Inspired by classic horror movies like Romeos Living Dead trilogy, The Omega Man, The Last Man on Earth, Bodysnacher movies/remakes and even more recent post-appocalyptic films like the Mad Max or Snake Pliskin films, They Live or Maximum Overdrive.
Basically you have a lone hero or small group of survivors who, for whatever reason, finds themselves in a world where the remaining humans have mutated and/or turned into crazies, zombies or aliens.
At what point do you say “You know what? Maybe being a pod person isn’t so bad!”, “I think I would rather be one of the guys lurching around eating brains that the guy who gets his intestines ripped out”, “Let me be the first to welcome our alien/18 wheeler/crazed mohawk sporting mutant overlords!”?
Well, most of the movies you mention were based, at least in part, on Richard Matheson’s novella “I Am Legend,” which deals with PRECISELY that issue.
In Matheson’s “I Am Legend,” only one “normal” human being is left. Everyone else has been killed or turned into a vampire. The protagonists spends years stalking and killing vampires. At the very end, the vampires catch him and are about to kill him. At that very moment, the protagonist makes the realization: in this new world, the vampires are the “normal” ones, and HE’S the monster!
The title refers to his realization that, after he’s dead, the vampries will continue to tell their children horror stories about this terrifying creature who came out during the daytime, and who went around putting stakes through their hearts.
Yeah, but that doesn’t answer the question. Also, thoughout that story, there are plenty of times where he thinks about letting them take him, or killing himself just to spite them. He doesn’t actually come to enjoy his position in life until it’s about to be taken away from him. Also, in a world full of zombies, one wouldn’t inspire such fear, so getting to that point would never happen.
I think the OP is talking more about a world where you’re not a hunter in any sense, but just the hunted. You don’t awe anybody by your secret exploits. If they’re even known by the opposition, they’re probably just seen as futile little attempts at evading the inevitable…kinda like a grown man being attacked by a chihuahua.
I think I’d be able to continue until it became blatantly evident that I was the last “normal” alive. If it’s a world full of zombies, I’d put a gun between my teeth. Aliens, I’d try to go out in a bang, same with mutant.
Now, if it’s a world like Earth X, I might stick around simply for novelty sake, but I have a feeling in a world like that, I’d probably get bumped off by some teenagers having fun shooting fireballs at one another.
If it ment that I could kill anything that moved I would be.
Seriously,
Those pod people/zombies/vampires are bad news. And of course what the OP is missing is that these stories are based to some extent (Invasion of the Body Snatcher to a great extent) on the RED MENACE. Better dead than RED. Zombies/Pod People/Vampires do not share my morals, and I would rather die then become one of those monsters. Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees and of course Marshal Kane just has to stand up to them no matter what the odds are.
Also, thoughout that story, there are plenty of times where he thinks about letting them take him, or killing himself just to spite them. He doesn’t actually come to enjoy his position in life until it’s about to be taken away from him. Also, in a world full of zombies, one wouldn’t inspire such fear, so getting to that point would never happen.