Hey.

I was at the bookstore today and saw a couple of books, which also happen to be movies. That got me to wondering about apocalypse related movies. Does anyone have favorites, or recommendations?

Here are some movies I can think of- I know a few of them are considered flops, but I liked them anyway. Some of them are not strictly apocalyptic but relate.

Waterworld
The Postman
The Day After Tomorrow
Reign of Fire
The Matrix
28 Days Later (and of course other zombie movies, Dawn of the Dead etc.)
The Day After
Escape from L.A./New York
Mad Max, series
Planet of the Apes
Zardoz (a bizarre one)
12 Monkeys
Soylent Green
Dark City
Blade Runner
Logan's Run
Terminator, series

In my Netflix queue (anyone seen these?):
A Boy and His Dog
Omega Man

I'm a huge fan of many of the movies above. I wonder if you add to those movies that have an apocalyptic/post-apolcalyptic theme but aren't necessarily set on earth - Dune, for instance.

A Boy and His Dog is a classic - Don Johnson, I believe...

Omega Man was, originally, supposed to be based on I Am Legend but the script got rewritten so much that it's not recognizable as the same story. Still a cool movie though. Charlton Heston chews the scenery for two hours.

Children of Men deserves to appear near the top of any such list. It was freaking grim!

I would add The Quiet Earth, Testament, Hardware ...

A Boy and His Dog is all right although when Don Johnson gets milked it's a little odd. heh.

Ah Dune... Sting in a bikini, really big worms, recycled pee, and "The spiiiice is liiiife." I loved that movie.

I figure anything that relates counts for the list, because chances are those movies tap into some of the same reasons we like apocalyptic fiction. Nobody here is going to get too worked up if it doesn't meet the technnical specifications right? :-)

I will have to check out Testament and Hardware- I don't recognize those.

What about apocalyptic TV shows?

Battlestar Galactica is at the top of the list!
V
Jericho
The Stand miniseries

Michael - good call on Children of Men. My head was so far into 1970's sci-fi that I didn't even think of it. Logan's Run is one of my all-time faves.

The Stand is one of those "go to" movies that, whenever it's on, I feel compelled to watch.

'The Stand' is a guilty favorite of mine. Lots of death (plus), awful acting (minus). Matt Frewer (plus), Corky Nemec (minus). Gary Sinise (plus), whoever played Randall Flagg (minus).

I second Michael's pick of The Quiet Earth - '85 from director Geoff Murphy - great film. I need to see it again. I remember it having been set in Australia, but clues now gleaned on IMBD have me thinking that memory may be false - influenced by youthful ignorance...

Quiet Earth is one of my favorites. I remember it being set in New Zealand, but I could be mistaken. Run out and rent it if you have never seen it.

Yes, The Quiet Earth was filmed in New Zealand. I saw it in the theaters when I was 11 and it had a huge impact on me.

One, and one "sort of" apocalyptic movie that's also a book is No Escape, with Ray Liotta.

Actually, the book, The Penal Colony, by Richard Herley, is much better than the film. I'd definitely class it as "apocalyptic," since while some sort of future society still exists "out there," the entire novel takes place on an island where the prisoners have created new societies ... some barbaric, some civilized.

I recomend Last Night, the world is going to end in a few hours and it follows how a few people in Toronto decide to spend their last day, very Canadian.

Night of the Comet ! Forgot that one.

I just saw "Fido"... maybe it's more appropriate for the zombie group, but I think of anything with zombies as having an apocalyptic aspect. I mean, it's the walking dead for cryin' out loud.

Anyhoo, I loved it. It was funny but also kind of sweet, plus of course, there were those lovable zombies...

The Quiet Earth is one of my all time favorite films. Beautiful, quiet, heart-rending... creepy. Australian film. I would add to this list "The Last Wave" a Peter Weir film. "Donnie Darko", "Last Man On Earth", and... "Mars Attacks". Heh. And I think "Andromeda Strain" qualifies as well.

"Children of Men" was definitely grim... so close to a potential future reality.

"Zardoz"!!! Ahh ha ha ha.... Sean Connery in a diaper flying around in a giant stone head. There is *nothing* better than that.

The Andromeda Strain is great. Crichton may be a big, best-selling author, and he's not too great a writer, but damn if he don't come up with some plots using some ideas.

