Short Version: Whether you accept them or not, it’s hard to walk away unaffected by the dire warnings of Collapse.
Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw Reviews Collapse
Collapse is the new documentary by Chris Smith, director of the 1999 documentary American Movie. The premise is simple: the movie is an eighty minute diatribe by Michael Ruppert, a former LAPD officer and longtime investigative journalist, who has been working for years stringing together what he believes is an imminent doomsday scenario for modern civilization.
The film consists of Smith sitting off camera, interviewing Ruppert in what looks to be a vacant warehouse, while Ruppert lays out his doomsday theory start to finish with archival news footage spliced in to evidence his claims. Along the way we learn about Ruppert himself, his personal history, belief systems etc. After painting a terrifying picture of the near future, Ruppert closes by offering us advice for navigating the coming disaster.
So why am I giving this movie 5 stars? Because as a movie, it’s a gripping, intense, thought-provoking documentary/thriller that people need to see.
The doomsday theory is this: Oil is the basis of modern civilization. It’s why modern civilization was able to develop; why we were able to populate the Earth with 6 billion people; it’s a component in everything from plastics to paints, to tires, all modes of transportation, the root fuel of electrical systems, digital signals, you name it. And according to Ruppert (and like-minded theorists), as of today the entire global civilization has pushed past the point of “peak oil” – that is, the pinnacle height of worldwide oil production.
Passing the peak of worldwide oil production puts the world on a downward slope where there will never again be as much obtainable oil as there was in the past – and therefore, never again will oil be as affordable as it once was. As oil reserves continue to be depleted, and new oil wells become scarcer and harder to tap, the price of oil will inevitably increase, until the resource becomes so scarce, so unaffordable, that the global economy is thrown into chaos.
“But what about alternative energy?” You ask, “Can’t we all just ‘Go Green?’” Well, according to Ruppert, with the exceptions of solar and wind power (which can’t yet yield enough energy in enough places), just developing an alternative energy source to run the world on would still require a huge investment of oil reserves (to power machinery, transport parts, etc.). Bottom line: modern civilization has dug itself so far into an oil-reliant lifestyle that we can’t just up and switch the game plan without getting over a whole bunch of hurdles.
Once the oil situation reaches a drastic point, the world economy – a system built on the prediction, not actuality, of plentiful resources and hard currency (gold) – will begin to buckle and ultimately crack. After that civilization as we know it goes down the drain, as basic services start to shut down, the “food industry” grinds to a halt, paper money becomes valueless and violence and civil unrest erupt.
The most frightening thing of all: according to Ruppert, the collapse has already begun.
I’m giving you the ultra-simplified version of things, of course. To his credit, Ruppert does a good job throughout the film of laying his argument out in terms the average person can understand. I kid you not when I say that (whether you believe it or not) this is a hard argument to ignore. After all, Ruppert is a man with a considerable resume. His parents’ work in government intelligence during WWII garnered him access to some of the America’s most classified secrets, while his work as a LA cop revealed government conspiracies that altered the face of urban civilization. Ruppert is a man who has been in a position to chart the societal map from top to bottom, so to speak.
Perfect example: Ruppert, still an LAPD officer, was at the forefront of exposing a huge scandal in the late 70s, in which the CIA was implicated in a drug trafficking operation that involved the mysterious deaths of several U.S. Soldiers who may have gotten too close to the truth. After retiring from the LAPD soon after the scandal (due to intimidation, death threats and even several attempts on his live), Ruppert went into investigative journalism, with the hope of continuing to expose corruption wherever he uncovered it. Following that thread ultimately led him into the web of worldwide energy conspiracies that are the basis of his doomsday theory. (You can read more of Ruppert’s personal history by going HERE.)
