[Johnnycat]

What is the book that "I am Legend" is loosely based on?

[Pope130]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Johnnycat

What is the book that "I am Legend" is loosely based on?

Strangely enough, it's based on "I Am Legend",by Richard Matheson. Previously filmed as "The Last Man On Earth" with Vincent Price, and "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston.

[big shrek]

The Last Man on Earth was FUN! I LOVE Vincent Price!! AWESOME acting!! But I don't like B&W movies...I prefer color.

Heston's was more colorful...but the acting was on par with Shatner.

Haven't seen Will Smith's version yet...I fail to see how he could out-act either of the previous ones.

[Dragunov]

Quote:       Originally Posted by big shrek

The Last Man on Earth was FUN! I LOVE Vincent Price!! AWESOME acting!! But I don't like B&W movies...I prefer color. Heston's was more colorful...but the acting was on par with Shatner. Haven't seen Will Smith's version yet...I fail to see how he could out-act either of the previous ones.

It's a very good movie, you won't be disappointed.

[thrillbilly]

The WS version is OK, worth watching but not the best movie of the year.

[Cyrano]

Quote:       Originally Posted by thrillbilly

"On The Beach" by author unknown is pretty informative about the psychological effects of SHTF. It's a little dry, but still a good read.

The author is Neville Shute. It was turned into a mediocre movie in 1959 with Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins.

I'll note that some would argue that the Left Behind series could be considered an end-of-the-world series. Haven't read them, they are not my cup of tea, but the world suddenly gets depopulated and society drastically changes. I'd say that counts.

I would accept the argument that Heinlein's Friday qualifies as an end of the world series, in the same way that his Farmer in the Sky could be so considered. In both cases, the characters establish that Earth is on the edge due to overpopulation and competition for resources. I further note that in Friday the United States has balkanized into at least seven separate nations with governments as varied as Simple Democracy and a dictatorship, though he never really got into how the fracturing occurred. A war may have been involved; if memory serves, Friday Baldwin had a set of perfectly forged documents that 'proved' she had been born in Seattle - which had been nuked and therefore was a convenient place for someone traveling on forged papers to be from because it was impossible to check against municipal records.

But there are two things more that Heinlein had to say about how to spot a dying culture heading for TEOTWAWKI in Friday. The following dialogue is between Friday and her employer/mentor, Dr. Hartley "Kettle Belly" Baldwin:

"It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population."

"A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once considered a Spanish vice, but any country can fall sick with it."

"I don't really know Spain. Dominance of males over females seems to be one of the symptoms. I suppose the reverse would be true, but I haven't run across it in any of the history I've listened. Why not, Boss?"

"You tell me. Continue."

"So far as I have listened, before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts."

"Elementary. Go on."

"Well... high taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that's old hat; everyone knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way -- even though there are always endless attempts to wish it away by legislation. But I started looking for little signs, what some call silly-season symptoms..."

"... I want to mention one of the obvious symptoms: Violence. Muggings. Sniping. Arson. Bombing. Terrorism of any sort. Riots of course -- but I suspect that little incidents of violence, pecking away at people day after day, damage a culture even more than riots that flare up and then die down. I guess that's all for now. Oh, conscription and slavery and arbitrary compulsion of all sorts and imprisonment without bail and without speedy trial -- but those things are obvious; all the histories list them."

"Friday, I think you have missed the most alarming symptom of all."

"I have? Are you going to tell me? Or am I going to have to grope around in the dark for it?"

"Mmm. This once I shall tell you. But go back and search for it. Examine it. Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have name... but a dying culture invariable exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot."

"Really?"

"Pfui. I should have forced you to dig it out for yourself; then you would know it. This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill heath but as proof of his/her strength."

By the criteria Heinlein establishes for a dying culture, the United States of America is in very serious trouble indeed. I guess that qualifies as a TEOTWAWKI scenario, wouldn't you agree?

[Darkfront]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (also wrote No Country For Old Men) was a phenomenal post-apocalyptic book. It explores more of the human element, but seems to be a very grim but realistic depiction of what surviving TEOTWAWKI would look like.