I saw The Quiet Earth for the first time a few years ago. It was great, and the conflicted, troubled sexuality of the characters who are left to live is really mirrored in work like The Walking Dead.

Mars Attacks was dumb.

Children of Men was predictable and depressing.

Night of the Comet is fanTAStic! Zombies turn to Vitamin C! YES!

hey Brendan, don't be such a h8or. What's wrong with dumb anyway? Our president happens to be dumb as a bag of hammers. See what heights dumb can rise to? Stop judging the brainless!

ack! ack! ack! ack!

Ah, "A Boy and His Dog". I'll never think about Mormons the same way, even after watching Big Love.

I'd add "La Jetee", the early 60s avant garde film that inspired Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, and "The Handmaid's Tale".

"La Jetee" interested me because of a particular scene, the only one that has movement, which was said to be "quoted" by Ridley Scott in "Blade Runner".

Oh, d'oh. How could I forget "Slaughterhouse Five"?

Other good ones are "Silent Running" (Bruce Dern goes insane, saving Earth's last plants) and "Six-String Samurai" (best post-apocalypic kung fu rock-n-roll tribute movie ever).

The Fortress films were truly bad films, as were the last two Matrix films.

Judging the brainless? The brainless SHOULD be judged. It means they didn't run from the zombie.

Ah! It all makes sense now! Our government was attacked by Zombies and had their brainz all eaten!!!

:::goes back to reading "World War Z"::: which, by the way, is creeping me the hell out. so... freaking... good.

I think "World War Z" would make an excellent movie. And because of the way it's written you could practically lift it word for word.

_World War Z_ is being written for Brad Pitt's production company as we speak, yo. A good comic book writer is penning it.

And don't blame the Republican presidency on zombies. It's those bumper-sticker patriots who've thrown the latest generation of proud Americans into a buzz-saw of racial and religious hatred in a country on its way to a blood civil war.

Start a draft or get the f*** out, people. Enough's enough. In for a penny, in for a pound ... or discretion is the better part of valor.

don't sugar coat it like that, Brendan... tell us what you really think.

I actually wasn't specifically speaking of the Republican administration when I said "our government"... I'm just as frustrated with the Democrats as I am with the GOP. And I don't think anyone has a good solution to the Middle East mess, or to the global rise of radical Islam. I think we're all in for a pound now, like it or not.

Oh god, not Brad Pitt. Why god why? I guess it's better than Tom Cruise, but still. I'd rather have Vin Diesel, or Bruce Willis, or better yet... some unknown. Brad Pitt bugs the hell out of me.

Sure thing, Charissa!

The Commander-in-Chief listened to his overly optimistic and underinformed cabinet, Vice President, and idiotic Iraqi expatriate "leaders" and started a war with no recognition of how much of a clusterf*** it was going to be. Then he waited TOO LONG to send enough troops to quell some bitter back-and-forth violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Now he doesn't have enough troops to bring peace to Iraq, and the Iraqi government is painfully slow in trying to start reconciliation between people who, unfortunately, have now been killing each other EVERY DAY rather than in the past. No f***ing way is reconciliation happening in the next year, when we'll HAVE to draw down troops there and leave vacuums for newly trained and emboldened Iraqi and foreign terrorists, militia men, and insurgents to bomb, kidnap, and murder to their heart's content.

People who support this war--and there are many--need to put their money and their life where their mouth is. If OTHER people have to die and run Vietnam-length service extensions in an IED-strewn landscape, then THEY should, too. I suggest the first recruits be George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice. If they start an intensive round of basic training now, they can be on the ground in Fallujah by February at the latest.

I suggest the next recruits be Americans of military service age who voted Republican in the 2006 election as well as those, as I've said before, who have yellow-ribbon, "These colors don't run," and "Support our troops" bumper stickers on their cars, vans, and SUVs. I'd also suggest as a possibility Senators and Representatives who voted for the War in Iraq and have not openly proclaimed it a mistake.

Only after we've exhausted these American resources should we then institute a draft of ALL military-age Americans until the United States people and the government decide this is a war worth WINNING or a war to be abandoned.

I don't support this war. It was a bad idea. For those who do and did, my advice is: Pretend this is the Big One, double-u double-u eye eye. Pretend we're fighting the Nazis. Get off your mobile wireless cell phone, put down the Starbucks drink, tear off your self-righteous bumper stickers and T-shirts, and get thee to the nearest military recruitment center. It's time to serve! Stop this scourge of bombings overseas! Contain the threat of Iraqi and Middle destabilization!

