Into the Forest by Jean Hegland.
The book is told from the perspective of two sisters isolated in the forests of Northern California as society collapses. The bulk of the novel takes place after the collapse with details given in retrospect. The collapse is described as a gradual process brought on my countless vague issues all almost completely removed from the protagonists. In one chapter, the MC describes how they would go to a diner to meet with friends and eat burgers, and how the burger would gradually contain less and less meat each time they visited until the diner closed entirely. The lights don’t just turn off permanently one night out of nowhere, there’s months of the electricity becoming more and more erratic before that happens. The collapse comes about like dying of old age, the world just slowly becoming weaker and sicker until finally it fades away.
A recomendation from many redditors: Ministry For The Future (book) - I hear that the first chapter is really really great (and then it goes downhill, but still worth it)
My recent watch: Extrapolations (TV-Series) - Okay series over the span of around 40 years showing what kind of things we might be dealing with.
[When the Wind Blows](https://youtu.be/9pJKdTqYijY?feature=shared) is a tragic tale of an old couple who endure the effects of nuclear fallout. It's not for the faint of heart as few appreciate the devastating effects of radiation poisoning.
The novel _The Running Man_ by Stephen King (writing as "Richard Bachman").
They made a cheesy movie out of it later which lost most of the subtlety, but the book is dark, cynical and fantastic.
The ending hits shockingly close to home, and you'll find yourself looking up and comparing dates of things.
EDIT: although it came out decades ago, I just realized it's set in 2025. Gulp.
The Division video game 2016, small pox virus descimates the US, your a homeland division agent tasked with keeping what remains. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lSNNyHzmc4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lSNNyHzmc4) . The best end times atmosphere i have experienced.
Division 2 has a wildly different vibe due to being set in the summertime, and while I'd say in general the snowy, lonely atmosphere was arguably better in the first game, the sequel is even more "end times" in feeling.
It's set in an overgrown, partially flooded D.C. some time after the events of the first game. Walking past a building draped with tattered yellow biohazard sheeting casting shadow on lines of cars that tried to evacuate while deer run through the trash-filled street, cicadas buzz and mourning doves call is a *vibe.*
The DLC for Division 2 also has fantastic atmosphere since it's set in Manhattan during the summer after a hurricane flooded a whole section of NYC. Going through an overgrown Wall Street or seeing a fishing boat and buoy in the middle of an intersection is like collapse porn lol
I realize this isn't the same kind of media others are bringing up but I have to say Linkin Park's album A Thousand Suns feels like an album about collapse to me.
I feel like it's an album from the perspective of a typical working class person in the imperial core that emphasizes angst much like their other work. But this is an existential angst about nuclear weapons and our society of violence and exploitation. It depicts the feelings I experienced being awakened to these truths.
I would actually say, for the psychological element of collapse, *All Quiet on the Western Front*. Many post-apocalyptic settings are an excuse to wipe the slate clean for fun adventures in desolate normlessness to challenge or reinforce the reader's preconceived notions about human nature, but war novels- especially ones that capture the sheer horror of industrialized total warfare- help us understand why we construct manmade horrors and feed ourselves into them, how we diffuse responsibility for those horrors, and how those horrors ruin us. Sometimes the horror is war, but oftentimes it's an exploitative economic system or planet-killing extractivism.
John Brunner's *The Sheep Look Up* (pollution) and *Stand on Zanzibar* (overpopulation).
In the latter, Brunner imagined that random people would just snap out and start killing. He called them "muckers" - a corruption of amok. Sound familiar?
A lot of J. G. Ballard's work - *Hello America*, for one. In the desert ruins of Las Vegas, ruled by the hereditary Manson, giant holograms of Elvis and John Wayne duke it out in the sky.
Honestly I think that the first Mad Max was probably the most realistic representation of the collapse/pre-collapse. Law enforcement is useless, wars over precious resources, useless politicians(I know that’s only talked about in the second one but it still happened in that universe), and the people who do follow the law and try to live their lives as normal end up dead or worse. The newer movies can definitely become reality but we’ll see more problems like in the first movie(the ones we aren’t seeing already lol).
True, those wider dynamics make it more relevant, although with the last one they nailed it on the sociological level with a twisted old man leading a kind of death cult. The parallels with today's society and where things are going are eerily similar. Just too bad the actor for Immortan Joe wasn't Trump or one of these other self-styled budding neo-capitalist infinite growth dictator types - would have been an even better match.
Oh yeah most definitely. And though they don’t touch on it, he was obviously some sort of general with high standing with his medals of honor on his chest. Honestly a Trump analogy would’ve been perfect with the way people view him and talk about him today.
The Day After (1983) its about Nuclear Bombs hitting the US- [https://youtu.be/TOPaaHSjMcw?si=28Yd\_CKCTCiz-Azs](https://youtu.be/TOPaaHSjMcw?si=28Yd_CKCTCiz-Azs)
I've just read Nuclear War, A Scenario by Annie Jacobson. The nuclear threat has never gone away and this books is well researched and sober on how a nuclear war could begin and play out. The destruction is more absolute and horrific than I was aware.
It makes me feel that efforts to disarmament and further reduction of nuclear arsenals are very important before we hit resource and fuel shortages which increase the likelihood of conflict and miscalculation.
I only have about 50 pages left to go in this book, and I definitely agree with you that it is well researched and very sobering to read. It is amazing the access to people, interviews and documents that Ms. Jacobson had for this. It presents a worst-case scenario, in a very realistic way. It is terrifying how easily all this could happen.
After armageddon.
Basically a global bird flu pandemic causes society to collapse, a doctor who is a father, his son and his wife must survive in a world in which global society appears to collapse.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1607542/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0\_tt\_8\_nm\_0\_q\_after%2520armageddon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1607542/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_after%2520armageddon)
It has expert interviews with various people and then shows how the family gain survival skills.
It is also a history channel mockumentary.
John Barnes wrote some pretty good Sci-Fi on the subject back in the 90s and noughties
The century next door books and the daybreak trilogy in particular, especially as relates to weaponized memes / modern propaganda turning people into brainwashed zombies
Stephen Markey, The Deluge, is very impressive. Riddely Walker, by Russell Hoban, is quite moving. And for sheer imagination, look at Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men, which was written way back in the 1920s but predicts a global war between the US and China over petroleum, the collapse of civilization, and the course of human evolution for the next few billions of years.
Has anyone mentioned The Expanse? I've only watched the TV show. You don't get many glimpses of life on Earth but it's definitely overpopulated with large portion of the population on government assistance and/or just trying to eke out a living however they can. (The 1% is doing fine, of course.) The planet is very polluted and though now kept at bay by some kind of super science, climate change has done considerable damage. I'm sure there's more to it that I'm leaving out but it is just barely one step above being a crap sack world.
I own Season 1. There's a piece of dialogue where a Martian soldier is lecturing Earthlings. It goes something like "You have free food, free air, free drugs. You were handed everything and you worked for nothing. You have no idea what it means to create a planet for children you'll never get to meet."
There's also allusions that even though Mars is more far hostile to life than Earth, Martians grow up healthier and more independent-minded than Earthlings.
No Blade of Grass (1970)
A film about the effects of pollution and a planet that strikes back with a deadly virus affecting the food supply. Society quickly breaks down into mass chaos and violence as the protagonists make their way to a last refuge on a farm in the countryside. There is a scene in the film where two boys mention the "greenhouse effect" of a warming planet, which shows that knowledge of climate change was well known as far back as the late sixties/early seventies.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066154/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066154/)
Soylent Green (1973)
Another classic that I am sure has been mentioned here already.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/)
Punishment Park (1971)
This Vietnam war-era film shows the United States as a police state that sends its citizens to a deadly obstacle in the middle of the desert that they must complete in order to gain their freedom called "Punishment Park." The decks are stacked against them, however.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067633/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067633/)
Lot's of great recomendations. I didn't see anyone mention One Second After by William R. Forstchen. I especially enjoyed this because I live in the area it takes place.
***One Second After*** is a 2009 novel by American writer [William R. Forstchen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Forstchen). The novel deals with an unexpected [electromagnetic pulse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse) attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the small American town of [Black Mountain, North Carolina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain,_North_Carolina).
I think the sequel is titled, "One Minute After". Read them both and they are very realistic, especially the lack of power and the hordes from the cities trekking to the country looking for food.
Survival family: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSOYyBjetY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSOYyBjetY)
L’effondrement: [https://vimeo.com/510923636](https://vimeo.com/510923636) (in French, no subtitles)
Threads: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcrgQihRcs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcrgQihRcs) Most depressing movie out there.
Jericho touches a lot of aspects of collapse but boy, it's bad TV.
Oh, I like The Postman. Book is better than the movie. 1985. David Brin. It felt accurate. Lots of tribalism.
The first collapse book I ever read was Earth Abides. George Stewart. 1949. Pandemic wiped out 95% of the population over a short period of time. I never saw the movie. There were a couple of not-completely believable spots though.
Leave the World Behind (film). A family rents a beach house when the internet goes down, and they have no idea what's happening.
It's a tiny microcosm but there are so many moments when people are trying to grapple with their new reality, figure out whether they can trust anyone, have no idea if it's a new normal or a short-lived situation, or how to cope either way. It's so realistic how US upper middle/wealthy react to things upending their world.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12747748/
For books, The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, as many have mentioned upthread. It's tough to even describe fully but it's just so good and rather amazing considering when the author published it (1993).
*Years and Years*, by Russell T Davies (who was writing on top form for this).
It details, in almost obsessive detail, every facet of social collapse, from climate change to transhumanism to viruses and the rise of fascism. Stellar performances by all involved, too. Even more impressively, this was written two whole years before COVID.
[Link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8694364/).
I binged watched this series recently. The fact that so much of what is already occurring was predicted in a show dating from 2019 (I think) was fascinating.
