MovieChat Forums > The Stand (1994) Discussion > Post-Apocalyptic Stories

Post-Apocalyptic Stories


A post-apocalyptic (PA) tale is one when a great calamity destroys the vast bulk of the human race. The cause of the catastrophe could be a pandemic (like The Stand, the Jack London story, The Scarlet Plague, or my own The Pale Horse) an atomic war (The Day After, On The Beach) or some natural cosmic event (Deep Impact, When Worlds Collide).

What are others?

What are your favorites?

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[deleted]

Miracle Mile

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Am I the only one here to have read When Worlds Collide? Or its' sequel After Worlds Collide?

They were both great stories, even though they were written in the 1930's.

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[deleted]

I may try it out gar
I think that you would enjoy it. I know I did. In case you are interested, it is available (the Bison reprint, U of Nebraska Press) on amazon, and the Bison edition includes the excellent sequel as well.

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[deleted]

It seems a movie was produced by the same title. Have you seen it? I wasn't sure if it followed the same plot
The George Pal movie adaptation was released in 1951, but I found it disappointing, as it changed too much from the book. There has been talk of a Spielberg adaptation but the project has been on hold for years, or maybe even got cancelled altogether.

You got me curious now, so I'll have to look it up.

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[deleted]

Did you ever look it up?

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Did you ever look it up?
Yes, but I didn't find out anything. The book(s) was or were quite good, so I hope something happens with the film project.

My only hopes are that they don't butcher the story like the 1951 film did, and that they make a film for After Worlds Collide as well.

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Disappointing. Or seemed interesting too explore. Maybe a new movie wouldn't be a bad thing

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Wouldn't Swan Song be a staple on this list?? Considering the long running The Stand vs. Swan Song ???

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Wouldn't Swan Song be a staple on this list?? Considering the long running The Stand vs. Swan Song ???
It would have been if I had remembered it, even though I understand that it is very hard to get. Consequently, I have never read it.

Just curious: have you read Swan Song?

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Laws yes!

They're not just compared as post apocalyptic novels (though being very different despite some similarities). I'm not sure which came first, McCammon fans claiming this is the superior novel or King fans saying McCammon ripped off King. Either way, i've always heard these 2 compared for one or the other reason. Interestingly, McCammon said he refused to read any King books so he couldn't be accused of plagiarizing King after he was slammed by critics and fans. Both are great, being as much a fan of The Stand as you appear to be, i would definitely recommend it! If for no other reason than to get your take on it and how you think it compares to The Stand .

I mentioned in another thread that i've only read the unabridged version of The Stand, and the topic of King thinking he must be getting paid by the word came up. Keeping King's 'tangents' in mind, i would say i think Swan Song is better in structure and sticking to the point haha, but King has such a gift with making his characters intriguing as soon as they are introduced so it's hard to say which is 'better' imo.

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Laws yes!

They're not just compared as post apocalyptic novels (though being very different despite some similarities). I'm not sure which came first, McCammon fans claiming this is the superior novel or King fans saying McCammon ripped off King. Either way, i've always heard these 2 compared for one or the other reason. Interestingly, McCammon said he refused to read any King books so he couldn't be accused of plagiarizing King after he was slammed by critics and fans. Both are great, being as much a fan of The Stand as you appear to be, i would definitely recommend it! If for no other reason than to get your take on it and how you think it compares to The Stand .

I mentioned in another thread that i've only read the unabridged version of The Stand, and the topic of King thinking he must be getting paid by the word came up. Keeping King's 'tangents' in mind, i would say i think Swan Song is better in structure and sticking to the point haha, but King has such a gift with making his characters intriguing as soon as they are introduced so it's hard to say which is 'better' imo.
So, you say Swan Song was good, huh All right; I'll have to look into getting that.

Now for some shameless self-promotion here. I have a long book on Kindle called The Pale Horse. It recounts a story of a similar event in The Stand, but the cause of the pandemic is different and I treat the US military with a lot more respect than King did in The Stand. There is also no supernatural stuff in my story.

The idea for The Pale Horse first come to me when I was a junior high student in the early 1960's, and that was when I first started on it.

People who have read The Pale Horse say that they enjoyed it. You might want to give it a try.

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nice, get me intrigued then hit me up for ten bucks :p

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nice, get me intrigued then hit me up for ten bucks :p
It took me about four years to do the research and the writing, and it is over 1400 pages. People who have read it tend to like it.

Tell you what. I'm about to get the rough draft for a considerably shorter story done and I'll put it on kindle for a lot less. Just to see if folks like my writing style and to whet their appetites. Besides, I think it is a fairly decent story.

All I will say at the moment is that it concerns international terrorism.

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Aliens. Childhood's End, War of the Worlds, even Day of the Triffids.

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I am a big fan of pretty much every type of Apocalypse but I would probably say nuclear war, aliens and pandemic tend to be my favorite. I have also written several books about the topic.

I wrote an anthology where I explored pretty much every different type of Apocalypse that there is called tales from the end of the world. http://www.amazon.com/Tales-End-World-Stephen-Sipila-ebook/dp/B00IXCDR3O/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1450443254&sr=1-4

Days of the bomb was another one that was about nuclear terrorism, although I am not sure if that one would be considered apocalyptic as it only involves the nuclear destruction of New York City with the rest of the world left intact. http://www.amazon.com/Days-Bomb-Stephen-Sipila-ebook/dp/B00OUURQPI

My most recent novel that I published had pretty much everything in that an alien directed pandemic wiped out the whole human race and turned everyone into zombie vampires except for one woman who survived on the space station. https://www.createspace.com/6585766

I have also been working on a huge nuclear epic on the scale of the stand and perhaps even longer about the lead up to a nuclear war, the nuclear war itself in the long term aftermath. Right now I am working on a historical fiction story about the bombing of Hiroshima. I keep getting distracted from our larger novel by writing shorter novels about the same topic!

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Has anyone here seen or heard of a 1956 sci-fi flick called World Without End? It was an effort of Allied Artists and it was really pretty good despite the laughable special make-up effects on the mutants.

A brief synopsis: the first space flight has taken place (in 1957), a manned mission to Mars. After completing the photo mapping mission the ship heads for home only to hit a great turbulence on the way back. They crash land on an unknown planet and later discover that they are on the earth in the distant future after a devastating atomic war. After being attacked by savages, the heroes retreat into a cave that is inhabited by a technologically advanced society.

The acting, plot and script were good to very good, and the only weak point was the budget, as the deformities of the savages would probably have been much better with a more generous budget.

I just watched it last night once more and as usual, I enjoyed it.

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I enjoyed World Without End even though it was really cheesy and the special effects are 60 years old. It's going to be on TCM at 6 AM tomorrow morning.

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I enjoyed World Without End even though it was really cheesy and the special effects are 60 years old. It's going to be on TCM at 6 AM tomorrow morning.
You might enjoy the IMDb bard for WWE, then. Why don't you go over and take a look around?

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