If you're NOT willing to do that ... if you're NOT convinced a troop withdrawal in Iraq will end the world ... then admit you're helping murder our sons and daughters in a foreign country without a good reason or a hope of victory. Our brave men and women are overtaxed, exhausted, frustrated, and unsupported by a viable political and strategic plan to help the country of Iraq or the Iraqi people.

I think it was made into a movie, but a great dark post-apocalyptic book was Nevil Shute's ON THE BEACH. Dated, but darn good. I do think it was a movie. I too look forward to WWZ movie, no matter who stars in it. OMEGA MAN was great at the time, and am definitely looking forward to I AM LEGEND.

If they recreate the massacre of zombies at the square (I don't want to ruin it for you if you haven't gotten to it), it will be a gory movie. And one I would relish. I just hope they don't try to make it into a Romaro rip-off.

An online article from today on PA movies. http://movies.msn.com/movies/2007winterm...

Has any one mentioned "They Live?" A hokey B-movie with Rowdy Roddy Piper. Pretty cheezy, but good plot, good fun.

Some of my favorite films of the post-apocalyptic genre are:

Dawn of the Dead (both versions)
Day of the Dead
Last Man On Earth
Last Woman On Earth (mostly for the premise)
Night of the Living Dead (original and 1990)
Land of the Dead
Cyborg
Day X (decent independent zombie apocalypse film)
Siege of the Dead (cool zombie apocalypse film)
Children of Men
Zombie Town (decent independent zombie apocalypse film)
Slither

I'll add more as I think of them.

Getting the Japanese film 'Virus' from Netflix this week. Supposedly it's good despite being sort of bad.

I just saw "Right at Your Door" which isn't so much post-apocalyptic as it is a 'man on the street' version of a world-altering event (eg September 11th.)

Terrorists detonate multiple dirty bombs in Los Angeles, and this is the story of a couple trying to get through the event.

While no, not apocalyptic, it does the job of focusing on the people while using an epic event as a backdrop.

Jeff,

Good pick with Right At Your Door. I watched it about a week ago and found it to be a good early apocalypse film. Sure, we could look at it as an isolated incident, which I believe it was meant to be or we could see Los Angeles as a test for whoever set the bombs and consider that world about to be polluted with the effects of dirty bombs. Any way you look at it, the film was a good watch and should leave any viewer asking questions of how prepared they might be and how they would respond to the type of situations that came from the dirty bombs being used near them.

I just got a chance to watch I am Legend, this weekend. I really quite enjoyed it. I was hoping to see the alternate ending but the lady at blockbuster said that there was no disk 2. Unfortunately for us there was a disk 2 and the alternate ending is on there. I must say that a lot of the elements were the same from the book and the Heston version, especially the ending (spoiler) where in the original ending he dies after passing on a cure, much like in the Heston version. Also how the world is learning to cope with the virus like in the book. Shown as the survivor camp which will eventually cure the rest of the world. However, if you see the behavior of the infected as becoming intelligent in their own right, it is way closer to the end of the original novel.

They are making The Road into a movie. Rumor is that tentative leads are Viggo Mortensen as the father and Charlize Theron as the wife...not sure how that will translate to screen...

I would add the '80s miniseries "V" to the list and the '80s movie "Miracle Mile" (starring Anthony Edwards about nuclear bombs dropped on LA). Both cheesy, but entertaining.

"On the Beach" (Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner) is excellent -- very low-key and depressing but I think that was Shute's point when he wrote it. Set in Australia.

The Day After is a good one too -- filmed in my hometown (got to watch them trash downtown, put cars halfway through storefront windows, etc). That movie is the entire reason that I get the heebie jeebies every time the tv tests that emergency response system LOL!!

Stephen King's "The Mist" ought to have been an end-of-the-world flick if they'd followed the book but instead they gave it a nasty-ass twist and left the main character living with the world's hugest guilt trip. A bit distressing, that.

If you go back to the 1950s there are lots of apocalypse flicks -- how about Fail Safe, has that been mentioned? -- because of how everyone was reacting to nuclear weapons. On the Beach came from that same time period.