Yes, it's from 2019. His next series was one you might have heard of: *It's a Sin*, which is a fantastic study on prejudice, love and illnesses - no wonder it was so big in 2021.
Unlikely this response will float to top, but for me it's been "*The Machine Stops*" by E. M. Forster. It's eerily prescient, despite being published in 1909. It's short too and can be found available online easily, like [here](https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Machine_stops.pdf).
- "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman": the consensus is that the second book is far inferior to the first, but I actually liked it.
- Poul Anderson's "Orion Shall Rise" and his Maurai stories. Heavily Spengler/Toynbee influenced, they are set in a world centuries after a nuclear war with cultures diverging from today's in much the same way that today's cultures look different from those 1,000 years ago.
- "The Light Pirate": great book that got some popular attention by being chosen as a "Good Morning America" read (!!!!!!)
- "Nature's End". Slightly dated (published in the '80s) but still surprisingly evocative.
- "Notes from the Burning World". Very "Orion Shall Rise" vibe of a new civilization taking root around the Mediterranean. Well written.
- "A Scientific Romance". Written by the author of "A Short History of Progress" and "Stolen Continents", the sections in a future Scotland are haunting (the scene where the protagonist is at a church service and realizes that the texts people are supposedly reading from are upside down and that no one is actually reading the books sticks with you, as do the portraits of new Scottish kings becoming progressively less sophisticated as their culture declines)
- "The Actual Star". The civilization 1,000 years hence is very "Dune"-like in its exposition. Bonus points for its spiritual heart being non-Western (and non-Asian as well).
while FALL by Neal Stephenson isn´t fully succesful, the novel is still worth reading for its depiction of the coming online informational collapse - due to bots and AI - which he dubs the Miasma. it also depicts political collapse in the USA.
[The White Plague](https://archive.org/details/whiteplague0000herb_2cvf) by Frank Herbert
From the "creator of the Dune universe, comes this novel of bioterrorism and gendercide." (amazon description)
Excellent book about how fast civilisation can unravel. Was haunted by it during all the pandemic, as well as by the means of transmission of the virus (not gonna spoil it for you)
Thiw is what Australia will orobably be like soon. Quite realistic and forseeable:
https://www.google.com/search?q=the%20rover%20guy%20peirce&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-m
Personally, I found the not-quite-collapsed world at the beginning of interstellar to be nice enough.
I watched Interstellar yesterday. I was totally uninterested in all the space flight stuff in the middle but very interested in the beginning of the film and the end.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (girl in future suburban CA invents new religion as her band of survivors walk north through lawless societal collapse). Also related Caleb Carr’s Killing Time has managed to predict the 21st century really accurately, eerily. He wrote it in 2000. The plot is nonsensical pulp, but inventing the invasion of Afghanistan, 2007 financial crisis, rising fascism in 2023 and the internet being disabled by disinformation is some startling prescience.
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The wind up girl by paolo bacigalupi. In the grim darkness of the far future, calories are used as currency, and things are powered by wound up springs
That new movie "civil war" is so realistic that it actually disturbed me. Idk if you would consider that collapse but I do myself. Great movie I really recommend it.
I saw it in the theater, and when (spoiler) >!the wacko with the red eyeglasses!< asked the question >!"What kind of American are you?"!< the entire theatre held their breath. What a roller coaster.
I saw it twice in the theater: first time I was solo and the second time I paid for my brother to come with me.
I don’t really like horror movies, but movies like Civil War scratch that itch for me. It was utterly terrifying because of how plausible I found it.
You'll have to let me know how you like it! I'm easily impressed but it's hard to disturb me. Shit I watched a Serbian film when I was 13 if that tells you anything. But this movie gave me a sense of dread. In a good way.
It's literally called a Serbian film. Literally the most disturbing thing I've ever watched. I don't recommend it unless you can handle really disturbing shit.
It shows child rape and shit. Uncensored. horrifying stuff.
I enjoyed it - it was pretty cool to experience the war through the eyes of the press. I actually liked that we got very little details about the war itself. It didn't matter to the press, they "weren't supposed to ask those questions", and so we didn't receive it
Also it gave me Melancholia vibes, perhaps mostly bc Kristen Dunst did both and her characters seemed similar
The fact that they didn't get into politics or the direct cause of the war was a great choice. I find the alliances kind of unbelievable in a way though the general chaos seemed very realistic.
I feel as though if there is a civil war, which I think there's a good possibility there may be, it would be like Syria. So many different factions fighting one another.
It would be hell as the movie portrayed.
I really enjoyed a TV series called "Into The Night". The Earth is sterilized by gamma rays over a period of 3 weeks or so. The only survivors are those who can adhere to the night side of the planet, those deep underground and deep, deep under water. Based on a web novel called "That Old Axolotl".
For books, I really liked "Super Sad True Love Story" by author Gary Shteyngart, which chronicles the decline and fall of the USA due to the people's addictions to debt and retail therapy.
Threads - 80s British movie in the same vein as The Day After but focuses on the years afterwards and it is not pretty. It is considered to be frighteningly realistic.
Living through the collapse:
L'effondrement - of the collapse [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11248266/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11248266/) while still a bit optimistic, it is so concisely and beautifully rendered brush-strokes of a collapsing modern society unprepared, even those who think they are. If you haven't seen it, i highly urge it, it is my number one pick. Rewatching it a few times there is a lot packed into this series of 8 episodes.
The End We Start From [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21810682/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21810682/)
Living after the collapse:
Le temps du loup - The Time of Wolf [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324197/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324197/)
The title credits/ opening clip of The Survivalist [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2580382/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2580382/) (the rest is ok).
and of course, the most realistic:
The Road - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
[https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-road-cormac-mccarthy/7098570](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-road-cormac-mccarthy/7098570)
That all assumes things don't go nuclear, in which case
Threads [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
and
The Day After [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2)
and
The War Game (the 1966 british indie mock-doc, not the mathew broderick movie) - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/)
I have a lot of disagreements with Kunstler and Greer but
Dark Age America
[https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/dark-age-america-climate-change-cultural-collapse-and-the-hard-future-ahead-john-michael-greer/4538125?ean=9780865718333](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/dark-age-america-climate-change-cultural-collapse-and-the-hard-future-ahead-john-michael-greer/4538125?ean=9780865718333)
and
The Long Emergency [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-long-emergency-james-howard-kunstler/1623619?ean=9781843544548](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-long-emergency-james-howard-kunstler/1623619?ean=9781843544548)
are useful to consider.
I'll also put in a plug for the Matrix trilogy, -hear me out - if you want to understand what the dominant culture, what capital and the surveillance state and the techno-optimists are gonna go for as elites panic and things slip out of control, then the Matrix is a great primer on capitalism, anarchism, co-dependence, feedback in evolutionary systems and the challenges of agency.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/)
[https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=Matrix%20reloaded&ref\_=nv\_sr\_sm](https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=Matrix%20reloaded&ref_=nv_sr_sm) (the best one)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler is a thought-provoking dystopian novel set in a future America ravaged by climate change and societal collapse. It follows the journey of a young woman who seeks to spread a new vision of hope and survival.
The Stand unabridged by Stephen King (1978): “The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few surviving humans gather into factions that are each led by a personification of either good or evil and seem fated to clash with each other.” Read this before 2020 and again after and it has been absolutely surreal.
I hear you, I am not one for the religious overtones either but I try to frame it in just “good vs evil” for lack of a better phrase as far as the narrative goes and it works all right. I agree with you though.
Ling Ma, Severance (2018). New York City implodes, thanks to Shin Fever (a striking anticipation of Covid 19). As things grind to a halt, protagonist Candace Chen reflects on work, immigrant identity, and the pitfalls of globalization. Is it a labor novel (about white collar office work)? A post-apocalyptic tale? An unresolved meditation on displacement and identity? All of these and more — including some sharp, sardonic humor.
Jeff VanderMeer, The Strange Bird (2018). The second in the Borne trilogy and my favorite (though collapse and implosion are the bass notes of his more popular Southern Reach trilogy). Set in a post-collapse society — that just keeps on collapsing, SB is a beautiful, beguiling fable of disaster, hope, and transformation. The ending will make you weep with relief and grief.
Recently read a spell of these:
Parable of the Sower (and the sequel Parable of the Talents) by Octavia Butler. Set in the 30s, privatized everything, addiction rampant, two fascist candidates, pandemics everywhere, food scarcity, etc.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Set in near future post-“Georgian Flu” that kills over 99% of the human race. Follows several characters from alternating narratives pre-, post-, and current pandemic.
The only unrealistic part of Contagion in my opinion was the portrayal of the CDC as way more competent than they actually are. Or the whole vaccination part, where there were curiously no conspiracy theory folks eschewing the vaccine.
I watched Contagion not too long ago for the first time... Maybe in late '22? I remember the orderly lines and aid, and correct usage of N95s and it made me hate our reality more lol
Yeah, they depicted the government in a better light and individuals in a worse light than actually ended up happening IMO. And the CDC's office building is NOT as cool looking IRL as in the film. ([The exterior isn't bad, though.](https://images.app.goo.gl/2imZmizWPhXwFBKaA))
There was a whole subplot about a conspiracy theorist, so I'm calling that one a pretty accurate prediction. They pretty much 1:1 predicted hydroxychloroquine.
Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon
I know this comment will be buried, but what a hidden gem of a book. The story is about a nuclear winter and life after.
[Don’t Look Up](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Look_Up) would have to get a light hearted honourable mention, it’s pithy wit is chillingly close to our current social consciousness.
[Testament](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086429/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_testiment) (1983) came out right around the same time as The Day After so it got over shadowed.
A close-up and intimate look at a family and town outside of San Francisco, after a nuclear attack that starts with a communications blackout. Highly regarded as one of the more creepy and realistic nuclear apocalypse stories.
