Home Alone: Why do we enjoy post-apocalyptic films?

At the time of writing the newest Resident Evil film is about to open in cinemas. One of the official trailers does something rather clever: it begins as if it were a typical phone advert complete with an annoying digitised jingle and a serious voiceover from Patrick Stewart announcing that ‘technology is changing our world’. A series of artificial-looking people hold up communication devices and state that ‘this is my world’. The image pulls back to a globe which turns as Patrick Stewart asks ‘what our world will look like… tomorrow?’, the music changes to drumbeats and the American continent is dark except for a series of vast fires. A montage of dragons, zombies and violence follows. The trailer may be inventive and original, but the premise is not. Post-apocalyptic films have frequently tried to answer the problem of what tomorrow will look like.