It would be easy to write Michael Ruppert off as a nutcase if the man didn’t so clearly exhibit a God-given talent for investigative journalism: He is inquisitive, critical, thorough, hard-nosed, deductive and patient. He also comes off as pretty well-adjusted (although he might chain smoke too much) and also as someone who is, well, sane. During filming he stops at times to play with his dog, tells jokes, laughs at himself and seems to have a clear sense of how he is viewed in both positive and negative lights. He’s humble, calm, and even exhibits a strong compassion for both life and people, despite his many frustrations with both. Ruppert is also clearly a smart man: he knows his blueprint down to the smallest fact – as well he should. By his own account, he’s spent almost thirty years researching and piecing it all together.
That same old-school journalistic tenacity is also the one real weak point in his armor: it’s fair to say that Ruppert is obsessive about his collapse theory. He truly believes he is right, that disaster is only a year or two away, and he wants you to heed his warning. He claims that he is trying his damnedest to give people a heads up before “The Titanic” goes down – and, how you ultimately react to this film will largely depend on how you view this man and his motivations for what is either prophesying or fear-mongering, depending on how you choose to view it. One thing that is undeniable, though: Ruppert is an engaging orator; I hardly dared to blink while he was talking.
I urge you to see Collapse. It’s not really playing anywhere yet, but is available on Digital On Demand. The subject matter being discussed in this film far exceeds our usual debates over political or religious views, social or foreign policy, etc. At his core, Ruppert is a modern philosopher and what he’s saying is that no matter your faith, race, political or economic ideology, this impending collapse affects us all. The film doesn’t point fingers or bother with buzzword politics – Ruppert laughs at those petty notions. He isn’t here to debate sides or agendas; he’s saying that we will all suffer disaster if we continue to live by (and I’m paraphrasing this big time) ‘an impossible paradigm that demands infinite growth fueled by a finite resource.‘
Collapse is, in many ways, about the survival of our species – or at the very least, the survival of modern civilization. If certain changes aren’t made – to our very minds and hearts as human beings – then we, and our children, are apparently screwed. Or so says Michael Ruppert.
Does that sound dramatic? Does it sound alarmist and paranoid? Maybe. But watch Collapse, let the argument collide with the facts as you see them, and then tell me that you don’t sense, on some level, that Ruppert is speaking truth. Tell me that as you watched the film you didn’t feel the brink of a great collapse edging just a bit closer. Tell me that I’m wrong, that this guy is a nutcase and that I’ve wasted your time with all this.
Trust me, at this point, I’m praying that the naysayers are right.
Our Rating:
5 out of 5
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I will be watching this when i get home from work.
You have no idea how much this movie has the potential to strike me. Without even seeing it, I already have a feeling that this will be one of the best movies I will experience this year.
Any ideas on where to catch this?
@ Jake
Digital on demand. I believe the Youtube page I got the trailer from also points you to where you can see it online. I’ll look into it.
On-demand? It never hit theaters? Interesting.
How do I get it?
Ha, if you think this is scary you truly have no idea.
^
This guys logic has a few problems. Earth creates Oil, its not leftover from the Jurassic era. Oil is the lifeblood of the planet. Its a by product of the Earths core.
Do you really think TPTB (the powers that be) want YOU to know that? No! they don’t! So they create this false belief system (teach it in schools even) that oil/fossil fuel is running out, were approcing the last T-Rex oh no? That’s all dis-info, lies.
^
Its true that the economy runs on Oil (or you can say were slaves to it) and that it could go into scarcity, but if that were the case, it would be controlled by the globalist’s, it would not be a systemic drywell shortage.
Within days maybe weeks the flow would be restored and those behind the scenes would prob take away more rights and make tons of cash on your fear of it running out.
I’m not saying this guy is working as a disinfo agent, but I will say he’s not clearly seeing reality.
Don’t forget that America has the largest source of Oil under its surface. Research it,,,
thomas friedman’s theory, hello???
i might see this film.
logical issue: the fact that some of the facts are true , or seem true, does not allow for deduction or “connecting all the dots” for the whole scenario. humanity is HUGE. are you aware that half the world is NOT living on oil Dependant a-la americanos ?
human civilization will survive, and will change and adapt per circumstances.
