Apocalyptic ideology in American post-apocalyptic science fiction movies after 2000

Post-apocalyptic films, which have been made extensively after the Second World War, have a great influence on shaping the future vision of the post-war society. Post-apocalyptic films, derived from the term apocalypse which means a world-wide devastation and disaster, are a sub-genre focused on the post-disaster world in the science fiction genre. The increasing likelihood of a variety of disasters, such as nuclear warfare, danger of artificial intelligence related disasters, alien invasion, environmental disasters, viruses, pollution and global warming, has led to an excitement in the making of large-budget, large-income targeting films labelled as blockbuster. Focusing on the reflection of future-oriented big-scale fears in films, this study aims to understand the features of the apocalyptic ideology of American post-apocalyptic sci-fi cinema after 2000, to clarify these features in relation to various macro, micro and supra ideologies. Thus, these films are aimed to reveal the deflection of the myth or the return of the myth in such a way as to give an appreciation to them. The work that brought together the ideological analysis of K. Koch's apocalypticism, L. Giannetti's ideological analysis and D. Suvin's mythical analysis in a systematic and holistic way, sampled and examined eight films chosen from the working universe within this methodical framework. These films are the Matrix (Wachowski Brothers, 1999, 2003), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001), Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), The Hunger Games series (Gary Ross, 2012; Francis Lawrence, 2013, 2014, 2015), Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013), Interstellar (ChristopherNolan, 2014), Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015), and Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014, 2017). As a result of the analysis, it has been observed that the apocalyptic ideology in the movies changes in accordance with the micro and macro ideology with which the movies interact and acclaim. Some of these movies have conservative or feminist inclinations while their dominant stance is pro left-liberal and centrist ideologies. Doubts on the society of spectacle, increasingly virtualized and simulated social life and consumer society stands out. There is a parallelism in the increase of the tendency of dystopic tone and return to myths and increasing conservatism in movies. In general, it has been understood that films are trying to develop a new social structure such that the destruction phenomenon is designed as an expression and solution of the problems in contemporary social life. Keywords: Cinema, Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic, Apocalypticism, Disaster