apocalypses

10 Agribusiness Methods That Could Fail in the Next 20 years

A generation ago, most farms were still relatively small and independent, but the past 20-30 years have seen factory farms become a quasi-monopoly. What will farms look like a generation from now? One thing’s for sure — farming won’t look the same as it does now. Even if you ignore larger factors — like skyrocketing…

The End of the World, Mad Magazine-style

Basil Wolverton is best known for his grotesquely comic illustrations in Mad Magazine, Timely and Marvel Comics. But he also produced some disturbing images of the apocalypse for evangelical preacher Herbert W. Armstrong. Are you read for the Mad apocalypse? Check out more of Wolverton’s weirdly compelling illustrations at the links. [Sparehed and Wolvertoon, via…

The Weird Post-apocalyptic British Comedy that Time Forgot

Fans of classic British comedy, like Monty Python, should check out the 1969 Richard Lester film, The Bed-Sitting Room. Technically, it’s a post-apocalyptic film, set after a nuclear war, but mostly it’s just very daft. Like this “Aquatic Bishop” scene. Film critic extraordinaire Roger Ebert recommended it the other day: If “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”…

Three days of Mad Max-style mayhem: an exclusive look at the cars, the weapons and the gear!

Fans of the greatest post-apocalyptic movies of them all, the Mad Max trilogy, met in the desert for three days to reenact life in a radioactive oil-thirsty post-apocalyptic wasteland. And we’ve got the bloody, sexy photos to prove it. We told you about Wasteland Weekend — three days of Mad Max-style carnage and post-apocalyptic punkness…

New Priest trailer bursts with post-apocalyptic scenery-chewing and CG vampires

Paul Bettany will convert you to the worship of smouldering crucifix-faced angst, vampire-hunting explosions and six-pack abs, judging from the latest trailer for next summer’s Priest. If you played a spot-the-cliche drinking game on this trailer, you’d pass out. Spoilers! Despite the copious amounts of silliness and the I Am Legend vampires, it must be…

2010 will be remembered as the year the Arctic Ocean became a trade route

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union built nuclear-powered ice-breakers, hoping to open a shipping route through the Arctic. They needn’t have bothered — there’s no ice left now in the summer, opening the fabled Northeast Passage to shipping. According to a new report in Barents Observer, the Northeast Passage, now renamed the Northern Sea Route,…

Author kept coming up with scenarios for the fall of the United States — but then they kept coming true

Gary Shteyngart, author of the hit novel Super Sad True Love Story, tells the L.A. Times he wanted to set his novel after the collapse of the United States. But the disaster scenarios he came up with kept coming true. According to the Times: When he began the project in 2006, Shteyngart planned to write…

Prepare for the holy war against post-apocalyptic vampires, with the first Priest trailer!

Ready to be plunged into a post-apocalyptic war between super-clergy and wild vampires? Check out the first trailer for Priest! [via HeyUGuys]

All new concept art for post-apocalyptic noir The Last City

One man takes on the ruler of post-apocalyptic New York City, in a quest for vengeance that may turn into a hope for salvation. Check out this new concept art for the post-apocalyptic pot-boiler The Last City. It’s great to see concept art that shows off the muddy, fiery palette of this film. Here’s a…

How will the world end? Cory Doctorow, Ben Greenman and other authors debate!

Blinded by the bright colors of the socialist utopia

For possibly the first time ever, North Korean art is being displayed in Europe, and the utopian optimism is heart-breaking. Yes, monster movies may not be the scariest culture North Korea ever produced. https://gizmodo.com/kim-jong-il-is-dead-heres-his-monster-movie-344306 According to the BBC News: More than 100 oils, water colours and traditional Korean ink paintings, dating from the 1960s to…

The Latest Zombie Novel: “Kill Bill Meets Mad Max”

An Edgar Award-nominated mystery author has just sold her first zombie novel — and it’s being published by Harlequin’s speculative fiction imprint Luna. Could Sophie Crane’s Aftertime be proof that genre-mashups are the new genres? Sophie Littlefield, author of A Bad Day For Sorry, won the RT Award for Best First Mystery and was a…

The British Plague-Apocalypse Will Not Be Televised

The Survivors aren’t. The BBC has canceled its remake of Terry Nation’s 1970s classic, in which a plague devastates most of the population, due to low ratings. Good news is, it’s coming to U.S. DVD along with the original series.

You Never Want To Stare Down The Barrel Of The Atomic Cannon

The nuclear cannon dubbed “Atomic Annie” fires a 280 millimeter nuclear artillery shell packing 15 kilotons of explosive force, in this breathtaking image from 1953’s Operation Upshot-Knothole in Nevada. Check out more images from our only nuclear artillery test. Flickr user Nevada Tumbleweed has been posting dozens of pics from the 1953 nuclear cannon test,…

What Is The Wachowskis’ Secret Science Fiction Project — Guest-Starring Arianna Huffington?

Did you know the Wachowskis were filming a new “futuristic” movie? Neither did we, until Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington tweeted a series of pictures from the set of the mystery film, which is about Iraq 90 years from now. Huffington broke the news that there was a new Wachowski movie, and she was appearing…

British Books Offer A “Cosy” Antidote To Apocalyptic Horror. Let’s Be Civilized, Shall We?

Looking for an alternative to the horrific scenarios of 2012 and The Road? Try the “cosy catastrophe” genre, the Guardian suggests: Stories like Day Of The Triffids and The World In Winter feature a less violent version of the end. In the “cosy catastrophe” genre, the end of civilization happens more gently, or is passed…

Which Overused Trope Are We Sickest Of?

There’s nothing scarier than deja vu: that feeling that everything we’ve seen before will keep coming back over and over again, until your head dissolves. Which overused trope are you most sick of: zombies, vampires, alt-universes, post-apocalyptic worlds or steampunk? Which overexposed trope are we most sick of?(polls)

Love Mad Max? You Could Be Living It Soon Enough

Mad Max’s vision of a shattered world where social order has broken down, and everyone fights over the last drops of oil, could be reality soon. Oil prices are starting to tick upwards again after coming down from summer 2008’s heights. Imagine what would happen if oil reached double the price levels it hit a…

When A Nuclear Holocaust Wrecks Civilization, It’s Important To Be A Nipple Connoisseur

Three great moments from 1985’s post-apocalyptic Def-Con 4: Three astronauts watch a nuclear holocaust claim the entire world. A post-apocalyptic survivalist demands to know, in great detail, about the female astronauts nipples. And a teenager whips slaves dragging a space-capsule. You kind of have to love Def-Con 4, despite the silly title (Def-Con 4 is…

Now This Is A Post-Apocalyptic Ruckus We Can All Subscribe To

Eat your blistery hearts out, Zombieland and The Road. They don’t make post-apocalyptic epics like 1985’s Wheels Of Fire anymore. Witness skin-peeling punks, a speechifying harem-gathering warlord, and the would-be rapist who gets knifed in the crotch. Plus machine-gun kick-boxing!