On movie screens around the country, the world is coming to an end.

Hollywood director Roland Emmerich, of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow notoriety, uses his skill with special effects to depict the end of the world in the new movie 2012.

The 2012 is a reference to the Maya lunar calendar, which allegedly comes to an end on December 21, 2012. Some people think the world will end with it. Maya experts do not agree.

In any case, this is not the first time in recent memory that the end of the world has been said to be nigh. We combed through past headlines to see how print journalism (which is facing its own “end is coming” scenario) announced the imminent demise of our planet. Here are our picks for the outstanding offerings. Let us know if you have any headlines to nominate, old or new.

In an early scene of the film, Army General Hopgood, played by Stephen Lang, attempts to walk through a wall. His effort fails. Big time. What is to blame: Bad teaching or real world physical forces? We asked physicist Jeffrey Hazboun, who studies nature’s fundamental forces at Utah State University, about the physical forces governing walls. Here are three things we learned.

In the movie Amelia, famed aviator Amelia Earhart is depicted as a heroic woman with the adventurous spirit and fearlessness of a ten-year-old. But the nitty-gritty of her flights and her passion for adventure don't get nearly as much attention as her love affairs, ideas of open marriage, or her fame as a celebrity of the ‘30s.

The movie begins in 1937 with the breathtaking face of Earhart (Hilary Swank) sitting in the cockpit of her Electra, navigating her way around the world. It then flashes back to her childhood in Kansas, then forward to 1928, when she meets Mr. Putnam (Richard Gere). Gere asks Swank why she wants to fly, and she responds, “Why does a man ride a horse?” Of course, the answer is “to be free.” I hoped this answer would be the baseline of the film, but Earhart’s freedom is short-lived. Soon she is selling clothing, posing for pictures, and doing commercials for waffle irons.

Amelia, which earned mixed reviews and had a less-than-heroic opening weekend, also neglected to mention one part of Earhart’s extraordinary life: her strong connection with National Geographic. In May 1932  she was awarded the National Geographic Society’s gold medal, presented by President Herbert Hoover (photo, above). And three years later  she contributed an article to the magazine titled “My Flight From Hawaii.” Here are some excerpts that fill in several of the movie gaps and give a bit of insight into what it was like to be a pioneering flyer in the 1930s.



If we aren’t alone in the universe, how would we treat our intergalactic neighbors?

The new movie District 9 considers this question by envisioning a present-day Earth where humans and extraterrestrials coexist, albeit uneasily.

Two decades after a colossal spacecraft has stalled over Johannesburg, South Africa, its passengers—millions of confused, malnourished aliens called “prawns” by disparaging humans—have been ghettoized into a grimy, apartheid-echoing militarized zone known as District 9. Then an evil corporation called Multi-National United decides to relocate them to an even more bantustan-like tent city. The subsequent eviction process touches on a host of legal and ethical issues like: What would earthlings do to ET visitors? Kill them? Conduct medical experiments? Attempt to extract valuable weaponry? All of the above?

To aid in our speculation, Pop Omnivore talked to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the nonprofit SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and author of the new book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Food is, of course, a major theme in Julie & Julia, the new movie about Julia Child's life in France and modern-day New Yorker Julie Powell’s attempt to cook every recipe in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

But place also plays a part. The movie begins as the Childs move from Washington, D.C. to Paris in 1949. The city instantly captures Julia's heart (and obviously her appetite). I'm an incurable Francophile, and all I could think about was what life was like in 1950s Paris. How much did Julia pay for the eggs she needed to whip up meringue? Were apartment rents exorbitant? Why, before she made the pivotal decision to attend the Cordon Bleu, did Julia dabble in hat-making?

I turned to the National Geographic archives for answers. This magazine has covered the City of Light at least two dozen times over the last five decades, but one story caught my eye with a title so perfect I had to read it twice: "Home Life in Paris Today, July 1950."

A Dog of Flanders tells the moving story of a boy in a funny hat and his faithful pooch, played by the star of Old Yeller.

