Story Type: Post-Apocalypse

In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller.

Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to the movie’s central concept. They can be found in any genre, cross genre, or sub-genre.

Knowledge about and awareness of these story types can be a boost not only to your understanding of film history and movie trends, but also as fodder for brainstorming new story concepts. Mix and match them. Invert them. Gender bend them. Genre bend them. Geo bend them.

Story types exist for a reason: Because they work. Hopefully this series will help you make them work for you.

Today: Post-Apocalypse.

Closely related to disaster movies, Wikipedia has this article on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction:

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, Technological Singularity, Dysgenics, supernatural phenomena, Divine Judgement, Climate Change, resource depletion or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and that which deals with dystopias.

Some examples of post-apocalyptic movies:

On the Beach (1959): The residents of Australia after a global nuclear war must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.

The Last Man on Earth (1964): When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant zombie hunter.

A Boy and His Dog (1975): A boy communicates telepathically with his dog as they scavenge for food and sex in a post-apocalyptic world.

Mad Max (1979): In a dystopic future Australia, a vicious biker gang murder a cop’s family and make his fight with them personal.

Twelve Monkeys (1995): In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

Waterworld (1995): In a future where the polar ice caps have melted and most of Earth is underwater, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw “smokers,” and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl try to find dry land.

The Postman (1997): In a post-apocalyptic America, what begins as a con game becomes one man’s quest to rebuild civilization by resuming postal service.

28 Days Later (2002): Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

The Road (2009): A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible.

The Book of Eli (2010): A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

Whereas disaster movies focus on the build-up to and experience of some sort of extensive calamity, post-apocalypse movies deal with the aftermath. Thus a key question posed for viewers is a powerful psychological one: How would I survive? The question can be played out in a lonely existential framework such as The Last Man on Earth, one man versus an army of mutants, a handful of survivors such as 28 Days Later, or larger groups such as Waterworld.

One narrative angle on post-apocalyptic movies is the theme of society reformed. In stories like The Postman or TV mini-series like “The Stand,” the post-apocalyptic setting serves as a sort of petri dish for a grand social experiment: How will groups of survivors band together? Which systems of beliefs and behaviors will rise to the top… and which will fall to the side?

Those questions get at the heart of the psychological appeal of post-apocalypse movies: Stripped of what we experience in our ‘normal’ lives, which of our values would prevail? These type of stories cause us to go into a more base aspect of our self, much closer to our lizard-brain attached to survival than our higher consciousness and egalitarian instincts.

Whereas disaster movies cause us to ask this question — What would I do — post-apocalypse stories raise another issue: Who would I be?

What post-apocalypse movies would you add to this list? What appeals to you about this type of story?

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For more articles in the Story Type series, go here.