# What are Most Chilling End of The World Scene(s) You seen In the movie and On Television



## BAYLOR (Sep 29, 2014)

In the cinema and on television what are he most chilling an disturbing end of the world scenes that you seen and what makes them so memorable?


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## reiver33 (Sep 29, 2014)

The 1988 film Last Night, for the chilling banality of it all. The world will end at midnight and noting can be done. People have had months to prepare themselves and government/society has run-down, but there are those who still keep turning up at work, even on this final day.

No car chases, no space ships, no nukes - just ordinary people trying to cope with the end of all songs...


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## Rodders (Sep 29, 2014)

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World. 

A really nicely executed movie, but without hope.


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## The Crawling Chaos (Sep 30, 2014)

reiver33 said:


> The 1988 film Last Night, for the chilling banality of it all. The world will end at midnight and noting can be done. People have had months to prepare themselves and government/society has run-down, but there are those who still keep turning up at work, even on this final day.
> 
> No car chases, no space ships, no nukes - just ordinary people trying to cope with the end of all songs...



In the same vein, On The Beach (1959), adapted from Nevil Shute's novel (1957). I did not see the 2000 remake.

Excellent end of the world story.


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## ralphkern (Oct 1, 2014)

A Stephen King film called 'The Mist' A survival horror in which they seemingly reach a no-win scenario, the MC decides to give the other characters the 'easy way out'...but only seconds later realizes that they would have been saved if they'd just hung on.


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## Susan Boulton (Oct 1, 2014)

Have to go with On the Beach. So understated and bleak.


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## Droflet (Oct 1, 2014)

Crack in the World. B grade sf but the final scene of the Earth splitting in half has remained with me for decades.


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## Venusian Broon (Oct 1, 2014)

It's an oldie, practically a cliché, and even as a kid when I first saw it I realised the scale was wrong ("It's too small!") But...

....there was the painstaking slow reveal as they ride along the beach, the only soundtrack the crashing waves on the shore*. Till they reach something...the penny drops and Charlton Heston suddenly understands, with us, what's actually happened.

I give you _The Planet of the Apes




----------------------------------------
* _Actually I might be wrong, there might have been some of the music - I just remember the sea sounds right now though!


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## chopper (Oct 1, 2014)

Threads (1984).


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## Chris Guillory (Oct 6, 2014)

The end of the Twilight Zone episode, *To Serve Man*.


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## Brian G Turner (Oct 7, 2014)

Most chilling, ever?

Easily _The War Game_, a documentary made by the BBC in the 1960's about what would happen in the event of a nuclear attack. It was considered so frightening it was banned from broadcast until the 1980's. Even then, it was still terrifying.

I used to have links to it on Youtube, but am afraid I can't find them now.

Meanwhile, here's the BBC's prepare announcement in the event that nuclear war ever broke out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_10_08nuclearattack.pdf


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## Jeffbert (Oct 16, 2014)

Yes, TO SERVE MAN was indeed a great TZ, but my favorite end of world story is another TZ, in which the Earth's orbit is decaying & everything is becoming so hot as to be unbearable. People are wishing it was much  cooler, then the sleeper awakens, & it is revealed that the Earth is moving away from the Sun, & everything is freezing! Or was it the other way around?


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## BAYLOR (Oct 18, 2014)

Jeffbert said:


> Yes, TO SERVE MAN was indeed a great TZ, but my favorite end of world story is another TZ, in which the Earth's orbit is decaying & everything is becoming so hot as to be unbearable. People are wishing it was much  cooler, then the sleeper awakens, & it is revealed that the Earth is moving away from the Sun, & everything is freezing! Or was it the other way around?




*Midnight Sun    *  Easily one of the  grimmest episode of the Twilight Zone.


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## Delmak-O (Oct 23, 2014)

The Day the Earth Caught Fire has a great unresolved ending. Everyone waiting for an atomic bomb to be detonated to correct the earths orbit. Scenes of a dried up Thames River bed very well done. A bit dated now but still a great film.


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## Rodders (Oct 23, 2014)

I loved that movie. 

I remember being quite affected by the destruction of the Earth in the Martian Chronicles TV series. I was only young at the time.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 26, 2014)

*Testament* 1983  With Jane Alexander .  This is about people in a small town in the aftermath of nuclear war.  This one is a real downer.


