Apocalyptic themes can be found throughout pop culture. Let's face it, people are fascinated by the end of the world. It's slightly twisted, but who wouldn't want to run through a deserted city, looting all of the stores and hopping into any car to race down the middle of town? So let's take a look at how Pop Culture depicts the end of days.

The apocalypse is well-represented on film. From campy to horrifyingly realistic, the end of days makes a fascinating topic for film makers.

Campy Films

Some completely campy apocalyptic films have been released in the past years. One of my favorites is Shaun of the Dead. Billed as a romantic comedy with Zombies, the film parodies the fact that many of us spend our days in a Zombie-like state. For the first part of the movie, the main character doesn't even realize that Zombies are wandering the streets of his town.

Of course, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are two of the best classic campy apocalyptic zombie movies. These are perfect movies to play for Halloween. Hardly scary, these films are comical in the way they depict the carnivorous zombies. Recently a remake of Dawn of the Dead was released, and I enjoyed that version as well. It was a little scarier than the original, but still a lot of fun and full of campy horror.

Scary Films

One of my favorite end of days films was 28 Days Later, in which Killian Murphy woke up in a hospital to find most of the world's population had been wiped out by some sort of disease. Some of the best bits of this movie occur at the beginning when the main character is wandering around the abandoned streets of London. It makes you wonder how they managed to make such a bustling city appear so desolate and quiet.

I also enjoyed I Am Legend, in which Will Smith and his trusty dog try to survive a world overrun by carnivorous humanoids, all the while listening to Bob Marley. Watching the movie, you realize the solitude becomes as much of an enemy as the man-eating zombies. This movie is not uplifting, but is interesting if you are looking for a good rainy-day movie.

Realistic Films

An Inconvenient Truth could be one of the scariest films on the list, because it is based in reality. This documentary by Al Gore pretty much lays out how humans are creating our own demise through pollution. This film is also a downer, so rent Shaun of the Dead if you want to enjoy a more light-hearted end of the world scenario.

There haven't been many specifically apocolyptic programs on television, but you can find television programs with apocolyptic themes.

Dramas

Lost has taken its viewers down the proverbial rabbit hole and created a mythology that sometimes suggests and end-of-the-world theme. The fifth season's finale featured core cast members detonating a nuclear bomb, potentially negating their existance. Beyond that, there have always been questions about whether the Losties are even really alive and if the island is really on earth. Who really knows with this show, but it is still fun to watch.

Jericho is another television show that features a post-apocalypse theme. The show takes an interesting look at how people deal with a catastrophic event that wipes out much of the population. The psychology of how people organize and develop new structures of society is one of the most interesting aspects of this show.

Reality Shows

In my opinion, any of the Rock of Love, Flavor of Love or I Love Money reality shows on VH1 could be proof of a nearing apocalypse. The people on these shows make you wonder how humans were able to survive to this point in time. These shows are truly scary and mind boggling.

Documentaries

The History Channel has released a documentary-style program called Life After People that looks at how the world will change if people were to be wiped out. It is a fascinating, though morbid, look at how structures and environments would dramatically be altered. It is amazing to see how quickly so many things would change if we were wiped off the earth.