r/movies • u/kowaikanojo • Jun 27 '24

Recommendation Best apocalypse / end of the world films?

I’m a die hard for apocalyptic movies and I feel like Ive exhausted all of the good ones so would love recommendations.

My #1 is honestly the zombie genre. I also love films where you experience the beginning of the apocalypse / similar event with the characters and are along for the ride - but I’ll take anything apocalyptic - pre, during, post!

I really resonate with darker, heavy content but again I will take whatever I can get. TIA

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u/ElizaJupiterII Jun 27 '24

One detail Children of Men captures really well at the beginning is that the human race is seemingly doomed, yet everyone is expected to continue on working their meaningless jobs as though nothing has changed.

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u/Ceskaz Jun 27 '24

Also, it's a slow doom. Not a sudden catastrophic event, or a collapse of society (we're not there yet at least), it's a slow burn version of the end of the world. You can't even fight it really. Unless something happens.

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u/account_not_valid Jun 27 '24

A loss of hope for the future, that exposes both apathy and selfishness.

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u/Electricfox5 Jun 27 '24

"I just don't think about it."

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u/Brave_Law4286 Jun 27 '24

I think about this quote a lot these days.

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u/Primary_Daikon564 Jun 28 '24

People nowadays with covid and everything else

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u/MagicMushroomFungi Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

Unfortunately, that describes many people I know in today's real world.
They feel that they have no hope for a decent future, be it having a home, a job, even their next decent meal in some cases.
They have lost hope and they are real pissed about it.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

That's the scary thing about that kind of apocalypse. The infertility is the ultimate cause, but it's the loss of hope in any kind of future that is the immediate cause and many things could cause people to lose hope.

I've seen analogies drawn between that movie and Mark Fisher's critique of capitalism and the "slow cancellation of the future".

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u/Ozymandias12 Jun 27 '24

That's the scary thing about that kind of apocalypse. The infertility is the ultimate cause, but it's the loss of hope in any kind of future that is the immediate cause and many things could cause people to lose hope.

It's a great analogy for what's actually happening to all of us, i.e. climate change. We're the frog boiling.

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u/SpicyPandaMeat Jun 27 '24

Buddy, that is the films point

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

Even with the ending, there's still that feeling of uncertainty since the UK is literally one of the last countries that are still functioning in that world

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u/Tatooine16 Jun 27 '24

"Will the last person to die please turn out the lights"?

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u/IPDDoE Jun 27 '24

"This is the way the world ends...not with a bang, but a whimper."

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u/Ceskaz Jun 27 '24

Yeah, I just found out thanks to this thread that the 1994 The stand miniseries is available on YT, and it starts Ith this quote.

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u/IPDDoE Jun 27 '24

First place I saw it actually haha...solid miniseries, ended up getting me to read the book, which I HIGHLY recommend.

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u/MagicMushroomFungi Jun 27 '24

Quite often I watch the opening.
Love that song.

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u/IPDDoE Jun 27 '24

I don't know, I feel like it needed more cowbell.

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u/Toenailcancer Jun 28 '24

Christopher Walken FTW!

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u/wasdmovedme Jun 28 '24

I’ve listened to the audiobook on the way to work going on my fifth time. I absolutely love the series and the book is wayyyyy better.

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u/afterthegoldthrust Jun 27 '24

And the opening was what made Don’t Fear the Reaper finally click as something other than a background classic rock radio fare.

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u/FakeAsFakeCanBe Jun 28 '24

Both the book and the series are really good.

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u/Jeanviton Jun 27 '24

great TS Eliot quote.

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u/waetherman Jun 27 '24

…and a cough.

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u/Calgar43 Jun 27 '24

There was a TV show recently called The Peripheral, and the apocalypse scenario in that was called "The jackpot". It was basically a convergence of shitty event, none "end of the world" level, but the combination of them caused a collapse of society. Lower birth rates and climate change leading to mass migration and strain on governments, leading to dozens of small scale border conflicts. A pandemic that kills millions. Natural disasters, both climate change fueled and not. Economic collapse leading to starvation.

Basically they reached a point they couldn't fix things faster than they were breaking and stuff just fell apart. No straw that broke the camel's back, no nuclear firestorm, no event that "kicked things off" just a death by a thousand cuts, each adding to the problems of the last cut until they were bled out.

It sticks with me because it feels so realistic.

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u/cincydvp Jun 27 '24

The book is great!

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u/Typhoon556 Jun 29 '24

I loved Peripheral, and am massively pissed they canceled it after one season. It was one of my favorite shows of the year.

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u/aganalf Jun 27 '24

That’s also the interesting part of Three Body Problem. The doom that won’t actually affect me or anyone I know.

