At midnight, January 1, 2013

Millions will watch Ryan Seacrest drop a ball on New York

Instead, we'll be watching aliens blow up national landmarks


It's been one year since we ushered in 2012 by blowing up Cyberdyne and halting the robot apocalypse. As it turns out, our annihilation was merely postponed. 2012 may be nearly over but isn't willing to go quietly into the night.

As the year comes to a close we tip a weary nod to the Internet, which has devoted the past year (nay, decade) to producing a near-endless stream of tired 2012 apocalypse jokes. Annoying? Definitely. Payoff? Negligible. Pop-cultural definition of the past year? Absolutely. We'll grant that much and, with it, spend our New Year's Eve watching movies about the end of life on the good Earth.

We'll begin with the destruction of our entire planet, in the George Pal & Rudolph Matι popcorn flick, When Worlds Collide (1951). After that it's a block of giant monsters running amok beginning with another episode of Winsor McCay's animated "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" shorts, The Pet (1921), representing a naturally occurring monster. That will be followed by the King of the Monsters himself, in Ishiro Honda's Godzilla (1956, with Raymond Burr), weighing in for the atomic monster league.

The Cold War story of humanity being wiped out by nuclear war will be featured in Stanley Kubrick's black comedy classic, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Finally, starting at 11:08:14 PM, we'll wrap up the year with Roland Emmerich's shlocky blockbuster, Independence Day (1996), culminating with alien invaders blasting major cities off the face of the planet.

Here's the base schedule if you're interested in showing up:

NEW YEARS 2013 MOVIE SCHEDULE Monday, December 31, 2012 - Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Time:	Event:	Length:
4:30:00 – 5:52:12 PM	When Worlds Collide	1h 22m 12s
5:52:12 – 6:05:00 PM	Open time	0h 12m 48s
6:05:00 – 6:16:13 PM	The Pet	0h 11m 13s
6:16:13 – 7:36:46 PM	Godzilla	1h 20m 23s
7:36:46 – 8:00:00 PM	Open time	0h 23m 24s
8:00:00 – 9:35:25 PM	Dr. Strangelove	1h 18m 25s
9:35:25 – 11:08:14 PM	Open time	1h 33m 31s
11:08:14 – 1:41:37 AM	Independence Day	2h 33m 23s

When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Matι, 1951) 82 min.

The Pet (Winsor McCay, 1921) 11 min.

Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1956) 80 min.

Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) 94 min.

Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996) 153 min.

The one thing I have to stress is that this won't be a booze-pounding, raucous affair. It will be a drier, quieter, mass extinction-ier New Years than the other parties out there.

So, y'know, we'll be here if you're interested!

We dedicate this year's event to
DICK CLARK
1929 – 2012
New Year's Rockin' Eve often felt like being stabbed in the face,
but I respected you for your lengthy career and sheer tenacity.
Past New Years: 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012