Long after humankind have abandoned earth, Kitai Rage and his father Cypher crash land after a perilous mission goes wrong. Injured and alone, Kitai must fight against all manner of terrifying creatures now inhabiting earth to get his critically injured father back home in After Earth. And to celebrate its release tomorrow we have put together just some of our favourite (and downright terrifying) places on earth!
Mount Merapi, Indonesia
“Fire Mountain” as it is known through its English translation is one of the most truly terrifying places on earth. Even during its dormant periods, the volcano puffs ominous smoke from its mouth up to 10,000 feet high in the sky. Having erupted 60 times in the last five hundred years, including in 1994 when a cloud of lethally hot gas scolded 60 people to death, we are sure we won’t be queuing up anytime soon to be living there! So here is something else even more worrying, around 200,000 villagers live within 4 miles of this unpredictable and (frankly, dangerous) volcano!
The Ephemeral Isles, The Maldives
In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives makes up a collection of islands and atolls all of which are picturesque and as beautiful as one would think they ought to be. But its highest point of elevation is also only six feet high. Sweet and cute until you consider that they are surrounded by, well, an ocean of water that could potentially obliterate them in one disaster lurking round the corner. A 2005 survey conducted after the 2004 tsunami struck concluded that the Maldives do not have much life left above sea level. We are hoping this will be later rather than sooner!!
Minquin County, China
Trapped between two deserts, the once fertile land that made up Minqin County is diminishing at an alarming rate. The extended period of drought as well as the diversion of its water supply from the Shiyang River has meant that the land has become swallowed into the two deserts situated on either side of it. Since the 50s the deserts have swallowed more than 100 square miles, leading to the relocation of hundreds of farmers from a once richly abundant land of almost 400 square miles to a now rapidly decreasing dead land of less than 60 square miles.
McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica
An isolated and downright terrifying place, the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica make us think of blood and guts coating the walls in something reminiscent of a horror flick! The deep crimson colour runs through into Lake Bonney makes the giant mountain look as though it is weeping blood in almost a warning to humankind not to dwell there (as if the sub-zero temperatures had not already put us off!) Rather more terrifyingly however is the fact that scientists have found presence of chemicals that can support life in the bloodied liquid! Call us crazy but we will not be first in line for that!
Chernobyl, Ukraine
The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 which enabled a nuclear plant to release a deadly radiation at a fatal level into the air is still one of the worst disasters to have happened on earth. To this day, those living close to the area still experience respiratory illness and other hosts of complications including thyroid cancer. The immediate area surrounding the deadly plant is still cordoned off to this day due to health and safety risks to all humans and shows no signs of ever being habitable again.
Catch Will and Jaden Smith take on earth as you have never seen it before when After Earth hits cinemas on 7th June!