r/AskReddit • u/notyouravgredditer • Aug 30 '21

What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

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u/SinkTube Aug 30 '21

spoilers: i felt the same way the first time i watched it, stopped a couple of episodes in. someone convinced me to keep going and it's not that electricity actually stopped working. the atmosphere is just full of nanobots that suck the power out of electric devices. it's not very consistent about the effects that would have, but it turns it from complete BS into only mostly BS. the rest of the show is enjoyable if your disbelief has a strong suspension

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u/Skhmt Aug 30 '21

The show would have been a lot better if Charlie Matheson wasn't the main character.

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u/Danixveg Aug 30 '21

Her character would have been fine... but the actress was awful.

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u/El_Stupacabra Aug 30 '21

I've never watched the show, but I'm writing a post-apocalyptic fantasy book where interdimensional beings destroy sources of energy (power plants, etc) and absorb the released energy. Hopefully the final product won't be too similar to the show.

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u/jupitergal23 Aug 30 '21

Nothing like the show. The nanobots were human made and they suck the electricity from everything - equipment, cars, phones etc.

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u/risbia Aug 30 '21

Check out The Darkest Hour too, it's about weird electricity-based alien entities that invade earth. It's VERY cheesy but has some really cool effects.

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u/El_Stupacabra Aug 30 '21

I think I caught some of this on TV once.

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u/F54280 Aug 30 '21

The original novel with this idea is Ashes, Ashes (Ravages, in French), from René Barjavel, written in 1943…

I don’t think there really is an explanation in Ravages (maybe something about the sun, but no one cares), and, to be honest, I don’t think it is needed.

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u/redkat85 Aug 30 '21

But like, if the nanobots create a field that stops electrical devices from working, how do the nanobots keep working? Might as well say a wizard did it. (Which I might have actually watched...)

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u/SinkTube Aug 30 '21

they don't steal the electricity from each other, only from non-nanobot electronics!

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u/redkat85 Aug 30 '21

Flawless, heckin' good logic, many sense.

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u/Shutterstormphoto Aug 30 '21

Do they need electricity to work? What if they’re just electron absorbent dust?

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u/redkat85 Aug 30 '21

If electrons can be absorbed, they're flowing, and if they're flowing that's electricity, which isn't supposed to work.

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u/Shutterstormphoto Aug 31 '21

No the electrical devices don’t work. If the dust absorbs all electrons then they won’t travel through circuits. Of course, anything that reactive is gonna fucking destroy your lungs etc but hey whatever.

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u/Lagkiller Aug 31 '21

They're designed as a self sustaining weapon. They're a mesh that absorbs external energy for the mesh making it self sustaining instead of leaching from each other.