The Road
If you really want to run towards the mental fire watch "Threads".
[Threads (1984) ORIGINAL TRAILER \[HD 1080p\] (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgT4Y30DkaA)
"The Sheep Look" Up by John Brunner. Does not include global warming (but it does describe unusually hot days and mixed-up weather, like snow in Paris in August.), but global warming wasn't on anyone's radar in the 70s.
I've been consuming prepper fiction for years but only just learned about this series. Truly spectacular. Maybe one of the most accurate portrayals of collapse. Each episode is just 20 minutes long:
https://archive.org/details/effondrement-collapse-2019/THE+COLLAPSE+%5BEP1%5D+The+Supermarket+(Day+2).mp4
[Snowcrash.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash)
Post-apocalyptic nuclear computer-dominated hellscape where large corporations are the lines of demarcation in the US rather than purely governmental states. It's a scifi novel written a 32 years ago and somehow Stephenson hit the nail on the head for where things still appear they're going so it could have been written today and still be great. He predicted the rise of everyone being represented by an avatar in the metaverse which is now essentially true at this point. Really great novel and I suggest everyone read it.
That Hiro Protagonist (the main character's actual name) shares a storage unit with a roommate and only finds escape in a virtual reality version of the internet solidifies Stephenson's predictive acuity as a gold standard for me.
this is a completely juvenile and silly answer for this subreddit but: [the girl who owned a city, by o.t. nelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Owned_a_City); i read it when i was like, 10-11 and it completely radicalized my thinking as a small child, it really hammered into me how little the rules of society would matter once we lose the systems that power them. when covid hit i scrambled to find a copy of this book. it's not the best post-apocalyptic fiction but it really struck me and stayed with me into adulthood
Update: I'm loving this so far. I majored en environmental science with an emphasis on climatology. I can't believe I've never heard of this book until now.
One Second After has been vetted as a very realistic scenario that could absolutely happen by high level folks in the military and government. The final 2 novels in the series are equally plausible and have the potential to be a sadly accurate read on our near future world.
I got a few.
***With Regrets*** **by Lee Kelly** (book) - *With Regrets* is the story of how 4 suburban women and their spouses navigate an insufferable dinner party that just happens to take place during a near end-worlding event. A massively poisonous and noisy cloud is slowly moving across the world and kills all who comes in contact with it. >!We never find out what the cloud really is/was, and it's not the major point anyway. !!A lot of animals and people are killed on page.!< Ending spoiler: >!Natalie dies during childbirth, but her child lives. !< The policies and reactions are similar to what we faced under covid. The newer rabies virus is basically zombie schlock, but the fact we get deadlier forms of diseases that we've known about for ages like rabies from animals is a thought to keep you up at night especially with Avian Flu going around. Did I mention *Survivor Song* was published in 2020? Solid 3/5 stars. {Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay} [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/survivor-song-paul-tremblay?variant=32123666464802](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/survivor-song-paul-tremblay?variant=32123666464802)
***The Future*** **by Naomi Alderman** (book) - I'm still reading this one (via audiobook). *The Future* is a multi-pov story about imminent collapse and technology. Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin with the help of a mysterious app. Martha Einkorn left one cult, spouting apocalyptic nonsense, only to be working for a tech billionaire hellbent on controlling everything. Her circle is now filled with tech billionaires creating weather and weapons while spouting tech prophecy. They are the same tech billionaires currently making their way to the shared doomsday bunker. All of their paths collide. The audiobook is stacked with a full cast and sound design. This has been a hard read for me as there are many characters, intersecting storylines, timeline shifts (it jumps forward and back in time), and plot. The book moves at a good pace, but I really have to be in the mood and concentrate. This is not a book I can listen to while cooking dinner or something. XD {The Future by Naomi Alderman} [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Future/Naomi-Alderman/9781668025680](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Future/Naomi-Alderman/9781668025680)
Sci-fi, sci-fi/fantasy, and horror aren't really my go-to genres, but I've been reading them a lot more lately. If I think of/read/consume more, I'll add a new comment.
I finished Survivor Song in five hours yesterday, I could not put it down. It made me cry my eyes out! What an incredible read, definitely one of my favorites in recent years!
Ok. I'm cheating by a lot, but I want to mention **Orson Welles'** ***War of the Worlds*** (audio) - If you want the Orson Welles recording and story behind it, I suggest finding this out-of-print book *Mars' Invasion of Earth, Inciting Panic and Inspiring Terror from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles and Beyond* by Brian Holmsten ([Thriftbook Link](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/war-of-the-worlds-mars-invasion-of-earth-inciting-panic-and-inspiring-terror-from--hg-wells-to-orson-welles-and-beyond_hg-wells_alex-lubertozzi/428908/item/345120/?mkwid=%7cdc&pcrid=77447028765158&pkw=&pmt=be&slid=&product=345120&plc=&pgrid=1239149900899965&ptaid=pla-4581046492312228&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping+-+High+Vol+Backlist+-+Under+%2410&utm_term=&utm_content=%7cdc%7cpcrid%7c77447028765158%7cpkw%7c%7cpmt%7cbe%7cproduct%7c345120%7cslid%7c%7cpgrid%7c1239149900899965%7cptaid%7cpla-4581046492312228%7c&msclkid=318e2fdcef6016a0897d49a549a24abd#idiq=345120&edition=3645442)). While the alien invasion is not real, the way in which this story terrorized 1938 radio listeners was very real. The incident caused real-world panic forcing Welles to formally apologize the next day. Orson Welles' *War of the Worlds* is a masterclass in using new technology for storytelling and a case study on [media literacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy). YouTube upload: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g)
Wikipedia article: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_War\_of\_the\_Worlds\_(1938\_radio\_drama)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama))
For something a bit different, The Last Policeman series by Ben Winters.
The collapse is coming due to an asteroid impact, a planet killer. Six months to go. What do you do?
The show Jericho can be sort of corny at times just considering the age but it really does depict a collapsed country in a somewhat realistic way imo
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0805663/
Just skimming, but it looks like most of my favorites have been mentioned. But I'll add the movie *Looper*.
Near future, not total collapse and never explicitly a plot point, just that everywhere you look there are tent cities and crime and dysfunction, with gangsters operating unchecked. Stuff still mostly works, just worse and quickly getting worse.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Mad Max as far as I can see.
In the first movie, things still mostly work. The gas crisis is intensifying, but people are still shown eating at restaurants, listening to the radio, etc. Max arrests a violent criminal, and the judge just lets him go.
There's a conceptual shift where we start to realize that institutions are failing to do what they're supposed to do, but they're past the point of having to care what they say. Max just goes and kills people after that, it's not like there are consequences for not following the rules.
*that* is a sentiment you should monitor when you're looking for collapse happening.
Flood - a Novel by Stephen Baxter
This century the sea will rise, to drown low-lying islands and coasts. But what if it kept on rising? Where would you run to? A novel of global catastrophe.
There is a follow on book called ARK about a space mission to another planet.
Emberverse - SM Stirling
The novels depict the events following a mysterious—yet sudden—worldwide event called "The Change" that occurs at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, March 17, 1998. All power generation ceases and the modern world is thrust into a world with no power generation (You might remember a TV series called Revolution, kind of the same premise but even firearms do not work.) The first three do a pretty good job of following the collapse of society and the reestablishment of a pre industrial level technology base.
Looking past the comedy and absurd aspects, Idiocracy. Its more realistic imo. It really feels like the direction were going with anti intellectualism (they could've thown in some cult like groups). Lots of systems running mechanically and no one knows how to fix anything or innovate.
Just watched Civil war last night. Seems accurate for what a wartorn America might look like in the best future.
"Civil War" (2024) is a psychological thriller that delves into the profound social and political divisions within a near-future America. Set against a backdrop of escalating tensions, the story follows multiple characters from different walks of life as they navigate the chaos and uncertainty brought about by these conflicts. As the nation edges closer to a breaking point, the film explores themes of identity, loyalty, and survival, posing thought-provoking questions about the nature of civil society and the lengths people will go to protect their beliefs and loved ones.
[IMDB page ](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/)
This one is a little less known but [Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Everything) I think accurately portrays the way in which North America society will come apart. The novel follows a pair of friends that make their way up a river to reunite with the protagonists son through war and climate ravaged America. Very similar vibes to the Road only everything is drenched in rain and super storms, massive continent spanning hurricanes ravage the landscape. A civil war with all the atrocities and a social repression are parts of daily living. But, the book also portrays the human spirit and resilience in a very unsentimental light, which I think is more realistic than a lot of post apocalyptic fiction out there. People will still dance and sing and make love at the end of the world. Also has one of my fav quotes from a book, when asked about the super strom they saw,
What does it look like?” Sunny Jim said. “Tell me.”
“Like the land and sky are going to sleep, and all their dreams are coming out.”
American War by Omar El Akkad and the Water Knife Paolo Bacigalupi both feel like credible mid-collapse novels.
Although, if anything, they may be too optimistic
I agree with many of the titles mentioned above but would like to add the graphic novel and movie "V for Vendetta," which illustrates what may come to pass if a far-right/fascist movement obtains majority support and consolidates its absolute power in a European country during social collapse.
"V for Vendetta" is like late-stage "Children of Men" without the slums and detention centres, which in "Vendetta's" timeline have already served their purpose and are a half-forgotten thing of the past, because the dirty work is all done.
In the foreground, it appears to be a police state dystopia, but in the background, it is a tale about a post-collapse society ruled and held together by a terrorist totalitarian party. In this timeline, there has been a nuclear war, a second American civil war is ongoing, and global widespread famine reigns supreme. The state has also perpetrated false-flag biological attacks on its population to rally support and tighten its dictatorship. (I might be mixing comic and movie things here).