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## Rodders (Oct 28, 2014)

Would invasion of the body snatchers count? Ok, it's not the end of the world as we know it, but it is the end of the human race.


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## Dinosaur (Oct 28, 2014)

Rodders said:


> Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World.
> 
> A really nicely executed movie, but without hope.


 I was pleasantly surprised at this film, normally I just expect Kiera Knightly to just stand around looking posh/pretty with no real effort at the scripts.

But it really worked.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 9, 2014)

*The Day After *1983


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## BAYLOR (Nov 21, 2014)

*inconsistant Moon  * New Outer limits Tv Series.   Though not quite the end.


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## willwallace (Nov 21, 2014)

Melancholia, the whole movie is kind of depressing but that's the point. The ending with the planet crashing into the earth while some of the characters are under a "magic" teepee is pretty intense.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 22, 2014)

Not a movie, but rather a 1964 TV campaign ad from the Johnson administration:






Not only does Barry Goldwater become President, but that little kid still won't be able to count properly after the Big One is dropped. Scary stuff . . . .


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## BAYLOR (Nov 23, 2014)

Curt Chiarelli said:


> Not a movie, but rather a 1964 TV campaign ad from the Johnson administration:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I can recall seeing this add on tv but it was years after Barry Goldwater's presidential bid.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 23, 2014)

BAYLOR said:


> I can recall seeing this add on tv but it was years after Barry Goldwater's presidential bid.



Yes, that's how I saw it too. I was still a kid when it was incorporated into a longer TV program about nuclear war. It made quite an impression. Years later I found out that this ad was only played once because of its ham-fisted use of fear mongering. Nowadays, this kind of political maneuver is far more commonplace. You can get a toxic dose of the same tactics every day on FOX News.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 23, 2014)

Curt Chiarelli said:


> Yes, that's how I saw it too. I was still a kid when it was incorporated into a longer TV program about nuclear war. It made quite an impression. Years later I found out that this ad was only played once because of its ham-fisted use of fear mongering. Nowadays, this kind of political maneuver is far more commonplace. You can get a toxic dose of the same tactics every day on FOX News.




 It effectively scared alot of people away from Goldwater.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 23, 2014)

BAYLOR said:


> It effectively  scared alot of people aw from Goldwater.



Hell, Goldwater effectively scared a lot of people away from Goldwater!


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## BAYLOR (Nov 23, 2014)

Curt Chiarelli said:


> Hell, Goldwater effectively scared a lot of people away from Goldwater!



Goldwater  was all talk. I doubt he would have ever used nukes on Vietnam or anywhere else. He did not want that kind of war no leader in his right mind would.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 23, 2014)

BAYLOR said:


> Goldwater  was all talk. I doubt he would have ever used nukes on Vietnam or anywhere else. He did not want that kind of war no leader in his right mind would.



I couldn't agree more. Still, his manner and posturing would have been enough, under the right conditions, to trigger such a conflict. His arrogance and bellicosity had an effect like that of benzene on an open flame, making escalation, rather than resolution, the only likely outcome.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 25, 2014)

*The Stand * 1994 miniseries.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 30, 2014)

Night Gallery  T*he Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes  *


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## BAYLOR (Feb 8, 2015)

*Level 7*   from the tv anthology series *Out of The Unknown      *It has Shades of *On the Beach *and *Dr Strangelove. *


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## BAYLOR (Feb 22, 2015)

Chris Guillory said:


> The end of the Twilight Zone episode, *To Serve Man*.



It's bleak and humous at the same time.


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## BAYLOR (Mar 9, 2015)

*Beneath the Planet of the Apes    *That should have been the end of the series.


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## Jeffbert (Mar 12, 2015)

Even *Planet of the Apes* itself is a bleak end of the world scenario, at least as far as humanity is concerned. Given the rise of the apes, I would welcome annihilation.  I agree with *Venusian Broon *on this, entirely.

As far as that goes, being an Eloi living under Morlock rule would also suck, but I doubt the Eloi actually realize what awaits them in the Morlocks' underground home. For that matter, the 'humans' living under Ape rule seem to have devolved such that they hardly understand what awaits those whom the apes capture. They run, because the apes violently pursue them. Yet, since they lack speech, one cannot tell if they know. Given the uncertainty here, I must say that the humans in the *Planet of the Apes *fare worse than the Eloi as depicted in* the Time Machine*, even though the apes are not depicted as eating the 'humans,' because the 'humans' fear the apes, and live in constant fear of them, while the Eloi are as sheep.