I’m disappointed that Jared Diamond wasn’t behind this. This guy might have produced a possible end of the “First world” scenario but Diamond would have included the whys and where fores of past civilizations collapse. For example what most here would recognize as the Anasazi, actually the Chacoan civilization, fell apart about 10 years after it peaked. That a civilization can collapse because one of its trading partners economies collapses! That massive deforestation, unchecked population growth, and soil depletion were just as important as energy production in factoring collapse. You can add or subtract changing climate depending on which civilization you want to study, Greenland for example. More than this he’s studied Iceland and shows us how they learned to face up to reality and live within the limits of their environment. One of the things they learned was that Archeology was very important because it could show people the mistakes people made in the past and what they did to help correct the situations they faced. It’s an interesting read and I wish he would have made a film by the same name.
“Collapse” How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed. By Jared Diamond
@the old man
What does Diamond say about the Roman Empire? Because I see that playing out right now with the U.S.
Vic
@ Old man
I couldn’t go into every detail (that would be a SPOILER) but the middle of the film is Ruppert discussing historical evidence of collapsed civilizations (Rome) and actually charting human population levels before the industrial rev, after the industrial rev (when oil made modern society possible) and what will inevitably happen when we move past an oil-dependent society. HINT: not everyone will make it.
@ Vic
You’ll be happy to hear that there is a big moment in the film where the subject of Obama comes up. Ruppert has to step back a second and really build some courage up, but ultimately he comes back and says “Look, whatever his noble intentions the guy is trapped in the same same box as any politician. Do not look to him to be our savior.”
I thought you might like that.
Well he lays out a 5 point framework that covers all societal collapse. One of the problems of evaluating any collapse is issues that masquerade for other issues. In Romes case, which is still debated today, is increasing invasion or accumulating internal problems that weakened the empire and the hostiles providing the coup de grâce. The internal problems include political, economic, and environmental. It’s interesting to note that in these same pages he mentions the problems the U.S. and Japan face and that is failure of their trading partners. U.S. imports of raw materials have been from ecologically fragile and politically troubled third world nations. He also mentioned that often times neighbor nations change their status from friendly to hostile back to friendly. This uncertainty interrupts the flows that societies come to rely on for a smooth running system.
On a personal level one of the reasons I was glad to retire was that scarcity was playing too great a role in daily business. If you look over time and give it some thought it’s easy to see the erosion and interruptions of many goods and services over just the past couple of decades. It was the reason I started looking into these issues myself trying to understand what was happening.
Thanks for the extra insight Kofi I’ll have to check it out.
@Kofi
I think it’s a fair assessment. He might have believed he’d come into Washington and increase transparency and eliminate pork, but he’s managed to do neither.
Vic
If anyone is interested in the fall of Rome/america “Endgame” by Alex Jones is the documentary you want to see.
Does he say anything about what to do about it? That was a failing of “An Inconvenient Truth” – 99% of the time devoted to convincing you there is a disaster coming, and 1% to what you can/should do. All problem, no solution.
Actually the problem with Algore’s film was that it was based on B.S. data and wild exaggeration.
Vic
Kerry; Diamond’s book does delve into the solutions and has examples of systems that have reconciled the problems. Hit Amazon up for a copy…
Another Great documentary is “The Obama Deception”
You can find out more @
Prisonplanet(dot)com
@Vic Holtreman
Agreed, Vic, but I didn’t want this to turn too nasty so early in the year
Political discussions aside, I’m looking forward to seeing this when it’s available on DVD.
Vic
Ah Kerry,,,
An Inconvenient Truth was a propaganda film meant to soften the masses accepting and into paying for a global carbon tax.
^
One thing the “leaders” of our world could easily do tomorrow is release suppressed alternate fuel technologies.
But they won’t.
You have to ask your inner soul, is this because of ignorance or because of a greater agenda…
There is a pretty impassioned diatribe Ruppert makes for what we need to do to avert disaster.
