Relax! We've got plenty of time!

April 25, 2019 6:04 PM

I'm looking for books, movies, music - any kind of media, fictional or real-life - where people hang out and party immediately before a known catastrophe is about to strike - and then discover that they missed the last transport out. Their subsequent attempts to GTFO of Dodge may drive the rest of the story.

Examples I can think of:

• The Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys and Citizen Phaid by Mick Farren.
• The song "Last Plane Out" by Toy Matinee.
• Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks (the Damage game on Vavatch Orbital, for instance).

Essentially, stories about people who love the risk and the wild, anything-goes party atmosphere of impending doom, plus their certainty (or the reader's uncertainty) that they'll make it out unscathed. It's okay if it's part of a larger work.

As counter-examples: Poe's "Masque of the Red Death", Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Australian movie These Final Hours, Winters' The Last Policeman - great stuff, but they either lack the element of risk or it's The End and there's simply no chance of escape. Yeah, I know I'm being picky. But even if it's an edge-case, I'd like to know about it.

Bonus: if there's a name for this trope, I'd love to know what it is. Thanks!

posted by doctor tough love to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

Titanic
Downfall
Miracle Mile
posted by spitbull at 7:44 PM on April 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Dylan's Black Diamond Bay
posted by el_presidente at 12:19 AM on April 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Cloverfield somewhat fits this pattern, except that the protagonists don't know about the catastrophe in advance.
posted by rd45 at 2:43 AM on April 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

This is the End?
posted by ITheCosmos at 3:12 AM on April 26, 2019

Best answer: As long as you're flexible on the "people" part of the question: The Unicorn, made famous by the Irish Rovers.
posted by nomis at 3:42 AM on April 26, 2019

On the Beach by Nevil Shute is an edge case as there's no chance of escape. But the motor race is a good example of enjoyment in the face of impending doom
posted by el_presidente at 4:41 AM on April 26, 2019

Inconstant Moon by Larrry Niven is another edge case
posted by el_presidente at 4:46 AM on April 26, 2019

Does Dante's Peak count? It's been a while since I've seen it, but I seem to remember the locals not believing the volcano will erupt.

There are college students partying in the face of a supposed apocalypse in Evolution (2001).

This trope might even be referenced a little in Pirates of the Caribbean?
posted by freethefeet at 4:56 AM on April 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
posted by wellred at 5:33 AM on April 26, 2019

Best answer: In Monsters, the main characters know that if they do not leave Mexico within days, travel will be blocked for six months. They spend the night before they are supposed to leave partying, which leads to someone stealing their passports. They miss their ferry the next morning.
posted by AndrewInDC at 6:16 AM on April 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I marked the answers that really hit it spot on - but I got something out of every response. Thank you!
posted by doctor tough love at 9:42 AM on April 26, 2019

I really liked Condominium.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:35 AM on April 26, 2019

Does Nero singing while Rome burns in Quo Vadis count?
posted by brookeb at 10:37 AM on April 26, 2019

In real life, there were people who brought their boats nearby to watch Mt Vesuvius explode. Many of them were buried in the lava and ash. I think Pliny the Elder is a famous one.
posted by CathyG at 11:27 AM on April 26, 2019

Not on the mark, exactly, but "Prospect," a kind of space-western (filmed with beautiful practical sets and effects) is about a prospector and his daughter who take a last shot at getting a certain unusual resource on a toxic alien world. The item he's after is harvested from a living creature, a kind of blobby thing that lives underground, it's easy to ruin the score or kill yourself in the process of harvesting. It's his last shot at visiting this world, because he's depending on a larger carrier spaceship which will never return to this planet. In any case, some chaotic events happen, and two characters are forced into a desperate race to find transport off the planet before the carrier leaves, but also tempted by the possibility of leaving there rich. .
posted by Sunburnt at 4:35 PM on April 26, 2019

Last Night (1998) doesn't quite fit your requirements as there is no escape expected from the impending end of the world. But some things still don't go as planned.
posted by automatronic at 6:19 AM on April 27, 2019

Not quite, but maybe Shawn of the Living Dead?
posted by Mesaverdian at 5:04 PM on April 27, 2019