Almost 50 years after it debuted in theaters, the 1960 version of A Dog of Flanders, starring Spike (of Old Yeller fame) as the rescued pet "Patrasche," is back as a digitally restored and remastered DVD. The question I asked myself as I began to watch with my five-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son: Would my 21st-century kids, who had just been watching a Malcolm in the Middle rerun, sit still for an earnest, heart-warming tale of a boy with a funny-looking cap (not the baseball kind) in a part of Europe they've never heard of? Answer: They would.

The new movie Moon is a sci-fi throwback—a simple, hermetic story of isolation, identity, and (in)sanity.

In a matter of minutes, the 2001-indebted scene is set: It’s the near future, and a guy named Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is toiling alone in a mining station on the moon, where he harvests a clean-energy substance called Helium-3 to power a depleted Earth. His only company is a HAL-like robot called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). His only goal is to play out the last two weeks of his three-year contract.

Even though the film is set in the future, some things about the space station look familiar to children of the television age. When Sam gets a haircut, GERTY uses a gadget that looks a lot like a Flowbee.

Just to be clear, this blog post does not endorse the movie Bruno. In fact, this photo depicts a beloved (and now stufffed) German bear named Bruno so no one will think that we are in Bruno's camp—not that there's anything wrong with that.

Love him or loathe him, provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen's latest creation arrives in American theaters this weekend with the subtlety of a (sequined) anvil tossed to the (well-coiffed) head. I found the movie to be utterly tasteless, offensive, vulgar, and completely cringe-inducing. Needless to say, I loved it. And as a National Geographic employee, I would be remiss to send those who wish/dare to see this film into it without a short geographic and cultural glossary. After the jump, we offer terms that highlight some of the film's finer/horrifying moments. 

In Year One, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) traipse across Biblical history after fleeing their village, narrowly escaping death, slavery, and circumcision en route to discovering their destinies.

Their final destination—where the majority of the movie takes place—is Sodom, known as the sinful city destroyed by God in “fire and brimstone.” Pop Omnivore was interested: Did Sodom really exist? To find out, we interviewed Rupert Chapman, head librarian of the Middle East department at the British Museum and co-author of the book Archaeology and the Bible, which examines how the findings of archaeology have confirmed—or refuted—the Bible.

A scene from the documentary Act of God, part of the Silver Docs film festival this month in Silver Spring, Md.

Owlie Skywarn terrified me as a child. Mr. Skywarn was the shrieking, easily agitated, anthropormophized owl-star of Watch Out! Storms Ahead!, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The alarmist owl warned of me violent weather phenomenon that was hell bent on destroying me, my family, and my pet hamsters, Fred and Ginger. Within a few weeks of getting this treatise on "Weather As A Force of Pure Evil in Your Young, Easily Extinguished Life," I was frightening my church picnic into an early departure (“Funnel cloud! I think!”) and desperately planning for Biblical floods, blinding blizzards, and Category 5 hurricanes. Hurricanes. On my family's farm. In far west Texas.

In the smash-hit movie The Hangover, some guys wake up in their hotel room after a night of debauchery. One of them goes to relieve himself. He hears a roar. There’s a tiger near the toilet tank! Turns out it’s Mike Tyson’s pet.

Naturally, Pop Omnivore wondered: What should you do if there is a tiger in the room? And, on a more serious note, do people really have pet tigers?

Here is what we learned from tiger experts Philip Nyhus, assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College and co-editor of the forthcoming book Tigers of the World, and Louis Dorfman, animal behaviorist at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary.

Rebel angels are cast into hell but weren't cast in the movie.

To Sartre, hell was other people. To Sam Raimi, it’s the usual Christian version: fire, brimstone, anguished wails of the eternally damned—you get the picture, or will if you catch Drag Me to Hell.

Raimi’s newest feature film is a crackerjack horror/comedy, a knowingly schlocky, visually inventive movie as creepy, disgusting, goofy, and hilarious as his seminal, psychotronic Evil Dead trilogy. If you liked those flicks, you’ll probably love this one. In it, a goodhearted loan officer gets on the bad side of an elderly Hungarian woman, who proceeds to curse the poor girl. For three days she’ll be stalked, scared, and totally grossed out by a vengeful demon. On the fourth day, she’ll be—you guessed it—dragged to hell.

At least Will Ferrell is wearing the right kind of vest to be a paleontologist.

