Is 'Melancholia' a Real Planet? Know the Real Inspo for Lars von Trier's Apocalyptic Masterpiece

Opening scene from 'Melancholia'

Asteroids and comets as bringers of the apocalypse? That's so 1998. 

When it premiered in 2011, "Melancholia" brought a fresh take on the genre, one that would echo in later works such as "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and "Carol & The End of the World."

The apocalyptic horseman in the Lars von Trier film is not a mischievous rock like the ones on "Don't Look Up," "Deep Impact," and "Armageddon." It's a whole, full-sized planet. 

That planetary threat, "Melancholia," is supposed to have been orbiting behind the sun all along, hiding just enough to be locked in a "dance of death" with Earth and us, its unwitting inhabitants. 

It's also a clever plot device, a mirror to the plight of Kirsten Dunst's character. Imagine an object so vast, so larger than life that it engulfs your entire existence, and you've got the perfect metaphor for Justine's depression. 

Lars von Trier lifts this material from real life. "Melancholia" was born out of discussions with his therapist, who told him that depressed people tend to cope with crises calmer than the normal person.

"My analyst told me that melancholiacs will usually be more level-headed than ordinary people in a disastrous situation, partly because they can say: 'What did I tell you?" he told Australian magazine Female.com.au. "But also because they have nothing to lose. And that was the germ of 'Melancholia.'"

The movie was also in development at a time when hysteria about the 2012 apocalypse and the Mayan calendar was at an all-time high. Among the many doomsday scenarios put forward at the time, the rogue planet Nibiru was particularly believable, capturing the imagination of preppers and conspiracy theorists worldwide.

Lars didn't claim to be well-versed in this specific theory, but what he knows as true are the all-consuming effects of depression. He hasn't shied away from sharing the debilitating, physical impact of clinical sorrow on his life; a bout, he says, usually takes him five years of recovery. 

Justine is "very much me," he told Female. "She is based a lot on my person and my experiences with doomsday prophecies and depression.”

His fears are less about megalophobia or cosmic threats but in something more grounded: planes. As Female reported, Lars would feel anxious as a child whenever he heard planes overhead. They reminded him of war.

The same aerophobia forces him to make films in his native Denmark or Sweden. This fear of flying appears to have turned out for the best: The Scandinavian locations for his films can be so devastatingly beautiful. 

One look at the Tjolöholm Castle in Sweden, whose picture-perfect landscapes provided a gorgeous backdrop to "Melancholia," and you might just feel ready for the end of the worlds. 

'Melancholia' was filmed on location at Tjolöholm Castle in Halland, Sweden