The Roland Emmerich Apocalypsometer

With the filmmaker about to drop the moon on Earth in Moonfall, we assess the toll from his extinction-level events

INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

The aliens who terrorise Earth just in time for a US national holiday ultimately destroy over 100 major cities; according to the official tie-in novel Independence Day: Crucible, roughly half the world’s population dies in the so-called ‘War of 1996’, before Jeff Goldblum saves the day with his floppy disk.

BODY COUNT:

3 BILLION

GODZILLA (1998)

Emmerich’s critically maligned take on the giant lizard is a relatively bloodless affair. Godzilla largely smashes up more buildings than he does people, laying waste to downtown New York; if some of the reviews are to be believed, it’s Toho’s legacy that’s the biggest victim here.

BODY COUNT:

500-1,000

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)

It’s the climatechange warning nobody listened to! Emmerich’s superstorm freezes most of the Northern Hemisphere — leaving most people in Siberia, Canada and Scotland turned into Mr Freeze-style ice statues. A massive tidal wave also floods New York (and presumably many other coastal cities). Best start recycling now.

BODY COUNT:

100 MILLION

2012 (2009)

The big one. In Emmerich’s disasterverse, the doommongering Mayan prophecies were right (of course!). A previously unknown form of neutrinos from solar flares are found to be heating the Earth’s core; as a result, the entire planet is basically screwed. A series of earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis ravage the planet, resulting in a biblical-level flood that puts anything without inflatables attached underwater. Approximately 400,000 people make it onto the ‘Ark’ — but that leaves rather a lot of people who don’t.

BODY COUNT:

6.5 BILLION

ANONYMOUS (2011)

The outlier. Emmerich’s unusual venture into, erm, Shakespearean England sees a few people die — an ageing Queen Elizabeth I pops her clogs, and Shakespeare slashes Christopher Marlowe’s throat for some reason — but it remains disappointingly free of apocalypselevel events. Not even a mild tornado.

BODY COUNT:

SIX

JOHN NUGENT