Giant Freakin Robot

Well, so far we’re all still here on this crisp, cool, apocalypse-free day. That could just be a way to lull us all into a false sense of security though, so the universe can then sucker-punch us with a last-minute Mayan surprise. So while you’re waiting for the end to fall, you might as well entertain yourself. Thankfully, science fiction is chock full of movies about the apocalypse, or preventing the apocalypse. or the aftermath of the apocalypse. We’ve chosen five thematically appropriate flicks to usher us all into infinity, and we’ve even helpfully keyed them to the Five Stages of Grief. Two birds with one stone, baby! Let’s get this group therapy session rolling…

In less than a month a 70-mile long asteroid will slam into Earth and send a fireball around the globe, wiping out all life on our planet. There is no hope of survival. While the important and the wealthy and the interesting rush around looking for distractions in a world where nothing matters, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World follows the journey of an insignificant and boring man who sets out to find meaning.

Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

At first, Dodge (Steve Carell) keeps going to work. His wife left him the moment she found out they were all doomed and he hopes to find comfort in the familiarity of routine. But there’s not much use for an insurance salesman when no one will be left to collect. So eventually, he gives up and stays home. It’s entirely possible that Dodge would have sat alone in his darkened living room and simply waited for the death if he hadn’t met Penny, the British girl downstairs who seems like she needs saving. They set out together on a journey to find Dodge’s long lost high school girlfriend, with Penny tagging along on the promise that her new friend may have a way to fly her home.

We all know that Hollywood loves them an asteroid movie. Disaster movies are big business, and most people know just enough about asteroids to know that they don’t want one to hit the Earth. It’s the perfect epic filmic boogeyman, right up there with pandemics, nuclear war, and that one where the plants decide to murder us all. Normally, however, Hollywood’s versions of asteroid apocalypse focus on the heroic souls trying to save the planet from doom, or groups of people trying to make their way to some safe haven. What if the rescue mission fails, though? What if there is no place safe to hide? What if you, me, and everybody else on the planet had three weeks to live? That’s the idea behind Focus Features’ upcoming comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

Written by Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), Seeking a Friend… casts Steve Carell as Dodge, a man who finds himself suddenly single after his wife splits in the aftermath of the news that an extinction-level asteroid will be hitting the Earth in three weeks time. As the world around him alternately parties, riots, or goes about their usual business in a haze of denial, Dodge decides to take a road trip to find “the first one that got away,” his high school sweetheart. Also along for the ride is his neighbor, Penny (Keira Knightley), who’s hoping to reunite with her family before time runs out. Here’s the trailer for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.