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Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of DisasterAuthor(s): Mick BroderickSource: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Nov., 1993), pp. 362-382Published by: SF-TH IncStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240277 .

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362 SCIENCE-FICTIONTUDIES,VOLUME20 (1993)

Mick Broderick

Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of Disaster

1. Subtexts.

We acceptthe lure of annihilation, nly to discover hat it is a temporarycondition,a gatewayto renewal and rebirth.This is perhapsthe mostpervasive heme n all theworld's eligiousmythandritual. t mayalso be the

most pervasive heme in the symbolism f nuclearweapons. Chernus 5)A quartercentury ago in her seminal essay "The Imagination of Disaster,"Susan Sontag outlined prevailing thematics and subtexts in the cinema ofscience fiction from 1950 through 1965.Among these Sontag recognized thedominance of an aesthetic of disaster (with monsters as metaphors ofnuclear energy) and a fear of global atomic death which could occur uni-versally and at any moment.1

This surveywill demonstrate, however, that the sub-genre of SF cinemawhich has entertained visions of nuclear Armageddon concerns itself pri-

marilywith survival as its dominant discursive mode. From the early post-Hiroshima films of the '40s which anticipatedglobal atomic conflict and the

cautionary tales of short and long-term effects in the '50s through to thehero myths of apocalypse in the '80s, a discernable shift away from animagination of disaster toward one of survivalis evident. These films, andin particularthose of category4 (see Figure 1), have drawnupon preexistingmythologies of cataclysm and survivalin their renderings of post-holocaustlife. The most potent of these myths is the recasting of the Judeo-Christianmessianic hero who battles an antichrist and his followers, liberating anoppressed community and thereby enabling social rebirth.

While some films have explored (albeit fleetingly) post-holocaust life asa site for ideological contestation, the cinematic renderings of long-termpost-nuclear survival appear highly reactionary, and seemingly advocatereinforcing the symbolic order of the status quo via the maintenance ofconservative social regimes of patriarchallaw (and lore). In so doing, theyarticulatea desire for (if not celebrate) the fantasyof nuclearArmageddonas the anticipated war which will annihilate the oppressive burdens of

(post)modern life and usher in the nostalgically yearned-for less complexexistence of agrarian toil and social harmony through ascetic spiritualendeavors.

Unlike the potential complacency afforded audiences by vicariouslyexperiencing cosmic or natural filmic catastrophes (such as tidal waves,cometary impacts, or earthquakes), the imaginary projections of life in adistant post-holocaust futurebypassgraphicscenes of planetarydestruction,thus enabling the spectator to evade or dismiss the human causal chain innuclear warfare and to replace it with an archaic mythology steeped in



SURVIVINGARMAGEDDON 363

heroicacts,inspiredandpropelledby someinscrutable ndpredetermineddivine cosmic plan.

In this way the post-nuclear urvivalist ycle of the '80s has signifiedanother mode by which a generationhas learned to stop worryingandlove-if not the bomb-a (post-holocaust)uture,whichafter some initialhardshipwill provide the compellingutopianfantasyof a biblical Edenreborn n an apocalypticmillennium f peace on Earth.

2. Contexts.

Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the

oldest subjects of art...to this day there is nothing like the thrill of watching all those

expensive sets come tumbling down. (Sontag 25-26)In orderto explorethe prevailingdeologiesanddirectionof thisgenreinthe '90s andso contextualize urrent rends,the pre-existing enericfieldmustfirst be touchedon.

Prior o theatomicbombingofHiroshima ndNagasakin 1945, cience-fictioncinemahadbeen lessovertly oncernedwitheschatologicalcenarios.Yet thereremainsa substantial odyof filmwhich n some formdid enter-tain notions of secularapocalypse,often employinga mode of disasterspectacleasthesignificant odalpoint nitsnarratives. ssentiallyhese can

be delineatedas representing itherman-madeor cosmiccatastrophes.

2.1. Man-Made.PrometheanandFrankensteinianmyth-warningsf unre-strained alchemical and technologicaladvance found early cinematicexpressionustasEuropewasaboutto enter nto the FirstWorldWar.Thespeculative ournalismand science fiction of H.G. Wells et al. providedfertilegroundfor motion-pictureerrortales of chemicalandmechanicalwarfare.2 n The Waro'Dreams (1915), for instance,a poor chemistwhodiscoversa powerful xplosivedestroyshis formulaaftera propheticdreamalerts him to its awesome destructiveness,ven thoughhe is offered alucrativedeal by the US Government.Less sympathetics the scientist nThe Branded Four (1920)who createsfor villainsan energy"ray" hat iscapableof destroying he humanrace.3In Jean Renoir'sSur un Air deCharleston (1927) the last womanremainingon Earth is discoveredby ascientist ongafter a catastrophicwar. The contradictorymagesof scienceare apparentn the contrastbetween an earlyserialtalkie,Voicefrom theSky(1930), nwhicha crazed cientist hreatensworlddestruction,ndH.G.

Wells'sThingsto Come (1936),which orecastsa devastating0-yearglobalwareventuallyhaltedby a societyof noblescientists.

2.2.Cosmic.Prior o theSecondWorldWarthemostarrestingilmimagerydepictingplanetarydisasterwas either cosmicor natural n origin.As atraditionalharbingerof doom, the arrivalof Halley'sCometin 1910wasdepictedominously hat same year in The Comet. Structurally,his earlynarrativeesemblesmanyof the contemporaryuclearholocaust cenariosin whichcataclysm ndsurvival re depictedbypanicking opulaces, ities



364 SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 20 (1993)

and countryside ablaze, survivors fleeing underground, the looting of pre-

cious resources, and summary justice. It was followed it 1916 by a comedy,

The Comet's Comeback, in which an approaching comet causes all earthlymomentum to slow to a halt until only a handful of survivorsremain. Humor

and disaster again merge successfullywhen MaryPickfordportrays a latter-

day "Chicken Little" who foresees a cometary impact in Waking Up the

Town (1925).

Preceding Metropolis by a decade, August Blom's sobering production,

End of the World (1916), critiques the inherent (sexual) corruption of the

bourgeoisie with an apocalypticundercurrentof class conflict as a far more

potent threat to civilization than the overt theme of planetary destruction

from yet another comet. Like Blom, Abel Gance employs the comet motifto bring about La Fin du Monde (1930) as a means of depicting religiousmania and aristocratic corruption (decadent orgies in the face of disaster).Terminal sexual fantasies also emerge in films such as The Last Man on

Earth (1924) and It's Great to be Alive (1933) after mysterious plagues leave

only one male alive capable of perpetuatingthe species, a theme reanimated

with much vigor in many post-Hiroshima films concernedwith the sterilizing

effects of radiation.4

The city and towering metropolis as a site for naturaldisaster dates back

to the very origins of cinema in films such as the British Last Days of Pom-peii (1898), a title reused and story retold dozens of times over the years,Intolerance (1915) and Noah's Ark (1928), each featuring the biblical de-

struction of Babylon.5 Cosmic interventions also brought down modern

monoliths, perhaps most convincingly via the earthquake and subsequent

tidal-wave special effects which level New York City in Deluge (1933),

footage later used repeatedly by other studios in films like S.O.S. Tidal Wave

(1939) and When Worlds Collide (1951).

Examining the historical clusters of these films prior to 1945, it appears

that many reflect popular fears of devastating calamities in times of per-

ceived global crisis, such as the approach of the World Wars, the 1917

communist revolution, and the Great Depression.

Within these fecund antecedents to the post-nuclear holocaust movie avariety of thematic, iconic, and narrative repetitions are apparent which,alongsideearlierliterary/artistic influences,havehelpedatomic-survival ales

evolve into a more complex hybrid form.