Basically: revitalize the local communities we live in. Grow food locally, make and sell wares locally, self-sustaining local economies, people living in neighborhoods knowing their neighbors, neighbor helping neighbor…
Go back to “the good old days.”
Ahhh, the ‘good ‘ol days’ when people died at 55.
http://www.efmoody.com/images/12lifeexpectancy.gif
@790
I agree with your assessment on oil reserves and the fact that Earth continues to make oil. And the fact that oil companies are continuously finding new sources of oil but are not aloud to drill. If Rupperts assertion is correct then we are shaping that future by thrusting the sword into our own self-absorbed political agendas. Not to mention our ridiculously egotistical view of humanities ability to affect mother nature – outside of the nuclear detonation.
This was a thought-provoking movie and a compelling lifestory of one man, the way it was filmed adds to the mood/tone of his message. Very enthralling yet simple.
This was eye-opening, even though quite obvious: EVERY facet of our lives is inextricably tied to Oil. Whether or not the theory of Peak Oil is accurate is irrelevant. Spending more energy to get the oil out of the ground than the net energy it will produce is a simple point that he makes quite effectively. Sure we “may” have huge reserves untapped in remote places, but the cost to extract it starts to be more than the oil is really worth.
Plus, It’s just bad planning to put every “egg” you have or will ever dream of having into such a mysterious, volatile, unpredicatble and downright corruptible “basket”. If anything, the moral of his message is that there is a breaking point where total Globalization is not beneficial to the individual “tribes”.
Self-sustinance and reinforcing local communities are a perfect solution for such heavy reliance on a commodity that we(avg people) have so little control over. And I think its a valuable message for everyone to consider, which transcends political, cultural, and religious affiliations.
(I had to agree the most with his grim notion about running to the hills; the fact that the more foresightful(?) people are already there and will likely shoot the latecomers… lol)
I haven’t seen it yet, but I shake my head at people who think that oil is only used to heat homes and produce gasoline. Even if we went to “all green” energy we’d STILL need tons of oil for our society to function.
Vic
@Vic
That’s the scary thing, but what makes Ruppert’s story and message all the more engaging. I laugh too when people say that wind and solar are the alternative to coal/gas plants, and that hybrids are the answer for IC engines….but then, what do you use to replace ALL the plastics in EVERYTHING ELSE? It’s that crippling, built-in dependence that makes you wonder, what if all the oil dried up tomorrow? How drastic would day-to-day life change? very thought-provoking indeed…
One thing I did learn was that a lot of agriculture based chems are petroleum or ammonium based, which obviously require refined oil to create. amazing.
We had a pretty good civilization going before oil refining and the internal combustion engine came along. So I don’t think the loss of oil would send us all plunging into the stone age.
Certainly there would be a great deal of inconvenience but necessity is the mother of invention so I think it would just speed up the discovery of something to take it’s place.
I would also say that there isn’t really a shortage of oil. Just a shortage of foreign oil. We start getting desperate we will sweep aside the environmentalists and conservationists and tap into all the oil they are blocking from being used.
@thandrale
It would just push us back to the 1800s – BIG adjustment. I just read a great book called “One Minute After” that is a novel describing what would happen if multiple nukes were set off in the upper atmosphere over the U.S. causing EMPs (electromagnetic pulses). The result of that was that it put us back in the 1800s and it described a lot of consequences that one wouldn’t normally think about, including the halt of the production of all medicines.
Very scary book, I recommend it.
Vic
If you are looking for solutions I would recommend watching Zeitgeist Addendum, you can find this for free online. The first half of the film discusses the problems we are facing but there is a good 45-60 minutes on solutions via an organization called The Venus Project. All of Michael Ruppert’s concerns are addressed and all these problems are surmountable given the technologies we know of today (he doesnt address geothermal power for some reason?). Even if you are skeptical of Ruppert’s theories the proposed solution will blow you away…