The new movie Land of the Lost stars Will Ferrell as paleontologist Rick Marshall, who invents a time machine that takes him to an alternate Earth where dinosaurs still dwell. Pop Omnivore wants to know: Does this film, based on a 1970s children’s TV show, do justice to paleontologists, not to mention dinosaurs?

For an expert opinion, we spoke with Thomas R. Holtz Jr., dinosaur paleontologist at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geology. (Warning: This interview contains spoilers—and references to poop and pee!)

Okay, I saw Disney’s Race to Witch Mountain and liked it, but I’m in my 40s and not really the target audience. I can offer the grown-up (and National Geographic) perspective, but to give you real insight into the movie, I’m sharing this blog with my 9-year-old son, Jeremy.

Jeremy: It is a great movie because it is about aliens, and aliens are pretty cool. It has a lot of funny scenes—people in the audience laughed. And there are a lot of car chases—the main characters are always driving in this beat-up taxi.

It's official. Hollywood loves Slumdog Millionaire. The movie captured eight Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture and Best Director. Indians are having a different sort of debate about the movie: Is it an honest portrayal of child poverty or do the attractive lead characters and happy ending add up to a glamorization of the poor?

Personally, I think that the fairy tale aspects of the movie did not undercut the horrors of child poverty. My Western eyes definitely teared up. But I understand that many Indians disagree.

You can take a look for yourself at real life in Mumbai, with a National Geographic story and photos on the slum known as Dharavi. 

Photo: Rocky, courtesy of Great Ape Trust of Iowa

Dunston isn’t checking in; he’s checking out. And Clint Eastwood is going to have to find a new co-star if he ever makes a sequel to Every Which Way But Loose.

Yes, the era of the Hollywood orangutan is coming to an end.

This month, Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, reportedly the only West Coast source of orangutans for the entertainment industry, announced plans to donate its six orangs to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa, a sanctuary in Des Moines, over the next few months.

Pop Omnivore wanted to find out more, so we spoke to Rob Shumaker, director of orangutan research at the research facility (which offers educational tours, by reservation).

Why did the trainers make this decision?

I didn’t probe to ask all their reasons, but they were partially driven by genuine welfare concerns. It was important for them to find a destination they approved of for their apes. We have some philosophical differences, but I think of them as good people and friends at this point.

Did they treat their apes well?

There are folks who raise welfare concerns about apes in entertainment. There’s a range of how apes are treated. My interactions with the Martins have given me no indication to believe these apes were ever treated badly in any way.

Is it a bad idea for orangutans or other apes to appear on TV or in movies?

It depends how they’re portrayed. I would never suggest a National Geographic documentary about orangutans is a bad thing. But that’s obviously distinct from entertainment or advertisements.

And what’s your view on apes in entertainment programs?

Some folks firmly believe [such programs] can convey a positive message and stimulate interest in apes. Other folks believe [they] diminish concerns about conservation in the wild. I don’t have the answers. It’s certainly fair to say this is an issue people feel strongly about on both sides.

Is there any sort of “apes in entertainment” program you’d be OK with?

It depends what they’re having the ape do. If I saw apes manipulated with special effects to make it look like they’re talking to each other, and they were obviously filmed at a distance in a zoo setting, that doesn’t bother me.

What about Dunston Checks In, the 1996 movie that featured an orangutan?

That’s not the kind of thing I would be supportive of. I have my own kids, and that’s not a movie that I would give them to watch. I guess my general feeling is that I am uncomfortable any time apes are depicted on TV, in greeting cards, in documentaries, or in books in a way intended to be goofy or comic relief, or if they are diminished in any way. Anything that reinforces unfortunate stereotypes about apes makes it harder for people to understand, admire, and respect them.

What if a movie depicted an ape as a hero?

A great example was the most recent King Kong movie. King Kong was very heroic. The movie also depicted ape intelligence. And that ape was totally computer generated. I would prefer movies that depict apes in positive and heroic ways, and I think the best situation is what we saw with King Kong—all done with computer graphics.

So basically you’re against using real apes in entertainment?

I don’t want to condemn anybody who’s ever worked with an ape in entertainment. I cannot deny that my initial exposure to apes—and one of the things that most stimulated my interest—was watching Cheetah in Tarzan movies when I was a kid.

