Apocalypse

Revelations Can Be Fun!

8. Put the following events of the Last Days in order, according to Revelations.
   • A great star falls from heaven, and 1/3 of all water turns to wormwood.
     3rd
   • Heaven declares its victory.
     7th
   • Having been already summoned, the Four Horsemen are unleashed, and a third of humanity is killed.
     6th
   • Hail and fire causes 1/3 of land to be burned.
     1st
   • Sun, moon and stars are struck, and 1/3 of light is lost.
     4th
   • A large burning mountain is hurled into the sea.
     2nd
   • The abyss opens and a plague of huge locusts comes out.
     5th

9. What is the etymological derivation of "Armageddon"? What is its purpose in the Apocalypse?
   Tor Megido, or Tar Megiddo, a hill near Jerusalem. The armies of the Antichrist mass there, and the final battle is held in its shadow.

10. According to the Bible, who or what are Gog and Magog?
    Evil nations.

Other Ends of Days

4. When Ragnarok arrives, the most famous Norse gods will kick the bucket. How will Thor die?
   He and the Midgard Serpent will kill each other.

5. What is the name of the wolf whose appearance heralds Ragnarok? What does he do?
   Fenrir or Fenris. Swallows the sun and the moon.

Culture Ends It All

6. What instruments were Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time scored for? Why?
   Clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano. The first three were the only instruments available in the concentration camp where Messaien wrote it.

7. What did "the end of time" mean for Messaien?
   The end of human suffering.

8. What is special about Scriabin's composition "Preparation for the Final Mystery"?
   When played, it is supposed to bring about the end of the world.

9. How is the end of the world depicted in the movie "Last Night"?
   Increase in lighting-it's as bright as noon at 11:30pm, and the end comes as the screen completely whites out.

10. In the movie Book of Life, some of the seven seals are opened on December 31, 1999. How are they opened?
    Using an Apple Powerbook, which only Jesus has access to.

11. List the recent novels describing the apocalypse authored by LaHaye and Jenkins.
    Left Behind, Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, Apollyon, Assassins, The Indwelling, The Mark, and the series is continuing.

12. What are the names of Apocalyptica's cellos?
    Black Rose, Il Duce, Sugar Kane, and Sleeping Death

13. According to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, who unleashed the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
    The archangel Michael

14. According to Highlander: The Series (There can be only some!), who are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
    Methos, Kronos, Silas, Caspian

15. Fill in the blank: "The other night I dreamt _________ jellybean, Boom!
    The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! (REM's It's the End of the World As We Know It")

16. Humanity has met its demise in many ways. Name the film or piece of literature which includes each apocalypse, armageddon, or major catastrophe.

    1. Ice-nine freezes all water into a solid at room temperature.
       Cat's Cradle

    2. A computer program prints out a list of God's names.
       The Nine Billion Names of God

    3. With a whimper.
       The Hollow Men

    4. Time-travelling stewardesses accidentally break the space-time continuum, with the help of Kris Kristofferson.
       Millennium

    5. The Earth is blasted by aliens constructing an interstellar bypass.
       Hitchhiker's guide

    6. The Earth is blasted by shiny blue aliens.
       Titan AE

    7. People read a very scary, very popular, very evil book.
       In the Mouth of Madness

    8. General Jack D. Ripper successfully defends the purity of American bodily fluids from Communists.
       Dr. Strangelove

    9. A genetically engineered disease kills 95% of the earth's population, and someone not unlike the Devil marshals his forces in Las Vegas.
       The Stand

    10. Aliens that prove to be the best sex partners ever move to Earth, and all civilization stops as everyone turns to constant sex.
        How's the Night Life on Cissalda?

    11. A really big rock hits the earth, and even President Tom Beck is helpless.
        Deep Impact

    12. Aliens blow up major world monuments, and even President Thomas J. Whitmore is helpless.
        Independence Day

    13. Aliens blow up major world monuments, and even President Dale is helpless.
        Mars Attacks

    14. Gigantic grasshoppers eat Chicago.
        The Beginning of the End

    15. The deaths of two Canadians releases Satan.
        South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

17. Here are prophecies and vaguely prophetic statements. Tell us who uttered these forebodings.

    1. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 
       The ceremony of innocence is drowned
       

       
       William Butler Yeats

    2. I do not know how many generations we can count on before the Lord returns.
       Former Secretary of the Interior James Watt

    3. When a man walks upon the lamp of the night [the Moon], Islam will fail.
       The Prophet Muhammed

    4. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will followuntil all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
       Abraham Lincoln

    5. An incandescent column of smoke and flame
       As bright as 10,000 suns
       Rose in all its splendor
       

       
       The Mahabharata

    6. The great swarm of bees shall arise
       But from where they come from shall not be known
       Beneath the vines the sentinel will be ambushed at night
       A city will be betrayed by five tongues not naked.
       

       
       Nostradamus

    7. The baths of Badon shall grow cold, and their salubrious waters engender death. London shall mourn for the death of twenty thousand; and the river Thames shall be turned into blood.
       Merlin

    8. I see wars, horrible wars, and the Tiber foaming with much blood!
       The Aeneid (Virgil)

18. What piece of art was used for the cover of this bonus? Name the original horsemen, left to right.
    Albrecht Durer

19. Now name the "altered" horsemen, and the source for them.
    People Covered in Fish, Cruelty to Animals, All Foreigners, Especially the French, and Really Cool People. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.

20. When will the world end? Why?