Ever wonder what your chances would be struggling for survival in a post-apocalyptic world? Nina Romain looks at the reality of post-apoc life – and compares it to the glamorous fantasy usually found on the big screen.
The general depiction of a glamorous fantasy of life after various apocalyptic nightmares, is where everything is yours for the taking, with no limits on your freedom. This is seen in the fantasies of a lawless life, involving being able to break in anywhere or take anything you fancy, as Will Smith’s Dr Neville does in I Am Legend, taking artworks from deserted New York museums to hang up at home. Charlton Heston in The Omega Man (1971), which inspired Smith’s remake, likewise drives around a deserted NYC centre, taking cars and helping himself to fuel from deserted petrol stations. After all, who’s going to stop him?
Another advantage of living in a fictitious post-apoc world is that most forms of technology obligingly function, despite general global power system outages. Another plus will be that most people have a ham radio, plus an unlimited supply of batteries for it, rather than a more realistic society where nothing works: Smith’s Dr Neville makes daily radio broadcasts to try to find survivors.
Real life post disaster, as anyone who has seen Threads (1984) will know, will be emphatically tougher. In reality you’d be living off unmarked tinned food, years past their best-by dates, and praying you wouldn’t die of botulism as all the hospitals have been closed for the last few years.
Terminator Salvation (2009) is firmly placed in the fantasy camp of survival, showing dystopian nightmares shouldn’t stop anyone from keeping their elaborate beauty routines. From John Connor (Christian Bale) working his manly-mussed hair to Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Moon Bloodgood (Blair Williams) displaying flawless makeup, it’s clear that power shortages and being chased by killer cyborgs shouldn’t prevent anyone from keeping their glossy hair extensions and perfect foundation.
James Cameron’s original The Terminator (1984) gives a more accurate look at post-apoc life. Kyle Reese gives a more realistic image of his life in the post Judgement Day nightmare of permanently living underground. As he bleakly explains, during day the survivors stay underground for safety but at night can emerge to fight for their lives, while also skewering and eating rats for want of more nutritious food.
In reality, post-apoc life would involve a lot less browsing through deserted malls – and more browsing through survival manuals to learn essential topics such as “building a basic DIY hydro electric generator”, and “how to use a ham radio in a blackout”. There are also handy tips for “making backyard traps against property intruders” which helpfully outline how to hammer nails into a plank of wood to stop anyone who might want to break in and steal your home-made jam.
Other topics include: “why you need a way post-collapse to stop moisture from playing havoc with your guns”. This is something the survivors of Carriers (2009) would need, as they try to survive living armed to the teeth in an empty world, being attacked by fellow survivors and having to dump your infected friends by the side of the road to die before they infect you. One of the few doctors they meet grimly warns: “Sometimes choosing life is just choosing a more painful form of death.”
So if you ever dream of living in a post-apoc fantasy, taking whatever you fancy without the long arm of the law, bear in mind the reality maybe a lot less glamourous. There may be, as Reese warns, a lot more hiding underground eating gone off tinned food – not to mention rats.
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