I'm a sucker for "end of humanity" stories. I don't care if you're talking about nuclear annihilation, natural catastrophe, zombies due to a mutated virus...I love 'em all. Any actor who has appeared in such a genre has instant cred with me. If you mention Don Johnson, I think
A Boy and His Dog. Anthony Edwards? Screw
ER and
Top Gun, I think
Miracle Mile. (Even Mare Winningham couldn't ruin that movie for me, and she taints
everything she's done in front of a camera.)
The event that sparked my fascination was when my dad took me to see
The Omega Man on the big screen. I remember thinking,
Who is this Charlton Heston fellow, and why is he always gritting his teeth? I didn't know, but he spent that whole movie drunk and angry and shooting albino mutants wearing Ray-Bans. Does a movie
need anything more?
In college, I discovered Richard Matheson's 1954 novel in a used bookstore. That's when I learned the title was actually
I Am Legend.* I read it and appreciated the scientific explanation for how vampires could actually exist. The idea that monsters could be explained by science had a significant impact on my writing.
But not before I wrote some piss-poor fiction of my own about a similar subject.
Presented here, for your amusement, is an excerpt from an unfinished story I wrote called "Byrne's World." A 22-year-old kid is going about his daily activities as the last slacker on the planet.** His actions mirror the frustration a young Eric Rider must have been feeling about a recent breakup.
"I went over to [my ex-girlfriend's] house and blew out some of her walls with these M-80s that I found on my trip to Indiana. Then I built a ramp leading up to the picture window...and drove her prize '85 Thunderbird up it, a cinderblock holding the gas pedal at a steady 70. It went through the window just fine, but it veered to the left slightly and only took out two walls. The roof didn't even collapse. I had to introduce her father's Mercedes to the living room before the remaining walls gave out and the second floor said howdy-do to the first."
Will Smith is trying to synthesize a cure to save mankind. I'm trashing an ex's house. Nice.
* It's worth mentioning that before Will Smith's movie came out with the book's original title, it had been adapted twice. Vincent Price played the titular role in The Last Man on Earth, nine years before Heston.
** I didn't have the patience for explanations--he just woke up and everyone was gone, OK?
Los emos y el hombre Omega dicen: "Voy a sentir mejor después de escuchar My Chemical Romance"
