APOCALYPSE

American cities are often targetted by all sorts of disasters in apocalyptic films but why? There are many reasons why the producers choose them.

First of all, these cities are very famous so anybody can recognize them easily. Sometimes, they don’t even shoot the film in the cities, they just insert a few pictures of symbols (for example, you often see the Golden Gates Bridge from San Francisco which offers a lot of possibilities [collapse, tsunami,…] but the movie is rarely filmed in the city itself). Plus, big cities mean that many scenes can take place at the same time in different parts of the town.

Beside, thoses towns are very useful because they own a high population which is ideal for disasters and invasions. For example, Los Angeles was destroyed in 13 films. In those films like Martians Attack, the fact that it endangers a lot of people gives the alien attack more importance. Plus, Americans believe hard in the Bible and they identify in the Apocalypse, that makes them the ideal target for invasions.

Furthermore, most of the big american cities are in the Pacific Rim and near the San Andrea’s Fault. In consequence, they are often the victim of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, eruptions, etc. These events always happen more often and are always more destructive in films.

Why in the world are the inhabitants of San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles always the victims in apocalyptic movies ? These cities always seem to be invaded by aliens or destroyed by earthquakes.

All of those targeted cities are undeniably iconic. Indeed, San Francisco is easily recognizable thanks to the Golden Bridge. Los Angeles is well-known for its Hollywood sign and its Walk of Fame sidewalk, while movies featuring Las Vegas tend to make sure we get a glimpse of the Las Vegas sign. It seems like we enjoy destroying aesthetically pleasing cities such as Las Vegas. Moviemakers of those kind of blockbusters are fond of those world-wide famous metropolis.

Besides, those places offer a great number of possibilities. San Francisco’s landscape is very diverse (bridges, boats, skyscrapers, hills) and is therefore useful so as to shoot various action scenes. Las Vegas is full of spaced streets and buildings, creating a lot of space which permits moviemakers to shoot incredible bird’s eye views from the top of the stratosphere. As for Los Angeles, it is the second largest urban region of the United States, which makes the perfect target since it is a population center.

Furthermore, San Francisco and Los Angeles are located near San Andreas fault which makes them prone to suffering through earthquakes. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake happened and caused more than 700 people to die. The terror is real.

Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas are towns of perpetual cinematic destruction.  One of the main reason is because these towns are iconic and recognizable. There is a lot of climatic and geological events, furthermore they are all three around the San Andreas Fault (that implies a lot of earthquakes and volcanos). The movies that are shot there are mainly apocalyptic like: “2012” in Las Vegas ( 2009) or “ San Andreas” (2015). They are also well-known to produce zombie or alien attacks (like “Mars Attacks“ 1996, “Resident Evil: Extinction” 2007). These cities are overcrowded, that’s another reason why they are chosen for these films. The natural disasters in these films are linked to the unstable situation of these cities on geographical level.