Summary
A post-apocalyptic wasteland serves as the backdrop for Sunny’s story inInto the Badlands. Set in the United States, the AMC martial arts series explores a future where the United States has fallen apart. The government is no more and all technology has been lost, leaving everyone to rely on more archaic forms of combat to wage war on each other. Guns are now a thing of the past, hence whyInto the Badlandscharacterslike Sunny and the Widow had to become well-versed in martial arts.
The buildings and other discoveries inAMC’sInto the Badlandsshowmake it abundantly clear that before the region was divided into seven territories, the world resembled the real-life United States. Clearly, something changed and plunged the country into chaos. As for what that was,Into the Badlandsprovides a broad answer to that question early on, but sheds more light on it as the series progresses.
War Is Partially Responsible For The Apocalypse In Into The Badlands
“The Wars Were So Long Ago”
What led to the apocalypse isn’t immediately crucial to the plot, as the characters and factions inInto the Badlandsare more focused on the here and now, rather than what happened to the people that came before them. However, it’s known from the intro that"wars" are what brought the world to ruin. The opening narration states, “the wars were so long ago,“evidently in reference to the state of the world in Into the Badlands. Presumably, the United States was in conflict with other nations some time ago, setting the stage for everything being wiped out.
The old world order dissolved completely, but enough of humanity survived the war so that new societies could form. Possibly to avoid another war doing to them what happened to the United States and the other bodies of government, the world’s new political leaders decided toban guns inInto the Badlands. But as the fighting between the various territories inInto the Badlandshas confirmed, this decision may have decreased the scale of the warfare, but hardly swayed these conflicts from unfolding.
A Mysterious “Cataclysm” Triggered Civilization’s Downfall 500 Years Ago
The Cataclysm Was A Key Event In The Into The Badlands Timeline
The “wars” mentioned inInto the Badlandsis implied to be a step toward the apocalypse inInto the Badlands, but perhaps not the sole cause. The show makes references to an event called “the Cataclysm,” but never explains exactly what it was. What all this suggests is that there was never one single reason for the apocalypse.The war was the root cause, it seems, but other disasters were at play at well.What happened in the war may have triggered a geological disaster, which may have been the Cataclysm.
As for when all this happened, it’s understood that the starting point for the destruction of civilization and the approximate timeframe of the Cataclysm was 500 years beforeInto the Badlands’first season. Such a length of time going by between the start of the apocalypse and the beginning ofInto the Badlands’story helps explain why so very little information is known about the history of the United States. Only a few people seem to have any knowledge of the past. That, and a lack of regarded history during that period contributes to the backstory of the apocalypse being such a major mystery.
The Gift May Have Been A Factor In The War That Destroyed Civilization
Towards theend ofInto the Badlands’three-season run, the show offers a new perspective on what happened.One of the season 3 characters, Magnus, attributed the downfall of civilization to the Gift, the unique ability possessed by some of the people living in the show’s world, such as M.K. This indicates that people with the Gift were used as weapons of war, even then. It’s possible that their destructive potential magnified the casualties, speeding up the collapse of society worldwide.
This makes sense, given what the show established about where the creation of the Gift fits intoInto the Badlands’timeline. The Gift is transferred to people via the Meridian Chamber, which was built 500 years ago. As the show acknowledged, that’s around the same time the Cataclysm happened. Theoretically, this could be a coincidence, butthe bloody history of the Giftmakes that scenario extremely unlikely. How the Gift is utilized throughoutInto the Badlandsgives credence to the idea that it had a lot to do with society’s collapse all those centuries ago.
Into the Badlands
Cast
Into the Badlands follows Sunny (Daniel Wu) and M.K. (Aramis Knight), who traverse a post-apocalyptic world set 500 years in the future. Premiering in 2015, Into the Badlands was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and aired on AMC until 2019 when its third season came to a close.
