The Appeal of the Apocalypse

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The qualifications for the Boston Marathon, for example, have dramatically changed in recent years due to an upsurge in interest. See “B.A.A. to Offer Fastest Qualified Runners Early Acceptance.” For details about rising registration in Ironman and Half-Ironman competitions, see “Entering an Ironman Race.” The twenty-first century saw the founding of several such racing series, including Spartan Race (2004), Warrior Dash (2009), and Tough Mudder (2010). To give you a sense of the popularity of these competitions, during its 2011 season, Warrior Dash, which markets itself as the world's largest running series, had almost 700,000 participants in its 36 races; over fifty Warrior Dash events are scheduled worldwide in 2012. See “Red Frog Events.” A similar “reunion” occurs in both the novel and film The Road. The boy, the most charitable character in the book, may lose his beloved father but ends up with a fully fledged family in the end. Even when protagonists do not possess selflessness and sympathy initially but must learn these traits, they are often still rewarded with miraculous reunions with loved ones. Though initially a deficient father, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) in The War of the Worlds eventually becomes a worthy parent. As a result, he manages to keep himself and his daughter, Rachel, alive long enough to reunite her with his ex-wife. When he arrives, he discovers his son has survived as well, despite the fact that the military troops he went off with were decimated. Similarly, Jack Hall in The Day After Tomorrow simultaneously repairs his relationship with his son, Sam, and reunites with him after trekking through Ice Age conditions from Philadelphia to Manhattan. In Armageddon (1998), Harry Stamper's willing self-sacrifice saves the planet while in both 28 Weeks Later and I am Legend, characters offer themselves up in hopes that the lives they save will result in a cure for the zombie apocalypses that have afflicted their respective worlds. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKaren J. RennerKaren J. Renner is a Lecturer in American Literature at Northern Arizona University. She is the editor of a collection of essays entitled The “Evil Child” in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture and is currently at work on her own book-length study of the topic. In addition, she is completing a monograph entitled Perverse Subjects: Drunks, Gamblers, and Prostitutes in Antebellum America.