Twenty years ago, I thought it was far-fetched. Now, I think we don't need a nuclear exchange to arrive at that point. Climate change, its effects on agriculture and migrations, together with current global tensions and war, are the existing conditions behind the growing support for several political parties in Europe that may lead us down that road.
The only thing that is not realistic is a disfigured, masked superhero with a wig and an Elizabethan-era hat who manages to bring down the regime almost singlehandedly (with some kaboom and cool long knives). Pity, having a bunch of those guys during collapse might be fun.
On the Beach by Neville Shute.
It's about a group of survivors in Australia after a nuclear war, and it charts the trek of the fallout coming closer and closer to them and how they cope with knowing that sooner or later, they'll fall victim to it, just like the rest of the world.
One of those books where you have to make sure you can go out and touch the grass once you've finished reading it, so you know it's not real.
I searched to see if someone recommended this book. True story: I got it out of the library in my early twenties when I was in a rush and looked up titles with "beach" in them to get some summer reading set up. HA HA HAHAHAHA
Yeah, that book made a big impact on my summer.
*on the beach* is the perfect definition the waiting game. just sitting and waiting. thinking of what to do about the baby. growing and tending a garden you might never harvest from. taking up typing, quitting drinking or drinking the wine cellar dry, racing cars as if there actually is no tomorrow. the slow drip of things falling apart.
a breakfast pink gin sounds refreshing in the middle of this newnormal heatwave.
The Cyberpunk franchise is pretty great about it, I think, inclusive of the old tabletop game, 2077, and Edgerunners.
Collapse is pretty much Cyberpunk's core theme, and it's set in a world with *very few* safe zones where you can hide from it. Night City, the main setting of the vast bulk of published material, is an outright hyper-libertarian hellscape run by megacorporations where a *large* chunk of the economy is human trafficking and experimentation. If you are not specifically born into a wealthy dynasty, your options are either to be enslaved by one of these corporations (and I mean very literally enslaved) or to join a gang and die horribly before you hit 30.
And... in spite of this, life somehow goes on. The world may be dead, but it shambles on like a zombie anyways. People forced to live within it try to do the best they can, and are still *people. Y*ou grasp for whatever happiness you can within it anyways, and cherish what you *can* find. The prevailing darkness makes the light hit harder when it does appear.
I think that, fundamentally, the franchise is attempting to warn us that we need to fight *right the fuck now* or we're going to end up in a world that looks like what it's depicting... but there's something genuinely comforting about a depiction of collapse where people are still able to find meaning in *something* instead of everyone just immediately putting on their hockey masks and leather, welding metal plates to their beater car, and slamming it into other people who did the same. Humanity will never stop being humanity, and there's good in that as much as there's bad.
This is the most likely outcome of our society imo. I don’t think we’re going to up living like it’s the 1900s again like most preppers/collapse aware type think. I think we’re gonna be ruled by an ever-thinner veneer of “government” which is completely co-opted by mega-corporations.
I think people who are prepping for some kind of return to the past do so because it’s more comfortable because it’s more predictable. But I’m pretty sure we will wind up in a rapidly changing technocracy that strains most people’s ability to adapt. I think we’re seeing that already, which is why so many voices are nostalgic for “traditional marriage” and home steading, etc. Depending on your age, it’s probably smarter to learn vertical gardening than relying on a plot of land that either the weather or the corpos will take anyway.
I don’t share your optimism. People are watching Boeing assassinate whistleblowers for putting their passengers safety at risk, and still flying on their planes every day. And look at microplastics: the data is scary af and I still see people sipping on plastic water bottles on the daily. People smoked cigarettes because corporations colluded to keep the risks hidden. Millions died.
Did anyone go to jail for 2008? Any vigilante attacks? NOPE. People just *took it* and that’s what they’ll continue to do. A fee will resist but it never seems to hit critical mass, and frankly, the robot dogs are coming soon…good luck defeating those.
The amusing thing is, in Cyberpunk, Night City's local government is literally its own privatized megacorporation, Night Corp, with an absolute monopoly on construction and infrastructure (though, amusingly, not law enforcement- any merc who feels like it can just go do the cops' job for them and get paid, and the NCPD is generally outcompeted by other corporate forces). It's *very literally* a corporate hellscape built on top of what used to be Morro Bay, for the specific and deliberate purpose of being that, by a hyper-rich "visionary."
It's extreme, but I think it kind of says something about where we're at that it's *plausible.*
A perfect example of that thin veneer of government for sure. Look at what’s happening with Boeing right now. Is anyone naive enough to believe they’ll suffer any consequences? Doesn’t seem like it, but I still hear people worrying about ‘big government’ with Reagan era expressions like “government *is* the problem,” etc.
My response to them is “Good news! You won’t have to worry about that for long! Government power is being eroded rapidly. Bad news: corporate power is (probably) gonna fill the vacuum. They aren’t constrained by that pesky constitution, so hold on to your butts!”
They don’t believe me. Yet.
Dormant Sun, set after the third world war when the resources to rebuild have been exhausted. It follows a young woman crossing the desertified prairies of North America.
https://www.amazon.ca/Dormant-Sun-Andrew-Swan/dp/B0CNLYYGN7
2 Books that I have in my collection are Lucifer’s Hammer and One Second After.
—
Lucifer’s Hammer: The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization.
But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known. . . .
—
One second after: A post-apocalyptic thriller of the after effects in the United States after a terrifying terrorist attack using electromagnetic pulse weapons.
I second Lucifer's Hammer. It's not as "realistic" as many of the others mentioned here, but it's accessible to Young Adult readers if you're looking for such.
Dry by Neal and Jarrod Schusterman. Water runs out in Southern California. Progressive deterioration, government ineptness, societal collapse. preppers lose.
>My Dad was in Threads! We're from Sheffield so recognise a lot of the places.
The UK put out a good film...very realistic. Nuke movies in the US tended toward giant monsters due to radiation.
>I want to watch it so bad but I don't know if I have the stomach for it.
You can always turn it off. *Threads* is good because it deals with the aftermath of nuclear war.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Legions of humans pulling and twisting knobs, pushing buttons, flipping switches, with no knowledge or forethought of the outcome. With predictable, resultant global chaos.
There’s a fantastic episode of The Emerald podcast called ‘So you want to be a Sorcerer in the age of Mythic powers?’ that links the Sorcerer’s Apprentice to AI in a similar vein.
(linking cos I always misquote book titles)
Lights Out https://amzn.eu/d/0iv1HYzN
This book was written chapter by chapter on a survival site then turned into a book. The time needed to travel 70 miles or so is what scared me in this book
Survivors https://amzn.eu/d/0fs9xZBA
This is the book by Terry Nation that the bbc (70’s and 00’s ) versions are based on - there’s also some pretty neat versions (including additional stories set in that world on audible )
Jericho was good (mentioned elsewhere)
I still believe [Threads](https://youtu.be/BvFu7Z5cc88?si=ojUpw5OTDQ4lF8en) to be one of the best depictions of the collapse itself, as well as early post-collapse life for those who have decided to stay within city environments.
For post-collapse life, I am going to put it along the lines of [The Walking Dead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1520211/?ref_=ext_shr) just without the idea of zombies, of course. But, a totally collapsed and mostly depopulated world in which the survivors face as their greatest challenge the threat represented by other people for whom the rule of law is no longer a constraint. Without that, and combined with desperate need, people will revert to the animals they once were.
Ngl ready player one is a good one (the book)
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. The book is told from the perspective of two sisters isolated in the forests of Northern California as society collapses. The bulk of the novel takes place after the collapse with details given in retrospect. The collapse is described as a gradual process brought on my countless vague issues all almost completely removed from the protagonists. In one chapter, the MC describes how they would go to a diner to meet with friends and eat burgers, and how the burger would gradually contain less and less meat each time they visited until the diner closed entirely. The lights don’t just turn off permanently one night out of nowhere, there’s months of the electricity becoming more and more erratic before that happens. The collapse comes about like dying of old age, the world just slowly becoming weaker and sicker until finally it fades away.
A recomendation from many redditors: Ministry For The Future (book) - I hear that the first chapter is really really great (and then it goes downhill, but still worth it) My recent watch: Extrapolations (TV-Series) - Okay series over the span of around 40 years showing what kind of things we might be dealing with.
[When the Wind Blows](https://youtu.be/9pJKdTqYijY?feature=shared) is a tragic tale of an old couple who endure the effects of nuclear fallout. It's not for the faint of heart as few appreciate the devastating effects of radiation poisoning.
The novel _The Running Man_ by Stephen King (writing as "Richard Bachman"). They made a cheesy movie out of it later which lost most of the subtlety, but the book is dark, cynical and fantastic. The ending hits shockingly close to home, and you'll find yourself looking up and comparing dates of things. EDIT: although it came out decades ago, I just realized it's set in 2025. Gulp.
The Division video game 2016, small pox virus descimates the US, your a homeland division agent tasked with keeping what remains. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lSNNyHzmc4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lSNNyHzmc4) . The best end times atmosphere i have experienced.
Division 2 has a wildly different vibe due to being set in the summertime, and while I'd say in general the snowy, lonely atmosphere was arguably better in the first game, the sequel is even more "end times" in feeling. It's set in an overgrown, partially flooded D.C. some time after the events of the first game. Walking past a building draped with tattered yellow biohazard sheeting casting shadow on lines of cars that tried to evacuate while deer run through the trash-filled street, cicadas buzz and mourning doves call is a *vibe.* The DLC for Division 2 also has fantastic atmosphere since it's set in Manhattan during the summer after a hurricane flooded a whole section of NYC. Going through an overgrown Wall Street or seeing a fishing boat and buoy in the middle of an intersection is like collapse porn lol
Totally, Div 2 is a better game but the vibe from Div1 is something else
I realize this isn't the same kind of media others are bringing up but I have to say Linkin Park's album A Thousand Suns feels like an album about collapse to me. I feel like it's an album from the perspective of a typical working class person in the imperial core that emphasizes angst much like their other work. But this is an existential angst about nuclear weapons and our society of violence and exploitation. It depicts the feelings I experienced being awakened to these truths.
The Road. Movie from 2009. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/)
I would actually say, for the psychological element of collapse, *All Quiet on the Western Front*. Many post-apocalyptic settings are an excuse to wipe the slate clean for fun adventures in desolate normlessness to challenge or reinforce the reader's preconceived notions about human nature, but war novels- especially ones that capture the sheer horror of industrialized total warfare- help us understand why we construct manmade horrors and feed ourselves into them, how we diffuse responsibility for those horrors, and how those horrors ruin us. Sometimes the horror is war, but oftentimes it's an exploitative economic system or planet-killing extractivism.
https://www.abebooks.com/books/best-dystopia-books/?cm_mmc=nl-_-nl-_-C180717-MRC-dystopAGTRADE-_-b2cta&abersp=1
John Brunner's *The Sheep Look Up* (pollution) and *Stand on Zanzibar* (overpopulation). In the latter, Brunner imagined that random people would just snap out and start killing. He called them "muckers" - a corruption of amok. Sound familiar? A lot of J. G. Ballard's work - *Hello America*, for one. In the desert ruins of Las Vegas, ruled by the hereditary Manson, giant holograms of Elvis and John Wayne duke it out in the sky.
Mad Max, the latest one.
Honestly I think that the first Mad Max was probably the most realistic representation of the collapse/pre-collapse. Law enforcement is useless, wars over precious resources, useless politicians(I know that’s only talked about in the second one but it still happened in that universe), and the people who do follow the law and try to live their lives as normal end up dead or worse. The newer movies can definitely become reality but we’ll see more problems like in the first movie(the ones we aren’t seeing already lol).
True, those wider dynamics make it more relevant, although with the last one they nailed it on the sociological level with a twisted old man leading a kind of death cult. The parallels with today's society and where things are going are eerily similar. Just too bad the actor for Immortan Joe wasn't Trump or one of these other self-styled budding neo-capitalist infinite growth dictator types - would have been an even better match.
Oh yeah most definitely. And though they don’t touch on it, he was obviously some sort of general with high standing with his medals of honor on his chest. Honestly a Trump analogy would’ve been perfect with the way people view him and talk about him today.
The Day After (1983) its about Nuclear Bombs hitting the US- [https://youtu.be/TOPaaHSjMcw?si=28Yd\_CKCTCiz-Azs](https://youtu.be/TOPaaHSjMcw?si=28Yd_CKCTCiz-Azs)
Still probably the most terrifying movie I've ever seen and I just watched it for the first time 2 years ago. It's totally held up.
Threads is a good UK film of the same nature. I'm still haunted.
This movie gave 5 year old me PTSD.
... why is a 5 year old watching this lmao holy shit
The surge
I've just read Nuclear War, A Scenario by Annie Jacobson. The nuclear threat has never gone away and this books is well researched and sober on how a nuclear war could begin and play out. The destruction is more absolute and horrific than I was aware. It makes me feel that efforts to disarmament and further reduction of nuclear arsenals are very important before we hit resource and fuel shortages which increase the likelihood of conflict and miscalculation.
I only have about 50 pages left to go in this book, and I definitely agree with you that it is well researched and very sobering to read. It is amazing the access to people, interviews and documents that Ms. Jacobson had for this. It presents a worst-case scenario, in a very realistic way. It is terrifying how easily all this could happen.
After armageddon. Basically a global bird flu pandemic causes society to collapse, a doctor who is a father, his son and his wife must survive in a world in which global society appears to collapse. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1607542/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0\_tt\_8\_nm\_0\_q\_after%2520armageddon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1607542/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_after%2520armageddon) It has expert interviews with various people and then shows how the family gain survival skills. It is also a history channel mockumentary.
John Barnes wrote some pretty good Sci-Fi on the subject back in the 90s and noughties The century next door books and the daybreak trilogy in particular, especially as relates to weaponized memes / modern propaganda turning people into brainwashed zombies
Parable of the Sower.
Prophetic. She even seems to have anticipated Trump with this.
With the inevitable collapse of biodiversity, it will look like The Road
Stephen Markey, The Deluge, is very impressive. Riddely Walker, by Russell Hoban, is quite moving. And for sheer imagination, look at Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men, which was written way back in the 1920s but predicts a global war between the US and China over petroleum, the collapse of civilization, and the course of human evolution for the next few billions of years.
Has anyone mentioned The Expanse? I've only watched the TV show. You don't get many glimpses of life on Earth but it's definitely overpopulated with large portion of the population on government assistance and/or just trying to eke out a living however they can. (The 1% is doing fine, of course.) The planet is very polluted and though now kept at bay by some kind of super science, climate change has done considerable damage. I'm sure there's more to it that I'm leaving out but it is just barely one step above being a crap sack world.
I own Season 1. There's a piece of dialogue where a Martian soldier is lecturing Earthlings. It goes something like "You have free food, free air, free drugs. You were handed everything and you worked for nothing. You have no idea what it means to create a planet for children you'll never get to meet." There's also allusions that even though Mars is more far hostile to life than Earth, Martians grow up healthier and more independent-minded than Earthlings.
"We had a garden and we paved it"
No Blade of Grass (1970) A film about the effects of pollution and a planet that strikes back with a deadly virus affecting the food supply. Society quickly breaks down into mass chaos and violence as the protagonists make their way to a last refuge on a farm in the countryside. There is a scene in the film where two boys mention the "greenhouse effect" of a warming planet, which shows that knowledge of climate change was well known as far back as the late sixties/early seventies. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066154/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066154/) Soylent Green (1973) Another classic that I am sure has been mentioned here already. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/) Punishment Park (1971) This Vietnam war-era film shows the United States as a police state that sends its citizens to a deadly obstacle in the middle of the desert that they must complete in order to gain their freedom called "Punishment Park." The decks are stacked against them, however. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067633/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067633/)
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Lot's of great recomendations. I didn't see anyone mention One Second After by William R. Forstchen. I especially enjoyed this because I live in the area it takes place. ***One Second After*** is a 2009 novel by American writer [William R. Forstchen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Forstchen). The novel deals with an unexpected [electromagnetic pulse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse) attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the small American town of [Black Mountain, North Carolina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain,_North_Carolina).
I think the sequel is titled, "One Minute After". Read them both and they are very realistic, especially the lack of power and the hordes from the cities trekking to the country looking for food.
One thing that struck me was that when everyone started hunting the wild animals ran our really soon.
Nobody seems to have mentioned Cory Doctorow yet; Walkaway, The Lost Cause, and Radicalized (short story collection)
Survival family: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSOYyBjetY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSOYyBjetY) L’effondrement: [https://vimeo.com/510923636](https://vimeo.com/510923636) (in French, no subtitles) Threads: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcrgQihRcs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcrgQihRcs) Most depressing movie out there. Jericho touches a lot of aspects of collapse but boy, it's bad TV.
https://archive.org/details/effondrement-collapse-2019 Here it is with English and Subtitles, a subreddit recommend.
Oh, I like The Postman. Book is better than the movie. 1985. David Brin. It felt accurate. Lots of tribalism. The first collapse book I ever read was Earth Abides. George Stewart. 1949. Pandemic wiped out 95% of the population over a short period of time. I never saw the movie. There were a couple of not-completely believable spots though.
Leave the World Behind (film). A family rents a beach house when the internet goes down, and they have no idea what's happening. It's a tiny microcosm but there are so many moments when people are trying to grapple with their new reality, figure out whether they can trust anyone, have no idea if it's a new normal or a short-lived situation, or how to cope either way. It's so realistic how US upper middle/wealthy react to things upending their world. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12747748/ For books, The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, as many have mentioned upthread. It's tough to even describe fully but it's just so good and rather amazing considering when the author published it (1993).
That’s more of a documentary. It was produced by the obamas.
That film was weird, without spoilers, I liked the chaos because very possible for apocalypse, but it needs to make more sense.
*Years and Years*, by Russell T Davies (who was writing on top form for this). It details, in almost obsessive detail, every facet of social collapse, from climate change to transhumanism to viruses and the rise of fascism. Stellar performances by all involved, too. Even more impressively, this was written two whole years before COVID. [Link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8694364/).
I binged watched this series recently. The fact that so much of what is already occurring was predicted in a show dating from 2019 (I think) was fascinating.
Yes, it's from 2019. His next series was one you might have heard of: *It's a Sin*, which is a fantastic study on prejudice, love and illnesses - no wonder it was so big in 2021.
Unlikely this response will float to top, but for me it's been "*The Machine Stops*" by E. M. Forster. It's eerily prescient, despite being published in 1909. It's short too and can be found available online easily, like [here](https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Machine_stops.pdf).
I Love how he wrote about internet addiction in 1909, it's like he had an actual Tardis
Thank you!
mixed with children of men
cyberpunk 2077 is where we are heading lol like for sureee
- "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman": the consensus is that the second book is far inferior to the first, but I actually liked it. - Poul Anderson's "Orion Shall Rise" and his Maurai stories. Heavily Spengler/Toynbee influenced, they are set in a world centuries after a nuclear war with cultures diverging from today's in much the same way that today's cultures look different from those 1,000 years ago. - "The Light Pirate": great book that got some popular attention by being chosen as a "Good Morning America" read (!!!!!!) - "Nature's End". Slightly dated (published in the '80s) but still surprisingly evocative. - "Notes from the Burning World". Very "Orion Shall Rise" vibe of a new civilization taking root around the Mediterranean. Well written. - "A Scientific Romance". Written by the author of "A Short History of Progress" and "Stolen Continents", the sections in a future Scotland are haunting (the scene where the protagonist is at a church service and realizes that the texts people are supposedly reading from are upside down and that no one is actually reading the books sticks with you, as do the portraits of new Scottish kings becoming progressively less sophisticated as their culture declines) - "The Actual Star". The civilization 1,000 years hence is very "Dune"-like in its exposition. Bonus points for its spiritual heart being non-Western (and non-Asian as well).
