I'm not sure what it says about the human race that we like to revel in our own potential demise and destruction, but there's no denying that the masses love a good apocalyptic film. Whether on a grand scale or a smaller one, studios release multiple films each year detailing the death and destruction of the human race.
Whatever it is that makes us so masochistic, I can't say I begrudge it. It's given us some fantastic and, dare I say, fun films. Films about the apocalypse offer us a way to witness the end of the world as one filmmaker knows it and still feel fine.
28 Days Later - There's nothing quite like the images of a desolate and deserted London to make your stomach sink. Yet, it's brilliant and Danny Boyle's scenes featuring Cillian Murphy aimlessly wandering around an empty London are some of the best apocalyptic scenes ever committed to film. Pair that with a group of remaining survivors evading those stricken with a zombie symptom inducing virus and you've got a truly engaging horror/apocalypse film.
Independence Day - Okay, so it's campy. It's cheesy, but it also has Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith facing down alien psychopaths together. Tell me when that will happen again? Not to mention, the scenes of alien destruction throughout New York City and one memorable shot of the White House being blown to smithereens make the film all the more, well, wicked-fun.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Terminator 2: Judgment Day's brief scenes of a nuclear holocaust are both disturbing and unforgettable. They give an urgency to the present day action of the film and provide a glimpse of a potential world's end that, for some, is all too close to home.
On the Beach - Now here's one that gets overlooked quite often. While many of today's apocalyptic films focus on visions of destruction and desolation, On the Beach is one that deals more with the human drama of knowing the end is all too close. As a group of nuclear fallout survivors attempt to live out their final days before radiation poisoning claims them, they must struggle with the attempt to make their last days on earth ones that are truly worth living.
Red Dawn - Let's face it. This movie is downright ridiculous. Not to mention it's not so much of an apocalyptic film as it is one detailing what appears to be the breakdown of American government and society. That being said, you can't help but enjoy the cheesy acting and the ludicrous plotline - a band of amateur militants (who were high school kids, no less!) protecting their country from invading Soviet forces. To call it silly is an understatement. To call it a guilty pleasure is absolutely correct.
Shaun of the Dead - It's rare that a film can bridge camp and comedy with a poignant storyline, but Shaun manages to do just that. At times funny and at others, moving, Shaun proves that camp and story can go hand-in-hand. Shaun of the Dead treats the zombie and end-of-the-world as we know it genres with a tongue-in-cheek humor that will have you laughing at the break down of civilization. Oh and did I mention that it also stars the incomparable Bill Nighy? That right there is reason enough for you to run to the store right now and pick up a copy.
The Quiet Earth - A man, Zac Hobson, kills himself over the guilt of his involvement in helping destroy the planet, but wakes up to discover that he hasn't died, and may actually be the last person left in the world. He eventually finds two others who were in the process of dying when the apocalyptic accident occurred. With impressive graphics and an ending that ranks among the best in all of film history, The Quiet Earth is not to be missed for disaster film enthusiasts.
Knowing - A little boy finds a paper with a number sequence written by another kid from 50 years earlier, which his father (Nicolas Cage) deciphers to reveal the date and body count of every major global disaster in the past 50 years, as well as several that have yet to happen - including the end of the world. Add some incredible scenes of devastation - including an incredibly realistic plane crash - and an alien sub-plot, and you've got yourself a strangely awesome end-of-the-world film. Bonus points for Nicolas Cage not destroying the film just by being in it.
Akira - This groundbreaking 1988 anime film takes place in a new city rebuilt over the remains of Tokyo, and involves a mysterious group of individuals with psionic powers. Caught in the middle of a war between the government and the rebellion, a young gang soon discovers that one of their friends is far more than he appears. This film is intensely psychedelic and complex, and demands several viewings to fully grasp the full concepts behind it. All the same, it's a milestone for animated films, and one of the more original in terms of armageddon scenarios.
The Stand - A government-spawned superflu wipes out all of mankind, and the few survivors left face a terrifying new reality. While the film doesn't do half of the justice to the Stephen King that it should (most of his films don't), the overall concept and visual execution of The Stand - including the mass death in the Lincoln Tunnel - is one of the most terrifying apocalyptic depictions you'll see on film. Bonus points for the appearance of the horrifying Randall Flagg, a frequent character among King's novels.
Deep Impact - A comet is screaming through space on a collision course with Earth, and a desperate attempt to use missile-borne nuclear weapons to deflect it fails. Fragments of the massive comet strike the planet in advance of the Big Bang, causing megatsunamis and catastrophic conditions that set this film far ahead of its knockoff film Armageddon, which was released two months later. Aerosmith may have lent one of heir daughters and written songs for that one, but critics and experts agree that Deep Impact was far better in real-life depiction and execution of events. It's worth a viewing, if you haven't seen it in a while.
12 Monkeys - Based on a short film called La Jetee, the film follows Bruce Willis as a criminal from a horrible future in which a global plague has pushed mankind underground, with devastating result. Cole is sent back in time to obtain a sample of the original plague before it mutated, for obvious intents of finding a cure. On his first time-trip to the past, Cole is committed to a mental hospital where he meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) who we eventually learn is part of a terrorist group called The Army of the Twelve Monkeys - the group believed to be behind the spreading of the plague. What Cole doesn't grasp in his delirium (he loses the ability to determine what time he's in or whether he's dreaming) is that, at least in this reality, changing history is impossible, so his efforts are essentially useless and mankind is inevitably doomed.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior - The second and best of the Mad Max series takes place at a time when nuclear war has annihilated the world, and Mel Gibson travels through a devastated Australia looking for fuel to keep moving through the desolation and despair. Fuel is more valuable than gold, and when Max finds a settlement of good people defending a refinery from a murderous biker gang, he's forced into confrontation against his will that finds him as the anti-hero in a brutal fight for survival. Easily one of the best post apocalyptic movies ever made.
The Omega Man - Remade from a 1964 film called The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man finds Charlton Heston as Robert Neville, a man who appears to be the only uninfected survivor of a super-plague that's killed off all of mankind. All other survivors have been reduced to night-dwelling race of vampiric mutants, and Neville discovers that he's the only surviving recipient of a serum against the plague. The effects aren't fantastic, but the acting is great, and without it, we wouldn't have I Am Legend. Imagine that horrible, horrible world.
The Postman - A lot of people are going to disagree with this one, but this was a movie that really received a bad wrap, and as far as a post apocalyptic film, there is an interesting world drawn out in detail after an unspecified war laid civilization to waste. There is no standing government, a roaming militia turned army led by General Bethlehem invoking special rules terrorizes survivors, while the hero is a drifter who can quote and perform Shakespeare.
He stumbles into a mail truck, claims to be from the restored United States, and what begins as a con in order to get some food and shelter spawns into a grass roots attempt to reestablish something important, starting with communication. This is a movie that had a bad rap, but is a solid post apocalyptic movie. Now "Waterworld" . . . that was a stinker.
Missed out from list: Logan's Run, Armageddon, 2012, The Day after Tomorrow, Children of Men, etc.
Awaiting: The Road, The Book of Eli.
~ When it comes to the movies, there's more than enough film-goers that can't wait for the end of the world
Thank God, It's Doomsday
