The reel · 1898–2025
One frame per decade
Every film in the set, stacked by what it was afraid of. Switch to shares to see the mix rather than the volume — the early frames hold so few films that counts alone hide them.
Scroll the reel sideways →
The eleven fears — tap to filter every view
Earth & sky
The planet, the weather, the void above.
Our own machinery
The bomb, the network, the thing we built.
Something alive
Viruses, the risen, visitors.
Beyond explanation
Judgment, prophecy, ruins with no cause.
See the numbers
| Decade | Earth & Weather | Climate | Cosmic | Wreckage | Atomic | Machines | Plague | The Undead | Invaders | Divine | After the Fall | Unsorted | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 3 | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 4 |
| 1900s | 2 | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 3 |
| 1910s | · | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 2 |
| 1920s | 5 | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | · | 1 | 2 | · | · | 9 |
| 1930s | 4 | · | 1 | 5 | · | · | 3 | · | · | 1 | · | · | 14 |
| 1940s | 2 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 2 |
| 1950s | 3 | · | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | 20 |
| 1960s | 4 | · | 4 | 2 | 16 | · | 2 | 2 | 2 | · | · | · | 32 |
| 1970s | 13 | 4 | 4 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 90 |
| 1980s | 6 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 7 | 1 | · | 4 | 7 | 2 | 65 |
| 1990s | 27 | 6 | 8 | 17 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 105 |
| 2000s | 58 | 7 | 9 | 24 | 9 | 7 | 22 | 13 | 12 | 11 | · | 2 | 174 |
| 2010s | 62 | 12 | 11 | 30 | 14 | 10 | 25 | 23 | 16 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 237 |
| 2020s | 18 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | · | · | 74 |
Notes in the margin
Eight things the data says out loud
Pick one to open that decade below.
A word-level cross-section
How the plots talk about the ending
Every film's own plot summary, scanned for two kinds of language: survival (survive, escape, rescue, shelter) and annihilation (destroy, annihilate, extinct, wipe out). Sorted by the widest gap between the two.
Share of each category's plot summaries (with one on file) using survival-coded language (survive, escape, rescue, shelter) versus annihilation-coded language (destroy, annihilate, extinct, wipe out). A summary can use both, or neither — the two bars aren't a split of 100%, and neither is a verdict on how any one film actually ends.
The catalogue
Go decade by decade
831 films, 745 of them rated. Ratings and posters come from TMDB; box office is only recorded for 34.
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- Films on record
- 90averaging 5.8/10
- What it feared most
- Wreckage22 of 90 · 24%
- Best reviewed
- Stalker8.2/10 · 1979
- Most watched
- Battle for the Planet of the Apes36k ratings · 1973
- Top grossing
- The Towering Inferno$140M · 1974
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