APOCALYPSE CINEMA AS COUNTERFACTUAL PHENOMENON

The article deals with the relationship of apocalypse cinema genre to the everyday. Usually cinematic images of the end of the world and the routine everyday are treated through the prism of their mutual opposition. It is argued, however, that such interpretation should be essentially modified, by taking into account the realm of the negative counterfactual possibilities of the everyday. As Anthony Giddens has put it, in the habitual flow of everyday actions, events and situations, counterfactual negative possibilities are bracketed out and blocked, since negative counterfactual world threatens the self-identity of the everyday subject. All the counterfactual possibilities, irrespective to their local or global character, small misunderstandings or Armageddon, are neutralized as something that destroys the pre-established everyday order. Apocalypse cinema activates bracketed counterfactual possibilities but also creates the special mechanism to neutralize them. Procedure, which functions in the ordinary everyday automatically, is created intentionally in the apocalypse cinema. In the cinematic relationship "to see-to be seen", a spectator is given the privileged position that allows him/her to see, but remain unseen, not affected by the images of the global destruction.