Scarecrow suggests ... 'Independence Day,' 'Day After Tomorrow' and other film fantasies of global destruction

Judging from the trailers, "2012" is a nonstop, over-the-top spectacle of global destruction. We expect nothing less from writer and director Roland Emmerich, who is responsible for two classic examples of the genre: "Independence Day" (aka "ID4") and "The Day After Tomorrow."

In case you're not familiar with these two blockbusters, the former is a traditional man vs. aliens story starring Will Smith, while the latter puts Earth in the grip of a sudden ice age and stars Dennis Quaid as a scientist who sets out to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) from a very frozen-over New York City. Both films focus on core groups that miraculously survive multiple acts of cataclysmic destruction.

Though both films are mainly concerned with what's getting blown up and/or frozen in the U.S., Emmerich continually reminds the audience of the worldwide catastrophe, from the montage of alien ships conveniently crashed beside recognizable international landmarks like the Sydney Opera House in "ID4" to the last shot of "The Day After Tomorrow," an astronaut's view of Earth showing most of the Northern Hemisphere covered in a thick sheet of white.

Two other blockbusters, 1998's killer-asteroid double features "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact," also portray the world responding to an impending apocalypse.

"Armageddon" stars Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck as oil drillers sent into space to help blow up an asteroid the size of Texas that's on a collision course with Earth. While they're attempting to complete their mission New York City, Shanghai and Paris are pulverized by meteorites with subsequent scenes of cars exploding, buildings crumbing and people running in panic.

In "Deep Impact," Téa Leoni plays a journalist who discovers there's not one, but two gigantic chunks of rock headed our way. When one makes the titular splashdown, a tsunami indiscriminately takes out Manhattan. "Deep Impact" also features a government plan to save humanity like The Institute for Human Continuity in "2012." Their scheme, headed by President Beck (Morgan Freeman) rests on placing people and plants in a hollowed-out cavern in the Ozarks they call The Ark.

For a more intimate and intense disaster experience, there's Steven Spielberg's adaptation of "War of the Worlds." It follows a father (Tom Cruise) and his two kids trying to get from New Jersey to their mother's house in Boston amid a deadly alien attack. Though it's clear the entire world is in peril, the family only hears hints and rumors as to what's going on outside their immediate situation.

Films such as these are all descendants of great '70s disaster movies. We recommend watching danger confront the large ensemble casts of "The Towering Inferno," "Earthquake!" and "The Poseidon Adventure."

If you prefer even less substance and much less production value in your mass-destruction movies, try "2012: Doomsday" from the "mockbuster" studio The Asylum.

There are several documentaries exploring the Mayan alleged prediction of the end of the world. The History Channel's "Doomsday 2012: The End of Days" is a more fact-based exploration of the prophecy and its interpretations. The DVD also includes a bonus documentary, "Mayan Doomsday Prophecy."

Contributed by Scarecrow Video, 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E., Seattle; 206-524-8554 or www.scarecrow.com.