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## HanaBi (Mar 27, 2015)

*The Quiet Earth (1985)* - last man on Earth (seemingly) scenario - which has been done numerous times previously & post. But the very ending is somewhat of a surprise - although he is still alone although not necessarily on the same planet. Or is he? 

So not necessearily a morbid end, although it depends on your pov of being completely on your own until the end of days.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 26, 2015)

*The Time Travelers* 1964


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## Jeffbert (Apr 27, 2015)

I think I saw *The Time Travelers* on TCM sometime recently, everything seems to click with my memory, except the portal. I recall seeing another one with a similar plot except that a spaceship was the vehicle to the future, rather than a portal. There were savages who lived on the surface, dominated by large powerful brutes, who suffered from exposure to the sun, or some other element. The other surface dwellers were eventually redeemed with medicine. Anyway, the civilized guys were, as I recall, non-violent & content to remain in caves, until the guy or guys from the past come. 

*Genesis II* & *Planet Earth* were Roddenberry's failed pilots. Both had a very similar plot, so similar, that my memory of them became confabulated, & I was rather astonished to learn they were 2 separate films. I recently watched both on Amazon streaming. Anyway, the guy, portrayed in the latter film by John Saxon awakens in the future to find a civilization underground, and outside, savages rule; though this is the confabulation, as Saxon was born to the underground society in *Planet Earth*. In revenge for censoring belly buttons in STAR TREK, Roddenberry gave the savages two of them (*Genesis II)*; this latter film actually seems a worse fate, as the awakened guy is caught between two very unpleasant societies, at least it seems so in the beginning. The Tyranians are the two-hearted two belly buttoned race that regards humans as chattel; though acknowledging that  the man has skills they lack; & demands of him that he repair their nuclear reactor (that somehow continued working long after its human technicians died). As he has had very little exposure to PAX (the underground society) he thinks it, too is totalitarian, but eventually learns better.

I just learned that Roddenberry made a third pilot, called *Strange New World*, & hope Amazon also has this streaming. Anyway, another pilot apparently unrelated to these is *The **STRANGER (1973 USA),* In which an astronaut lands upon another Earth that is apparently on the opposite side of the sun, & is thus, unknown to us. I recall the scene in which he steals a van, and as he is driving along, the radio turns on by itself and the totalitarian govt. announcements / orders are given. http://www.modcinema.com/search-product/325-stranger-the-tv-1973-dvd?s=THE+STRANGER I loathe the idea of paying $20 or so for a DVD of what I suspect will be low quality, coming from a TV source, though. 

Anyway, these are a few that I remembered & finally found; though the hardest part was finding the titles!


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## BAYLOR (Apr 30, 2015)

*When Worlds Collide   *1951. Epic and chilling but with hopeful ending.


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## Jeffbert (May 11, 2015)

*When Worlds Collide*, is that the one in which the wheelchair-bound elderly man finances the building of the spaceship that takes some two or three dozen scientists, engineers, 1 boy & 1 dog, & such, to a passing planet, just as the doomed Earth is about to to destroyed?


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## BAYLOR (May 17, 2015)

Jeffbert said:


> *When Worlds Collide*, is that the one in which the wheelchair-bound elderly man finances the building of the spaceship that takes some two or three dozen scientists, engineers, 1 boy & 1 dog, & such, to a passing planet, just as the doomed Earth is about to to destroyed?



They were supposed to be remaking this one at one point.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 2, 2015)

Lexx  the last episode . Earth while bring devoured by a giant Alien ship gets taken out by the Lexx.


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## Cli-Fi (Jun 5, 2015)

My avatar is taken from Day After Tomorrow a "fun" doomsday disaster popcorn flick full of climate fiction. It's still pretty chilling anyway.


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## hardsciencefanagain (Jun 5, 2015)

Probably the one in "Knowing" with Nick Cage


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## Caledfwlch (Jun 5, 2015)

In the 80's the BBC made a drama called Threads following a family in Sheffield as tensions between Nato and the Soviets rise, culminating in an exchange of nukes. It scared the absolute brown stuff out of the audience at the time, it used the real UK Government Attack Warning Emergency Broadcast that would cut into all tv and radio channels, I think it was the first time British people got to see what it would look like if a British city was smashed to pieces should the Cold War turn Hot. It was only repeated once iirc, and that was 10 years ago, long after original broadcast.

