Reading When

Reading When Worlds Collide or watching the 1951 movie version, it's fascinating to see how many of the enduring tropes of impact stories were already in place: the shocking scientific discovery, the authorities alerted, the sadness and panic, the riots and looting, the hi-tech plan for survival, the reference to Noah, and the many forms of denial. "The end of the world will never be really believed till it comes," says the scientific genius Cole Hendron.