The first orangutans from the Martins are now at the refuge. How are they doing?

All apes are individuals. They are affected by what goes on in their lives just like any person would be. The first two have been here a little less than a week. I’m happy to report they are very, very comfortable. Rocky, the 3-year-old [pictured, above] , settled in very easily and quickly—you’d pretty much expect that from a healthy normal youngster. His mother, Katy, who’s 19, took a day or two to figure out what was going on. But in the last couple days, she’s so relaxed and has been very playful and happy.

How do orangutans compare with other great apes?

They are not nearly as energetic or animated as the African apes—chimps, gorillas, bonobos. I think people interpret that as being sluggish or uninteresting or maybe not so bright, but it’s just a difference in their pace of life.

So are they as smart as chimps?

Everything strongly indicates that orangutans are equally intelligent and as capable as any other great ape. There’s some indication they do better on a lot of measures of intelligence than other great apes.

Any other notable orangutan traits?

They have a wonderful sense of humor. They’re great at capturing a moment and turning it into something playful or funny. I recall one moment when I was working with one of the most wonderful females I ever knew, Indah, who died a few years ago. Apparently whatever task I had given her that day was not very exciting to her. There was one particular answer on the computer screen we were looking for, one of 28 symbols. Indah reached up and touched every single symbol on screen except the right answer, then looked at me and waited for me to respond. On another similar occasion, she looked at the task I presented to her, turned around, and made a silly face by putting her fingers on her eyes, making a goofy mouth, and just fell onto me and wanted to be tickled and to laugh.

- Marc Silver

We’re not saying foreign films get no respect. After all, they are nominated for Oscars. But be honest: Have you heard of this year’s five nominees? And do you personally sit through movies with subtitles? Here’s a rundown of Oscar’s foreign favorites, a generally grim and foreboding quintet, screened last week at National Geographic headquarters as part of the All Roads Film Project.

Katyn

From: Poland

Plot: In 1940 in Katyn Forest, the Soviets massacred 12,000 Polish soldiers. In the five years of war that follow, their families of the soldiers, and the few survivors, struggle to make sense of their lives while trying to learn the truth about what happened at Katyn.

Oscar-worthy moment: The events of that awful day are revealed in a flashback, prompted when the wife of Lieutenant Andrzej receives his journal in 1945. As his words are read aloud, the movie shows the confusion of the soldiers as they're herded onto a train, presumably bound for a labor camp; the bureaucracy of the Soviets, who process each new arrival as if there's some future ahead; and the brutal crime itself.

Subtitles: 100 percent readable.

Will it win: It certainly deserves to. The movie vividly depicts the physical and mental torments that afflict families coping with the aftermath of a massacre. And the Academy usually admires movies whose multiple storylines collide in a powerful conclusion. -William E. Barr

12

From: Russia

Plot: Twelve angry Muscovite jurors ponder the case of a young Chechen boy accused of killing his adoptive Russian stepfather. Scenes of armed conflict in Chechnya are interspersed with the boy’s personal history and the jury-room efforts to determine the truth.

Subtitles: Easy to read—and native Russian speakers who sat next to me praised the translation. Chechen dialogue is also subtitled in both Russian and English.

Oscar-worthy moment: As the accused paces in a small cell, the foreman of the jury tries to explain how they cna save the boy's life if they dig in and uncover the truth about the case. He breaks down mid-sentence. Then the camera pulls back from the boy’s feet to show that he's not pacing; he's performing a traditional Chechen dance–a way to express his ties to his lost family and the homeland he loves and misses.

Will it win: A bit too heavy-handed and didactic to take home the statue, but the actors deserve a special award for their staggeringly impressive work. -Nicholas Mott

The Counterfeiters

From: Austria

Plot: Instead of making  money by making art, Salomon "Sali" Sorowitsch, a Jewish artist in pre-World War II Germany, makes money by making fake money. He’s caught, arrested, and sent to a concentration camp but ends up leading Himmler's secret operation to flood the U.S. and Britain with counterfeit bills.

