An urban setting seems to be a prerequisite for the start of the apocalypse in many post-apocalypse movies
I’ve seen quite a few post-apocalyptic movies, and I’ve noticed that they’re almost always told from the perspective of the so-called industrialized societies, or if the story is set in a developing country, it is always in an area that’s densely populated.
In these stories, there is always some sort of catalyst event, either a virus, a natural disaster, a war, or some unexplained event that destroys most of humanity and plunges the world into darkness. The survivors are left to pick up the pieces in a lawless wasteland where everyone is fighting for survival. In almost every zombie apocalypse movie, they show the initial fall of civilization from an urban point of view.
From World War Z’s inciting event in Philadelphia to “Dawn of the Dead,” “28 Days Later,” “The Walking Dead,” “Train to Busan,” “The Last of Us,” “Contagion,” “I Am Legend,” “12 Monkeys,” “The Andromeda Strain,” and “Resident Evil,” “War of the Worlds (2005),” all began in or close to a city. Set in a densely populated area, it makes for great storytelling, but it’s easy to forget that, in reality, this isn’t how everyone lives.
So I wondered. What does that mean for people who don’t live in cities or countries full of skyscrapers and expressways? It seems like living in an urban environment is almost a prerequisite for being able to relate to these stories. 10 Cloverfield Lane is one of the few films in which we see the collapse of society from outside of an urban setting.
What about people who live modestly, distant from the asphalt rivers winding through glass and iron trees? far removed from the suburban hedge-lined streets. far away from the horde, far away from the need and the rat race.
Would the decline of developed societies affect a family that still lives by candlelight, where the son guides the few heads of cattle to the foot of the mountain to graze on the dew-moisture grass before dawn, or where the daughter collects eggs from the chicken coop nestled beside her mother’s vegetable garden, or where the father still uses a cow-drawn plow? Would they even be aware that the world beyond their small homestead had collapsed?
We think we have it easier in industrialized societies because of our creature comforts, but that comfort comes with a fatal flaw: we’ve become so dependent on them. It has distorted our survival instincts, causing us to crave more comfort. If a few inconveniences arise, our lives are thrown into turmoil. And I guess that’s what most of these movies try to portray from an urban point of view and have the viewer relate to the “what if?” aspect.
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