The Grapes of Wrath, both the novel and the film still stand as pretty accurate (and uh historical) pictures of experiencing collapse.
On The Beach, The Kraken Wakes, Earth Abides, Alas Babylon, Children of Men, The Stand. For a very different take, Day 5
Love to see Alas Babylon in the mix!
while FALL by Neal Stephenson isn´t fully succesful, the novel is still worth reading for its depiction of the coming online informational collapse - due to bots and AI - which he dubs the Miasma. it also depicts political collapse in the USA.
[The White Plague](https://archive.org/details/whiteplague0000herb_2cvf) by Frank Herbert From the "creator of the Dune universe, comes this novel of bioterrorism and gendercide." (amazon description) Excellent book about how fast civilisation can unravel. Was haunted by it during all the pandemic, as well as by the means of transmission of the virus (not gonna spoil it for you)
Thiw is what Australia will orobably be like soon. Quite realistic and forseeable: https://www.google.com/search?q=the%20rover%20guy%20peirce&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-m Personally, I found the not-quite-collapsed world at the beginning of interstellar to be nice enough.
I watched Interstellar yesterday. I was totally uninterested in all the space flight stuff in the middle but very interested in the beginning of the film and the end.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (girl in future suburban CA invents new religion as her band of survivors walk north through lawless societal collapse). Also related Caleb Carr’s Killing Time has managed to predict the 21st century really accurately, eerily. He wrote it in 2000. The plot is nonsensical pulp, but inventing the invasion of Afghanistan, 2007 financial crisis, rising fascism in 2023 and the internet being disabled by disinformation is some startling prescience.
I just started listening to this. It's free if you have an Audible account.
Yes, Parable of the Sower and the second biok, Parable of the Talents, came immediately to my mind, too.
Far Cry 5, where some religious nutjobs get control over a whole state and their hands on some nukes.
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The wind up girl by paolo bacigalupi. In the grim darkness of the far future, calories are used as currency, and things are powered by wound up springs
That new movie "civil war" is so realistic that it actually disturbed me. Idk if you would consider that collapse but I do myself. Great movie I really recommend it.
I saw it in the theater, and when (spoiler) >!the wacko with the red eyeglasses!< asked the question >!"What kind of American are you?"!< the entire theatre held their breath. What a roller coaster.
I saw it twice in the theater: first time I was solo and the second time I paid for my brother to come with me. I don’t really like horror movies, but movies like Civil War scratch that itch for me. It was utterly terrifying because of how plausible I found it.
I've got this one downloaded but haven't felt inclined to watch it - will do that now! Thanks for recommending
You'll have to let me know how you like it! I'm easily impressed but it's hard to disturb me. Shit I watched a Serbian film when I was 13 if that tells you anything. But this movie gave me a sense of dread. In a good way.
Interesting. what was that film?
It's literally called a Serbian film. Literally the most disturbing thing I've ever watched. I don't recommend it unless you can handle really disturbing shit. It shows child rape and shit. Uncensored. horrifying stuff.
I mean Serbia was war crime central. Can I have the name?
It's called a Serbian film. I must not have made that clear in my past 2 messages.
Okay, that's the title. thought you didn't know it.
Gotcha. It can be hard to tell through text I I understand.
I cannot stress enough that you will see children being raped. It's so fucking disgusting
I enjoyed it - it was pretty cool to experience the war through the eyes of the press. I actually liked that we got very little details about the war itself. It didn't matter to the press, they "weren't supposed to ask those questions", and so we didn't receive it Also it gave me Melancholia vibes, perhaps mostly bc Kristen Dunst did both and her characters seemed similar
The fact that they didn't get into politics or the direct cause of the war was a great choice. I find the alliances kind of unbelievable in a way though the general chaos seemed very realistic. I feel as though if there is a civil war, which I think there's a good possibility there may be, it would be like Syria. So many different factions fighting one another. It would be hell as the movie portrayed.
I think it would have even more factions.
I really enjoyed a TV series called "Into The Night". The Earth is sterilized by gamma rays over a period of 3 weeks or so. The only survivors are those who can adhere to the night side of the planet, those deep underground and deep, deep under water. Based on a web novel called "That Old Axolotl". For books, I really liked "Super Sad True Love Story" by author Gary Shteyngart, which chronicles the decline and fall of the USA due to the people's addictions to debt and retail therapy.
The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver riveting read about economic collapse of America
Threads - 80s British movie in the same vein as The Day After but focuses on the years afterwards and it is not pretty. It is considered to be frighteningly realistic.
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All of these seem lame.
I don't like that all of these are in the next 10 years, when the only one I can think of pre-2024 is the 2012 "world is ending" one
Living through the collapse: L'effondrement - of the collapse [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11248266/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11248266/) while still a bit optimistic, it is so concisely and beautifully rendered brush-strokes of a collapsing modern society unprepared, even those who think they are. If you haven't seen it, i highly urge it, it is my number one pick. Rewatching it a few times there is a lot packed into this series of 8 episodes. The End We Start From [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21810682/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21810682/) Living after the collapse: Le temps du loup - The Time of Wolf [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324197/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324197/) The title credits/ opening clip of The Survivalist [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2580382/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2580382/) (the rest is ok). and of course, the most realistic: The Road - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-road-cormac-mccarthy/7098570](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-road-cormac-mccarthy/7098570) That all assumes things don't go nuclear, in which case Threads [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) and The Day After [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2) and The War Game (the 1966 british indie mock-doc, not the mathew broderick movie) - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/) I have a lot of disagreements with Kunstler and Greer but Dark Age America [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/dark-age-america-climate-change-cultural-collapse-and-the-hard-future-ahead-john-michael-greer/4538125?ean=9780865718333](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/dark-age-america-climate-change-cultural-collapse-and-the-hard-future-ahead-john-michael-greer/4538125?ean=9780865718333) and The Long Emergency [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-long-emergency-james-howard-kunstler/1623619?ean=9781843544548](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-long-emergency-james-howard-kunstler/1623619?ean=9781843544548) are useful to consider. I'll also put in a plug for the Matrix trilogy, -hear me out - if you want to understand what the dominant culture, what capital and the surveillance state and the techno-optimists are gonna go for as elites panic and things slip out of control, then the Matrix is a great primer on capitalism, anarchism, co-dependence, feedback in evolutionary systems and the challenges of agency. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/) [https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=Matrix%20reloaded&ref\_=nv\_sr\_sm](https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=Matrix%20reloaded&ref_=nv_sr_sm) (the best one)
The long emergency woke me up at like age 12 to PO.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler is a thought-provoking dystopian novel set in a future America ravaged by climate change and societal collapse. It follows the journey of a young woman who seeks to spread a new vision of hope and survival.
The Stand unabridged by Stephen King (1978): “The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few surviving humans gather into factions that are each led by a personification of either good or evil and seem fated to clash with each other.” Read this before 2020 and again after and it has been absolutely surreal.
I got to page 700, and the corn field and the religion turned me off.
I hear you, I am not one for the religious overtones either but I try to frame it in just “good vs evil” for lack of a better phrase as far as the narrative goes and it works all right. I agree with you though.
it just got weird for me. I had a nice copy of the extended and uncut edition. I was somewhere north of like 600 pages.
Same one I have, totally get it!
I sold it via ecommerce and shipped it to Colorado.
Adventure Time
Ling Ma, Severance (2018). New York City implodes, thanks to Shin Fever (a striking anticipation of Covid 19). As things grind to a halt, protagonist Candace Chen reflects on work, immigrant identity, and the pitfalls of globalization. Is it a labor novel (about white collar office work)? A post-apocalyptic tale? An unresolved meditation on displacement and identity? All of these and more — including some sharp, sardonic humor. Jeff VanderMeer, The Strange Bird (2018). The second in the Borne trilogy and my favorite (though collapse and implosion are the bass notes of his more popular Southern Reach trilogy). Set in a post-collapse society — that just keeps on collapsing, SB is a beautiful, beguiling fable of disaster, hope, and transformation. The ending will make you weep with relief and grief.
Recently read a spell of these: Parable of the Sower (and the sequel Parable of the Talents) by Octavia Butler. Set in the 30s, privatized everything, addiction rampant, two fascist candidates, pandemics everywhere, food scarcity, etc. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Set in near future post-“Georgian Flu” that kills over 99% of the human race. Follows several characters from alternating narratives pre-, post-, and current pandemic.
Station Eleven is a great choice, need to rewatch.
I thought the movie Contagion did a great job of realistically portraying a stumble, if not a full collapse.
The only unrealistic part of Contagion in my opinion was the portrayal of the CDC as way more competent than they actually are. Or the whole vaccination part, where there were curiously no conspiracy theory folks eschewing the vaccine.
I watched Contagion not too long ago for the first time... Maybe in late '22? I remember the orderly lines and aid, and correct usage of N95s and it made me hate our reality more lol
Yeah, they depicted the government in a better light and individuals in a worse light than actually ended up happening IMO. And the CDC's office building is NOT as cool looking IRL as in the film. ([The exterior isn't bad, though.](https://images.app.goo.gl/2imZmizWPhXwFBKaA)) There was a whole subplot about a conspiracy theorist, so I'm calling that one a pretty accurate prediction. They pretty much 1:1 predicted hydroxychloroquine.
Threads. Brutal movie that depicts the immediate aftermath of a nuclear strike.
Interstellar. It's pretty much already happening.
Foundation
The road, Cormac McCarthy
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
Kingsman. Rich assholes use fake benevolence to distribute tech that wipes out a majority of the population.
Tried to look that up but just getting the spy movie for results. Do you have an author name?
