‘Twisted Metal’ and 10 other times Hollywood destroyed Las Vegas

There isn’t much left of Las Vegas.

It’s mostly down to one survivor: a burly, brutal clown who’s spent the past 20 years since the world descended into chaos driving an ice cream truck turned war machine, living in the ruins of the Monte Cristo casino and listening to “the silver-haired god” Sisqo.

He’s Sweet Tooth, and he’s made the leap from the “Twisted Metal” video games to the TV series adaptation that launches Thursday on Peacock.

The action comedy follows John Doe (Anthony Mackie), a “milkman” who delivers packages between walled cities, for which he’s paid in gasoline and wiper blades. He’s on a run from New San Francisco to New Chicago when he encounters Sweet Tooth and Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church), the sadistic former mall cop who’s determined to restore law and order to what’s left of the country from his base within the Hoover Dam visitor center.

“Twisted Metal” isn’t the first Hollywood project to envision a decimated Las Vegas. It isn’t even the 10th — and that doesn’t include movies such as “Superman” (1978) and “San Andreas” (2015) that destroy Hoover Dam and just imply the devastation that’s coming our way.

Here’s a look back at some of the others:

“Resident Evil: Extinction” (2007): Las Vegas has been reclaimed by the desert following a zombie apocalypse in the third entry in this movie franchise that’s based on a series of video games.

“Army of the Dead” (2021): By the time Dave Bautista and his merry band of bank robbers enter the Strip from the McCarran Refugee Camp, there isn’t much left to save from the zombie horde — including one of Siegfried & Roy’s zombified tigers — that’s taken over the city.

“Blade Runner 2049” (2017): A dirty bomb has irradiated Las Vegas, leaving it a largely uninhabitable, orange-hued wasteland in this sequel starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling.

“The Stand” (1994) and “The Stand” (2020): After a new strain of influenza decimates the world’s population, a big chunk of the survivors are obliterated when a nuclear blast levels Las Vegas in these TV productions.

“2012” (2009): When a giant chasm opens in the middle of the Strip, sending the likes of Wynn Las Vegas and Bellagio crumbling into the abyss, a part-time limo driver (John Cusack), his two young children, his ex-wife, her plastic surgeon boyfriend, a Russian billionaire, his twin sons, his ex-girlfriend, her dog and her lover narrowly escape in a cargo plane filled with luxury cars.

“10.5: Apocalypse” (2006): A catastrophic earthquake sends neon signs crashing to the ground and has gamblers in a panic as the Strip just sort of slowly sinks into the desert in this TV movie starring Kim Delaney and Dean Cain.

“Godzilla” (2014): After hearing a mating call from presumably the only other member of her species, a female MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), who’s single and ready to mingle, escapes a Yucca Mountain prison and decimates the center Strip. In the sequel, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019), the Strip is shown having been overgrown with vegetation after the radiation the MUTO cast off kept people away.

“Blast Vegas” (2013): Three fraternity brothers drag their nerdy friend (Frankie Muniz) to Las Vegas for spring break, then steal the cursed sword of Egypt’s Thutmose III from the Hotel Isis, unleashing a sandstorm that sometimes assumes the shape of a giant snake as it levels the Strip. Their only hope for survival? An aging lounge singer (Barry Bostwick) who, as a kid, “did a little messenger work for Meyer Lansky.”

“Sharknado: The 4th Awakens” (2016): All the previous sharknadoes apparently inspired the Shark World casino and its 25-story aquarium filled with sharks. When one of those all-too-common Las Vegas tornadoes blows through it, the sharks are sent flying all over the Strip so Ian Ziering’s Fin can save the day by sailing down a flooded Las Vegas Boulevard on one of the Treasure Island pirate ships. Look for cameos from Wayne Newton, Carrot Top, Vince Neil, Susan Anton, UFC fighters Frank Mir and Roy Nelson, Frank Marino and his Divas, and the Chippendales.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.