ABSTRACT
Fear transforms into terror when amplified to an extreme. From Darwin: “Fear, Terror. The word ‘fear’ seems to be derived from what is sudden and dangerous.” 1 Extreme fear transforms into paranoia, an emotion reflected particularly well in films of the sci-fi genre. Post-9/11 sci-fi expresses fear, anxiety, panic, and outright paranoia about humanity’s fate in a violent, chaotic universe. A number of significant sci-fi films referencing the terrorist attacks surfaced after 9/11. Apocalypse is the form paranoia assumes in the genre. In apocalyptic films, paranoia symbolically stems not from fear of terrorists but from fear of outside forces poised to annihilate humanity and the entire earth.