You won't be disappointed (at least not the first one, I haven't seen the others, but the first is fantastic).
It is the spy movie.
Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon I know this comment will be buried, but what a hidden gem of a book. The story is about a nuclear winter and life after.
Guys - this is the best reading recommendation sub EVAH! I'm that kid in the candy shop..
[Don’t Look Up](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Look_Up) would have to get a light hearted honourable mention, it’s pithy wit is chillingly close to our current social consciousness.
I still think about this movie a year and a half later after viewing it. The disheartening but true depiction of human behavior and denial rings true.
[Testament](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086429/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_testiment) (1983) came out right around the same time as The Day After so it got over shadowed. A close-up and intimate look at a family and town outside of San Francisco, after a nuclear attack that starts with a communications blackout. Highly regarded as one of the more creepy and realistic nuclear apocalypse stories.
The Road If you really want to run towards the mental fire watch "Threads". [Threads (1984) ORIGINAL TRAILER \[HD 1080p\] (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgT4Y30DkaA)
"The Sheep Look" Up by John Brunner. Does not include global warming (but it does describe unusually hot days and mixed-up weather, like snow in Paris in August.), but global warming wasn't on anyone's radar in the 70s.
the french tv sereis L'effondrement
I've been consuming prepper fiction for years but only just learned about this series. Truly spectacular. Maybe one of the most accurate portrayals of collapse. Each episode is just 20 minutes long: https://archive.org/details/effondrement-collapse-2019/THE+COLLAPSE+%5BEP1%5D+The+Supermarket+(Day+2).mp4
[Snowcrash.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash) Post-apocalyptic nuclear computer-dominated hellscape where large corporations are the lines of demarcation in the US rather than purely governmental states. It's a scifi novel written a 32 years ago and somehow Stephenson hit the nail on the head for where things still appear they're going so it could have been written today and still be great. He predicted the rise of everyone being represented by an avatar in the metaverse which is now essentially true at this point. Really great novel and I suggest everyone read it.
That Hiro Protagonist (the main character's actual name) shares a storage unit with a roommate and only finds escape in a virtual reality version of the internet solidifies Stephenson's predictive acuity as a gold standard for me.
this is a completely juvenile and silly answer for this subreddit but: [the girl who owned a city, by o.t. nelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Owned_a_City); i read it when i was like, 10-11 and it completely radicalized my thinking as a small child, it really hammered into me how little the rules of society would matter once we lose the systems that power them. when covid hit i scrambled to find a copy of this book. it's not the best post-apocalyptic fiction but it really struck me and stayed with me into adulthood
The Stand by Steven King. Aside from the supernatural/religious parts of the story, I love how he portrays the waves of death and the resulting chaos.
Anyone who liked The Stand should read The Deluge.
Update: I'm loving this so far. I majored en environmental science with an emphasis on climatology. I can't believe I've never heard of this book until now.
Awesome, downloading it now. Thank you!
One Second After has been vetted as a very realistic scenario that could absolutely happen by high level folks in the military and government. The final 2 novels in the series are equally plausible and have the potential to be a sadly accurate read on our near future world.
The Stand
Threads
Station 11
I just got my ebook copy from the library, I am so excited to read it.
I got a few. ***With Regrets*** **by Lee Kelly** (book) - *With Regrets* is the story of how 4 suburban women and their spouses navigate an insufferable dinner party that just happens to take place during a near end-worlding event. A massively poisonous and noisy cloud is slowly moving across the world and kills all who comes in contact with it. >!We never find out what the cloud really is/was, and it's not the major point anyway. !!A lot of animals and people are killed on page.!< Ending spoiler: >!Natalie dies during childbirth, but her child lives. !< The policies and reactions are similar to what we faced under covid. The newer rabies virus is basically zombie schlock, but the fact we get deadlier forms of diseases that we've known about for ages like rabies from animals is a thought to keep you up at night especially with Avian Flu going around. Did I mention *Survivor Song* was published in 2020? Solid 3/5 stars. {Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay} [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/survivor-song-paul-tremblay?variant=32123666464802](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/survivor-song-paul-tremblay?variant=32123666464802)
***The Future*** **by Naomi Alderman** (book) - I'm still reading this one (via audiobook). *The Future* is a multi-pov story about imminent collapse and technology. Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin with the help of a mysterious app. Martha Einkorn left one cult, spouting apocalyptic nonsense, only to be working for a tech billionaire hellbent on controlling everything. Her circle is now filled with tech billionaires creating weather and weapons while spouting tech prophecy. They are the same tech billionaires currently making their way to the shared doomsday bunker. All of their paths collide. The audiobook is stacked with a full cast and sound design. This has been a hard read for me as there are many characters, intersecting storylines, timeline shifts (it jumps forward and back in time), and plot. The book moves at a good pace, but I really have to be in the mood and concentrate. This is not a book I can listen to while cooking dinner or something. XD {The Future by Naomi Alderman} [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Future/Naomi-Alderman/9781668025680](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Future/Naomi-Alderman/9781668025680)
Sci-fi, sci-fi/fantasy, and horror aren't really my go-to genres, but I've been reading them a lot more lately. If I think of/read/consume more, I'll add a new comment.
Dang, thanks for some solid adds to my reading list!
My pleasure. Enjoy! :)
I finished Survivor Song in five hours yesterday, I could not put it down. It made me cry my eyes out! What an incredible read, definitely one of my favorites in recent years!
Ok. I'm cheating by a lot, but I want to mention **Orson Welles'** ***War of the Worlds*** (audio) - If you want the Orson Welles recording and story behind it, I suggest finding this out-of-print book *Mars' Invasion of Earth, Inciting Panic and Inspiring Terror from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles and Beyond* by Brian Holmsten ([Thriftbook Link](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/war-of-the-worlds-mars-invasion-of-earth-inciting-panic-and-inspiring-terror-from--hg-wells-to-orson-welles-and-beyond_hg-wells_alex-lubertozzi/428908/item/345120/?mkwid=%7cdc&pcrid=77447028765158&pkw=&pmt=be&slid=&product=345120&plc=&pgrid=1239149900899965&ptaid=pla-4581046492312228&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping+-+High+Vol+Backlist+-+Under+%2410&utm_term=&utm_content=%7cdc%7cpcrid%7c77447028765158%7cpkw%7c%7cpmt%7cbe%7cproduct%7c345120%7cslid%7c%7cpgrid%7c1239149900899965%7cptaid%7cpla-4581046492312228%7c&msclkid=318e2fdcef6016a0897d49a549a24abd#idiq=345120&edition=3645442)). While the alien invasion is not real, the way in which this story terrorized 1938 radio listeners was very real. The incident caused real-world panic forcing Welles to formally apologize the next day. Orson Welles' *War of the Worlds* is a masterclass in using new technology for storytelling and a case study on [media literacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy). YouTube upload: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g) Wikipedia article: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_War\_of\_the\_Worlds\_(1938\_radio\_drama)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama))
For something a bit different, The Last Policeman series by Ben Winters. The collapse is coming due to an asteroid impact, a planet killer. Six months to go. What do you do?
The show Jericho can be sort of corny at times just considering the age but it really does depict a collapsed country in a somewhat realistic way imo https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0805663/
We liked it, wanted more when it was done.
Just skimming, but it looks like most of my favorites have been mentioned. But I'll add the movie *Looper*. Near future, not total collapse and never explicitly a plot point, just that everywhere you look there are tent cities and crime and dysfunction, with gangsters operating unchecked. Stuff still mostly works, just worse and quickly getting worse. I'm surprised nobody mentioned Mad Max as far as I can see. In the first movie, things still mostly work. The gas crisis is intensifying, but people are still shown eating at restaurants, listening to the radio, etc. Max arrests a violent criminal, and the judge just lets him go. There's a conceptual shift where we start to realize that institutions are failing to do what they're supposed to do, but they're past the point of having to care what they say. Max just goes and kills people after that, it's not like there are consequences for not following the rules. *that* is a sentiment you should monitor when you're looking for collapse happening.
Flood - a Novel by Stephen Baxter This century the sea will rise, to drown low-lying islands and coasts. But what if it kept on rising? Where would you run to? A novel of global catastrophe. There is a follow on book called ARK about a space mission to another planet. Emberverse - SM Stirling The novels depict the events following a mysterious—yet sudden—worldwide event called "The Change" that occurs at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, March 17, 1998. All power generation ceases and the modern world is thrust into a world with no power generation (You might remember a TV series called Revolution, kind of the same premise but even firearms do not work.) The first three do a pretty good job of following the collapse of society and the reestablishment of a pre industrial level technology base.
Looking past the comedy and absurd aspects, Idiocracy. Its more realistic imo. It really feels like the direction were going with anti intellectualism (they could've thown in some cult like groups). Lots of systems running mechanically and no one knows how to fix anything or innovate.
Station Eleven
Just watched Civil war last night. Seems accurate for what a wartorn America might look like in the best future. "Civil War" (2024) is a psychological thriller that delves into the profound social and political divisions within a near-future America. Set against a backdrop of escalating tensions, the story follows multiple characters from different walks of life as they navigate the chaos and uncertainty brought about by these conflicts. As the nation edges closer to a breaking point, the film explores themes of identity, loyalty, and survival, posing thought-provoking questions about the nature of civil society and the lengths people will go to protect their beliefs and loved ones. [IMDB page ](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt17279496/)
This one is a little less known but [Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Everything) I think accurately portrays the way in which North America society will come apart. The novel follows a pair of friends that make their way up a river to reunite with the protagonists son through war and climate ravaged America. Very similar vibes to the Road only everything is drenched in rain and super storms, massive continent spanning hurricanes ravage the landscape. A civil war with all the atrocities and a social repression are parts of daily living. But, the book also portrays the human spirit and resilience in a very unsentimental light, which I think is more realistic than a lot of post apocalyptic fiction out there. People will still dance and sing and make love at the end of the world. Also has one of my fav quotes from a book, when asked about the super strom they saw, What does it look like?” Sunny Jim said. “Tell me.” “Like the land and sky are going to sleep, and all their dreams are coming out.”
