Post-Apocalyptic Genre by Joanne Lloyd Narrative and Characters

Narrative and plot Post-apocalyptic films often follow common points of narrative. One point would be the actual disaster itself, this is typically represented in flashbacks and gives to viewer an idea of the equilibrium and how the characters acted before the disruption. Another point would be the journey, characters will often band together and try to reach a goal of something, a good example of this would be in “The Road” (2009). When the little boy and his dad try to reach to coastline as they don’t know what happened to the rest of the world. During this journey there will be parts of narrative focussing on how the characters survive. Typically the “hero” is resourceful and looks after the rest of the group by finding food, shelter and provide some kind of protection e.g. weapons. Hope, the idea that these people have some kind of hold on humanity and that they will survive and prosper in a new world. The way the narrative points are plotted within the story are that we are shown disruption of equilibrium first and as they try to survive we are given hints to want could of happened and how life was like before “ the equilibrium”. Rarely are post apocalyptic film plotted linear style.

Themes In post-apocalyptic films the disaster is often derived form society within that time period e.g. Planet of the Apes (1968) was biased on a post nuclear-warfare concept during the time of the fear of the cold war. Others concepts that have been used in post-apocalyptic film are: Dystopian future, an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Relate to real-time, fears in society at the time when similar disasters were happing : Cold war, technology, medical advances, environmental change, economic crashes etc. Agrarian societies, often develop, return to pre-industrialised agricultural existence. The possibility of human demise, survivors struggle for their very existence!

Characters In any post-apocalyptic film there is always a heroic character, typically a male character. These characters were ordinary people but because of the disruption of the equilibrium in the narrative, they become changed in some way. Whether it positive or negative, the characters become stronger protecting him/herself with weapons and any other survives they find. Other characters are found in groups, some are bad who seek to profit from violent anarchy, and other are good people that work together to survive, the main character encounters these tribes who want to destroy him. He confronts them on their terms (savage, anarchic responses) He also meets a small group from the pre-apocalyptic modern world, struggling to survive in the savage new world and may help them by protecting them. Even though the heroic characters help other survivors, they often still stay as loner characters

Timeline apocalyptic-films-history