We recently had a big power outage in San Diego and it was fun to see everyone freak out. Even though it only lasted the night, it was interesting to see how thin society and order really are and how easily it can be stripped away. Not a movie, but The Walking Dead fits into this category. And it probably doesn't completely fall into this category but when you said "post-apocalypse stories raise another issue: Who would I be?" it made me think of Saving Private Ryan and the bets the soldiers take as to the profession of Tom Hanks' character. All we know him as is the tough nosed war hero, but back home before the war he was just a school teacher. So maybe living in the midst of WWII as a soldier is similar to living in a post apocalyptic world.

Waterworld is one of those rare movies I do wish they'd remake. The concept is so cool and I remember being psyched to see it but after an exciting first half it really lost it's footing and ended up not explaining a lot of things in exchange for set pieces instead of characterization. I just think the idea was just ahead of it's time. They should've waited (ala Avatar) until they could've done it right.

Kyle, your observation about the power outage in San Diego reminded me of the Northridge earthquake when we lived in LA. It happened at 4:31AM, January 17, 1994. Did $40K damage to our house. As neighbors gathered outside in the darkness, watching telephone pole transformers exploding like bombs, we saw the city like we had never seen before: no lights. We could actually see the stars. We helped each other out over the next several days. Weird, too, because many of the people we had lived next to for years we barely knew. And that's a dynamic of post-apocalypse stories: a community created out of strangers.

David, I actually went to the world premiere of "Waterworld." It was a ginormous event. But I agree with you about the movie: it starts out great, but dissipates after about 40 minutes or so. If Hollywood insists on remaking movies, why not do as you suggest: take great concept / subpar movies and remake those.

I just finished a post-apocalypse feature spec. It's an interesting type of story, because you can do so much with it -- all-out action like The Road Warrior or Book of Eli to ultra-grim drama like The Road. I guess you could say all the Planet of the Apes movies are post-apocalypse, but most explicitly Battle for the Planet of the Apes. I think I saw Waterworld on opening night, as well. I agree, why not remake movies that could have been better as opposed to ones that were already great?