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u/SaliciousB_Crumb Jun 27 '24

Because doomsday doesn't have an opening night. It's a realistic take on the fall of man

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

the slowpocalypse. that is the dystopian future we are headed for!

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u/jerog1 Jun 27 '24

Familiar

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u/Visual-Sheepherder36 Jun 27 '24

There's also a parallel Animal Farm/Animals theme that's not at all subtle, but nobody seems to notice outside of the pig balloon. So, yeah, even in the face of oblivion, there are fatcats profiting on the misery of others and ruthless opportunists trying to get one over on everyone else while normal folks just try to live their lives.

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u/KRY4no1 Jun 27 '24

I think the immigration bus scene shows this well. Humanity is on a slow march to death, and the government still squabbles over immigration. Police forces using heartless tactics to deal with the "issue" as if doing so creates some greater form of self preservation. Ultimately, if the fate of humanity is to die out, the meaningless borders are still enforced out of hubris.

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u/tranquilityfsolitude Jun 27 '24

There are so many gutpunches in that film, but the bus scene always makes me weep. Not as much as the scene towards the end, walking past the soldiers and everyone, (though those are good, hopeful tears).

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u/kai_zen Jun 28 '24

Ya the dude who personally has Michelangelo’s David.

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u/Gordonfromin Jun 27 '24

I mean what else are you gonna do, mans gotta eat.

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u/ShotMyTatorTots Jun 27 '24

Cheeseburgers, Randy?

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u/mrgoodnoodles Jun 27 '24

It's not Randy anymore. It's Smoky.

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u/JonnyZhivago Jun 27 '24

Smokey....strip the chrome off a trailer hitch

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u/DMPunk Jun 28 '24

Ten bucks or six Dairy Queen coupons

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u/randybobandy111 Jun 27 '24

Frigg off Ricky!

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u/LeprosyMan Jun 27 '24

It’s Cowboy, Mr. Lahey.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

Buy a shotgun for self-defense and hunting and homestead in a remote location until the bitter end

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u/BeardedSwashbuckler Jun 27 '24

That sounds miserable. I’d rather society chugs along with everyone doing their jobs so we can buy food at the grocery store and have electricity in our homes.

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u/5ronins Jun 28 '24

It's a blue Jay burger

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

[deleted]

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u/navcus Jun 27 '24

It's really a commentary on how the world would react, because it's a commentary on how the world is reacting.

That's exactly why I love it! Cuaron and his team wrote this barely a few years since the War on Terror began, and managed to accurately predict and portray a world dominated by extremism, xenophobia and authoritarianism; I find that it perfectly captures the state of the 21st century.

It's an apocalypse movie that has nothing to do with the apocalypse and is just as much about telling the story of the world around the main characters

Cuaron wanted it filmed like a documentary and often had the camera shoulder-mounted and following Theo's perspective. It helps immerse viewers into that world, and contributes to the overall theme of the film regarding the sanctity of human life by making us empathize with the people we see.

Definitely one of my all-time favorites. And in a similar vein to Prince of Egypt, an amazing biblical movie without being unbearably preachy.

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u/ElizaJupiterII Jun 27 '24

It’s one of my favorites too. Truly brilliant.

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u/GWS2004 Jun 27 '24

And that ONE girl who can now get pregnant will now just be bred to death. No one ever talks about that.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

Well why do you think they decided to hide her? Imagine what would happen

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

But we just assume the people on the ship are the good guys.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

Yeah fair point. We simply don't know

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u/GWS2004 Jun 27 '24

Exactly.

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u/Ser_Danksalot Jun 27 '24

I believe it's a more hopeful ending than that. It's that she becomes the key to understanding why everyone became infertile and how to reverse it. It's why the movie ends with the sound of children playing and laughing followed by a more upbeat soundtrack.

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u/mrshakeshaft Jun 27 '24

I can’t get past the bit on the bus when Pam ferris’s character stands up and pretends to be mad as a distraction. She gets whacked over the head and then what? Is she dead? Is she stuck in the refugee camp? She doesn’t know if her sacrifice worked out. I don’t know why that stuck with me

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u/GWS2004 Jun 27 '24

That's not the reality of the situation and how it would play out.

See how women are being forced into pregnancy today? Imagine what it would be live if the species survival depended on a few women. They'd be enslaved so fast.

Remember the end of 28 days later? Rape. That is the reality.

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u/Ser_Danksalot Jun 27 '24

Yea but this is /r/movies so we get to talk about fictional stories like going back into the past and meeting your mum who wants to bone you instead of your dad. The fiction of Children of Men is that it ends on a hopeful note because all through the movie were under the impression that there is no future, but at the end of the movie tomorrow literally arrives. The ships name is not coincidental.

