How it Ends : A prepper discussion

in #story6 years ago

Reviewing Netflix's How it Ends from a prepper perspective

Last year I wrote 3 article reviews about a show and movies that dealt with a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) situation from a prepper perspective. Less of how well the movie or show was entertaining, but more of how they portrayed what the prepper and non-preppers in the situation. In most cases, the person who is the prepper is either shown as some sort of nut job or a person who should be scorned for why they decided to "hide away from the world." Perfect examples of this are John Goodman's character in 10 Cloverfield Lane and the Island and Ranch preppers in Fear the Walking Dead. In most cases, those who didn't prepare at all, seem to be the survivors, which is shown in Here Alone and Fear The Walking Dead.

Netflix's How it Ends got a lot of hype because, well, because it is a Netflix original and they like to hype almost everything they create. However, I did see a lot of mentions in the on-line prepper community, so that made it interesting for me to watch. I originally thought it was going to be a series, but as a film on Netlfix, there is always the possibility that they will turn it into a series later.

I'm going to give a summary of the movie, what I thought of the characters and what I think is the event.

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!!! You have been warned!!

The movie starts off with establishing that Samantha and Will live in Seattle and that Will is going to Chicago to get Sam's dad's (Tom) blessing for marriage. The meeting between Will and Tom goes horribly down hill due to either Tom's distrust in Will or people in general. We later find out later that Tom is a bit of an overbearing father and he hates Will for crashing a Chris Craft style boat that Tom had built himself.

Will is unable to complete the task of asking for a blessing and informing Sam's parents that Sam is pregnant. He is woken the next morning by a phone call from Sam and he realizes he is running late to get his flight back to Seattle. During the phone call, Will hears some sort of rumbling on Sam's end and then Sam's phone gets disconnected. Attempts to reconnect fail and by the time Will gets to the airport, more has happened as flights across the country get canceled. This make Will think there is something bigger wrong and after the power shuts down at the airport, he tries to find his way back to Tom's place.

Electric Magnet Pulse (EMP)?

The first thought is, the west coast has been hit by some soft of attack or maybe an EMP from space. An EMP hitting on the west coast would easily knockout power to half of the nation. If the mid-west substations were overloaded, there could possibly be a cascading effect, which would take out the grid further away from the initial impact area.

Since it only seems as if the power is out and other electrical services were still in tact, the most likely scenario is that it is not an EMP. Best guesses on an EMP is that it would wipe out cell towers, planes and cars. Since the traffic is still moving in the movie, then there must be something else that is causing the issue. Also, the rumbling down would probably not be from a high altitude EMP or a solar based EMP.

And this is part of the plot of the movie, The Event is unknown and we are left with clues to try to figure out what is going on.

The Military Prepper

When Will get's to Tom's place, Tom and his wife Paula are busy preparing their bags to leave. Paula is as calm as Tom, as if they have been through this drill before. Tom is wearing a knife and is packing a molly bag as he confronts Will about what Will is going to do. Tom gives him a binary option, either Will is going to drive across the country to rescue Sam in Seattle or he's going to be left on his own. Obviously, Tom chooses to go with Will.

Paula, on the other hand, is sent to the Stevens who are friends of the family and are prepared for everything. So, while Tom and Paula are not great preppers, they have friends who apparently are.

Why aren't Tom and Paula Great Preppers?

I will number the points that make them not so great preppers.

1 ) Chicago (Location, Location, Location)
Tom, who has had a plan all of his life, has chosen to live in Chicago. Whether or not he made this decision due to his job is irrelevant. Chicago has many things going against it as a choice for a prepper to live. The first thing is the population. Even though Tom and Will some how manage to get through the traffic jammed streets to get to the highway, in a real grid-down situation, that's not going to happen. With the power out all over the city, the streets would become nearly impassible due to traffic light outages and general panic of people hanging out in the road. Being in the center of a city would not be the best choice, especially being on the 11th floor of a high rise.

The second bad thing about Chicago is gun control. Without going through a ton of hoops, Tom is not going to be armed very well, if at all.

2 ) No Real Escape Plan
While Tom does pack a small bag, it isn't a BOB. It wasn't ready to go. Paula says something about his bag being in the kitchen and hers getting ready in the bedroom, but either way, it wasn't ready to go. By the time Will got from O'hare to where ever Tom lives, they should have been packed with supplies and probably out of the door. The small bag doesn't hold enough food, water or supplies for this cross country trip. When They get into Tom's Cadillac, there are a few more supplies, but not a lot. If there was an EMP, both Tom and Paula's cars would probably be broken.

Also, Tom does not take Paula to the Stevens' place or even verifies that she made it out of the city. They don't have any short-wave radios that could at least give them 2-5 miles of range to give updates. Where ever the Steven's Bug Out location is, it was probably some of the way in the same direction that Tom and Will were going.

