End Day
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''End Day'' is a 2005
docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typ ...
produced by the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
. It aired on the
National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...
, on the TV series ''National Geographic Channel Presents'', and
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...
. It depicts a set of five
doomsday Doomsday may refer to: * Eschatology, a time period described in the eschatological writings in Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios of non-Abrahamic religions. * Global catastrophic risk, a hypothetical event explored in science and fict ...
scenarios. The documentary follows the fictional
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
Dr. Howell, played by Glenn Conroy, as he travels from his
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
hotel room to his laboratory in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and shows how each scenario affects his journey as well as those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster as it unfolds. After each 'End Day' runs its course, the day repeats, this time with the next scenario panning out. The following descriptions of the program were released by the BBC: :"Imagine waking up to the last day on Earth..." :"Inspired by the predictions of scientists, End Day creates apocalyptic scenarios that go beyond reality. In a single hour, explore five different fictional disasters, from a giant tsunami hitting New York to a deadly meteorite strike on Berlin."


Scenarios

Below are the various catastrophes depicted in the order they occur in the film:


'' Mega-Tsunami''

:In this scenario, a
volcanic eruption A volcanic eruption occurs when material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure. Several types of volcanic eruptions have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior h ...
of
Cumbre Vieja The Cumbre Vieja (; meaning "Old Summit") is an active Complex volcano, volcanic ridge on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The spine of Cumbre Vieja trends in an approximate north–south direction, comprising the southern ha ...
on the island of
La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Pa ...
in the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
triggers a massive
landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...
. A sizable portion of the island collapses into the sea, causing a massive
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
, tall, to race across the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
. The
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
searches for the wave and locates it, predicting that the mega-tsunami will strike the
East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...
. An evacuation of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
is ordered but not completed by the time the wave arrives and inundates the city, killing thousands of people but leaving many sturdier buildings intact, which proved to be crucial in providing a means of escape. A briefing by the US government after the flood waters started receding reveals that the wave travelled over two miles inland. However, many of those who survived the arrival of the wave in New York had climbed staircases to the upper floors of the city's taller buildings.


''Killer

Meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
''

:This scenario begins with a mysterious 'missile attack' in a remote area in the
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. The 'missiles' are soon revealed to be small asteroid fragments, the advance guard of a much larger asteroid on a collision course with Earth, threatening
Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...
. The
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
is located, and the militaries of Germany, Britain, and the United States attempt to alter its course using nuclear ICBMs. The attempt fails, breaking the asteroid into hundreds of smaller pieces. Berlin is evacuated by air and rail, with those unable to escape seeking shelter in the city's
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four systems and 14 systems. The , commonly understood to stand for ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the or ('city rapid railway') are c ...
stations, leaving the city largely deserted. Countless smaller meteorites rain down across Berlin, while a speeding train manages to escape just in time to avoid the heart of the city's obliteration by the largest of the asteroid fragments, leaving behind a large
impact crater An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...
where the Reichstag once stood.


''Global

Pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
''

:In this scenario, a variant of
influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...
known as the "Far East Virus" with similarities to
SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...
is unleashed in the United Kingdom after an infected passenger from a flight known as UK Airlines 009, which originated in
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, begins infecting people on a
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...
train by coughing uncontrollably. The virus wreaks havoc as it spreads phenomenally throughout the rest of
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
; cases start popping up in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
and other countries. Meanwhile, a young woman from London and her daughter attempt to make their way to her mother's house, knowing she was one of the flight's passengers. Arriving at the
housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...
where her mother lives, the woman goes to post a message through her mother's postbox, unaware that she is lying dead just behind the house's front door. A man desperate to leave the quarantine zone steals the woman's car with her daughter still inside but dies after crashing into a lamppost not far away; a soldier approaches the car and rescues the child. Countries around the world begin enacting
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and closing their borders in a frantic attempt to quarantine the spread of the disease; however, they are unsuccessful, and the outbreak reaches the scale of the 1918-20
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
pandemic, killing millions of people across the globe.


''

Supervolcano A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than . Supervolcanoes occur whe ...
''

:In this scenario, the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park begins to become active, showing the initial signs of activity through
volcanic earthquakes A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often ...
in
Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
. Volcanic activity quickly increases in the area at an exponential rate. A family of tourists visiting Yellowstone die after the ground surrounding a
geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring with an intermittent water discharge ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. The formation of geysers is fairly rare and is caused by particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Ea ...
explodes, sending their car hurtling down a hill right before Yellowstone itself explodes, incinerating everything within 100 kilometres of the caldera. A driver fleeing from a
pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...
is killed after driving the wrong way down a highway into the side of a
jackknifing Jackknifing is the folding of an articulated vehicle so that it resembles the acute angle of a folding pocket knife. If a vehicle towing a trailer skids, the trailer can push the towing vehicle from behind until it spins the vehicle around and ...
18-wheeler, whose own driver is then presumably killed by the pyroclastic flow. The
volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, produced during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to r ...
launched high into the atmosphere causes chaos, grounding the aviation industry across America and Europe and being projected to bring a period of
global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture, especially during the 1970s, of imminent cooling of the Earth culminating in a period of extensive glaciation, due to the cooling effects of aerosols or orbital forcing. Some press reports in the 1970s specu ...
to the planet. In the final scene, injured survivors emerge from the wreckage of
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
,
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, the city having been scorched by lava and pyroclastic flows and enveloped in ash clouds. This segment has only aired in the UK. The BBC docudrama ''
Supervolcano A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than . Supervolcanoes occur whe ...
'' explored this scenario more in-depth.


