Even though we’re all afraid to die in an apocalypse, we love watching post-apocalyptic movies. Here are some of the best post-apocalyptic movies of all time.
15. Contagion (2011)
You’ll relate hard to this one. It’s about a pandemic and the paranoia surrounding it.
When Beth returns from a trip to Hong Kong, she feels malaise and thinks it’s just jet lag. But after two days, she dies. Doctors have no idea what to tell her shocked husband because they could not diagnose the illness. Soon after her death, many other people started showing the same symptoms and this is the start of a global pandemic.
As the medical and emergency forces are on the front lines to contain the deadly virus, some bloggers are throwing gas over the flames of paranoia.
14. World War Z (2013)
The list can’t be complete without a zombie movie, right?
A former U.N. investigator (played by Brad Pitt) gets stuck in traffic but he senses that the traffic jam is not due to the usual reasons. His suspicion is confirmed when zombies emerge within the long lines of traffic. A virus had spread through a single bite of unhygienic food. The virus is turning people into vicious, unthinking, and blood-thirsty creatures.
As the virus spreads, so does Gerry’s team’s worldwide search for the source of the virus and hopefully a way to stop its spread.
13. Love and Monsters (2020)
Where there’s love, there’s always a way despite the monsters standing in your way.
After the Monsterpocalypse, the world is under the control of giant creatures. Humanity is living underground in colonies. After 7 years of the apocalypse, Joel reconnects with his high school girlfriend, Aimee, and falls for her again.
Aimee is 80 miles away, at a coastal colony. With nothing left for him underground, he decides to go meet Aimee. He has to face all the monstrosity that stands between him and his love.
12. Day of the Dead (1985)
A small team of scientists, soldiers, and civilians hide in a missile silo to protect themselves from the zombies outside. As the team battles the zombies, tensions rise within the group with the heavy burden of the survival of the human race.
The zombies are gathering outside. Will the team survive? Watch this ’85 movie to find out. We’re sure you’ll like it more than many of the current films in the genre.
11. I am Legend (2007)
Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist who is the last human survivor of a plague in New York. He wanders through the city to find possible survivors with his dog. He works on finding a cure using his immune blood. All the while, the blood-thirsty infected wait for him to slip and land into their hands.
So will Will’s legacy survive in this post-apocalyptic setting? You’ll have to ask his dog if it’s still alive.
10. The Road (2009)
In post-apocalyptic America, a man and his son wander what is left of civilization towards the South. The sea in the south has a hospitable environment. The man and boy survive on whatever they can scavenge and try to avoid the cannibals who will turn them into slaves or dinner.
This movie is not as popular as I Am Legend or World War Z, it is a road less trodden but one worth seeing.
9. 28 Days (2002)
Imagine one day you wake up and find your city deserted. This is what happened to Jim (Cillian Murphy).
After a group of misguided animal rights activists frees a caged chimp infected with the “Rage” virus, the United Kingdom gets infected. When Jim, a bike courier, wakes up from a coma in his London hospital bed and finds out what happened, he runs for his life.
On the run from zombie-like infected people, Jim finds a group of survivors. Together they journey to what they hope may be a safe abode.
8. A Quiet Place (2018)
So who would win, blind creatures with highly sensitive hearing or the human will to survive? You’ll have to visit A Quiet Place in a cinema or on your device screen to find out.
Evelyn and Lee keep their children’s mouths shut and their footsteps smooth to avoid the deadly creatures from hunting them down. As they fight for their survival, they desperately search for ways to fight back and safe places to hide.
7. Zombieland (2009)
Why should all post-apocalyptic movies be cruel, gruesome, and horrific? They can be funny too, just like this one.
After a viral apocalypse that turns most people into zombies, humanity has a deadlock with the dead (pun intended). Four survivors – Tallahassee and his companions Columbus, Wichita, and Little Rock make their way toward a rumored safe haven in Los Angeles. They follow a set of survival rules and zombie-killing strategies to ensure they reach their safety.
6. Dawn of the Planet of Apes (2014)
So did we evolve from apes? It seems so considering Ceaser’s intelligence in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Caesar, a genetically enhanced chimpanzee, leads a band of followers and establishes a colony outside San Francisco. A small band of human survivors of the simian flu that wiped out most of the world’s homo sapiens emerges in the woods.
Caesar deals with the dilemma of protecting his people and re-establishing a relationship with the surviving human population.
5. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
At last, after so many zombie movies, an alien movie is on this list.
Maj. William Cage (played by Tom Cruise) is sent on a suicide mission to battle the invincible aliens that no military unit in the world has been able to beat. Cage is killed within minutes of the battle, but he finds himself thrown into a time loop in which he lives the last fight over and over again.
As his skills improve with each encore, he comes closer and closer to defeating the aliens.
4. Stalker (1979)
Would you be willing to go into a room that will immediately fulfill any of your worldly desires? If your answer is yes, you’ll be thinking twice after watching this one.
There is a highly protected post-apocalyptic wasteland known as the zone in a country. It is rumored that whoever enters The Room, a mythical place within The Zone will have his earthly desires immediately fulfilled. An illegal guide leads a writer and a scientist into the devastated zone in search of The Room.
It’s a thought-provoking movie that will change your perception of the magic lamps and mystical wish-granting rooms.
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Immortan Joe enslaves the survivors inside a desert forest in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. When Imperator Furiosa helps the despot’s five wives escape, she alliances with Max Rockatansky, a former captive. They use the War Rig, an armored truck, to escape but the warlord and his henchmen are right behind them.
A great concept complimented by fine direction. A great movie to watch with your siblings.
2. Wall-E (2008)
Wall-E is an animated movie and one of the best post-apocalyptic movies of all time.
The last robot left on earth, Wall-E is responsible for cleaning the waste-covered earth. But when he finds EVE, a sleek probe sent back to Earth by humans to search the Earth for evidence of habitable conditions; he falls in love. He travels across the galaxy with EVE to deliver the only evidence they can find.
You’ll love this one if you love a relaxing movie (rare to say for this genre).
1. The Matrix (1999)
Morpheus is considered the most dangerous man on earth and Neo (portrayed by Keanu Reeves) thinks he may have the answer to his question about the Matrix. Trinity, a stranger, leads Neo to the underworld, where he meets Morpheus. Together they fight against a group of highly intelligent secret agents. The truth can cost Neo his life or something even far more precious to him.
Matrix is an iconic movie that has become a cult in itself. If you haven’t watched it, you’re missing out.
Honorable Mentions
- Battle Los Angeles (2011)
- Cargo (2017)
- Bird Box (2018)
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