The UnPrepared Masses

Throughout the movie, there is a well portrayed group of people who are those who weren't prepared for the event. This isn't like Fear the Walking Dead, where determination and grit will outlast, this is showing people that hadn't prepared as being almost helpless. Will doesn't have a plan, he doesn't know what to do and he is easily cornered by people wanting to do him harm. First it is a group of people at a gas station who try to start a fight in order to take his money and car. Will is rescued by Tom pulling a bluff and arming himself to chase off the hoodlums. Afterward, Will is upset that Tom had a gun and didn't tell him. This is the last point will is on the side of the completely naive. Will is later almost killed by a person pretending to be a police officer, which makes him more wary of strangers, but later he is snookered again by a woman who is feigning need of help, only to have a couple of people rob them of their gas. It is only at the final break to freedom, that Tom learns on the fourth try that you can't trust anyone and this helps him get past a bridge road block.

3 ) Not well armed
I will note at this point, that while Tom did pull a gun at the gas station, it was in the trunk and it was unloaded. Tom only has 2 magazines for a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. No box of ammo in his bag or secretly stashed in the trunk of his car. If the hoodlums had more than a bat, then Tom's attempt to chase them away by pointing a gun at them would have probably run into issues. He already knows the SHFT, yet he didn't put the gun up with him in the front of the car and he didn't load it.

After the incident with the fake police officer, who Tom dispatches with a rock, they stopped at an Indian Reservation and found help to fix their busted Cadillac. They also convince the female mechanic, Ricky, to go with them, since she is wanting to escape the reservation and her abuse father.

4 ) Medical Information
Tom had suffered some broken ribs in a crash, when escaping from the fake policeman and you would think he might ask for some help at this point. He has a couple of emergency items in his bag, but he doesn't have a medical book that might help him deal with his broken ribs. This will be Tom's undoing in the end.

Polar Shift?

After leaving the reservation and taking precautions that nobody will detect their car from behind, they end up following another car, using that car's lights as a guide, Ricky holds up a compass to show that it is spinning around. Will is distracted and almost ends up as part of a three car collision. Ricky tries to help the one survivor and Tom tries to get her back in the car, but another car pulls up and the people get out with weapons. Luckily, the new group doesn't see Tom and Will and they are able to drive up to get Ricky out of there before she is shot.

The compass moving around, unable to find magnetic north could be from a pole reversal. Since nobody alive today has been through one, nobody knows what exactly would happen when one occurs. Here are some parts of an article on what might happen during a pole reversal that leads to what is happening in the movie.

NO NO NO - A Magnetic Pole Flip Will Not Make Parts Of Earth Uninhabitable

It would mean that you need to wear more sunblock cream on sunny days.

The main risk of a solar storm is of GPS satellites glitching for hours, recovering once it is over - and of power cuts. We used to think that the power cuts could be severe and cost getting on for a trillion dollars and risk power cut for months or longer.

The magnetic field change would surely confuse migrating birds

While Tom and Will were on the reservation, the tribe was trying to tune in Ham Radio operators to find out what was going on. Tom looked at a group of birds that kept circling around as if they didn't know where to land or to go. Add the compass issue and then later reports of extreme heat in the movie and we have a very convincing argument that what is happening is a polar reversal.

Another sign is that the group runs into a serious lightening storm. The storm could be caused by the solar winds being able to penetrate further due to the Earth's magnetic field being almost non-existent during the polar flip.

High-speed solar winds increase lightning strikes on Earth

The Prepared Masses

That brings us to at least one group that had a plan. Will suggests that they take a slight detour to a small town that he is familiar with. Will was a groom's man in the wedding of a friend who lives in the town. When they reach the edge of the town, there is a road block with 40 or so well armed men standing around. While this is a good show of force, I hope that they also had some people not in plain sight sitting off to the side, in case things went sour.

Anyway, Will gives plenty of detail about his friend and his friend's wife, Meg, which is a better story than Tom convincing a sergeant in the Army to let them past a roadblock that is cutting off the west to everyone. The town's people escort the group in their car to Meg's place and have orders to make sure that they are welcome. Meg is there, but her husband is not, he was in San Francisco when everything went bad. She gives details that everything started to go bad near Los Angeles.

The town was smart to block off their only entrances in and out and they probably had a geographic situation that allowed them to do this easily. When the group gets to Peg's house, she still has plenty of supplies and water, so it would seem that most people living in the area would be well prepared.

Later in the movie, Tom ends up at his father's house with some people who gave him a ride. Tom's father's house is empty of his father, but the house has supplies and generator power for a week. Interesting that someone who prepared for living off-grid would leave the house, with packed suitcases at the door. So, there is another question added to the movie of where did Tom's father and his step-family go in such a hurry?

Caldera Explosion

From what we learn from Peg and what we learn later, it would seem as if a large volcano has erupted. The eruption was big enough to send a tsunami onto Seattle from Los Angeles. There is a possibility that the pole reversal would also make less active volcanoes active. It could be that calderas are triggered during these events.