3. Texts.There is absolutelyno social criticism,of even the most implicitkind, inscience iction ilms.No criticism,orexample, f the conditions f oursocietywhich create the impersonality nd dehumanization hich science fictionfantasiesdisplaceonto the influenceof an alien It. (Sontag34)

The following discussion will demonstrate that Sontag's dismissal of SF

cinema is far fromjustified in relation to nuclear movies. Before proceedingwith a fuller exploration of this sub-genre it is necessary to demark struc-

turally the parameters of this group into four temporal milieus: films con-




1. PREPARATION

FOR NUCLEARWAR

AND ITS SURVIVAL

Lost City of the Jungle (46)

When Worlds Collide (51)

The Damned (61)

Dr Strangelove (63)

Demon from Devil's Lake

(64)

The War Game (65)

2+5: Mission Hydra (66)

Silent Running (71)

Chosen Survivors (74)

Full Moon High (81)

The Old Men at the Zoo

(82)

Static (82)

War Games (83)

Countdown to Looking Glass

(84)Massive Retaliation (84)

Bootleg (85)

One Night Stand (85)

Control (86)

SurvivalQuest (86)

Terrorvision (86)

Journeys Inland (88)

Bunker Palace Hotel (89)

Miracle Mile (89)

Spontaneous Combustion )

2. ENCOUNTER

WrrH PtSr-NUCLEAR

EXKtATERRSR

Rocketship XM (50)

Not of This Earth (56)

Forbidden Planet (56)

The Mysterians (57)

Queen of Outer Space (58)

Battle of the Worlds (60)

First Spaceship on Venus

(60)

Ikarie XB-1 (63)Dr Who and the Daleks (65)

The Love War (70)

Superman:The Movie (78)

2010 (84)

Light Years (88)

Friendship's Death (87)

Not of This Earth (88)

3. EXERIENCING

NUCIIAR WARAND

mS MMEDIATE FFECT'S

Five (51)

The Day the World Ended

(56)

On the Beach (59)

The World, the Flesh, and I

Devil (59)

The Last Woman on Earth

(60)

Rat (60)

The Final War (60)

The Time Machine (60)

The Last War (62)Panic in the Year Zero (62)

The Doomsday Machine

(67)The Last Man (68)

Damnation Alley (74)

Where Have All the People

Gone (74)

Martian Chronicles (80)

Virus (81)

Malevil (81)Parasite (82)The State of Things (82)

The Day After (83)

Def Con 4 (83)

Testament (83)

War and Peace (83)

The Quiet Earth (85)

Threads (85)

When the Wind Blows (87)

Smoke 'em if You've Got 'cm

(89)

Population One (86)

cerned with (1) Preparation for Nuclear War and its Survival, (2) Encoun-ters with ExtraterrestrialPost-Holocaust Societies, (3) Experiencing Nuclear

War and its Immediate Effects, and (4) SurvivalLong After Nuclear War.As the chart indicates, the majority of texts belong in the explicitly post-holocaust Category 4, frequently situated after a lengthy period of time.

Significantly, there have been more films made on this topic during the pastdecade than the total of all the other categories in the preceding forty years;the bulk of my analysis will therefore address this category.

3.1. Category 1. Preparation For Nuclear War and Its Survival. The atom

bombingswhichclosed the SecondWorldWarweresoon widelyperceived




4. SURVIVAL LONG AFTER NUCLEARWAR

Captive Women (51)

World Without End (56)Teenage Caveman (58)

Terror of the Year 5,000

(58)

Beyond the Time Barrier

(60)

Creation of the Humanoids(62)

Lord of the Flies (63)

The Time Travelers (64)Sins of the Fleshapoids (65)End of August at the Ozone

Hotel (65)

In the Year 2889 (66)

Brasil Anno 2,000 (68)

Planet of the Apes (68)

The Bed Sitting Room (69)

Beneath the Planet of the

Apes (69)

I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen(70)

Escape from the Planet ofthe Apes (71)

Glen and Randa (71)Battle for the Planet of the

Apes (73)The Final Program (73)

Genesis 11(73)

Zardoz (73)

Planet Earth (74)

A Boy and His Dog (75)Logan's Run (76)

Wizards (77)

Deathsport (78)

Buck Rogers in the 25th

Century (79)The Golem (79)

Things to Come (79)

Quintet (79)

The Ravagers (79)

Aftermath (80)

Mad Max 2: The Road

Warrior (81)

Heavy Metal (81)Cafe Flesh (82)

Parasite (82)

Survival Zone (82)

End Game (83)

Exterminators of the Year

3,000 (83)

Le Dernier Combat (83)

Human Animals (83)

Metalstorm (83)

The New Barbarians (83)

Rock & Rule (83)She (83)

Stryker (83)

Yor Hunter from the Future(83)

2019: After the Fall of New

York (83)

Warriors of the Lost World

(83)

Last Exterminators (84)

O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of

Civilization (84)

Dark Enemy (84)

The Load Warrior (84)

Sex Mission (84)

The Terminator (84)Warriors of the Wind (84)Z for Zachariah (84)

America 3,000 (85)Breastament (85)

Desert Warrior (85)

Future Hunters (85)

Land of Doom (85)

Letters from a Dead Man

(85)The Load Warrior 11(85)

Mad Max III: Beyond Thun-

derdome (85)

2020: Texas Gladiators

(85)Warriors of the Apocalypse

(85)Wheels of Fire (85)The Afterman (86)

Equalizer 2000 (86)

In the Aftermath (86)

The Final Executioner (86)

The Killing Edge (86)

Lunar Madness (86)

Radioactive Dreams (86)

Rats: Night of Terror (86)

Robot Holocaust (86)

Roller Blade (86)

Warlords (86)

Akira (87)

Angel of Vengeance (87)

Cherry2000 (87)

Creepzoids (87)

Desert Warrior (87)

Hell Comes to Frogtown

(87)Land of Doom (87)

Le Big Bang (87)A Man Called Rage (87)

Mutant Hunt (87)

The Survivalist (87)

The Time Guardian (87)

Treasure Island (87)

Urban Warriors (87)

After Shock (88)

Badlands 2000 (88)

Crime Zone (88)

Inferno of Safehaven (88)

Lawless Land (88)

Quest Beyond Time (88)Steel Dawn (88)

The Survivor (88)

World Gone Wild (88)

Cyborg (89)

Deadly Reactor (89)

Desert Warrior (89)

Escape from Safehaven (89)

Masseba (89)

Rising Storm (89)Robot Jox (89)

Salute of the Jugger (89)

Tin Star Void (89)

Delicatessen (90)

Dreams (90)Future Zone (90)

Hardware (90)

Shredder Orpheus (90)

The Terror Within II (90)

Fist of the North Star (91)

Neo City (91)

Terminator 2: Judgement Dly

(91)

Mindwarp (92)

as the openingsalvosof an anticipatedThirdWorldWar,one whichwouldspare few cities (particularlyn the continentalUSA, previously ntouched




by modernwarfare) rom a Hiroshima-likeate. Withina year Hollywoodentertained cenariosof spies,warmongers,ndterrified itizenspreparing

for atomicconflict,suchas Notorious, Rendezvous24, andThe Lady FromShanghai (all 1946). However, t was the UniversalserialLost City of the

Jungle(1946)which oregroundedhe mostpervasive anddesired)responseto the threatof nuclearwar-survival-in the form of an "atomicantidote,"Meteorium245,discoveredby a gun-runnerwho expediently lansfor hisown victorious uture n a post-holocaustworld.

Hence, from he outsetpopular ilmdepicted hreedistinctways nwhichpeoplemight respondto threatenedatomicwar:preventionby heightenedsurveillance ndcounterespionage,esignationandsoescapingrom argeted

areas o assumedhavens,and mmunizationfromattackby usinga compar-ableor superiordefensive echnology.

Although a few early films articulateda capacityto anticipateandtherebysurvive the unthinkable Unknown World, 1951), as the genreevolvednuclearmoviesopenlyquestionednot onlythe desirability f suchstrategicposturingDrStrangelove,1963;Fail Safe, 1964;SevenDays in May,1964),but also its intrinsic allacy The Damned, 1961;Ladybug,Ladybug,

1963;The WarGame, 1965). The prevailing entimentopposed both themindsetand the act of planning or such (inevitable) vents and proposed

that such egitimizationwouldactuallyprecipitate he occurrence f nuclearwar (Chosen Survivors, 1974; Wargames, 1983; Control, 1986). While thesefilmsmay concurwith Sontag'sassertionsabout the preoccupation f SFcinemawith"theperennialhumananxiety boutdeath," heycontradict erclaimthat theirpurpose s to "accommodate ndnegate" his anxiety 36),for they portraycivil-defenseposturingand falloutshelters as extremelydubioussolutions.

