelphia have concluded that the virus was deliberately released by a terrorist group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and a scientist offers convicted prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) a reduced sentence if he goes back in time (time travel technology has been established) to collect a sample of the virus, with the hopes that a cure can be developed.

After mistakenly getting sent back to 1990 instead of 1996 as planned, Cole gets committed to a psychiatric hospital for his ramblings about time travel and the 12 Monkeys (in 1990 the virus hasn't broken out yet, so no one has a clue what Cole is talking about). In the hospital he meets crazy animal activist Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and a beautiful doctor named Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), who he starts to fall in love with. Cole begins to suspect that Goineswhose father is a noted virologisthas ties to the virus. Cole returns to the present time and then gets sent back again, this time to 1996. He finds Railly (who now believes Cole) and the two hunt down Goines. Goines, however, denies having any connection with the virus and even suggests that Cole may be tied to the impending apocalypse. Cole eventually gives up on his mission and decides to run away to Key West with Railly. At the airport, Railly spots the true culprit of the virus: an assistant at Goines's father's virology lab. She and Cole realize that the bioterrorist is about to get on a plane with the deadly disease. But in his attempt to kill the bioterrorist and save the world, Cole gets shot dead by security, and the terrorist goes on with his plan.

More Movies Directed by Terry Gilliam

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The Fisher King (1991)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

UNFORGETTABLE MOMENT

James Cole is haunted by a recurring nightmare in which he, as a child, watches as a man gets chased down, shot, and killed at the airport. At the end of the film, when Cole is trying to get through security to kill the bioterrorist (thereby preventing the spread of the virus), he gets shot dead. And Railly, who is with him, sees that a little boy (a younger Cole) is standing there, watching.

EALITY FACTOR

The reason everyone dies in