A pop cultural sensation, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day offered a dystopian vision of the future, in which humankind came under attack by machines of their own invention.
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The Andromeda Strain (1971). Terminator (1984). Children of Men (2006).
Each year, new movies, books, and video games are released that feature doomsday prophecies or end-of-the-world scenarios. Popular culture is fascinated with the end.
Some authors and filmmakers draw from the Bible as well as science to create these perilous worlds. The stories they tell often use the end of the world as a springboard to examine the meaning of human life, the frailties of the human condition, God’s role in history, or the limits of science.
The 1982 film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial follows a little, gentle alien's adventure while stranded on Earth.
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Since the beginning of the silver screen era, Hollywood directors and writers have turned to the best-selling book, the Bible, for screenplay inspiration. Aside from obvious religious megahits, such as 2004’s ThePassion of the Christ, many blockbusters and beloved heroes, from Superman to The Matrix’s Neo, and even everyone’s favorite alien, E. T., reinterpret biblical narratives, including Jesus’s suffering and ultimate sacrifice, redemption, and even Lucifer’s fall from grace.