3.2. Category2. EncounterswithExtraterrestrial ost-NuclearSocieties.

Whenyou stopto thinkthat we're all God'schildren,whereverwe may ivein the world,I couldn'thelpbutsayto [Gorbachev],ust thinkhoweasyhistask and minemightbe in thesemeetings hatwe held if suddenly herewasa threatto this world from anotherplanetoutside n the universe.-RonaldReagan addressingFallstonHighSchool.(Smith25)

RocketshipX-M (1950), one of the earliest of post-war SF films, reintro-duced the mythic theme of encountering cosmic forces which overwhelm

contemporary technology, now modified toward a decidedly cold-war,

nuclear-age perspective. Pre-Hiroshima SF cinema had forecast global di-saster in the bipolar form outlined above, but increasinglyfilms of the '50s

adopted scenarios of both cosmic and man-made holocausts, most often in

the guise of humans encountering extraterrestrial civilizations well in

advance of ours which have paid a terrible price for abusing nuclear power(This Island Earth, 1956; Not of This Earth, 1956, 1988;The Mysterians,1957;

Queen of OuterSpace, 1958;Dr Who and the Daleks, 1965; The Love War,1970).

More damning are the films concerning extraterrestrialspecies as totally




annihilated nd devoidof survivorsuch as thephantom ocieties nForbid-den Planet (1956), TheFirstSpaceshipon Venus(1960),and IkarieXB-1

(1963).6Most recentlythe theme has continuedunderthe guise of theSuperman erieswhere the Man of Steel,havingaloneescapedthe apoc-alyptic explosionof his native Krypton,bringswith him superioraliencapabilities f intellectandstrength poweredbythe Sun's usionreaction)thatultimately eads to hisunilateral radication f Earth'snuclearmissilesin SupermanV:TheQuest or Peace (1987).

All of these textsto varying egreesrelyupondiscursivetrategieswhichcombine rhetoric and imageryto warnexplicitly he humanprotagonists(andbyextension, he audience)of the dangersof nuclearconflict.As such,they

shouldbe recognizedas important ites for ideologicalcontestation, dvo-cating nthisspecificrealmoppositiono the statusquoandSontag'shesis.7They also make forinteresting omparisonwith anotherkey SF sub-genre,alien emissaries from advanced civilizations hat have avoided nuclearwarfarewho visit Earth o warnor threatenus away romaggressiveuse ofsuchtechnologies, suallyby demonstratinguperiororce(e.g.,TheDaytheEarthStood Still,Waming romSpace,The27thDay,TheStrangerrom Ve-nus, TheCosmicMan,The Space Children, ndmore recently2010).8

3.3.Category . ExperiencingNuclearWarandits ImmediateEffects.Thiscategorys comprisedof movieswhichdevotethemajority f theirnarrativeto the depictionof nuclearwarand its short-termonsequences.Unlike thetwo precedingcategories,the remaining ilms under discussionexplicitlyapproach the nuclear holocaust as a lived (i.e., not imagined) event.

What differentiates his groupfrom Category4, SurvivalLong AfterNuclearWar, s thatthecharacters aveallpersonallyived hrough he warand symbolizethe "old world"struggling o exist in a new post-nuclearenvironment. Within the narrative there has been some depiction of the

social"normalcy"f the statusquo priorto its materialdestruction.Thismay only be brief, but the functionof the plot is to engendera sense offamiliarity y locatingprotagonists andspectators)within he pre-conflictequilibrium f the knownbefore the predominant arrative iscourse elo-cates them into the disorientating ost-holocaust ealm.

There are at least three distinctdiscursivemodesin thisgroup-renewalfilms,whichposit the war aspromoting ocio-cultural ebirthusuallyn theformof the heterosexual ouple, hefamily,orthe smallcommunity;athar-

sis films,whichgraphically epictthe destructivempactof nuclearwar andtheproblematics f survival;ndterminalilmswhichportrayheend of thehumanspecies by showing ong-term urvival s impossible.

3.3.1. Renewal.The first feature im drama o depict ife in the immediateaftermath f atomicwarwasArchOboler'sFive(1951).9 nthisprototypicaltext one can observea numberof key genericconstructswhichcontinue oinform cinematicdepictionsof the post-holocaustworldand a numberoffamiliar enericmotifs andtropeswhichhaveacquirednewimpetusunder



SURVIVING ARMAGEDDON 369

a post-nuclear scenario. The opening and closing biblical references, forinstance, provide the narrative of Five with an apocalyptic frame, and thefinale carefully posits a symbolicAdam and Eve inheritingthe Earth.10Keythematics foregrounded by Five include radiation and fallout as the majorkiller, pathological denial and projection by survivors,and the (ir)relevanceof pre-holocaust social mores and institutions in the post-nuclear world.Major iconic devices include the deserted city, the discoveryof incongruoushuman skeletal remains, newspapers as testimonials to events immediatelypreceding the war, and the scarring effects of radiation. Films of renewalthat place particularemphasis on post-holocaust sexual mores include TheDay the WorldEnded (1956), which introduced the popular generic theme

of mutation; 7he World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959), whose finalecountered prior generic conventions by anticipating the demise of twopowerfulWestern social taboos, interracialsexual liaison and polygamy;Rat(1960); The Last Woman on Earth (1960); The Last Man (1968); HumanAnimals (1983); and more conventionally,Panic in the YearZero (1963) andDamnation Alley (1975).

33.2. Catharsis. Of all the films discussed in this survey,it is only this smallgroup which closely approximates Sontag's "imagination of disaster," but

even so, the vast majority of their narratives are devoted not to repetitiveimagery of disaster, but survivalafter a single catastrophe.11Nor do theycorrespond to Sontag's view that SF films are "wishfulthinking...thehungerfor a 'good war' which poses no moral problems, admits no moral qualifica-tions. The imagery of science fiction films will satisfy the most bellicoseaddict of war films, for a lot of the satisfaction of war films passes, untrans-formed, into science fiction films" (31).

Although some attention is paid to depicting-via spectacularpyrotechnicexplosions, firestorms and the leveling of model cityscapes to simulate

nuclearattack (e.g. Japanese productionsThe Last War,1960,and 7he FinalWar,1962)-what an atomic war might be like to witness and survive,in themain most films opt for less costly and often technicallyshoddy effects andprocess work to represent a ThirdWorldWar.12SF films of the '50s utilizedtopical fear imagery in the form of invisible radioactive fallout to rendereconomicallytheir futureend-of-the-worldscenarios withoutemployingcata-strophic images of blast and heat razing entire cities, which helped to com-bine existing conventions and an iconography crucial to the genre. Thefamiliar menacing tick of

Geiger-counters and stock footage of fission and(less frequently) fusion detonations in '60s films then merged with (officialgovernment) imageryof the sophisticated technological means for deliveringthis megadeath (ICBM launches, Polaris submarines, B-52s, Fail-safeblackboxesand computerizedWar Room gameboards). In the '70s andearly'8OsSF films returned to closer mimetic renderings of thermonuclearwar(stock hydrogen bomb explosions), emphasizing in greater detail thedevastatingimpact upon urbanlandscapesand the horrorsconfronting(pre-dominantly underground) survivorsin the immediate aftermath.



