What does your doomsday plan look like? If, like most normal people, you haven’t thought about what you’re doing for dinner tomorrow, let alone how you will get through an apocalypse, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that the billionaires once again have you beat.
Having spent millions on extending life spans, reversing ageing and planning bespoke trips to space, the latest trend for the ultra-rich is doomsday prepping in the form of massive underground bunkers. Yes, while the rest of us fight it out Mad Max style, the rich will be living comfortably beneath the surface.
Now, bunkers to ride out the apocalypse are nothing new, but a recent trend has seen billionaire bunkers getting more and more elaborate. These range from options with moats of fire to keep zombies out to options with 10-car garages… for all of the underground driving they’ll do, we assume.
So what exactly are the ultra-rich preparing for? And more importantly, what does a doomsday bunker actually look like?
What are they preparing for?
There was once a time when those buying up bunkers seemed odd, and quickly labelled paranoid 'preppers', but these days, it is all starting to make sense. The rise of artificial intelligence, pandemics, global warming and a hundred other factors has put the fear into the hearts of many around a crumbling society.
This extends to the ultra-rich, a fear of what’s to come is driving everyone to have a backup plan. But while for many this is a case of preparing for a worst-case scenario, it isn’t necessarily the mindset for everyone.
Douglass Rushkoff is an author who has spent plenty of time with not just billionaires, but more specifically billionaires who are preparing for the doomsday scenario. This led him to write the book Survival of the Richest where he points to a murkier picture.
“These people are no more driven by fear as they are by desire. The idea of being isolated in a space station or underground bunker is a good thing for a lot of these types,” he tells BBC Science Focus.
“It is a culmination of a life well-lived; it’s winning the game. When they [billionaires] showed me their plans and told me their stories for an end-of-world doomsday solution, it was not with horror but glee. The ultra-rich of yesteryear might buy the fastest cars, now it is who can build the best vacation home/island/doomsday bunker.”
What are these bunkers like?
A doomsday bunker can vary in size, extravagance and features. For the average Joe looking to invest, they can be the size of small flats or even as small as a singular room. In fact, a vast portion of the market caters to these demographics.
Some bunkers, which are a bit of a squeeze, can cost as little as £15,000 and some can be pre-made before being dropped into your garden.
However, these aren’t what the top 0.01 per cent are going for. In the upper ranges, bunkers can include full-size car garages, gyms, saunas and areas specifically designed for staff to stay.
Some bunker companies sell options that start well into the 10s of millions with prices rapidly increasing with additional rooms, aquariums and toys that you’ll need to get through an apocalypse.
“A lot of the people I’ve spoken to don’t consider them bunkers. They are vacation homes that just so happen to have a maze of super well-protected rooms and provisions underneath,” says Rushkoff.
Many examples show the rich buying entire islands or huge chunks of land, and building large estates on them. However, look underground and you'll see a maze of rooms, ready for when something goes wrong.
Could we all soon have bunkers?
While there was once a time when these sorts of backup plans were saved for the ultra-wealthy and the ultra-paranoid, times are changing. Many of the bunker companies that have popped up cater to a much wider crowd.
Sure, buying your own bunker can be cost-effective, but unless you want your whole family spending months inches away from each other, you’ll need to put down a lot more money.
Alternatively, an option gaining traction seems similar to the popularised version seen in the game and TV show Fallout – one giant bunker for a large group of people. This is something the company Vivos is offering on a large scale with one base able to hold up to 800 members at a considerably reduced price compared to owning a bunker.
“It’s a bit like an underground cruise. There are private dormitory spaces, private sleeping areas, your own bathroom etc. But overall, it’s a shared area with community-orientated spaces where people can get together, eat together and hang out,” Dante Vicino, the architect and project lead at Vivos told BBC Science Focus.
Enough money to get into a bunker town full of people, not rich enough to hide away on a private island with moats of fire and hundreds of decked-out rooms underground, is there another option?
“A doomsday scenario will be awful whether you have a fancy bunker or not. Do what you want now and die just in time to miss the end of the world,” says Rushkoff.
“If you really want to survive an apocalypse, meet your neighbours, make friends and form communities with others. It is a far more likely technique for survival than completely isolating yourself underground.”
About our experts
Douglas Rushkoff is a writer, documentarian and the author of the book Survival of the Richest. He has spent time studying the behaviours and attitudes of the billionaire population during their preparations for a doomsday era.
Dante Vicino is the project lead of Vivos, a popular doomsday bunker company. They specialise in affordable alternatives in the space.
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