Wasn't an early 80's american nuclear attack movie banned? May have been called Without Warning


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## Brian G Turner (Jun 5, 2015)

Caledfwlch said:


> Wasn't an early 80's american nuclear attack movie banned? May have been called Without Warning



Are you thinking of this?



Brian Turner said:


> Most chilling, ever?
> 
> Easily _The War Game_, a documentary made by the BBC in the 1960's about what would happen in the event of a nuclear attack. It was considered so frightening it was banned from broadcast until the 1980's. Even then, it was still terrifying.


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## Caledfwlch (Jun 5, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> Are you thinking of this?



It was the Day After I am thinking of, and it was not banned 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After


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## Brian G Turner (Jun 5, 2015)

It's just occurred to me that I never watched _Threads_. I'm half-tempted to buy or rent it, just to show my kids the fears their parents grew up through. However, I suspect it would end up giving them nightmares for a long time afterwards! So maybe I shouldn't.


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## Caledfwlch (Jun 5, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> It's just occurred to me that I never watched _Threads_. I'm half-tempted to buy or rent it, just to show my kids the fears their parents grew up through. However, I suspect it would end up giving them nightmares for a long time afterwards! So maybe I shouldn't.



Deffo not for younger Kids, though they could watch up to the missiles starting to impact around Sheffield, it's after the attack that it gets grim and nasty.

I worked out that the first explosion you see off beyond Sheffield, between the buildings is the Soviets giving Doncaster a well needed makeover, as the nearest target to be seen from Sheffield by my calculations would be Robin Hood Airport (RAF Finningley, at the time) getting hit. Having lived in Donny for 3 years, some redecorating by the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces would only have improved the place. though, given the mutants that live there, I do wonder if a nuke went off at some point in the past.


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## Venusian Broon (Jun 5, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> It's just occurred to me that I never watched _Threads_. I'm half-tempted to buy or rent it, just to show my kids the fears their parents grew up through. However, I suspect it would end up giving them nightmares for a long time afterwards! So maybe I shouldn't.



I remember watching it when it came out, so I must have been 13 at the time. I'm pretty sure everyone had that overhanging fear that there really could be a third world war and nuclear devastation somewhere in the background of their minds (at least I did!). I'm not sure how it would feel like watching it now, given that the cold war is now something taught in school history rather than something that seems to actively tax peoples minds now.

Like it's forefather _The War Game _(Which wasn't banned, the BBC deemed it too horrifying to show it to the public in 1965 - but they did show it to overseas audiences!) it is about getting the facts across about what would actually happen and because of that it is utterly grim. It basically showed a family and what they did - following government advice on what to do and the likely consequences of society afterwards: Starvation, camps of forced workers to grow crops, society run by the military etc.... Pretty goddamn awful. 

What seemed the most ludicrous (to me) was the government advice on building nuclear shelters - basically find your safest room and strongest indoor wall, put a frame of doors leaning against it, pad it with mattresses and whatever you could find then shut yourself in, with your family and whatever food and water you could squirrel away....here is the actual advice in fact: http://www.atomica.co.uk/main.htm.

I wonder if this advice was given to 1) stop you moving about and picking up fall out 2) make you feel that you are actually doing something positive (although in many cases it just would not be enough.)

There is also the official government films on the matter of which the above website is the leaflet form. But it all brings back all that old paranoia and fear for me - too much! :


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## Toby Frost (Jun 5, 2015)

I'd second *Threads*, which is to the apocalypse what 1984 is to most dictatorships. *On the Beach*, too.

How about *The Road*? That was pretty determined to be miserable as hell.


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## Venusian Broon (Jun 5, 2015)

Toby Frost said:


> How about *The Road*? That was pretty determined to be miserable as hell.



Yep, what a depressing film. Entertaining? In a sort of car crash way I suppose. What did it teach me about humanity. That we're usually pretty awful. Even the good guys at times. 

Thank god I've watched it, so that I can avoid it now.


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## psikeyhackr (Jun 5, 2015)

chopper said:


> Threads (1984).