370 SCIENCE-FICTIONTUDIES,VOLUME 20 (1993)

3.33. Terminal.The first rulypessimistic epiction f the short-termffectsof nuclear war came with StanleyKramer'spolemicalversion of Nevil

Shute'sOn the Beach (1959),which ntroduced o the genrea disturbinglynew narrativedeparture.Whereasearlierpost-nuclear cenariosemployedbiblicalor classicalmotifsof social rebirth often in the formof the lonesurviving ouple),On the Beach evokeda moving ulogy or thehumanracein its depictionof total ecocide from a future (1964) thermonuclearwarwhichblankets he globewith ethalfallout.Thistypeof radioactivehroud,conceivedby strategists uchas HermanKhan,was utilizedas the SovietDoomsdayMachinedeterrent n StanleyKubrick's ublimeDr Strangelove(1963). If one interprets,as many commentatorsdo, the blacklycomic

endingof nucleardetonations hythmicallyccompanying eraLynn's ong"We'llMeetAgain"as ironicapocalypse,henthe cloudof Cobalt-ThoriumG also makesStrangeloveone of the fewearlyfilmsto actually nvisage hecompleteextinctionof the humanracethrougha nuclearexchange.

After morethantwentyyears, he occasional inematic endering f totalhumanannihilationrom nuclearwar wasgivenadded mpetus n the early'80swhenscientists tudyingplanetarympactsand the correlation f flora-and-fauna xtinction yclesarrivedat a NuclearWinter heory, orecastingthatsmokeanddustfromevena limitedSuperpower xchangewouldplunge

the entireglobeinto a long(potentially erminal)winter.13Not surprisingly,nuclearwar films againbeganadoptingdoomsdaypremisesof gradualandirrevocable enocide(77teDay After, 1983;Testament, 1983; Threads,1985;Population One, 1986; When the WindBlows, 1987;MiracleMile, 1988).

However, as the discursiveweight of the majorityof these moviessuggests, heultimateprevailingheme has beenhumanity'sesilienturvivalaftera globalordealby fire.The finalcategory 4) impliesby its fecundityand intrinsicdefiningcharacteristics hat movie portrayalsof long-termsurvivaln a post-nuclear nvironment re more appealing hanthe othercinematicapproaches o atomic war. The last decade in particularhasdemonstratedhiscategory'sncreasing opularity ndpenetrationnto theinternationalmarket.

3.4. Category4. Surval LongAfter NuclearWar.

I understand that filmmakers, attempting to depict the future, are forced to include

people-without them the stories would be considerablyduller. Maybe that's the truly

unacceptable price of nuclear devastation: Eternal nothingness equals eternal boredom

for today's audiences, hence a dramatic requirement of films appears to dictate aphilosophical conclusion in all science fiction films, namelythat in some form (however

diminished and mutilated) we'll survive.-Nicholas Meyer, director of The Day After.

(Meyer 33)

As Meyer'squote implies, heveryact of conceptualizingndthenrealizingcinematicallyhe effect of nuclear war forces the viewer into imaginingbeyonddisaster nto survival.nthis mannerpost-nuclear olocaustilmsarethereforepredicated ponanimagination f survival,or without uchtherecan be no exposition,no narrative,no perspective,no pointof view.14 n




order to representthe unthinkable, cenaristshave returnedto familiarmythological nd iconographicerrainsdepictingong-termhuman urvival.

Apart from the devastating thoughlimited) atomic warfare nflictedupon Japan, science-fictionfilmmakershave predominantly hosen toconstructand locate theirpost-holocaustcenarios n a far distant uture.The catastrophes usuallyrelatedvia a brief introductoryitle, a narratorwho describes he events,a montageof nuclearexplosions often onlyonesuffices, o apocalypticn icon is thebroilingmushroom loud-a truetotemof the atomicage),or a combination f such.Thisgenericstrategy equiresthe audience o acknowledgehat nuclearwar is not only possiblebut alsoprobable.The fearedconflicthas becomeafait accompli, ignifiedby this

now stereotypedmodeof narrativentroduction.The categoryalso perpetuatesand attenuatesa numberof thematic

considerationsoutlined earlier, principallythe dichotomies of city/wilderness,underground/surface, utant/normal,marauders/community-family.

3.4.1. Homo nuclearus.One recurring enre ploy associatedwith the long-term effectsof nuclearwarquestionsnot onlyhowthe humanspecieswillsurvivebutalso in what orm.A numberof films(e.g., TheWerewolf,956;

I Wasa TeenageWerewolf,957;TheTwilight eople, 1972)haveexploredthe theme of radiationmutationon human and animal life over theyears-some suggestingthat deliberateexperimentationwould make itpossibleto breed a race capableof survival n the hostilepost-holocaustenvironment. heyemployestablishedmageryrompre-Hiroshimanteced-ents, such as TheIslandof Lost Souls (1932) andDr Cyclops 1939),torecasttheir familiargenerictales of horror ntostories of genetictransfor-mationcausedby exposure o radioactivematerials.

Otherfilmsadoptsimilar hemesfromwithina distinctly ost-holocaustmilieu.Aftera montageof nucleardetonations, narratornCreationf theHumanoids 1962) statesthat after an atomicwar destroyed 2 per cent ofhumankind, ndroidsof increasing imulacrawere built to do most tasks,eventually ecomingsentient,andin a twistending, hexenophobic, obot-hatinghero discovershis own syntheticstructure. n Zardoz(1973), TheFinal Program 1973),and Rats:Nightof Terror1986), the post-holocaustfutureis transcendedn hybridevolutionaryerms.However,survival atleastin human orm)is not alwaysensured,as theTolkienesque airiesand

dwarvesof Wizards1977)or the anthropomorphized utant ntellectsofdomestic animalsin Rock & Rule (1983) portray,albeit both in the lessdisturbing eightened-fantasyepresentationf screen animation.

3.4.2.TheFutureas Past.A new narrative evice,similar o the encounter-ing of non-terrestrialostholocaust ocieties, s thatof temporal islocation,eitherby technologicalmeans or via ironicjuxtapositioning.n the latterstrategy, he post-nuclearcenario s withheld rom the audience,who areled to believe the eventstake placein a distantstone-agepast.




Like the blind Martianatomicsurvivorsn RocketshipX-M, the keyprotagonists f Roger Corman'sproduction,TeenageCaveman 1958), are

depictedas fur-cladwarriortribes, in this instanceconfinedto a valleysurrounded y a deadlyradioactivewastelandand a hideousmonsterthatcan kill by its touch.As a warning o futuregenerationsa narrated odareveals hat a devastating tomicwar has causedhorridmutationsandthereturn of the dinosaurs. In Yor:Hunter rom the Future (1983), She (1983),

andAtor:the Invincible 1984),protagonistsnhabita futurepost-nuclearEartheven though he imagery vokesa prehistoric astgenericallyamiliarfrom countlessexploitationmoviessuch as OneMillionYearsBC (1966)orWhenDinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).

The entirePlanetof theApes series(1968-73)andTV spin-offsemploysimilardisorientationsf time andspacein theirsurreal enderings f post-holocausthumanregression nto farming tock withcorrespondingimianintellectual volution owardan industrial, ut pre-atomic, apacity.Otherfilms o employ he "RipVan Winkleas visitor o thepost-holocaustuture"plot device include Genesis H (1973), Planet Earth (1974), Buck Rogers n the

25th Century 1979), and the Polish production Sex Mission (1984), in which

two hibernatingmen awaketo finda matriarchalocietythey despise,onewhere all males perished rom radioactive ontamination ecadesearlier.

3.43. ApocalypseNow:Todayas Tomorrow'sYesterday.Themost frequenttemporal hift, however,comes from filmsdepictingdeliberateattemptsattime travel nwhichcharacters iscovera nuclearwar-ravageduture. nTheTimeMachine(1960),a Victorian nventor ravels nto the futureonly tofind that London and the rest of the world had been devastated n theatomicwar of 1966.Anticipating lanetof theApes by20years,WorldWith-out End (1956) depictsastronauts andingon an unknownplanet (post-holocaustEarthunrecognized)wheregigantic pidersand deformed mostlycyclopean)primitivemutants oamthe surface.Theexpeditiondiscovers nunderground echnologicalcity inhabitedby nubile women but sexuallyimpotentmen whoexplain hey are survivors f a 22nd-centurytomicwar.lb Melchior's7he Time Travelers1964) portraysresearchers reatingaporthole o a barrenpost-holocaustuturewheretheyfindmurderous aldmutantsat war with a scientificcommunity f undergroundurvivors es-perately ryingo escape heterminallyontaminatedlanet na starship-arkbuiltbytheirandroidprotectors.The20th-centuryisitors ventuallymanage

to return o theirown timebut aretrappedna marvelouslyealizedcyclicaltime-loopparadoxwhichprevents hemfromwarningheircontemporariesof the futurewar.Equally atalistic enderings f the theme can be found nBeyond the Time Bamer (1960), which features a test pilot thrust into the

futurewho alsoencounters nundergroundace of technologicallyuperiortelepathic survivors,and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1970), wherea trioof time-travellingpescientistsareexecutedwhentheyreveala future"history"f nucleargenocidewhichmarks hem as (the causal)prophetsofdoom.