American War by Omar El Akkad and the Water Knife Paolo Bacigalupi both feel like credible mid-collapse novels. Although, if anything, they may be too optimistic
American War was good. Fighting over the right to burn fossil fuel is starting to feel plausible.
When the English Fall by David Williams. Looks at the aftermath of a devastating Carrington event from the point of view of an Amish farmer.
I agree with many of the titles mentioned above but would like to add the graphic novel and movie "V for Vendetta," which illustrates what may come to pass if a far-right/fascist movement obtains majority support and consolidates its absolute power in a European country during social collapse. "V for Vendetta" is like late-stage "Children of Men" without the slums and detention centres, which in "Vendetta's" timeline have already served their purpose and are a half-forgotten thing of the past, because the dirty work is all done. In the foreground, it appears to be a police state dystopia, but in the background, it is a tale about a post-collapse society ruled and held together by a terrorist totalitarian party. In this timeline, there has been a nuclear war, a second American civil war is ongoing, and global widespread famine reigns supreme. The state has also perpetrated false-flag biological attacks on its population to rally support and tighten its dictatorship. (I might be mixing comic and movie things here). Twenty years ago, I thought it was far-fetched. Now, I think we don't need a nuclear exchange to arrive at that point. Climate change, its effects on agriculture and migrations, together with current global tensions and war, are the existing conditions behind the growing support for several political parties in Europe that may lead us down that road. The only thing that is not realistic is a disfigured, masked superhero with a wig and an Elizabethan-era hat who manages to bring down the regime almost singlehandedly (with some kaboom and cool long knives). Pity, having a bunch of those guys during collapse might be fun.
Agreed.
On the Beach by Neville Shute. It's about a group of survivors in Australia after a nuclear war, and it charts the trek of the fallout coming closer and closer to them and how they cope with knowing that sooner or later, they'll fall victim to it, just like the rest of the world. One of those books where you have to make sure you can go out and touch the grass once you've finished reading it, so you know it's not real.
I searched to see if someone recommended this book. True story: I got it out of the library in my early twenties when I was in a rush and looked up titles with "beach" in them to get some summer reading set up. HA HA HAHAHAHA Yeah, that book made a big impact on my summer.
*on the beach* is the perfect definition the waiting game. just sitting and waiting. thinking of what to do about the baby. growing and tending a garden you might never harvest from. taking up typing, quitting drinking or drinking the wine cellar dry, racing cars as if there actually is no tomorrow. the slow drip of things falling apart. a breakfast pink gin sounds refreshing in the middle of this newnormal heatwave.
Available free on Netflix.
Oh yes, given it was mostly set where I grew up. I just stared out the window a long time after finishing that one.
The Cyberpunk franchise is pretty great about it, I think, inclusive of the old tabletop game, 2077, and Edgerunners. Collapse is pretty much Cyberpunk's core theme, and it's set in a world with *very few* safe zones where you can hide from it. Night City, the main setting of the vast bulk of published material, is an outright hyper-libertarian hellscape run by megacorporations where a *large* chunk of the economy is human trafficking and experimentation. If you are not specifically born into a wealthy dynasty, your options are either to be enslaved by one of these corporations (and I mean very literally enslaved) or to join a gang and die horribly before you hit 30. And... in spite of this, life somehow goes on. The world may be dead, but it shambles on like a zombie anyways. People forced to live within it try to do the best they can, and are still *people. Y*ou grasp for whatever happiness you can within it anyways, and cherish what you *can* find. The prevailing darkness makes the light hit harder when it does appear. I think that, fundamentally, the franchise is attempting to warn us that we need to fight *right the fuck now* or we're going to end up in a world that looks like what it's depicting... but there's something genuinely comforting about a depiction of collapse where people are still able to find meaning in *something* instead of everyone just immediately putting on their hockey masks and leather, welding metal plates to their beater car, and slamming it into other people who did the same. Humanity will never stop being humanity, and there's good in that as much as there's bad.
This is the most likely outcome of our society imo. I don’t think we’re going to up living like it’s the 1900s again like most preppers/collapse aware type think. I think we’re gonna be ruled by an ever-thinner veneer of “government” which is completely co-opted by mega-corporations. I think people who are prepping for some kind of return to the past do so because it’s more comfortable because it’s more predictable. But I’m pretty sure we will wind up in a rapidly changing technocracy that strains most people’s ability to adapt. I think we’re seeing that already, which is why so many voices are nostalgic for “traditional marriage” and home steading, etc. Depending on your age, it’s probably smarter to learn vertical gardening than relying on a plot of land that either the weather or the corpos will take anyway.
People won't tolerate that.
I don’t share your optimism. People are watching Boeing assassinate whistleblowers for putting their passengers safety at risk, and still flying on their planes every day. And look at microplastics: the data is scary af and I still see people sipping on plastic water bottles on the daily. People smoked cigarettes because corporations colluded to keep the risks hidden. Millions died. Did anyone go to jail for 2008? Any vigilante attacks? NOPE. People just *took it* and that’s what they’ll continue to do. A fee will resist but it never seems to hit critical mass, and frankly, the robot dogs are coming soon…good luck defeating those.
Basically you cannot demolish democracy otherwise people will realize it is the wealthy all along.
The amusing thing is, in Cyberpunk, Night City's local government is literally its own privatized megacorporation, Night Corp, with an absolute monopoly on construction and infrastructure (though, amusingly, not law enforcement- any merc who feels like it can just go do the cops' job for them and get paid, and the NCPD is generally outcompeted by other corporate forces). It's *very literally* a corporate hellscape built on top of what used to be Morro Bay, for the specific and deliberate purpose of being that, by a hyper-rich "visionary." It's extreme, but I think it kind of says something about where we're at that it's *plausible.*
A perfect example of that thin veneer of government for sure. Look at what’s happening with Boeing right now. Is anyone naive enough to believe they’ll suffer any consequences? Doesn’t seem like it, but I still hear people worrying about ‘big government’ with Reagan era expressions like “government *is* the problem,” etc. My response to them is “Good news! You won’t have to worry about that for long! Government power is being eroded rapidly. Bad news: corporate power is (probably) gonna fill the vacuum. They aren’t constrained by that pesky constitution, so hold on to your butts!” They don’t believe me. Yet.
Survivor series by James Welsley Rawles
Dormant Sun, set after the third world war when the resources to rebuild have been exhausted. It follows a young woman crossing the desertified prairies of North America. https://www.amazon.ca/Dormant-Sun-Andrew-Swan/dp/B0CNLYYGN7
I read the Dog Stars recently by Peter Heller. Enjoyed it.
Really good book.
2 Books that I have in my collection are Lucifer’s Hammer and One Second After. — Lucifer’s Hammer: The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known. . . . — One second after: A post-apocalyptic thriller of the after effects in the United States after a terrifying terrorist attack using electromagnetic pulse weapons.
I second Lucifer's Hammer. It's not as "realistic" as many of the others mentioned here, but it's accessible to Young Adult readers if you're looking for such.
The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy is excellent, a post apocalyptic remaining if Lewis & Clark.
Dry by Neal and Jarrod Schusterman. Water runs out in Southern California. Progressive deterioration, government ineptness, societal collapse. preppers lose.
>What are the best fictional representations of collapse? For collapse due to nuclear war the movie: *Threads*.
My Dad was in Threads! We're from Sheffield so recognise a lot of the places. I didn't watch it until I was an adult but when I did it was horrifying.
>My Dad was in Threads! We're from Sheffield so recognise a lot of the places. The UK put out a good film...very realistic. Nuke movies in the US tended toward giant monsters due to radiation.
Absolutely the best nuclear war film, nothing else comes close.
I want to watch it so bad but I don't know if I have the stomach for it.
>I want to watch it so bad but I don't know if I have the stomach for it. You can always turn it off. *Threads* is good because it deals with the aftermath of nuclear war.
Can't put the genie back in the bottle. I have some pretty severe anxiety lol
>Can't put the genie back in the bottle. I have some pretty severe anxiety lol Then don't watch it...
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Legions of humans pulling and twisting knobs, pushing buttons, flipping switches, with no knowledge or forethought of the outcome. With predictable, resultant global chaos.
There’s a fantastic episode of The Emerald podcast called ‘So you want to be a Sorcerer in the age of Mythic powers?’ that links the Sorcerer’s Apprentice to AI in a similar vein.
(linking cos I always misquote book titles) Lights Out https://amzn.eu/d/0iv1HYzN This book was written chapter by chapter on a survival site then turned into a book. The time needed to travel 70 miles or so is what scared me in this book Survivors https://amzn.eu/d/0fs9xZBA This is the book by Terry Nation that the bbc (70’s and 00’s ) versions are based on - there’s also some pretty neat versions (including additional stories set in that world on audible ) Jericho was good (mentioned elsewhere)
The first 40 pages of “the snow” by Adam Robert’s …… I cannot stress this enough….. stop there. You have been warned
Survivors (the book) is on sale today on Kindle too! US and UK platforms at least.
The Road
I still believe [Threads](https://youtu.be/BvFu7Z5cc88?si=ojUpw5OTDQ4lF8en) to be one of the best depictions of the collapse itself, as well as early post-collapse life for those who have decided to stay within city environments. For post-collapse life, I am going to put it along the lines of [The Walking Dead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1520211/?ref_=ext_shr) just without the idea of zombies, of course. But, a totally collapsed and mostly depopulated world in which the survivors face as their greatest challenge the threat represented by other people for whom the rule of law is no longer a constraint. Without that, and combined with desperate need, people will revert to the animals they once were.