[jrswanson1]

Day by Day Armageddon is so far a pretty good read. It's a diary of a naval flight officer who is trying to survive during a global zombie outbreak.

Jim

[Johnnycat]

I just bought Lucifer's Hammer and Patriots for some beach reading for next week. I'll have to give an update after I'm finished.

[sunwheel29]

Quote:       Originally Posted by big shrek

The Last Man on Earth was FUN! I LOVE Vincent Price!! AWESOME acting!! But I don't like B&W movies...I prefer color. Heston's was more colorful...but the acting was on par with Shatner. Haven't seen Will Smith's version yet...I fail to see how he could out-act either of the previous ones.

You can get Last Man on Earth along with Panic in the Year Zero on a double feature at Wal Mart for $5 right now.

Panic in the Year Zero is excellent.

Its about how an ordinary early 60s family responds to large scale panic and looting when bombs are dropped on Los Angeles.

Its VERY, VERY good. Brings up a few things we often take for granted to.

For example, if chopping wood, it's best to have somebody stand guard over you.

[big shrek]

Doomsday (2008) was pretty good...but not very thought-provoking. Pretty standard fare...more guns than the average UK film. (mostly because they made it predominately in South Africa) Just to watch Rhona Mitra kick fuzzy rump is enough of a reason to endure it.

The Mist (2007) (Stephen King flick) An absolute Must-See!!, but more basically a "What NOT To Do" in the event of SHTF. I don't think you can really say anything else about it...other than ALWAYS kill the Whackos when you can tell it's getting bad...or at least push 'em out the door & let the critters/bad guys get 'em.

[kaaa]

the book the long walk

[Cyrano]

Quote:       Originally Posted by big shrek

The Mist (2007) (Stephen King flick) An absolute Must-See!!, but more basically a "What NOT To Do" in the event of SHTF. I don't think you can really say anything else about it...other than ALWAYS kill the Whackos when you can tell it's getting bad...or at least push 'em out the door & let the critters/bad guys get 'em.

Does that give us an excuse to push the anti-gunners and nanny-staters out the door into The Mist? Does it? Does it? Huh? Huh? Please?

[thrillbilly]

Quote:       Originally Posted by kaaa

the book the long walk

Is that the one about the teenagers who participate in the "game" where the stragglers get shot? If so I read that awhile back and liked it.

[kaaa]

Quote:       Originally Posted by thrillbilly

Is that the one about the teenagers who participate in the "game" where the stragglers get shot? If so I read that awhile back and liked it.

no, its a true story about a group of men that walked from northern ussr to inda in 1940 to1941

.S?awomir Rawicz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Cyrano]

You can add The Day After to the list. It's a post-nuclear attack movie set in Kansas that begins with a missile exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States. And it is incredibly grim. Thousands of people in the one university town and the surrounding countryside die either in the blast or from radiation poisoning. We see law and order break down, and the federal government is prominent by its absence. Order is eventually reestablished, but there are still gangs of thugs roaming the countryside killing and looting. Food runs out and things get grim.

One scene I remember vividly is some agricultural authority (they never reall said who he was working for) telling the local farmers that before they could plant again, they had to scrape off the top six inches of their topsoil and remove it from the fields to a dump site, because it was hopelessly contaminated with fallout. The farmers kind of looked at him, asking, "And just what are we supposed to plant in?" The soil in Kansas has been made fertile with artificial fertilizers for so long, they doubted there would be enough good earth left to grow anything in. It's the only time I can recall a Cold War era movie discussing this problem of what and where the people can plant to sustain them after the stored food runs out.

[big shrek]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Cyrano

Does that give us an excuse to push the anti-gunners and nanny-staters out the door into The Mist? Does it? Does it? Huh? Huh? Please?

Depends on if they are hot chix or not

Gotta start the harem somewhere

[jrswanson1]

World War Z is an excellent book, very well written.

Jim

[andy*]

Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard, written before he got too weird is pretty good. andy

[serfp]

do you guys think the world will end