Oscar-worthy moment: A table-tennis match between two of the pampered counterfeiters is disrupted when a prisoner in the camp collapses and is shot to death. Adolf Burger insists that the game continue and sends a volley across the table to Sali—a not-so-subtle flash of anger at Sali’s willingness to print counterfeit money for the Nazis. Sali responds with his fists. (For Burger's story, as told by him, check out this Wall Street Journal article.)

Subtitles: Easy to follow, except for the occasional scene when the camera pivots sharply, or when white text is printed on a white background.

Will it win: Unlike many Holocaust films, The Counterfeiters reveals both the courage and cowardice of camp prisoners who must decide at what cost they will risk their lives and honor. With that kind of scenario, The Counterfeiters is likely to cash in with an Oscar. -Ben Block

Beaufort

From: Israel

Plot: In a matter of weeks, Israel will withdraw troops from Lebanon, but that's not soon enough for the soldiers guarding a lonely outpost near the Crusader fortress Beaufort. Bombarded by rocket fire and hemmed in by an explosive device on the road, they mark their final days in Lebanon with an impending sense of doom and dark, nihilistic humor (after a visitor says no thanks to an offer of “deluxe Beaufort toast” with pesto, cherry tomatoes, and Dijon, the toast offerer says, “Good, because we’re out of all three.”)

Oscar-worthy moment: "Ziv [from] the bomb squad," 'coptered in to defuse the explosive device, gets ready to check it out. The early-morning sky is an eerie silver-gray. Protective suit in place, visor down, salty licorice from his mom in his mouth, Ziv taps with a cane, as a blind man would, to look for tripwires—then falls to his knees as if in prayer to inch up to the gadget.

Subtitles: No problems.

Will it win? Beaufort deserves to be honored for its depiction of the absurdity of war. But maybe two hours of the absurdity of war is a bit too much for the Academy. –Marc Silver

Mongol

From: Kazakhstan

Plot:  This movie could be called Genghis Khan: the Early Years. At age nine, Temudgin (birth name of the great Khan) rides with his aristocratic father to select a wife.  On the return trip, a rival tribe poisons dad, and his own tribesmen ransack the family home. Temudgin is locked up until he escapes as a teenager, when he is able to marry Börte. His dedication to her, and the force of his personality, leads him into conflicts with a powerful tribe, his blood brother’s sizeable army, and neighboring China.  In the process he unites the Mongols under a new code of laws and builds an army poised to conquer most of Asia.

Oscar-worthy moment: Carrying torches and wearing fearsome masks, a feuding tribe attacks the home of the now-grown Temudgin. Their goal is to steal his new bride, just as his mother was stolen from their tribe years ago.  An enemy arrow wounds Temudgin as the couple tries to escape. Börte gives herself up after spurring a horse to carry her wounded husband to safety—an act that symbolizes the extraordinary bond between husband and wife.

Subtitles: Straightforward and easy to read, with a touch of poetry: “Look for a wife with a face as flat as a salt lake, and eyes that are narrow. Evil spirits dive into wide eyes and drive them to madness.” 

Will it win? Awkward transitions aside, Mongol impresses with breathtaking scenery and strong performances. Boyish yet stoic, radiating a calm far beyond his years, young Odnyam Odsuren is utterly convincing. So … not your typical foreign-film winner, but a definite dark-horse candidate. -Brad Scriber

My childhood memories are slightly fuzzy, flicker, are briefly interrupted by black squiggling filaments of lint and accompanied by the soundtrack of 8mm sprocket holes begrudgingly snaking though a film projector. Memories that are literally decaying on celluloid film base, packed away in some box in my parent’s attic.

It seems a matter of inevitable chemistry; oxygen and water present in a confined film container creates an acidic chemical cocktail that reacts with the cellulose acetate film turning it into a brittle decaying mess. For most of us who don’t keep our precious memories stored in temperature and humidity controlled vaults, you may want to take a look at an article in Saturday’s New York Times by Alina Tugend, detailing the technology and services available to transfer your film and video to DVD.

If you’d like to read more on the chemical process of 8mm movie film decay, try this link detailing the vinegar syndrome of film degradation.

Dad, if you are reading, please start digging out the old home movies, let’s get them converted to DVD!

— Ken Geiger