Best portrayal of an apocalypse in any media.

[Vuavu]

I think I'm gonna have to say The Road had the best representation (as far as realism goes anyway) of an apocalypse. It was depressing and mysterious and terrifying. I'm talking about both the novel and the film. Still can't decide which I like better.

A close second to that would be the world that's set up in Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. Those books stirred up more emotion in me than I ever expected a book to.

As for what I hope it's going to be like, gotta say Fallout. Seems fun in a sick way

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Has anyone here read any of the Emberverse books?

That said, if we're being a little less serious: Gamma World.

 

[Saladfork]

Well, the Mass Effect series was pretty good about the entire "aliens are coming to ruin everyone's day" thing. Say what you want about the ending of Mass Effect 3, but the universe and depth of the lore is quite amazing to me.

I agree. London's shit got quite wrecked. Before even that, we got a pretty good idea of what was going to happen in Vancouver.

I actually quite liked Fallout: New Vegas in this respect; You have a group of people attempting to recreate pre-apocalypse society, with pre-apocalypse ideals, and another group who feels that humanity has to socially restart and therefore imposes Pax Romana in order to establish groundwork for future societal development.

And also a rich guy sticking a middle finger to both parties.

 

[Sacman]

Metro 2033. It is so bleak and depressing, but beautiful and exotic at the same time.

There are ghosts and mutants, bandits and a toxic atmosphere.

You HAVE to wear a gas-mask to SURVIVE on the surface.

It also manages to make you feel like you aren't a total badass, but just a guy trying to save the people he loves.

Heh... should Play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. if you haven't already... it does most of that better... it's just not as stylish as far as combat and stuff goes... but the harsh unforgiving open world where you can die at any moment does a lot to give the player a feeling of vulnerability... more so than any other game that I've played before...<.<

OT: Adventure Time... half of the world is destroyed by nuclear war, and the rest of the world is covered in radiation that caused the extinction of the human race and the down fall of human civilization... but after that it turns the world into a magical wonderland full of adventure...<.<

Wait, Adventure Time's backstory is actually that... if it's mentioned in the show to be it then that's awesome and I might get back to watching a few more episodes. If it's just fanon then MLP counts, seeing as a LOT of theories about the show are about Equestria being earth after the apocolypse, backed up by the presence of old tires buried in the ground and such. Now, let's stop overthinking children's shows.

Well, that's how it seems to be... from what I've seen in the show...<.<

 

[Zyxx]

Funny answer: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The Earth is casually blown up for an utterly bullshit reason. If aliens were ever to destroy our planet, I suspect it would be for something like that.

Serious answer: The Conception, the death of the world in preparation for its rebirth, in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Lucifer's Call in Europe).
Allow me to go into a bit of detail, since this is a less well-known game: Take one building and a certain radius around it (not really specified in-game, let's say a hundred miles tops.) Now stretch and warp that so it forms a sphere, with the buildings and terrain on the inside surface. Everything that was outside that radius is just gone, and even the people who were inside it are dead, their spirits lingering as they await the world's rebirth.
This isn't to say this Vortex World is empty. Demons and other mythical creatures roam the ruins, empowered by the light of Kagutsuchi, the entity floating in the center like the star in a Dyson sphere. Half a dozen humans survive because they were in the central building at the time, and if they have the fortitude and will to do it, they have the chance to choose the shape the new world will take.

I just really like this idea of a fetal world, ready to be shaped into any number of forms. It feels delightfully bleak and threatening, and the feeling would probably be stronger for a native Tokyo-dweller as there are several well-known sites and landmarks scattered around.

 

[Lord Merik]

I loved the book "A Canticle for Leibowitz" It shows the world as it rebuilds over the course of hundreds of years.

 

[the clockmaker]

On the beach for me, just the fact that it doesn't take the easy route of either just ending the world in three minutes or saving it at the last second. You see it coming in the distance, you know that there is nothing that can be done and then, slowly, the lights go off.

 

[Bordersane]

----------------------------------------------------

There are two perfect representations of what an apocalypse would be like.....
1. Fallout 3
2. The Book of Eli

----------------------------------------------------

 

[Mangod]

Strangely enough, I'd have to say the intro to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I dunno, there's just something incredibly ominous about seeing all the evils of man summarized in a little under 2 minutes.

 

[ace_of_something]

You people are all wrong.

There is only one true Apocalypse and all shall tremble when his proclamations rend the very heavens.

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

When I was 11 I saw Threads [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg]. Nothing has ever had the same impact.

Fuck...ninjad by 3 hours, makes The Day After look bright and breezy (not a competition I know, and obvious hyperbole, but still...). It's not just the big bang, it's the aftermath in all the horrific detail, the breakdown of society and what that means for everyone, the dispassionate voiceover and (now incredibly retro) computer display reading out interesting facts and figures...Britian had the highest number of nuclear targets per unit area than any other country, an estimated 280MT IIRC with 2/3 of Britain's homes being in the "fire zone".

 

[Lieju]

I like anything that portrays the apocalypse from a Christian perspective, y'know, rapture, Hells armies rise up and fight Heavens armies using Earth as a battle ground. Not because im Christian or anything, just think it makes for a great story.
See Darksiders for example.

And then there's something like Left Behind...
I knew the movie was going to be stupid and nonsensical, but I was disappointed at how utterly dull it was.
At least if it had all the crazy shit that goes down in Revelations it would have been interesting.

Instead this 'literal' interpretation of the book had none of that...

As for GOOD depictions of apocalypse, After the Flood (Swedish: Efter floden)by the Swedish novelist P.C. Jersild.

Actually it's a depiction of the world after the apocalypse, after nuclear war, and how horrible that would be, with everyone dying or dead.
But still humans try to cling to life, so I guess it's in an odd way comforting.
It's very bleak, but I feel it depicts human behaviour in extreme situation rather well.

 

[Rawne1980]

28 Days Later. Fantastic film that set a great atmosphere that was completely killed by the shit sequel.

The Stand. The vast majority of people wiped out by an infection only a small percentage were immune to.

 

[repeating integers]

As usual, I must respond to this with music.

<youtube=tbLD2ukZiqk>

I love this song. It's an apocalyptic vision of the future, the perfect climax to an album all about war, corruption and the atomic bomb.

More subtly, this:

<youtube=eFU-WrWqlB4>

Isn't specifically about the apocalypse (hell, nobody knows what it's about), but it certainly feels like it, or what it would be like after one.