Love and Monsters

Howdy you Tenacious Apocalypse Survivors! 

How ya doing?  Seen any good movies lately?  Well, I saw one that I thought was pretty good, and I'm gonna tell ya about it.  Partly because it was pretty good, and partly to let you know that I watch some more modern stuff, too.

In case you missed the title of this particular post, I'll tell ya that the movie is "Love and Monsters".  

In case you don't know, "Love and Monsters" is a post-apocalyptic story about a guy who has been hiding in a bunker for seven years, finds out that his girlfriend is still alive in another survivor colony and decides to take the perilous journey to go to her.

How did the world end in this one?  Well, there was a massive asteroid headed for Earth, but that's not what got us.  Several governments fired nuclear missiles at it, to break it up and destroy it.  Kinda like in "Armageddon", except we didn't have to leave the planet.  Anyway, it worked!  The asteroid was demolished into smaller pieces and missed Earth!  

However, the chemicals in the rockets wafted back down to Earth and began to mutate all the lesser, vermin-type wildlife.  Little nuisance things like mice and insects grew to gargantuan size and went on a rampage.  About 95% of humanity died fighting them back while the rest hid in bunkers and shelters.

But our story is about Joel, played by some guy named Dylan O'Brien.  I'd never heard of this guy before, apparently he's in those "Maze Runner" movies.  

On a slight sidetrack:  I only know one actor in this whole movie, and that's Michael Rooker.  I know him because he's Yondu in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (the blue guy with the arrow that he controls by whistling).  In this, he's a wandering survivor.

Back to Joel.  His hometown was "ground zero" for the mutagenic chemicals, and his parents died while trying to evacuate the town.  He only survived because he was pulled into a pickup by some passing strangers.  

Anyway, apparently he managed to fix a ham radio and they were able to contact other survivors in other colonies.  He found out that his girlfriend, Aimee, is still alive.  After years of lonely brooding, he decides to go find her because being with her "was the last time he was truly happy".  

So, he packs some supplies and heads out on an 85 mile trek that should take him at least 7 days to travel.  Along the way he meets a dog mourning for his former master, a pair of survivors making their way to a new location high in the mountains where the monsters don't seem to go, and even a robot who was saving it's last hour of power for someone to find her.

And he does run into monsters!  Giant bugs!  Giant frogs!  Carnivorous worms!  Giant snails!  This movie felt like a cool combination of Gamma World and Fallout!  

I don't really want to tell you everything, after all, I don't want to ruin it for you if you decide to watch it.  But I DO recommend that you watch it!  It was pretty cool, and it was entertaining.

I streamed it on Amazon, and its got to be on DVD by now if you want to go that route.  

I also feel obligated to point out that if you like this movie, you might like my "Mutant World" stories, so check 'em out!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The End of the World As We Know It

Hey, hey and whattaya say!

How ya doing?  Great to see ya!  So glad ya stopped by!  How's the family?  How's work?  Sorry to hear that.  What's that?  What have I been working on?  Well, since ya asked...

Right now I'm working on a series of stories to post up on the Kindle Store at Amazon.  It's a science fantasy adventure series that takes place is a weird post-apocalyptic world.  What's weird about it?  Well, nowadays post-apoc is full of zombies, mine isn't.  Why not?  Well, I'm a child of the 70's and 80's, and when I was a kid, the post-apocalyptic world had more than just zombies.  Let me explain...

I think the first time I was exposed to the idea of a post-apocalyptic world was in the Saturday morning cartoon show Thundarr the Barbarian.  

Thundarr was a Conan-style barbarian in a ruined world full of mutants, magic, and super-science.  Thundarr was armed with his trusty Sun-Sword, a lightsaber knock-off.  He had two stalwart travelling companions:  Princess Ariel, an enchantress and daughter of a wizard; and Ookla the Mok, a burly cat-man mutant.  

Thundarr and his companions travel around the ruined country fighting against evil Wizards and their legions of Robots and Mutants as they try to enslave tribes of un-mutated human survivors.  

Each episode had weird mutant animals, ruins of identifiable landmarks, and machinery powered by magic.  The humans always lived in ruined buildings or primitive huts, while the evil Wizards always had a hi-tech stronghold.  There were very few guns (if any) but there were some magic wands that shot laser bolts, uh, I mean bolts of magic I guess.


The next time I encountered the concept of the post-apocalypse was in a catalog of other products by TSR Hobbies.  It was a small catalog booklet that came in my sister's D&D boxed set.  It was in this catalog that I first learned of the existence of the Gamma World Role Playing Game.  

Sadly, I never got play Gamma World.  I never even got to own any of the books,  But I learned what I could about it, it was full of mutant people, mutant animal-men, mutant animals, mutant plants, and robots galore!  Mutants; whether they were human, animal, or plant; were capable of having terrible deformities and/or weird powers.  Apparently characters start off with primitive medieval-style weapons, but through their adventures can find and use more advanced weapons, armor, vehicles, and random little appliances that you don't know how to use.  

It sounded VERY Thundarr.  I was entranced.  

Of course, today all these old supplements are available as digital downloads.  Also, there are new games, like Mutant Future, which are based and heavily inspired by the old Gamma World game.  I'm proud to say that I own an actual physical copy of Mutant Future, and that I have collected several digital files of past versions of Gamma World...and it's all I thought it was and more!  But you know what?  I still haven't played it!

But that's not all!  Like I said, I was a child of the 70's and 80's, and that means "post-apocalyptic" was an actual genre in the movies!  Thanks to this slew of cinematic treats, we all knew that a post-apocalyptic world would be Terrible And Silly!  But we'll wait and talk about that next time!  Until then I wish you...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell