Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are mentioned in the Bible in chapter six of the Book of Revelation, which predicts that they will ride during the Apocalypse. The four horsemen are traditionally named War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. However, this is slightly at odds with the conventional interpretation of the Bible, which actually only names one: Death.

Cultural references to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Literature

• The Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez wrote a bestselling novel in 1916 called The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The novel was so successful that it was published in over 200 editions and in almost every language. It tells the story of two related families divided by war. One of the films made from this story starred Glenn Ford and featured a score by Andre Previn.
• The novel Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, includes an appearance by the four horsemen - Death, War (technically a horsewoman here), Famine, and Pollution (Pestilence having retired after the advent of penicillin). In deference to the changing times, the horsepeople form a motorcycle gang, supported by bikers with other adopted names (Grievous Bodily Harm, Cruelty To Animals, Things Not Working Properly Even After You've Given Them A Good Thumping, No Alcohol Lager, and Really Cool People).
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series also features the Four Horsemen, most notably in Sourcery and Thief of Time. The latter introduces the fifth horseman (Kaos (or Chaos), a.k.a. Ronnie Soak), who left before they became famous (akin to a Fifth Beatle). Like Death, the other horsemen have a personality beyond the job; War, for instance, is married with three kids: Panic, Terror and Clancy.
• A reference to the Four Horsemen is made in The Talismans of Shannara, a 1993 fantasy novel by Terry Brooks. The Four Horsemen are personified by creatures called Shadowen, and instead of horses they ride serpent-like creatures.
• In a novel by Timothy C. May , child pornographers, terrorists, money launderers and racists are called the "Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse". The Government and public fear of the four horsemen stops powerful encryption for public use
• In Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, the Horsemen are incorporated in a different way. Death, War, Fate, Nature, and Time are all actually humans who are taking on the powers of their respective office. The first book, On a Pale Horse is about a man who takes over the office of Death and, while he works with War as a fellow incarnation, they are not full-time associates (though Death does indeed ride a magical pale horse). In the third book Wielding a Red Sword, a man becomes the Incarnation of War. He is garbed in a golden cloak, rides a golden horse, and (as the title suggests) wields a red sword. He's also assisted full-time by four horsemen (lesser incarnations): Conquest, garbed in white with a white horse; Slaughter, in red; Famine; in black; and Pestilence, in brown.

Films and Television

• There is a silent 1921 movie The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (see http://imdb.com/title/tt0012190/).
• Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider (1985) alludes to the fourth horseman in its title. The film, like Eastwood's earlier High Plains Drifter, is a vaguely supernatural western.
• Charmed had an episode about the horsemen.
• In the TV series , The Four Horsemen were four immortals that murdered and looted in the ancient world.
• In the X-Files episode Millennium, a crossover with the television show Millennium, the Four Horsemen are men who have killed themselves as part of a plot to bring about the end of the world at the turn of the millennium. They rise as zombies when a preacher chants the verse , and when one is prematurely destroyed, a new Horseman must be created before midnight on New Year's Eve.
• Stargate SG-1, Season 9, "Fourth Horseman, Part 1", deals with a plague let loose on humanity by the Ori. While the fourth horseman is traditionally interpreted as Death, it appears that the writers intended to refer to Plague/Pestilence.

Music

• The Johnny Cash song "The Man Comes Around" quotes relevant lines from the Book of Revelation (lyrics).
• Metallica's 1983 CD Kill 'Em All features a song called "The Four Horsemen". The horsemen referenced in the lyrics are Time, Famine, Pestilence, and Death.
• Aphrodite's Child's "The Four Horsemen" from their album 666.
• The Clash also recorded a song entitled Four Horsemen on their album London Calling.
• Bruce Dickinson focuses on the Four Horsmen in his song "Darkside of Aquarius" on his 1997 solo-album Accident of Birth.
• The Electronic Collage band Noble Gas did a graphic based upon the Four Horseman, called "The Legend of Johnny Spray."

Comics

• In the universe of Marvel Comics, Apocalypse is a supervillain, an enemy to the X-Men, and whenever he resurfaces he typically converts four mutants into his Horsemen, including Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. The most notable of these was Warren Worthington III, the X-Man once known as Angel. After Worthington's wings were cut off in the Mutant Massacre, Apocalypse surgically grafted mechanical wings to his body and dyed his skin blue, transforming him into the horseman Death. Worthington soon threw off Apocalypse's influence and rejoined the X-Men as Archangel. He has since returned to the name Angel.
• The webcomic End Times by Bailey Piling and Philip Rigby portrays four young girls who died on the same day as becoming the four horsewomen. Each of the girls died in a way that pertains to the name she acquires; for instance, the girl who becomes Famine died of anorexia, and the girl who becomes Pestilence died of an exotic disease.

Games

• The computer game Nethack features Famine, Pestilence and Death as the final enemies of the player character. Owing to the violence committed en route to the end game, the player himself has become War.
• The computer game HeXen II features one of the four horsemen at the end of each of the four continents through which the player travels.
• The videogame Xenosaga Episode 2: Jenseits von Gut und Bose has references in which a few of the main characters are the embodiment of the horsemen.
• In the RPG game titled Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the main character must fight the four horsemen of the Apocalypse to get candelabras and get through to Third Kalpa.
• There is also a video game named The Four Horseman of The Apocalypse

Miscellaneous

• The "Four Horsemen of Notre Dame" were the legendary backfield of Notre Dame's 1924 football team, namely quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, fullback Elmer Layden and halfbacks Jim Crowley and Don Miller. They were so dubbed by sports writer Grantland Rice in his account of the Notre Dame-Army game October 18, 1924, at the Polo Grounds in New York City: "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore, they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."
• Students at the Georgia Institute of Technology often refer to the "Four Horsemen" as four calculus instructors who have achieved a level of infamy in distributing abnormally low, often failing, grades to their students. The "Four Horsemen" have become somewhat of an elite order whose members are inducted involuntarily by student consensus and retain the dubious distinction as long as they continue to teach calculus.
• During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the Bush/Cheney campaign argued that American leadership should not "change horses in midstream." Opponents played upon the idiom by referring to the four horsemen ("don't change horsemen in the middle of an Apocalypse").
• The Four Horsemen were a professional wrestling stable from National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling, featuring varying wrestlers including Ric Flair and Arn Anderson.
• The British computer magazine Amiga Power featured "The Four Cyclists of the Apocalypse" in their later issues. The Cyclists mainly appeared advertising Amiga Power subscriptions and small ads.