Yeah, I'll have to go with that.  I don't think I have watched it since the first time.

psik


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## bedlamite (Jun 11, 2015)

_Threads_. Horrible. And the scenes of the post apocalyptic world in _Twelve Monkeys_ - there's something about the wild animals wandering around a city that freaks me out.


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## Toby Frost (Jun 11, 2015)

Good point about _Twelve Monkeys_. I re-watched it recently and it’s a much bleaker and harder film to look at than I remembered. Even the Gilliam-machines seem oppressive, far more than in _Brazil._ Perhaps that’s because the underground sections seem so cramped and sweaty. It’s a good film, but surprisingly lacking in fun.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 27, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> It's just occurred to me that I never watched _Threads_. I'm half-tempted to buy or rent it, just to show my kids the fears their parents grew up through. However, I suspect it would end up giving them nightmares for a long time afterwards! So maybe I shouldn't.



I saw not on PBS decades ago, It's very well done, believable quite grim.


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## BAYLOR (Jul 3, 2015)

*Shelter Me   * a story in the* Metal Hurlant Chronicles*.  Very very chilling stuff.


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## soulsinging (Jul 14, 2015)

Venusian Broon said:


> Yep, what a depressing film. Entertaining? In a sort of car crash way I suppose. What did it teach me about humanity. That we're usually pretty awful. Even the good guys at times.
> 
> Thank god I've watched it, so that I can avoid it now.


I never understood the hype around that book and movie.


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## BAYLOR (Jul 27, 2015)

The first Hellboy movie showed a nightmarish vision of a world devastated by Cthulhu like elder beings.


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## vgunn (Aug 19, 2015)

Another vote for Threads.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 2, 2015)

Toby Frost said:


> Good point about _Twelve Monkeys_. I re-watched it recently and it’s a much bleaker and harder film to look at than I remembered. Even the Gilliam-machines seem oppressive, far more than in _Brazil._ Perhaps that’s because the underground sections seem so cramped and sweaty. It’s a good film, but surprisingly lacking in fun.




Ive seen 12 Monkeys once and that was quite enough.  It's a great film but I found ti easy too bleak.  As for Brazil,  it's pretty grim as well but this I have re-watched. I absolutely hate the ending even though storywise it gives the film more impact.


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## MAJE Mike (Nov 2, 2015)

Yes I must agree with some of my friends above. Threads and The Road were both bleak, like listening to Lenard Cohen or Shostakovish or Rachmaninov, all good but at the right time.


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## Frost Giant (Nov 3, 2015)

I always liked the very end of the Twilight Zone episode The Midnight Sun. Just the expression on the old lady's face when she reassures the younger woman everything is fine, but knows the world is doomed.


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## Delfilm (Nov 4, 2015)

The BBC made a film called Threads in 1984. It was one of the most horrifying films I've ever seen. I bought it on DVD a few years ago to exercise my demons and see if it was as horrific as I remember, the answer is YES! Here's the trailer:


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## BAYLOR (Nov 4, 2015)

Delfilm said:


> The BBC made a film called Threads in 1984. It was one of the most horrifying films I've ever seen. I bought it on DVD a few years ago to exercise my demons and see if it was as horrific as I remember, the answer is YES! Here's the trailer:




It was very excellent and very grim.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 4, 2015)

Frost Giant said:


> I always liked the very end of the Twilight Zone episode The Midnight Sun. Just the expression on the old lady's face when she reassures the younger woman everything is fine, but knows the world is doomed.



The ending to episode is brilliant  and quit nasty .It's one of the best twilight zone episodes of all time . 

In Rod Serling's  *Night Gallery*  there was segment called *The Boy Who Could Predict Earthquakes . *It had a similar chilling ending.


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## Frost Giant (Nov 5, 2015)

Night Gallery had some pretty good episodes back in the day. Maybe some day they'll reboot that series.


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## Caledfwlch (Nov 5, 2015)

Channel 4 are doing a talking heads clip show, a decade each show, and the 80's was on the other week, and the talking heads got to watch Threads, When the Wind Blows etc.

The UK Government in what must have been either the most insane mindset imaginable, or they were being intentionally misadvised by their intelligence services to the point that it was literally criminal, believed they would have "3 weeks warning" of a nuclear attack on the UK.........

