I was very interested in the focus on fertility in these movies and the readings. I think fertility is very important, perhaps the most important, idea in a human-made apocalypse, as opposed to a god made one. In the first place, it presumes that the apocalypse will be bad for everyone, that everyone’s death is something to mourn, and there is not much of a or any better place to move on to. Secondly, along with a story taking place in a post-apocalyptic setting, it emphasizes the idea that a human-made apocalypse is inevitable and will need to be fixed.

These stories, as Mel Gibson said, are about the “common tendencies of civilizations to decline”. Fertility is the important theme, because if we believe our decline is inevitable, we would also want to believe that we can start over on our own. This is, in turn, important to the shift if gender roles, because if fertility is the hope of a future, then fertile women are the heroes of humankind.

I would be interested to see an apocalyptic story that takes place in the framework of over-population. Over-population, like global warming or pandemics, is a large fear of contemporary life. Fertility would not be an issue in this case, mass deaths might even be welcomed, on some level. In such a case, what would be the central hope? The death of millions till there are enough resources for those left? Who would be the hero? The one who is the best at rationing?

Regardless of where the hope in these narratives come from, it is clear that our collective obsession with post-apocalyptic stories comes from a belief that we will destroy ourselves. Our new and exponentially increasing scientific abilities are daunting to most people. The focus has now shifted from fearing (or looking forward to, as in the case of fundamentalists) to coming up with contingency plans.