Long Valley CalderaCalifornia Volcano Observatory

The Increase of Volcanic Activity is One of the Strong Indications that Geomagnetic Reversal is Near

The Evil Prepper

After refueling, the group ends up going through a large forest fire. As I mentioned before, Will and Ricky are duped into helping out a stranded woman who is just bait for a couple of men who steel their gas. They manage to chase down the two men and Ricky shoots out their back tire causing the car to flip out of control. (NOPE! It is a front wheel drive car and that wouldn't have caused that. ) Ricky is so distraught by the things happening and then being responsible for the death of the two men, that she leaves Will and Tom. Tom is now getting worse off due to the broken ribs and his final act is to shoot away out for Will and him on the bridge a little later on. Will drives on with Tom, dead in the car, but ends up having to ditch it after the radiator fails and the car gives out. He runs into the family with the old Cherokee and strikes a deal with them.

Will also gives the guy his gun in order to get a ride, which doesn't seem a bit wise at all. Picking up Will doesn't seem a wise at all either.


axialvolcano.png

Axial Seamount: Images of an Erupting Undersea Volcano

Finally, Will reaches Seattle to find the place burning and a large ash cloud off the coast. He has to get a firefighter's mask to make it through the toxic air that killed everyone sitting in the traffic jam. When he reaches Sam and his apartment, he finds it half gone, but there is a note drawn on a wall that let's him know that Sam is alive.

Will drives to the location and finds Sam with their neighbor, Jeremiah. In order to make a twist in all of this, we hear from Jeremiah that this is all a mind game played by the military. The power outage is just a nuclear bomb and the military shutting everything down in order to take control. Jeremiah apparently can't see what else is going on and is just using this tactic in order to scare Sam into trusting him. Since Jeremiah and Sam both thought Will was dead, Jeremiah was already trying to move in on Sam. Will's arrival messes this up, so Jeremiah gets in a confrontation with Will and Will ends up shooting and killing Jeremiah. I'm not sure what the whole point of that part of the story line was, because it just came off like a sloppy way to explain why Sam had survived the destruction of Seattle.

After Will kills Jeremiah, he runs back to the cabin and gets Sam and they drive off as things begin to rumble again and we see another huge volcanic explosion. Will and Sam escape the cloud and that's the end of the movie.

All in all, it wasn't a bad made-for-TV movie. I liked that it never answered as to what was really going on. Why were Air Force jets buzzing Chicago? Why did a military train derail in the middle of nowhere? Why did the military block off access to the west from Chicago, when nothing was going on past that point? Why did people abandon the abandoned water park so quickly?

The movie didn't portray preppers as bad people or wishing for the end. Heck, it seemed to the real ones from site and only focus on the desperate people you would meet traveling the road. The ending was a bit rough, but they did leave it open for a short series of Will and Sam trying to escape The End.


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Hi deanlogic,

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A-ma-zing review. More of this, please!

Thanks.
I will try to post more like this, but I wasn't getting much feedback before.

I promise you'll be getting some more :D

I find the setup of this story shhhtuupid!
But, there are a lot of shhtupid people out there.

Like during the last hurricanes, people driving around from gas station to gas station looking for gas to get to work. When obviously, the gas in their car (that they are wasting) is very valuable, and work isn't going to be happening.

So, you are 3000 miles away from your loved ones without communication. Well, the only way 3000 miles seems even doable is when we have a working economy, trade, fuelling and repairing stops open to all. The first thing to accept in such a situation is that loved ones 3000 miles away are beyond your ability to help. And without communication, your travel will almost always be fruitless. Unless your loved person is in a known bunker, they WILL NOT be there when you get there.

But, in a SHTF situation, there are going to be tons of shhhhtupid people who will follow their hearts instead of their heads.


I agree, living in Chicago was about a stupid, from a survival point of view, as possible. However, if you can survive, Chicago is a good place to start rebuilding from. Water traffic is still the most economical transport and there are still lots of natural resources about.

I also agree, that without an insane amount of luck, they should never have made it out of the city. But it is possible, if most of the people don't know its a crisis yet. (BTW, if you are in a city, and you don't have months of food, get out, because the city will be food-less in 3 days or less)

I disagree with the military check point being weird. The military has dozens of plans, that if A,B,C or D happens, then this group is to close these roads. Basically, if anything big happens than the military is going to halt interstate traffic.

I find it interesting that there are so many who will go either insane in one way, or the other. Those who decide they have to leave, and get in their car and drive (without preps) and those who will shut down, tear up the roads, impose complete marshal law... these two forces are going to run headlong into each other. Neither has a good plan for bringing about peace.

Thanks for reply

I tried to leave out stuff like the 3000 mile journey or the fact that nobody wore seatbelts. Somethings had to ignored for the story, I guess.

I would expect that there would be a better shut down point for the military and the center Illinois wasn't it.

Incredible post, is not only an amazing review, is a whole analysis!

Thank you for the response.

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