ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 examines the highly popular genre of apocalyptic film and television, much of which fixates on the idea of a sudden and radical depopulation of the world. Stories of post-apocalyptic survival are often allegories about the relationship between civilisation, liveability and comfort in the context of an optimal human population size. Such texts suggest that a reduced population will lead to a breakdown of civilisation and the relegation of human identity to practices of ‘bare survival’. The chapter discusses the contemporary attachment to population and how these texts work to allay anxieties about the human population’s survival.