Anothervarianton this theme portrays missariesmaterializingrom apost-nuclearholocaustfuture into the 20thcentury,ostensibly o halt theimmutable rogress eading oward he cataclysmic ar(The Terrorrom the

Year 5,000, 1958;I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen, 1970; andFuture Hunters,1985),whichexplicitlyadopts apocalypticmythologywhen emissaries roma post-holocaustuturevisitcontemporary arthhoping o averta nuclearwar by using a Christian eligiousrelic.The Terminator 1984) entertainsasimilarpremise,but from a bleakernihilisticperspective: cyborg romthe21st century s sent into the "past" o eliminateSaraConnor, he motherofa post-holocaustesistance eader.But insteadof Connor rying o preventthe nuclearwar, foretold as being preemptedby Pentagonartificial ntel-

ligences,she acceptsand accommodateshis potential utureaspreordainedandprepares or its survival. n the recentsequelTerminator2: Judgement

Day (1991) direct action is taken to avert this nuclear predeterminism,though he finale remainsambiguous s to its eventual uccess.

It is significant hat,in their collectiveattempts o anticipate he future,each of thefilms nthiscategoryorecasts nevitable uclearwarfare eadingto socialinertia,decay,and/or total annihilation.

More often than not these moviesarticulate vert messagesof warningboththroughexpositorydialogueandin the depictionof dehumanizedu-

turesthe survivorpeciesstruggle o inhabit.At best,a fewfilmsdo providea narrative escape" theconventionalHollywood appy nding),by suggest-ing the possibility f communal ebirthn some far distant uture,but sucha conclusionremainsproblematic,or it always requires he presenceandintervention f prewar ndividualsalwaysmale) to motivate ndreinvigoratethe survivors'iterallysteriledomain.Otherwise, hese films have eitherafatalisticor an ambiguous onclusionwhere it is hopedthat"thepresent"(i.e., contemporary udiences)willlearnfromtheirvicarious xperiences fthevariously epresented ost-nuclearomorrows ndso notcontinueonthe

roadto extinction.Clearly his grouprefutesSontag's laimthat all SF cine-ma inculcates"a strangeapathy oncerning he processesof radiation, on-tamination,nddestruction" hich he finds"hauntingnddepressing"37).

3.4.4. ExterminatingAngels:The Post-apocalypticHero. By far the mostsignificant nd dominantgenericmovementof thissub-genrehasbeen theemergenceof post-apocalypticeromythologyn the '80s.As theirfecundtitles imply, hese films are less concernedwithdisaster hanwith relatingthe survivors'heroic acts of justice, reprisal,and/or vengeance.Set longafter the nuclearwar, they depict a worldin which what little fabric ofcommunityemains s constantlyhreatened y rampaging andsof maraud-ers, challenged nlyby(selt)righteousndividuals roccasionally y smaller,organized groups. They are the Warriors,Terminators,Exterminators,Equalizers,Hunters,and Gladiators f the post-apocalypticuture.

The '80s cycle essentiallycommencedwith two Australian xploitationfilms,Mad Max (1979) and its sequel The Road Warrior1982), neitherofwhichis expresslypost-nuclear ven though both are frequently ead as




metaphors f such.Ironically, he cross-culturaluccessof thesefilmsreliesupon an existingcinema of nuclearand ecological catastrophe, .g., The

UltimateWarior 1975),DeathRace2000(1978).Thecyclewasgivenaddedimpetusby the more regionalizedmicrocosmicdisaster areof Hollywoodproductions uring he '70s, e.g. Earthquake1974),Meteor 1979).

Yet even prior to Mad Max the predominantmagery et in this long-term realm was that of atavismand regression.As earlyas 1952,CaptiveWomendemonstrated notherapproach o nuclearwarby combining heneophytevisionsof its contemporariesFive,Rocketship -M)in renderinga far distantEarth reducedto barbarism s a consequenceof an atomicThirdWorldWar.Setinthe ruinsof Manhattan thousand earshence, he

filmdepicts hree distinct astesof survivors:heMutates,offspring f thosegeneticallydamagedby radiation;he relativelyhealthyunderground-dwell-ing Norms;and their mutualenemy, he brutaland satanicUpriverpeople.A decade later Lordof the Flies (1963)showed howquicklydormantata-visticdesiresmanifest hemselveswhena groupof BritishPublicSchoolboyscrash-landn an uninhabitedslandduring nuclearwar.Similarly, heEndof Augustat the OzoneHotel (1966)bleaklyportraysa ruthlessregressivebandof womensurvivors 5 yearsaftera nuclearwar who roamabout abarrensurfacekillingmercilessly,whereas n the Year2889 (1966)loosely

remadeCorman'sDay the WorldEndedbut added he themes of cannibal-ism and mutant elepaths.Mutationas regressionof the most surrealandabsurdist ormwas effectively tagedin RichardLester'scomicBedSittingRoom (1969)where the few survivors f WorldWarIII in Londonstruggleto maintain heir customary"stiffupperlip" in the face of post-nuclearadversity. ester'smise-en-scene,rincipally uarries ndtrashyards,avoidsthe expecteddisastermilieuby adoptingbizarre uxtapositions f Britishmores againstthe makeshifthybrids o which survivorsmust adapt. Theincongruity s foregroundedby survivorschoosing to deny the horrificrealities of their new environment, videntin the speed at which somemutate into furnitureand wildlife, or the ironic romance and 18-monthgestationof an unmarriedmother'smonstrous oetus, whichmarvelouslyslights he conventional dam-and-Eveenericclosure. nfantiledesiresandfantasiesarealignedstrikinglyn JimMcBride'sGlen andRanda(1971)inthepairof adolescentpost-holocaustnoble avages"who leavetheirbucolicEden in searchof a mythical"Metropolis". he banality/naivete f the newAdam and Eve is carefully tudied.

A Boy and His Dog (1975) elaborateson both Lester'sandMcBride'sinventive isionsof survivorsndtheirrandom, tilitarian arbs-anaestheticevokingschizophrenic lashes of styleswhichanticipatedpunk by severalyears. The literalgrabbagdress of the surface dwellerswho survivebylooting, murdering,raping, and bartering reoriented existing survivoriconographyway romboth the conformativemodernistuniformof futureremnant ocietiesas in The TimeTravellersndLogan'sRun (1976)andtheluxuriousoff-the-rackapparelafforded he short-term urvivor/lootersnfilms suchas Five or TheWorld,heFlesh, and the Devil.