''

Strange Matter Strange matter (or strange quark matter) is quark matter containing strange quarks. In extreme environments, strange matter is hypothesized to occur in the core of neutron stars, or, more speculatively, as isolated droplets that may vary in siz ...
''

:This is the only scenario in which Dr. Howell reaches his laboratory unhindered, with people protesting outside and shouting, "Stop the experiment!" On numerous television screens, scientists talk about a new type of matter, the
strangelet A strangelet (pronounced ) is a hypothetical particle consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter, small enough to be ...
, and just how unlikely it is for one to be formed. Upon arrival, Howell and his colleagues initiate a highly controversial experiment using the world's largest
particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...
. The experiment quickly goes horrifically awry, which ironically results in the creation of a single strangelet as scientist Brian Cox describes just what the mysterious particle can do. The strangelet first causes the collider and most of the surrounding area to explode, then rises out of the ground and converts the whole planet into strange matter, starting with
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The strangelet wreaks havoc on the Earth's climate, with newly converted strange matter distributing itself around the globe.
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
is devoured by a gigantic storm system, and the strange matter continues to spread exponentially. An
Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...
slams into a
Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...
while attempting to flee the storm, killing all on board both aircraft. Off-screen, the strangelet finishes consuming and converting the planet into a sphere of pure strange matter. This scenario establishes that, by preventing Dr. Howell from reaching his laboratory, the other scenarios saved humanity, as it was confirmed that the facility would be shut down and the experiment would be terminated if Dr. Howell did not make it. :This episode is based on the most famous one, the Large Hadron Collider, which was not scheduled to start until September 10, 2008, three years after the BBC premiere of "End Day". Nine days later, there was an accident, and the end of the world did not happen. :However, after the plane crashed, the physicist
Frank Close Francis Edwin Close (born 24 July 1945) is a particle physicist who is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Education Close was a pupil at King's School, Peterborough (then a gram ...
reassured us that this particular scenario was unlikely to happen, as scientists had already done similar experiments by the time the movie was produced, and no disaster came after it. This is the only scenario in the film that doesn't end with a scientist saying that "it's not a question of if but when", as Close ends the segment by saying that "It makes great science fiction, great entertainment, great television, but on this – we can sleep easy".


Alternate versions

All original official sources cite five different scenarios including a giant volcanic explosion, but the volcanic explosion segment has never been aired in the United States. It has been edited out by the National Geographic Channel. Possibly for time problems or the inaccurate depiction of the
Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...
and
Yellowstone park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...
. All references to it on the National Geographic website have been removed. Only the other four scenarios have been aired. However, the BBC website had the super volcano segment until it was removed sometime after 28 May. 2006.
UKTV History U&Yesterday is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland specialising in history, documentaries, and culture. It launched on 30 October 2002 as UK History and relaunched in its current format on 2 ...
aired the version including the supervolcano segment on 23 January 2007. However, in the original BBC airing each of the scenarios showed the attempts of a family or person to escape the depicted disaster as well as following Dr. Howell, these segments were mostly cut from the UKTV History version aired in 2007. The volcano sequence can however be found on the popular video website
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. A French-dubbed version of ''End Day'' was also aired in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
(on the channel W9) and in
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
(on
RTBF The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...
The show on RTBF's video on demand
/ref>), under the title ''Fin du monde : les quatre scénarios'' (''End day: the four scenarios''). The "super volcano" scenario was not included.


In-film references

At one point when Dr. Howell drives off in a taxi at the beginning of the second segment, a front of a
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...
is visible behind with "''
Groundhog Day Groundhog Day (, , , ; Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if ...
'' now showing". In ''Groundhog Day'', the protagonist is stuck in a single day of his life, repeating it time after time with minor variations – similar to the life of Dr. Howell. Transitions between the disasters are shown such that it turns out that the prior disaster was actually a movie on a TV that has been left running overnight and the credits would roll as Dr. Howell's
alarm clock An alarm clock or alarm is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of people at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they can sometimes be used for o ...
goes off.


See also

*
Extinction event An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms. It occ ...
*
Near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...


References


External links

* * * * {{Gareth Edwards BBC television docudramas British documentary television films National Geographic (American TV channel) original programming Science docudramas 2005 British television series debuts Films directed by Gareth Edwards