The document discusses various subgenres of post-apocalyptic films, including those set after nuclear war, pandemic, failure of modern technology, astronomical disaster, aliens, and environmental disaster. It provides examples for each subgenre like Terminator for technology failure and I Am Legend for pandemic. The author indicates they will have audience choose the subgenre and prefers nuclear war scenario due to familiarity and lower production requirements compared to aliens.

1. GENRE RESEARCH –
POST APOCALYPTIC
By szymon czajka

2. Overview
• Post Apocalypse is in itself a sub-genre of science fiction,
it focuses on what life would be like after a supposed ‘end
of the world’. Each of these scenarios would possibly be
considered a Sub-Genre, thus I will analyse each one.
• A post-apocalyptic film could be set immediately after a
disaster (or have the disaster happen near the start of the
film) or even a thousand years after one.
• Films from this genre often focus on the life and
psychology of survivors. In some films set centuries or
millennia after a apocalyptic event, it is common for our
modern (pre-apocalyptic) civilisation has either been
forgotten or has been turned into a myth.

3. (Nuclear) War
• This sub-genre is about humanity destroying itself via war, a
fear that we have faced since the first world war. This scenario
reflect what we predict life after a catastrophic event where a
nation collapses via world war. it mainly splits into either
humanity creating a weapon we could not control, Such as
Skynet in the Terminator series.
• The other popular version is nuclear war wiping us out such as
in the fallout games or adventure time (cartoon set around
1000 years after a nuclear war). much media forms have used
this scenario, it was especially popular in japan after the 1945
nuclear bomb dropped by the USA. An example of this is a
1954 film called Gojira (later known as Godzilla) where the title
monster is a analogy for nuclear weapons, something japan
experienced less than a decade before the film came out.

4. Pandemic
• This scenario/sub-genre focuses on our fear that one day a virus
might arise, immune to everything we throw at it, manages to infect a
majority of humanity, This sub-genre almost always focuses on the
survival of a lone survivor/ a group of survivors either directly after the
outbreak or a few years after the outbreak (typically never more than
20 years). Like the previously mentioned war, this sub-genre divides
into two types.
• The first is a virus or bacteria that simply kills any who become
infected, this is seen less nowadays in favour of the other type, but
occasionally pops up from time to time.
• The other type is a disease that turns the host into some form of
zombie, this type is Hollywood's bread and butter when it comes to
apocalyptic film. As we know the properties of zombies differ from film
to film, some walking while others can run, some made by a virus
while others by brain-fungus, an example of a movie that most fits
both zombie and post apocalyptic would be I am Legend (2007).

5. Failure of modern technology
• This sub-genre focuses on one of our other fears, the fear
of becoming too dependant on technology. Followed by
an event where something goes wrong and humanity
looses the technology we depend on. The technology in
mention differs from film to film, while some focus on a
future where our supercomputer goes rouge (Terminator
fits into this sub-genre too) , Or possibly a singularity
where an AI (artificial intelligence) overpowers humanity
and entraps them in a creation of its own (like in The
Matrix). Other films from this sub-genre choose to focus
one something more close-to-home, such as humanity
trying to survive if the power grid shuts down.

6. Astronomical
• Astronomical focuses on the constant threat hanging
overhead that earth might- at any second –crash with
another celestial body, leading to a repeat of the extinction
of the dinosaurs, with us being the main target
• Not many films focus on this scenario in recent times, the
most recent film was a 1977 production called Lucifer’s
Hammer. Whist other forms of media have talked about
this scenario more in recent times.
• While most media tend to have an unnamed celestial
body or the infamous “planet X” be what earth collides
with, id Software’s 2011 game Rage decides to base the
story on earth colliding with a real asteroid, one in
mention being called 99942 Apophis .

7. Aliens
• While more Apocalyptic than Post-Apocalyptic, Aliens are
still as popular as zombies in modern culture, which can
clearly be seen in modern films. This sub-genre plays on our
fear of the unknown, of the possibility something might be
out there that is much more advanced than us.
• Most alien films focus more on attempts to stop aliens from
destroying humanity, however a few films decided to focus
on what would happen if we lost.
• An example of a film is Oblivion (2013) which I decided to
focus on during my textual analysis. While Oblivion does
not focus on the aliens an awfully lot, it still
acknowledges that earth is in ruins due to a
war with an alien race.
• One bonus to this subgenre is that
unexplainable alien technology can be used.

8. Environmental Disaster
• This sub-genre focuses on a catastrophic environmental event such
as extreme climate change or mass flooding destroys the world, like
(most of) the other sub-genres, it plays on a the possibility of a real
threat, but unlike the others, we can tell that one day such an event
might happen, perhaps not as extreme, but the events in this
subgenre are built on very possible scenarios.
• An example of a film purely from this subgenre is The Day After
Tomorrow (2004), where climate change results mass destruction
across the world, resulting in an ice age. Another film from this genre
(while also getting some influence from other subgenres) is 2012
(2009) where a solar flare heats up the earths’ core, making the
Yellowstone super volcano erupt, leading to the crust collapsing in the
area around the volcano (leading to a majority of the west coast of the
US being destroyed), all this triggering a flood the swooped the entire
world, flooding everything in its path, with the last remnants of
humanity having to get on arks to survive. Now that’s one indecisive
apocalypse.

9. Post-peak oil
• This subgenre focuses on the inevitable fate that oil will
run out. The focus of these films is either the
disappearance of oil, fights for the last remains or life after
oil has disappeared. Not many films have been created in
this subgenre, the only well known example is the Mad
Max series, looking at how the exhaustion of oil supply
could possibly lead to the collapse of society.
• Sometimes this sub-genre is mixed in with others leading,
mainly war. Such is the case in the Fallout series where
china invades Alaska in hopes of securing the last oil
deposit in the world.

10. Conclusion…
• In terms of which subgenre I will use, I will leave the
choice for my target audience to decide in the survey and
focus group.
• In terms of what I want to use, I would like to go for the
War/Nuclear apocalypse scenario because I know the
most about it and it can be done with relatively little
budget and editing skills, while my worse nightmare would
be for the Alien scenario to be chosen as that requires the
works of complex costumes and possibly even CGI, Me
not knowing anything about how to create or insert CGI, I
think I would struggle in making a film of the Aliens
subgenre.