At the time, the Crown Stationary Office was charged with delivering the "Protect and Survive" leaflets to every household in the UK.

They pointed out to Her Majesty's Idiots that printing the leaflets would take a minimum of 4 weeks.......

They must have known the Soviets had ICBM's capable of landing in minutes from launch, and even a run by heavy bombers carrying a nuclear payload would only take a few hours to hit UK airspace.

Totally Mental.


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## svalbard (Nov 5, 2015)

The very last scene in *Take Shelter. *It is the realisation that the dreams of Michael Shanahan's character are true visions of the future. And it is not a nice image. 

Sometimes I imagine *Take Shelter *as a prequel to *The Road. *


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## BAYLOR (Nov 14, 2015)

Frost Giant said:


> Night Gallery had some pretty good episodes back in the day. Maybe some day they'll reboot that series.



I bought the whole series on dvd.


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## Edward M. Grant (Nov 17, 2015)

Caledfwlch said:


> They must have known the Soviets had ICBM's capable of landing in minutes from launch, and even a run by heavy bombers carrying a nuclear payload would only take a few hours to hit UK airspace.



Yes, but the odds of the Soviet Premier waking up one morning and saying 'I know, let's launch a nuclear war today' were pretty slim. The two main ways such a war would start were either by accident, or after a few days or weeks of conventional fighting. Everyone assumed that accidents were unlikely, though we now know they almost started a war on several occasions.

You also have to remember that Britain's minimalist 'civil defence' plans had grown out of the much more reasonable plans in the 40s and 50s, when a nuclear war would have been like WWII replayed in a few days or weeks, rather than complete obliteration overnight. Like most government programs, it became a monster that would do anything to survive, even when it no longer made any sense.

Edit: BTW, I agree about _Threads_ being a great movie, but you also have to remember that it was based on a government war plan, so extremely optimistic. I think that's the war plan where the Soviet Union decided to drop a one megaton bomb on a mountain in Wales for no apparent reason, while not bombing many cities.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 29, 2015)

Rodders said:


> Would invasion of the body snatchers count? Ok, it's not the end of the world as we know it, but it is the end of the human race.



The 1978 version has where have that end scene with Donald Sutherland does the  Alien screaming bit at Veronica Cartwright. I can never forget that ending.


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## galanx (Jan 3, 2016)

BAYLOR said:


> The 1978 version has where have that end scene with Donald Sutherland does the  Alien screaming bit at Veronica Cartwright. I can never forget that ending.



Yea, that's great- was that the version where the woman hears Christmas music coming from a ship and thinks that at least there's hope elsewhere, and then it's abruptly shut off and she sees the pods being loaded?


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## galanx (Jan 3, 2016)

Many years ago in England in the 80s I saw a stage version of "When The Wind Blows"- totally frightening at that time. Years later I saw the book in the reading corner of a kindergarten in Taiwan, because, hey, it's a comic book -I discreetly lifted it and replaced it with something more suitable.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 3, 2016)

galanx said:


> Yea, that's great- was that the version where the woman hears Christmas music coming from a ship and thinks that at least there's hope elsewhere, and then it's abruptly shut off and she sees the pods being loaded?



The 1956 version was supposed to have a similar downbeat ending but they changed it.


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## Jaxx (Jan 3, 2016)

*






Wall-E* and *Idiocrasy* were rather hellish and sadly very possible, if exaggerated, visions of the future decline of our species at least.


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 3, 2016)

BAYLOR said:


> The 1956 version was supposed to have a similar downbeat ending but they changed it.




Both were better than the 2007 version which has a happy ending.

Again not exactly the end of the world but certainly the end of the world as we know it -  the ending of _Colossus the Forbin Project_ always struck me as the perfectly horrible downbeat finish.


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## Nick B (Jan 3, 2016)

I have to agree with Threads. As an 80s kid, I know we lived with fear as a companion. I was pretty sure we were going to have a nuclear war (I think most of us were) and it terrified me. I used to hate hearing the news at ten start, in case the news was that bad.
So Threads pretty much summed up all that fear.


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## Jaxx (Jan 3, 2016)

Quellist said:


> I have to agree with *Threads. As an 80s kid*, I know we lived with fear as a companion.
> So Threads pretty much summed up all that fear.