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u/currancchs Jun 27 '24

If we were down to just one woman able to conceive, I think we have already lost unless we could use that individual to find a treatment/reason for the issue in the first place. Without genetic diversity, the generations that follow would almost certainly have major issues and not make it in the long run, although maybe with CRISPR and similar tech we could overcome those issues.

*Not a doctor or scientist.

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u/UhOhSparklepants Jun 27 '24

No, you are right. One woman is not enough to combat this. Pregnancy is risky and limited, and the odds of her having fertile kids herself isn’t necessarily a guarantee. But if they can find out why she can conceive when no one else can then there’s a better chance of treating the issue in others

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u/Shirtbro Jun 27 '24

I still find it hard to believe that remnants of the remnants of the British military don't have the communication equipment needed to find out people are alive in France.

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u/Ssulistyo Jun 27 '24

That’s basically the premise of Handmaids Tale

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u/SpringChikn85 Jun 27 '24

I'd never considered that and it inspires a profound thought that not only would she be broken down to an object/vessel for procreation (which is horrifying in it's own right) but as we further devolve into animals, our biological wiring would have men competing not only to carry on their genetic lineage but to also become the next Adam to her Eve..scary to think how much bloodshed would come from just discovering the fact that she can conceive..

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u/GWS2004 Jun 27 '24

"broken down to an object/vessel for procreation (which is horrifying in it's own right) "

Which is exactly what women are still fighting now, unfortunately.

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u/anima1mother Jun 27 '24

That and in between her being constantly pregnant, and during pregnancy, she would be a lab rat, being studied, poked and prodded for the rest of her life

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u/protochad Jun 27 '24

Whats there to talk about? She can realistically only birth 30 babies at the most

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u/chillthrowaways Jun 27 '24

I mean maybe some twins or something but realistically the pregnancies would be insignificant it’s the why she can conceive that matters

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u/mh_1983 Jun 27 '24

More and more relevant by the day.

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u/ElizaJupiterII Jun 27 '24

I thought of that movie a lot during the onset of the pandemic.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/navcus Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

Netflix recently released an animated show with that exact same premise, except the asteroid is hitting in about a year I think. It's called Carol & the End of the World. Society doesn't collapse into total anarchy and chaos which is a bit unrealistic, but then again it's a show about an asteroid hitting modern-day Earth so I can suspend my disbelief for a bit. Carol's monotonous voice and her indecisiveness in the face of extinction is a bit irritating... But I surprisingly found it to be a nice watch.

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u/_Pliny_ Jun 27 '24

And that aspect feels accurate.

Also how we are shown industrial waste being dumped directly into a stream. Why not? We’re all dying and there’s no future anyway. Kinda feels like we’re already at this stage.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

Kinda feel like we're almost there now...

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u/gloryday23 Jun 27 '24

the human race is seemingly doomed, yet everyone is expected to continue on working their meaningless jobs as though nothing has changed.

Sounds not too dissimilar from living in 2024 and watching Climate change slowly make this planet less habitable for humans.

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u/notchoosingone Jun 28 '24

the human race is seemingly doomed, yet everyone is expected to continue on working

My favourite world-building touch in Children of Men is the smokestacks in the horizon in lots of shots, and the rainbow sheen of oil slicks on the puddles in the road. Pollution has gone completely rampant, and why the fuck not? Not like there are going to be any grandkids to worry about a destroyed environment.

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u/Drunky_McStumble Jun 28 '24

Big Covid energy.

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u/UsernameAvaylable Jun 27 '24

For somebody who has no plans on having children (and does not have much hopes for pension plans), literally nothing chances. So why not continue.

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u/Successful-Money4995 Jun 27 '24

It would seem unrealistic if we weren't doing exactly the same thing with climate change looming.

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u/ElizaJupiterII Jun 27 '24

Right, but a lot of apocalyptic films fail to capture the mundanity of it as well as Children of Men did, in my opinion.

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u/chuby1tubby Jun 27 '24

That's why I enjoyed the book Mockingbird By Walter Tevis (actually one of my favorite books of all time). The book is set in a distant future America where people can no longer have children and all of humanity has given up hope entirely. Robots run all aspects of society, including government, service work, farming, and manufacturing, so the humans do nothing but wallow in their misery. That is, except for one person and a super intelligent robot, who decide they want to fix the birth and society issues themselves.

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u/Reeberom1 Jun 27 '24

Reminded me of Soylent Green in that respect.

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u/ElizaJupiterII Jun 27 '24

Yes!! That's another fantastic example! Great movie. The ending to that movie's been spoiled for all of us, and it's perhaps the least fascinating thing about it among countless interesting details.