Stuck Inside? Movies To Keep You Entertained!

With all the terrible weather going on this week, here’s a list of “End of the World” movies you should watch. Hey- you’re stuck inside anyway and you might develop survival skills that could just help you get through the next End of the World scenario.

Outbreak

Now this one’s a favorite of mine- it features the absurd scenario of young, curly haired Patrick Dempsey stealing a monkey only to be bitten while releasing it, and then causing a 100% mortality-rate-virus from the 1970s to come back and haunt us now. (It makes sense if you watch the movie). The movie takes on the wild theory of how far the government is willing to go to protect the majority of its people, and where the line is drawn for the government to cross.

28 Days Later

Another epidemic movie, it goes along in contract with the usual epidemic movies (as in, you get it, you die, you stay dead) and has spawned a whole new line of epidemics- the zombie epidemic. (If you think about it, what non-George Romero related zombie movie have you seen where a zombie-apocalypse happens due to a disease? 28 Days made all of them- I am Legend, Zombieland,… and that’s all I can think of right now- but the point still stands).

Volcano

Volcano explores the possibility of entire metropolitan city (LA) under attack by something that literally ‘eats” anything and everything in its way- magma/lava. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were in the subway while the magma was flowing and nothing you can do stops it from coming at you? Well this is exactly what the movie’s premise is- what do you do if you can’t stop something from chasing you? (Spoiler-ish: and I still don’t think it was answered)

 

The Abyss

One of those “Watch This Before You Die” movies, The Abyss makes you want to yearn to know the unknown. Something James Cameron is known for; the film is centered underwater where these divers try to find a nuclear submarine, and then accidently… well I’ll let you figure that out on your own. And if you think deep sea diving is scary on film, try almost dying.

Twister

If the name was already a hint, Twister is about these two storm chasers who are trying to test a theory and follow a tornado before it could do serious damage. Since the tornado does major damage in film, I honestly don’t see a point to them chasing a storm-other than the data they receive and the bragging rights they get when they beat a obnoxious reporter. But this is also a film that tests your basic survival skills- mainly: in the case of a tornado, you should evacuate when the local authorities told you to evacuate, and if you’re foolish enough to remain, go hide in your basement, not a barn with sharp objects.

 

 

Armageddon and Deep Impact

People will say that these two movies are different, but in reality, they’re not. They both deal with asteroids coming and hitting the earth. Sure, one might center around drillers trying to explode a bomb (and if you think about it, this entire premise is illogical in itself) while the pretty much features teens running away with the president saying obvious things- but they both show one thing: what not to do in a asteroid related situation. And I think the first one is the most logical- do not panic and pack all your things in a station wagon and drive on the highway since there are already people on the highway who had the same idea before you.

2012

This is solely placed here to lead up to my top pick of disaster movies, but if I had to elaborate as to why you should watch it:   It’s basically a comedy. Right now, since it’s 2012 (not 12-21-12), it’s considered a action thriller, but give it a few months, and in 2013, it’ll become a comedy. We’re talking about a movie that has originated from the “what-if” scenario of an ancient Mayan tradition- that has been completely blown out of context. (Here’s why the “2012 End of the World” will not happen: The Mayans mysteriously disappeared, and we don’t know if it was due to war, plague, or flood, whatever. Keeping that in mind, the life span of a human back then (2000 BC) was less than 30 years old, and let’s take away 5 years just because they had to grow up and learn how to communicate and things- that makes their “work” life span around 2 years. Now, there were calendar carvers who made the calendars, and they had to teach the next generation of carvers how to carve. Add in the constant struggle to find food, shelter, fight against other tribes, find stones to make the calendars, etc, and you have maybe 10 years top on actual time working on the calendars. The Mayans lasted for over 2000 years, so it’s already a remarkable feat that they got this far- and they would have gone farther if they had time).

The Day after Tomorrow

An actual possible scenario that might happen, The Day After Tomorrow is perhaps the top of this list because it just is surreal- but in a good way. If you have time, watch An Inconvenient Truth, that famous documentary Al Gore made. This film details the hypothetical situation of global warming and the effects weather has on our world. Just like how watching a slaughterhouse documentary makes you vegan for a week, this film leaves an impact on you that makes you aware of the earth, and what you can do to stop this from happening- or what to do to survive if it does.              

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