‘Everything depends on reaching the coast’: intergenerational coastward journeys in contemporary post-apocalyptic cinema

Abstract

This article examines the generic treatment of the shoreline and sea within Waterworld (1995) and The Road (2009), two films representative of a recent body of post-apocalyptic science fiction films that depict recuperative coastward journeys centring on the figure of the child. Earlier representations and studies of the shoreline in science fiction cinema have focused upon larger physical transformations within the landscape. Conversely, this study examines the distinct ways in which Waterworld and The Road's travellers shape and negotiate coastward voyages, the beach and the sea in line with their own emotional desires, needs and attitudes. A close relationship is identified and assessed between the trajectories and intergenerational interactions developed within maritime and coastal spaces and the themes of communal rebirth and social recovery integral to post-apocalyptic fiction. The restrictive and unsustainable treatments of space and the journey demonstrated by Waterworld's Mariner and the Man in The Road are contrasted with the child's movements and actions upon beaches and boats. With reference to Victor Turner's conceptualizations of ‘the liminal’ and ‘the liminoid’, it is argued that the renegotiation of these shared spaces undertaken by Waterworld's Enola and the Boy in The Road embraces their marginality, investing them with a desire for open social interaction. This article observes that the child's contestation of spatial and social boundaries subsequently produces several receptive and nurturing exchanges between Waterworld and The Road's adult protagonists and their charges, but also notes that each man is ultimately not personally obliged to aid long-term social recovery.

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Notes on contributors

Heather Wintle

Heather Wintle is a doctoral candidate at the University of East Anglia. The work presented here is derived from her PhD research into the representation of American masculinities within contemporary apocalyptic road narratives, which is funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (grant number: AH/I503765/1). She has presented papers at various international conferences on issues of gender, genre, form and stardom in films, comics, video games and literature.