I'm going to have to look this *Threads* up, I was also a young lad of the 80's, yet this show passed me by it seems.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 3, 2016)

Jaxx said:


> I'm going to have to look this *Threads* up, I was also a young lad of the 80's, yet this show passed me by it seems.



It's pretty grim stuff.


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## Caledfwlch (Jan 5, 2016)

galanx said:


> Many years ago in England in the 80s I saw a stage version of "When The Wind Blows"- totally frightening at that time. Years later I saw the book in the reading corner of a kindergarten in Taiwan, because, hey, it's a comic book -I discreetly lifted it and replaced it with something more suitable.



Slightly off topic, but I am constantly astonished to see all the Harry Potter books in Children's sections of bookshops, often the young  kids section, not just young adults.

A good few 10/11 year olds must get nightmares after reading Deathly Hallows! In one late scene, Voldermort tortures the much loved Neville Longbottom, by putting the Sorting Hat on his head, then setting it on fire, as Neville screams in pain, for example. The film is OK, because they pretty much removed and desenitised any horror from all the books.


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## hardsciencefanagain (Jan 5, 2016)

there's something _*very*_ bleak about a certain scene in Terminator two.


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## soulsinging (Jan 5, 2016)

Caledfwlch said:


> Slightly off topic, but I am constantly astonished to see all the Harry Potter books in Children's sections of bookshops, often the young  kids section, not just young adults.
> 
> A good few 10/11 year olds must get nightmares after reading Deathly Hallows! In one late scene, Voldermort tortures the much loved Neville Longbottom, by putting the Sorting Hat on his head, then setting it on fire, as Neville screams in pain, for example. The film is OK, because they pretty much removed and desenitised any horror from all the books.


Anyone that grew up in the 80's and watched the Nevernding Story film with the agonizingly slow death of Artax knows that massive trauma slipped into children's works is nothing new.  You can take it back to children of the 50's with Old Yeller and Bambi.

I'd completely forgot that scene though. I REALLY need to reread those books!


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 5, 2016)

To take this even more Off Topic:



Caledfwlch said:


> Slightly off topic, but I am constantly astonished to see all the Harry Potter books in Children's sections of bookshops, often the young  kids section, not just young adults.
> 
> A good few 10/11 year olds must get nightmares after reading Deathly Hallows! In one late scene, Voldermort tortures the much loved Neville Longbottom, by putting the Sorting Hat on his head, then setting it on fire, as Neville screams in pain, for example. The film is OK, because they pretty much removed and desenitised any horror from all the books.




Do you have kids, Caledfwlch?  I have 3 (aged 6, 11, and 13) keeping them away from the creepy and the weird and the nasty is a losing battle.  Kids love being (safely) scared and poking at the horrible just to see how far they can go. They know their limits too; if something is "Too Scary" they'll stop. I think it's a natural thing for adults to want to protect their kids from things that are too 'grown up' but cocooning them from all things nasty and wrapping them in a fluffy cloud of Care Bear niceness is not possible.  It's part of my job as a parent to make a safe place for my kids to be scared in.

There's no knowing what will give people nightmares._ Doctor Who_ used to deliciously scare me as a kid (early 70s) and I had endless nightmares about being chased down a corridor my some nameless unseen thing - but never anything directly Doctor Whoish.  I had a girlfriend who had nightmares after watching Disney's _Sleeping Beauty_ as a kid.  (As an adult she read endless cheap and nasty eyeball ripping horror novels with covers so grotesque I could barely look at them.) 

Don't worry about 10/11 year olds reading about Neville Longbottom getting tortured. (Most of them are reading Creepy Pasta and slash fiction far more graphic.) Just revel in the fact that kids are _reading_ _books!_


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## hardsciencefanagain (Jan 5, 2016)

In the normal course of thing,kids will move on from garish horror.


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## Droflet (Jan 5, 2016)

svalbard said:


> The very last scene in *Take Shelter. *It is the realisation that the dreams of Michael Shanahan's character are true visions of the future. And it is not a nice image.
> 
> Sometimes I imagine *Take Shelter *as a prequel to *The Road. *



Yep, couldn't agree more. I think Shannon is a vastly underrated actor.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 24, 2016)

hardsciencefanagain said:


> there's something _*very*_ bleak about a certain scene in Terminator two.



In the beginning to the film and the dream that Sarah Connor has later in the film . Indeed.


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