The Top 10 Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies
The End is No Longer Nigh in these Post-Apocalyptic Movies
These days it’s looking like post-apocalyptic movies are coming dangerously close to being fact rather than fiction. So, it only made sense to pull together a list of the best post-apocalyptic movies of all time. Now, it’s important to note that post-apocalyptic movies are different from dystopian movies (you can find that list: here) since dystopian movies focus on a future where society has taken a dark and dangerous turn, while post-apocalyptic movies show a world where society has crumbled due to a near-earth ending event. With that in mind, the only rule I put in place was to include one entry from a franchise. That way this wouldn’t just be a list of Road Warrior and Terminator movies (spoiler alert). If you’re worried about the world ending anytime soon, break out your notepads because this list has plenty of flicks with helpful hints for surviving after the apocalypse.
10. Reign of Fire
Some might argue that Reign of Fire isn’t a very good movie. To them, I say, how many other post-apocalyptic movies feature dragons as the cause of the end of the world? Given how movies tend to show society reverting to an almost medieval level of technology after the apocalypse, Reign of Fire just took that to the next level. In it, a British digging expedition reawakens dormant dragons and they turn out to be pretty good at exterminating humans. Years later, mankind is left hiding in the ruins, doing their best to avoid the dragons at all costs. At least, that is until a Dragon Slaying Texan shows up (Matthew McConaughey, of course). His rowdy roughnecks have managed to put plenty in the ground and have come to England in hunt of an alpha. Will they save humanity or end up smoldering piles of ash?
9. The Road
In all my years of movie-loving, The Road was one of the hardest for me to watch. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a brilliant film, hence it being included on this list of post-apocalyptic movies. In it, the world has ended and things are pretty bad. So bad, that a man embarks on a perilous journey with his son to avoid both of them starving to death. Along the way, they encounter the very worst of humanity and see terrible things. Things that I had a hard time not turning away from at times. It’s a film that embraces the idea that when push comes to shove, humans are all too happy to literally start eating each other to survive. The Road is not a fun movie, but that’s because it doesn’t try to gloss over the apocalypse and make it seem like an exciting adventure.
8. 10 Cloverfield Lane
Technically, 10 Cloverfield Lane takes place during the apocalypse, but I’m willing to include it on this list of post-apocalyptic movies since it really is that good. After a car crash, a woman awakens in a concrete room with no idea how she got there. Soon, she learns that a man found her lying in a ditch and saved her life by bringing her to his doomsday shelter. The two are not alone though, as the good samaritan also rescued a young man. Here’s the thing though, while you might be happy to find yourself in a doomsday prepper’s hidey-hole you have to realize that they probably have a screw loose. At first, everything seems fine, but the longer the three are together in the bunker the higher the tensions rise between them with deadly consequences.
7. Snowpiercer
Comic book movies aren’t always about guys and gals in spandex duking it out with one another. Before Bong Joon Ho made Parasite, he adapted the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige into one of the strangest post-apocalyptic movies of all time. Snowpiercer takes place in a world that has suffered irreparable climate change resulting in a new Ice Age. In order to survive a train was created to constantly travel that harnesses kinetic energy to create a closed ecosystem. It’s a pretty cool idea until people get involved. The rich take control of their fancy pants cars at the front of the train and everyone else is forced into a subjugated caste system that spans the remaining cars with the poorest in the last car(trust me, you don’t want to know what goes on back there).
6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
To be honest, it was a toss-up between Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War of the Planet of the Apes. Since War shows more of the actual end of mankind, I decided that Dawn was better suited for this list of post-apocalyptic movies. After the virus that made those damn dirty apes so smart wipes out most of humanity, the few survivors desperately try to navigate this strange new world. Being humans though, they need someone to blame and decide that it must be the apes’ fault (even though the virus was man-made). Now, most reasonable people don’t go picking fights with animals that are capable of ripping their faces off, and a few of the humans try to stay out of it. However, stupidity is a human disease and despite dwindling numbers, a few humans decide to set things in motion that will inevitably lead to a war with the apes.