How To Survive the Apocalypse, Hollywood Style

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If you’re not sure if you’ll make it through Judgment Day alive, look to the silver screen for some essential survival tips.

Apocalypse films, while seemingly far-fetched, may hold much more credibility in the event of the rapture. These events that we can only imagine on the big screen could indeed become reality if Harold Camping’s predictions are correct. So how to do we make it through if earthquakes shake the world, leading to unforeseeable turmoil and chaos?

(LIST: See your pop culture guide to the rapture)

TIME contributor Rebecca Keegan spoke to those behind the Hollywood magic – stunt coordinators, a supply shop, and Viggo Mortensen – to learn how to get through a devastating Judgment Day-esque event. Hollywood does indeed have a fascination with all things apocalypse, so shouldn’t they be the first to know how to temper it?

In case you’re running short on time (impending doom and all that), we’d like to offer you an abridged list of actual ways to survive a cataclysmic disaster. These tips come from author Amanda Ripley who penned The Unthinkable, to tell the tales of survivors of real-life disasters. In her experience, survivors had these five traits in common:

  1. Physical Fitness
  2. Cash on Hand
  3. Extra Cell Phone Battery
  4. Bias Toward Taking Action
  5. Large Network of Friends and Family

We just hope you can recall these tips from memory while the Rapture descends upon the Earth. Maybe grab a Post-it Note?

(LIST: See the top 10 end-of-the-world prophecies)