More provocatively,A Boy and His Dog acts to distill much of thepreceding category of film examining long-term survival, while adding

variation to the generic corpus. By now long-familiarmotifs and tropes aresardonicallyunited in a post-apocalypticdesert plateau aroundwhat used to

be Phoenix,Arizona. Decades after a cataclysmic war, an adolescent named

Vic and his mutant-telepathic dog, Blood, respectivelyhunt for women and

food. Seduced by a mysterious girl, Quilla-June, Vic is lured to Topeka, a

feared undergroundcommunityof survivorsruled by a patriarchalclique of

elders who ruthlesslykill such non-conformists as fail to subscribeto surreal

mid-west "wholesome" familymores. Vic is requiredto impregnatethe city'snewlywed women so as to reinvigorate and strengthen Topeka's genetic

stock,periodicallyweakened due to prolongedsubterranean ife. The farcicalthough nightmarish imagery of Topeka's nocturnal inhabitants, dressed inturn-of-the-(20th)-centurycostume with rouge circles adorningtheir white-faced cheeks, evokes a prophetic critical sense of postmodern nostalgia in

its attempt to recreate a repressivecommunal past (which is at best mythical

and far from utopian). It represents the perpetuation of Middle American

praxis as a (continuing) means of social control, permeating with its invisibleideology successive generations who are sutured into unconscious compli-

ance. Vic rejects his preordained role and leaves Topeka during a minor

(oedipal) adolescent coup, preferringthe companionshipand dangersof thesurface life, where there is the faint promise of a better life "over the hill."In its ironic though brutally misogynistic finale, Vic cooks Quilla-Jane and

feeds her to his starvingfaithfulhound, bleakly signifyingthat post-holocaustlife can only be revitalized throygh the (literal) cannibalization of prewargoods, artifacts, and sentiments.1

Unlike these predecessors, the Mad Max features can be read as primaryto the wave of early films identified as postmodern because of their adoptingstrategies of pastiche, intertextuality,and bricolage (see Broderick). While

constructed as traditional action/exploitation films, the trilogy evolves

beyond the confines of generic expectation toward a recastingof the Judeo-Christianmyth of a messianic hero-saviourannihilatingan oppressive tyran-ny, and liberating an elect into a new reign of communal harmony. In this

way, the heroic exploits of Max, rapidly recycled in successive rip-offs

expressly located in post-nuclear holocaust arenas, provided an almostinstantaneous international staple for cinematic images of nuclear war and

its long-term survivability.16

Max quintessentially conforms to Joseph Campbell's description of theclassic hero of the monomyth (36). The journey of Max throughout the

trilogy as an idealized everyman symbolizes the "necessary" path of thecollective social process toward rebirth and renewal after the hero'ssuccessive trials by entropy, deprivation, and nuclear war. As such, thesefilms (more so The Road Warrior)provide a narrativetemplate, alreadyrichin mythic resonance (but with a truly inventive costume and production

design) for other filmmakers to copy. Even before Mad Max III: BeyondThunderdome 1985), with its spatio-temporal domain specificallylocated as




thatof a futurepost-nuclear olocaustwasteland,was exhibitednternation-ally,a waveof exploitation enreclones(principallyromItaly,Spain, srael,

andthe Philippines)were releasedaround he world.In narrative erms, these films act as a synthesisof existinggenericmodes whichoverlap differentdiscursiveelementsranging rom biblicalepicsto sciencefiction and horror. ndeed,so fertile now is the imaginarylong-termpost-holocausterrain hattherehavebeen unconventional,f notbizarre,graftings f such elementsto formpost-apocalyptic usicals Sons

of Steel, 1989), hard-coreporn(7he Load Warrior, 984;Breastament,1985),musicalhard-coreporn (Cafe Flesh, 1982),filmnoir (RadioactiveDreams,

1986),and westerns 2020: Te-xasGladiators, 1985; Deadly Reactor, 1989).

The pervasivestructurethroughout,however,is a conflict between"good"(i.e., working owardsa sustainable,profitable uture)and "evil"(nihilisticallyonsumingor destroyingwhat littleremains), he two havingemergedas bipolarphilosophiesn the post-nuclearworld,withthe inter-ventionof the lone (often initially mbiguous)warrior-hero-anarrativeri-chotomywhichdatesback at least to CaptiveWomen.

3.4.5. The Good.For the most part,thesefilms depictthe idealized"good"

forcesof the post-holocaustworldas communitieshat attemptreconstruc-tionthrough enewal,not of the immediateprewar ifestyleandethics,butof anearlier, upersededmorality ndsocial ethos.17Often t is intrinsicallylinked o religious trictureswhich nform hepurposeandbehavioralodesof a sect or groupof survivors.n ThzeNew Barbalians (1983),a survivors'camprunby a manwitha clericalcollar(addressedas Father,butnamedMoses)is actuallyhesiteof anapocalypticectof "Dialationists" ho havebeen travelling boutin the wilderness or twoyears.Theyawaita signtofulfill a prewarscripturalprophecywhich has alreadysaved them from

nuclearhorrorsby advising he chosen to takeshelterandnot to reemergefor sevenyears.

Post-holocaust ommunities, taticallybased at a permanent ampsite,are usually ed by an elderlypatriarch,wise in technological rganizationand/or lorictradition suchas the professorwhorunsthe refineryn 2020:

Texas Gladiators, 1985,or the contrastingweapons strategistand pacifistleaderin Stryker,1983). The communes hey lead are generallycomprisedofmen,women,andchildren,withmonogamous, eterosexualmarriage ndsustaining/procreatingifeasthesociety's oals(romantic ub-plotsnvolvingheroes and women from survival ampsmotivateactionin most of thesefilms).Imageryrequentlydealizes heiragrarianoil andsimplisticifestyle(the "honest"and "fair"aborof a Protestantworkethic), with characters(often blonde)wearing ightrobesandfurs(The Road Warrior, tryker).

They are also the keepersof secretswhich can be either spiritual adivinecallingthat has chosen them to surviveand inherit the Earth)ormaterial(mainlyas guardiansof preciousand limited resourcesvital forsubsistencen the harshpost-nuclearandscape; .g., water,oil, or alternate




energy sources). As such they become the victims of attackby vicious com-petitors, contemptuous of their lifestyle, who pillage their goods.

Because the communityoffers little resistance to the constantraids, someindividualssecretly rebel against the pacifistposture and pursue group goalsthrough offensive external means. As in the technocratic survivor-culturesvisited by time-travelers outlined above, these camps are in danger ofcollapse throughtheir own inertia and hubrisand so requirethe interventionof a messianic warrior-hero to unify and lead them from the wilderness.

3.4.6. The Evil. In general, the forces associated with "evil" long after thenuclear war are those that have adopted postures antitheticalto that of the

good survivors. Their community also is dominated by patriarchallaw, butnormally in the form of a younger, autocratic and ruthless tyrant, whocommands a band of (mostly, if not exclusively) male troops. In The NewBarbarians, or instance, the "good"apocalypticsect is narrativelycontrastedwith the "evil"Templars, who invert the others' chiliasticpurpose with anti-millennial acts which thematically position them as metaphoric anti-christs,exemplified histrionicallyin their leader's genocidal rant:

We are the Templars, the warriors of vengeance. We are the Templars, the warriors of

death. We have been chosen to make others pay for the crime of being alive. We

guarantee that all of humanity, accomplices and heirs of the nuclear holocaust, will be

wiped out once and for all-that the seed of Man will be cancelled forever from the face

of the Earth!18

Similarly,the punk villain of WorldGonieWild (1988) reads the "Wit andWisdom of Charles Manson" to his followers at prayer meetings, and theopening sequence of Texas Gladiatorsfeatures a brutal scene where an evilposse violate nuns and crucify a priest. Their philosophy of survivalrestssolely on satiating immediate, short-term desires, randomlylooting, raping,

and killing those who obstruct them. The iconography and imagery asso-ciated with them comprise crude punk aesthetics (leathers, chains, studs),barbaricweaponry, motor bikes (virtuallyever; depiction of ravaginggangshas them as bikers), and souped-up cars.1 Frequently there is overthomosexual display amongst the gangs (the hero in New Barbariansand aboy in 2020: Te-xasGladiators are respectivelyraped by marauders).20Theyprey on the weaker survivorsand find them legitimate targets by expedientlyaligning them with irrelevant, prewar ideals-or holding them complicitlyresponsible for the very cataclysm itself. Hence, as a scavengingpack, they

are impulsiveand nomadic bynecessity. The marauders'social agenda is oneof regressive and brutal oppression, subjugatingwhen not annihilatingrem-nant communities. If on occasion these bandits do unite toward a collectivepurpose, it is only geared toward maximizinggains for an elite, despotic fewat the murderous expense of many through slavery and domination. In TheLast Exterminators 1984), a corruptneo-feudal aristocracyuses contaminat-ed survivors (and later healthy ones) as targets in lethal games, whereas2020: Texas Gladiators features a technologically superior neo-Nazi troupe




who purge dissenters from their fascistic New Order post-holocaust mil-lennial reich (cf Lifton 4).