Question: for it to be apocalyptic does the world have to ACTUALLY end, or can it just be the end of the world as we know it, or can it be a looming-but-not-quite-consummated EOTW?

"The Last Wave" directed by Peter Weir (he made a bunch of early Mel Gibson flicks - Year of living dangerously, Gallipolli). Last wave is actually a 'pre-apocalyptic' movie and all the more disturbing for it. And speaking of Mel Gibson, I didn't see the Mad Max movies mentioned yet - or their spiritual descendant Tankgirl (Yay!). On the more 'arty' but no less apocalyptic side the Quatsi trilogy (Godfrey Reggio).

Sorry to be coming to this conversation late, but I would throw in the BBC miniseries from the 1980s called "Threads". It was Britain's answer to The Day After, but was so much darker and more disturbing. It's very hard to find now, and I'm not even sure it is still available except perhaps on the secondary market, but if you can track it down, it's highly recommended.

I was just watching Threads on youtube, someone just posted the whole movie there, and yes very disturbing. The link for the movie is as follows
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eT96sgTwmvo

The whole movie "The day after" was also there:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BGEq9aipTAo&f...

I had forgotten about the Lathe of Heaven, I remember I saw the movie (1980) when I was in high school, it haunted me for days. Very different from most post nuclear war/devestation movies because there was an element of hope in the ending.

The Quiet Earth sounds like the movie i've been searching for the name of for YEARS.

By any chance, does it have a scene of the main character, looking down on him from above, full frontal nudity?

I remember being pretty scarred by that as a child, watching a movie by myself. Sort of horrified, because it was the first one I'd ever seen. *snort*

But now I can't remember the name of the movie, only that it was post-apocalyptic, there were only a few people left on earth, and i have some vague notion about one of them wanting to start repopulating the planet with the only female. But I was probably about 8 or 9 when I watched it, so it's been a while.

I have a special place in my heart for the Handmaid's Tale movie, even though the book is (always) better.

Yes
Your are speaking of the Quiet Earth

Not quite post-apocalyptic since everything is still intact, only the people are gone. Takes place in New Zealand.

It starts off with the main character nude on the bed.
Its been a while since Ive seen it; but the only people still around are the ones that were dying when everyone else disappeared. I think the main character had taken sleeping pills, the girl had had an accident with her hair dryer etc etc.

very haunting movie.

Has anyone watched the music video for the Muse song, "The Knights of Cydonia"? It is made in the style of a short film, so I guess it counts. As near as I can figure, it is supposed to take place on Mars. (Cydonia being the region on Mars where the face is.) It is about a 'man with no name' saving a 'princess' from an evil sheriff/duke who controls the town through use of technology, following/during the Martian apocalypse. The album feature four 'horsemen' sitting around a table with 4 tiny horses on it. It is kind of silly and it parodizes a lot of films/TV shows (some of them post/peri apocalyptic in nature.) It is a good song too. Check it out Here.

Some more obscure selections:

Pulse (Kairo)- Japanese- weird and distressing.

Le Dernier Combat (French, duh)- thought it was OK- kind of like Delicatessen amid the ruins.

On the Beach- haven't seen it yet, but liked the book (one of the earliest post-apocalypse books) and have it on my GreenCine queue.

Also haven't seen any of the following, but have them on my queue:

Memoirs of a Survivor (based on Doris Lessing novel)
Weekend (Godard)
The Signal (just came out last year).

12 Monkeys is a favorite, and I'm really excited to see Quiet Earth.

As you can see, I am on a serious post-apocalyptic movie-watching mission.

"Quiet Earth" is probably my favorite. It's absolutely beautifully done.

I have to say that I love the "Mad Max" series, especially "Beyond Thunderdome." Shamefully, I'll say that I like "Waterworld" too. I don't think it really deserves the bad rap it gets.

Does anyone remember a movie that came out in the 80's around the time of "The Day After" about a nuclear war in America. Location is set in California the father is in the air force. Him and his son ride bicycles together and the son is always trying to beat the dad. When the bombs fall the dad is at the base. It shows life after. I recall a scene with the son finally beating his dad's best time on the bike.

I remember the movie, but I don't remember that part.

What was the name of the movie?

I mean, I remember the movie The Day After. It starred Jason Robards, but I don't remember the part about the dad and son bike riding.

I'm thinking of a different movie than "The Day After".

The actor that played the dad kind of looks like he could be a Kennedy.