Training for the Apocalypse

This is a fascinating portrait of some troubled individuals whose various manias are expressed as a 'fear of end times'. Each person falls somewhere on the spectrum between irrational concerns and paranoia. From the cast-out religious to the anti-government to the survivalist, each story shares the same thread of individual obsession. It's interesting to see how these characters use a fear of apocalypse to give meaning to their lives and to build communities for themselves. This is not to dismiss the urge and need to prepare for natural disaster and power failures, however it seems the people profiled in this film have taken it to an unnecessary extreme. And it proves that for now at least, the world ends not in a bang, but in a whimper.