3.4.7. The Hero.As outlined earlier, the "hero" of the post-nuclearholocaustworld conforms to the classical, cross-cultural mould of mythologicalchampions. With few exceptions, the hero is male and frequently a drifterwho has rejected social conformitydue to a past of persecution at the handsof the forces of evil-most often via the rape, murder or kidnappingof aloved one, crimes he has witnessed but been unable to prevent. His projectbecomes one of self-preservation, of surviving in the wilderness throughsuperior dexterity, strength, and cunning, fending for himself (though he

gladly challenges the forces of evil wherever they are encountered). He isoften at first a morally ambiguous character,one who rescues or protects an"innocent" from a deadly fate at the hands of evil raiders, more so bycircumstance than deliberate intervention. Often this encounter leads to asuspicious and antagonisticrapport that later becomes one of respect whenthe innocent proves his/her prowess in battle, which may in turn save thehero's life.

The hero is also aided by magicalhelpers along the way-mutant dwarvesin Land of Doom (1985) andStryker;American Indians in TexasGladiators;children in New Barbarians, Exterminatorsof the Year 3000 (1983), andBeyond Thunderdome;women inDesertWarrior1987), Warlords 1989), andHell Comes to Frogtown(1987)-all of whom havebeen victimizedby the evilforces responsible for the hero's earlier renunciation of communal/familiallife. His predestined role is to confront the evil regime and, with the help ofothers, to wreak vengeance on his foes in a terriblebattle, and ultimatelytodestroy the oppressors-an act which is frequently concomitant with theliberationof the materialresources necessary for social rebirth.As Campbell

relates, "The effect of the successful adventureof the hero is the unlockingand release of the flow of life into the body of the world" (40). This finaleis rendered literal in the downpour of rain which falls for the first time inmany years at the end of Stryker,WorldGonieWild,and Steel Dawn (1988);in the hero's setting men and/or women free to procreate and thus ensurethe continuance of the species in Desert Wamior 1987), Le Demier Comnbat(1983), 2019: After tlheFall of New York(1983), America 3000 (1985), andHell Comes to Frogtowni;n the hero's liberation of petroleum in TheRoadWarior and Extenninators of the Year 3000; and in the hero's leading

children away from corrupt and decaying post-holocaust influences as inMad Max:Beyond Thunderdomeand Letters romn Dead Man.

As Ira Chernus has observed,

the actual situation after a nuclear war might, of course, bear little if any resemblance tothis mythic vision. But such logical objections are unlikely to diminish its attractiveness.For this scenario speaks not to the logical mind but to the unconscious yearning in eachof us to be a hero. The myth of the heroic survivorsof nuclear war is merely one instanceof the more general myth of the hero, which is perennially popular in our culture as in

every other. (8)21




4. Pretext.

You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs

foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if, if we're the generation that isgoing to see it come about. I don't know if you've noted any of those prophecies lately,

but, believe me, they certainly describe the times we're going through. -Ronald Reagan

to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, October 1983. (Caldicott 27)

To illustrate the dangerous level of credence given to spurious apocalyptic

logic and desire, for eight years the Commander in Chief of America's

nuclear arsenal paradoxically entertained belief in a foreseeable biblical

apocalypse in which he thought the Soviets were "going to be involved,"

while at the same time committing his nation's military-industrial esources

to a Strategic Defense Initiative designed to save the world from this imagi-

nary destruction by making nuclear weapons "obsolete" (Rogin 36). In

holding these two contradictory notions, President Reagan reoriented

strategic policy for a decade and demonstrated his exemplary capacity to

imagine beyond (apocalyptic) disaster and into a realm of (millennial)

survival.By necessity and definition, the apocalyptic imagination requires an

imagination of disaster. Armageddon becomes an apocalypticraison d'etre:

the forces of good and evil are destined to battle each other. Dependingupon the interpretation, in this schema God's saved elect are either

"raptured"up into Heaven at the moment of nuclear conflagration,or the

righteous and victorious survivors reign on Earth for a millennium in peace

before ascending into God's dominion (Lifton 4).

During the late '70s and early '80s imagery of genocidal nuclear

stockpiles increasing year by year and convergingwith a renewed bellicose

Christianfundamentalismand heightened superpowertensions encouraged

a subculture of survivalists to prepare to emerge from the anticipated

holocaust in a position of dominance. However, now that we have seen thesigningof the INF treaty and START agreement, unilateral arms reductions

by both superpowers, the democratization of Eastern Europe, and the

dissolution of the Soviet Union, it is difficult to expect films exploiting

survivalism o proliferatewith the apocalypticvigor of the neo-cold war '80s.

But as Paul Boyer has demonstrated, historically it has been the period

immediately following disarmament treaties and geopolitical shiftswhich has

led to the submerzence of nuclear fears and their projected displacement

onto other arenas.2

NOTES

1. The following analysis is not so much a revision of Sontag's critiqueas (to usea cinematic analogy) a sequel-or as Umberto Eco might have it, a palimpsest onwhich her original still lingers-whereby its central thesis is scrutinized within thecontext of a significant and growing SF subgenre, the post-nuclear holocaust film.Disaster of course is not confined to the milieu of science fiction. Indeed it hasbecome a potent site for narrative cinema in itself, most obvious in the spate ofdisaster films which proliferated and attractedhuge box-office drawsthroughout the



380 SCIENCE-FHCTIONTUDIES,VOLUME20 (1993)

'70s. As I have argued elsewhere, the phenomenon of the disaster epic in a period

of relative detente may be read as a metaphorical articulation of nuclear holocaustfears sublimated into other arenas. See Mick Broderick, "From Atoms to Apoca-

lypse: Film and the Nuclear Issue,"Nuclear Movies (Jefferson,NC: McFarland& Co,1991), 36-37.

2. For literary equivalents, see Boyer, Brians, and Dowling.3. Spencer Weart demonstrates how raysin this context are always analogous to

atomic power and are "descended entirely from older myths."See his NuclearFear,a History of Images (Cambridge, MA: HarvardUP, 1988), 46.

4. The comet motif was recentlyconflated with apocalypticnuclear fears in Nightof the Comet (1984), where the few uncontaminated survivors of an extraterrestrial

plague are taken to an undergroundbunker designed to keep the race alive for yearsafter a nuclear war.

5. The proliferation of these biblical epics with their detailed attention andnarrative space afforded to scenes of populaces destroyed by cosmic interventiondemonstrates an ongoing anticipation of an apocalyptic,if not eschatological,future.

6. In many ways the filmic and artistic precursors are epics which show van-

quished empires, forgotten races, and extinction. Often such post-Hiroshima repre-sentationsare clearmetaphorsof potential nuclearcatastrophewith veiled referencesto prehistoric tribes and dinosaurs, violent volcanic eruptions annihilating whole

societies, the fall of the Egyptian, Roman, and Greek empires, the disappearanceof

Atlantis at its technological zenith, and the Biblical destruction of enemy cities.7. This is not to suggest these films are on the whole ideologicallysound. Indeed,

outside of their prophetic nuclear caveats, many are embarrassinglygung-ho in theirmilitarism,as well as misogynistic and exploitative in both form and theme.

8. Some films have avoided this cosmic-interventiontheme by placingthe nuclearwarning squarely in human terms, either from nuclear scientists, as in Seven Days toNoon (1950), or from "terrorists" in Spider-ManSttikes Back (1979). Andrei Tar-kovski's Stalker(1979), for instance, actually merges the two themes by invertingthecosmic-interventiontrope when a protesting nuclear scientist tries to destroyan alienintelligence with a small (kiloton) nuclear weapon.

