ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the differences in the representations of the end of humankind in secular apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movies, with a special focus on the ones produced in 2018 and 2019. Analysing these movies through the lens of anthropocentrism, I argue that they fall into two categories that may be called the human-centred paradigm and the antihuman paradigm. This classification reveals the dynamics that have driven the transformations of the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic genres over the past decades. I argue that contemporary movies, as well as computer games and fiction, mark an unprecedented way of envisioning death of humanity. I suggest that the fixation on apocalypse is written into a broad cultural and intellectual context of the development of popular culture and could be explained only in so far as this broader context is taken into consideration. As with so many other manifestations of thanatopathia, namely, a complex cultural and social movement that questions the very significance of humanity’s existence, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movies belonging to the antihuman paradigm voice the growing contempt for humanity. By making death ‘spectacular’, they prompt millions to consider the ultimate end of humanity a trendy commodity and a popular entertainment.
