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Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

texasmonthly.com

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Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#11

Post by piokoch »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #2

Just come to Birmingham in the UK. No need for any set building or CGI

I would say in every city with more than 2 millions inhabitants there will be at least one location that looks "apoliptically".

This happens for many reasons: abandoned industrial areas, location that came out of fashion, people moving to cheaper places, etc.

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#12

Post by 6LLvveMx2koXfwn »

pjc50 wrote: post #10
nonrandomstring wrote: post #2

Just come to Birmingham in the UK. No need for any set building or CGI

Birmingham, city of the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHVO1eSMFc "Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham", 5m, 1981. Note the use of shots of complicated motorway junctions to indicate modernity.

For reference, the everlasting beauty of Spaghetti Junction [1]

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_Junction,_Birmingham

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#13

Post by nonrandomstring »

lyime wrote: post #6
nonrandomstring wrote: post #2

Just come to Birmingham in the UK. No need for any set building or CGI

Can you expand on this? I have visited Birmingham many times so curious why you think it's a good setting.

Richness of history. As other comments say, it's a versatile slice of an ex-industrial heartland. Some bits are Tudor (Shakespeare lived up the road in Stratford), Then it was a powerhouse right through the industrial revolution, well connected by canals and rail (technically Birmingham would make a great New Green Capital when the sea reclaims London). Then Hitler dropped several Hiroshima's worth of bombs on Britain in a WW2 campaign we called "The Blitz". A lot of that fell on Coventry and Birmingham causing millions of pounds of improvements :) So it became a testing ground for new and innovative architecture, some of which was the Brutalist concrete of the late 50s and 60s. That looked great and "modern" at the time, and now looks a perfect "dystopian" setting. Last time I visited that was being bulldozed, but preservation orders actually protect some of the "ugliest" skyline, because that's part of our culture now. So, if you're looking to make a dark post-industrial apocalypse move, come check out Birmingham.

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#14

Post by dkarl »

> But there was only one moment that really ruptured my suspension of disbelief while reading this whole gonzo book: a scene in which a character from “the autonomous city of Austin” remembers pushing his way onto that city’s subway. Obviously, one can accept that Austin would become a separatist people’s republic within a fractured Texas. But the idea of the “Austin Metro” operating there, even fifty years from now?

Context for non-Texans: Capital Metro is the name of Austin's public transit system, and the current plans for our passenger rail network include at least one large underground station ([0], [1]), so I think this comment is tongue-in-cheek. It's a relatively small component of a relatively small system compared to the iconic subways in other cities, but from a local perspective, a lot of people are having a bit of a "whoah I can't believe this is happening here" reaction, and I think that's what she is referencing.

[0] https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/transporta... [1] https://www.fox7austin.com/news/capital-metro-subway-tunnel-...

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#15

Post by bigDinosaur »

6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote: post #12
pjc50 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Birmingham, city of the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHVO1eSMFc "Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham", 5m, 1981. Note the use of shots of complicated motorway junctions to indicate modernity.

For reference, the everlasting beauty of Spaghetti Junction [1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_Junction,_Birmingham

Surprisingly green for so much concrete.

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#16

Post by oneoff786 »

Apocalypse stories don’t often make sense. The energy and fuel situations are usually bonkers. The hordes of people who turn into lunatics is silly. Cooperation is natural and good.

My favorite post apocalyptic cult is the one featured in A Quiet Place 2. This world features aliens that will kill anyone who makes a sound. The protagonists are captured by this cult of like 30 people with little intro to who the hell they are. They do this strongman creepy virtue signaling for a while and then tie up Jim’s replacement with some noisy chains on a dock. Surprise surprise, Not Jim makes a noise (not with the chains for some reason), and sure enough the entire cult is immediately wiped out.

…

How did these people canonically survive for so long doing these dumbass shenanigans?

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#17

Post by JKCalhoun »

oneoff786 wrote: post #16

Apocalypse stories don’t often make sense. The energy and fuel situations are usually bonkers. The hordes of people who turn into lunatics is silly. Cooperation is natural and good. My favorite post apocalyptic cult is the one featured in A Quiet Place 2. This world features aliens that will kill anyone who makes a sound. The protagonists are captured by this cult of like 30 people with little intro to who the hell t…

> Cooperation is natural and good.

I agree, but perhaps hard fought. "The Survivors", the 1975 TV series from the U.K. tried to do apocalypse more cleverly.

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#18

Post by O__________O »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #17
oneoff786 wrote: post #16

Apocalypse stories don’t often make sense. The energy and fuel situations are usually bonkers. The hordes of people who turn into lunatics is silly. Cooperation is natural and good. My favorite post apocalyptic cult is the one featured in A Quiet Place 2. This world features aliens that will kill anyone who makes a sound. The protagonists are captured by this cult of like 30 people with little intro to who the hell t…

> Cooperation is natural and good. I agree, but perhaps hard fought. "The Survivors", the 1975 TV series from the U.K. tried to do apocalypse more cleverly.

How so?

Scanned the Wikipedia page for it and nothing popped out as notably clever:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series)

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#19

Post by jason-phillips »

oneoff786 wrote: post #16

Apocalypse stories don’t often make sense. The energy and fuel situations are usually bonkers. The hordes of people who turn into lunatics is silly. Cooperation is natural and good. My favorite post apocalyptic cult is the one featured in A Quiet Place 2. This world features aliens that will kill anyone who makes a sound. The protagonists are captured by this cult of like 30 people with little intro to who the hell t…

> Cooperation is natural and good.

Recently, after seeing people from Dallas haul their trailers to my small Texas town's grocery store so as to pillage our remaining toilet paper stock, my faith in the rational ability of my fellow Man has been somewhat reduced.

Re: Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse

#20

Post by stinkass »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #2

Just come to Birmingham in the UK. No need for any set building or CGI

Birmingham Alabama is probably a better choice. Lots of burnt out structures that never got cleaned up, and the people apparently can't afford trash service there so they just leave it on the sidewalk until it eventually piles up over your head. Hotels are filthy too. Garbage and used needles inside the elevators -- and this was a nice hotel.
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