9. Although Five has been castigated for an "unrealistic" rendering of thematerial conditions which would confront survivors, t seems clear in retrospect that

the narrativepurposewas not to entertain(costly) imageryof atomic destruction,butto explore some germane emotional and ethical problematics of post-holocaust lifeby adopting a poetic and allegorical discursive strategy. For an example of contem-

porary and later critical responses to Five, see Ernest F. Martin's essay in Jack C.Shaheen, ed., Nuclear WarFilms (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978), 11-16.Martinunwittinglyhits the nail on the head when quoting reviewer Robert Hatch forsupport: "To suppose that the atom will bring quick death for the millions and a

bright, clean world for a bright, clean boy and girl to repopulate is to tell a fairystory to the soft minded." It is precisely the mythic, fable-like quality of Five whichimbues its narrative and has led to countless generic repetitions. To dismiss this

power totally ignores its later effect on post-war filmmakers,reflected in scenes fromFive terrifying 1950s youths in Jim McBride's Great Balls of Fire! (1989).

10. Significantly, the child of the sole surviving female, as a symbol of the oldpre-holocaust age and its former associations, must die to enable the survivor-loversto unite and start again.

11. TheDay After, for instance, employs only five minutes of sustained pyrotech-nic disaster footage, or less than 5% of its running time.

12. Unlike virtuallyall other nuclearwar films of the time, these films containedcarefully constructed, graphic imageryof atomic explosions in comparable scenariosof geopolitical accidents leading to all out war. Having had first-hand experience of




the horrific effects of atomic weapons at Hiroshimaand Nagasaki, it is not surprisingthat Japan produced these SF dramas. Like the popular radioactive monster genre(Godzilla, Rodan, etc.) created by the Tanaka-Honda-Tsuburayateam at Toho

studios, these films applied the same destructivespecial-effect techniques,previouslyemployed as metaphoricnuclear destruction, to cinematically project "the unthink-able." In both films, however, the magnitude of these catastrophicevents is narra-tively grounded by the loss and grief of survivors for their loved ones, rather thanfocusing on the politico-military leaders responsible for the events.

13. Prior to this theoretical announcement, films such as WorldWar III (1980)symbolically portrayed the end of the species in a finale reminiscent of Fail Safe(1964), whereas post-nuclearwinter theory films like Red Dawn (1895) show a con-ventional war in the US with invading Soviet troops who employ surgical nuclearstrikes at key locations to minimize radiation (and the filmmakershaving to depict

a nuclear winter?).14. Some SF authors have managed to render nuclear annihilationof the species

in ironic terms, avoiding the survivalistperspective by describing alien visitors whofimdprewar artifactsor automated human devices still continuingtheirprograms ongafter the race is dead.

15. For an interesting comparisonbetween A Boy and His Dog andBeyond Thun-derdome, see Peter C. Hall and Richard D. Erlich, "Beyond Topeka and Thunder-dome: Variations on the Comic-Romance Pattern in Recent SF Film,"SFS 14:316-25, #43, Nov 1987.

16. For example, numerous instances are evident in musicvideo, as early as The

Police's Synchronicity I clip (1983), and as recent as Keith Richard'sTakeIt So Hard(1990).

17. At first, Beyond Thunderdome-which was a considered reaction to the genrerip-offthatpreceded it-seems an exception here. But the unconventionalaspects aresuperficialsince Bartertown is only figurativelyrun by a woman (Master-Blaster hasreal power) and the settlement is not progressive but an admixture of outmodedstyles and customs (a "sleaze pit" Max calls it) which debilitates and enslaves itspopulace.

18. In an earlier scene, the Templars attack another (religious) group ofsurvivors.Their leader, Juan, is introduced to the audience rending a copy of the

Jerusalem Bible in two, saying, "Books! That's what started the apocalypse!" Suchimagery posits the Templars as comparable to Islamic foes who, after numerouscrusades against them, persecuted early Christianpilgrims in the Holy Land.

19.Apart from the obvious outlaw association renderedby bikers like Brando inThe Wild One, the imagery also serves to engender familiarity via reduplication ofthe Western genre's convention of horseback chases and Indians attackingwagontrains or stagecoaches.

20. The dominance of this motif reinforces the understated homosexual subtextof The Road Wamor'smohawk Wes who vengefully attacks the "good" communityafter his young lover is killed by the Feral Kid's boomerang. The action thus aligns

him with Max's outrage at the murder of his wife and child in the first film. Themore common link with homosexual acts is that of assault, nihilism and depravity-and a practice which will ensure the species' death. Other repeated genre motifsin this cycle involve sado-masochism,urinating on captivesandvoyeuristicallyforcingprisoners to watch loved ones raped, tortured and murdered.

21. As such it closely resembles Jean-FranqoisLyotard'sconcept of the sociallyconstrainingand legitimating master narrativesdescribed in ThePostmodem Condi-tion:A Report on Knowledge(Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1986), 2741.

22. Described as "the illusion of diminished risk" (Boyer 352-67).




WORKSCITED

Boyer, Paul. By the Bomb's Eady Light. NY: Pantheon Books, 1985.

Brians,Paul. NuclearHolocausts:Atomic War n Fiction, 1895-1984.Kent, OH: KentStateUP, 1987.

Broderick,Mick. "HeroicApocalypse:Mad Max,Mythology nd the Millennium,"Crisis Cinema: The Apocalyptic Idea in Postmodem Narrative Film. Ed.Christopher harrett.Washington,DC: MaisonneuvePress,1992.251-72.

Caldicott, Helen. Missile Envy: TheAnns Race & Nuclear War.NY: Bantam Books,1985.

Campbell, Joseph. TheHero WithA ThousandFaces. Princeton NJ: Princeton UP,1973.

Chernus, Ira.Dr. Strangegod:On the Symbolic Meaning of Nuclear Weapons.Colum-

bia:University f South CarolinaPress,1986.Dowling,David.Fictionsof NuclearDisaster.London:MacmillanPress,1987.Lifton,Robert. "The New Psychology f HumanSurvival:magesof Doom and

Hope."OccasionalPaperNo. 1. NY: Centeron Violenceand HumanSurvival,1987.

Meyer,Nicholas."Thoughtson How Science FictionFilmsDepict the Future."Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies. Ed. Danny Peary. Garden City, NY: DolphinBooks, 1984.33.

Rogin, Michael. Ronald Reagan, TheMovie, and OtherEpisodes in Political Demon-ology.Berkeley:University f CaliforniaPress, 1988.

Smith,Jeff."Reagan,StarWars,andAmericanCulture." ulletin f theAtomicSci-entists,Jan/Feb 1987.19-25.

Sontag, Susan. "The Imagination of Disaster."Hal in the Classroom: Science FictionFilm. Ed.RalphJ. Amelio.Dayton,OH:Pflaum,1974.22-38.FirstpublishednAgainst Interpretation,1965.

Weart, Spencer. Nuclear Fear, a Historyof Images. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUP,1988.

Abstract.-This survey argues that the substantial sub-genreof SF cinema

which has entertainedvisions of nuclearArnageddon primarilyconcernsitself

with survival as its dominant discursivemode, not disasteras suggested bySusan Sontag. From the earlypost-Hiroshiimailms which anticipatedglobalatomic conflict, the 'SOscautionary tales of short- and long-term effects,throughto '80s hero myths of apocalypse, a discemable shift away from animagination of disaster toward one of survival is evident. Thesefilms havedrawn upon pre-existing mythologies of cataclysm and survival in theirrenderings of post-holocaust life, the most potent being a recasting of theJudeo-Chiistianmessianic hero. 77Te inematic renderingsof long-termpost-nuclear survivalappear highlyreactionary,and seeminglyadvocate reinforcing

thesymbolicorderof the statusquo via the maintenanceof conservative ocialregimes of patriarchal law (and lore). In this way thepost-nuclearsurvivalist

cycle of the '80s has signifiedanother mode bywhich a generationhas leamedto stop worryingand love-if not the bomb-a (post-holocaust)future, whichpromises a compelling, utopian fantasy of a biblical Eden rebom in an

apocalyptic millennia of peace on Earth. (MB)

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