September 23 Is The End Of The World (According To This Hollywood Conspiracy Theory)

There is no shortage of apocalyptic movies and TV series. In fact, the genre has become quite popular in the last few decades, with Hollywood well aware that the end of life as we know it is a subject that captures audiences' attention.

While such media often attributes the end of the world to some sort of supernatural cause, nature and religion play a part as well. A documentary called "The Sign," released in 2017, interviews biblical literalists who point to the Book of Revelation, which warns of a sign in the sky signaling the beginning of the end of days and does a deep dive into the planetary alignment that peaked on September 23 of that year.

Of course, that date has come and gone with no global catastrophic events, so we may breathe easy. However, one of the more terrifying and somewhat beguiling conspiracy theories surrounding Tinseltown is that the entertainment industry itself, from movies and TV shows to music videos and commercials, is trying to tell us that the world is going to end on September 23, leading conspiracy theorists to believe it could happen any year.

A TikTok video uploaded by content creator Black Apple identifies a handful of references to September 22 or 23, including the numbers 923 and 239 (as the date would be written in most other parts of the world), across various apocalyptic media. Everything from a "The Big Bang Theory" detail referencing an asteroid strike in the episode "The Septum Deviation" to the number 923 appearing on an end-of-the-world probably counter in "Tomorrowland" makes the list.

While there are over three minutes of examples, it's just a conspiracy theory, and the video's comments section is littered with sarcasm. One commenter asked if they should pay their rent this month. Another mused that they've lived through a number of apocalypses, including Y2K, the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In times of loss and confusion, we often look to the heavens for guidance — most religions refer to a paradise above and damnation below — so it makes sense that humanity would believe that the end of everything would also start with a sign from the heavens. But why Hollywood became obsessed with the date of September 23 is a bigger mystery.