A Post-apocalyptic film is a sub-genre of science fiction, and is set in a world or civilization after nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. It’s a genre that has fascinated me for years it is influencing a lot of my writing, as I am child of the seventies there were no end of post apocalyptic TV shows and film and would often catch many films from this period late at night. The genre seems even more popular today with bestselling books such as “the Road” recent big budget blockbusters such as “2012”,” I am legend” and "the walking dead" series, Zombies are I think almost a genre in themselves Well here is my top 10 of the greatest post apocalyptic films.
WARNING CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS
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10. The Road – I found this movie hard really hard going at times as it is one of the bleakest films I have seen in recent years.The Road follows a father and son journeying together across a grim post-apocalyptic American landscape; years after some unexplained event has destroyed most of civilization, Great central performance from Viggo Mortensen as the unnamed father desperatley trying to avoid many of the remaining human survivors who are now cannibalistic tribes or violent nomads as they head towards the coast.
9.Beneath the Planet of the Apes-the first of the 4 apes sequels starts where planet of the apes finished as Chuck Heston heads into the forbidden Zone. A second ship crash lands, it s sole survivor part of a search party looking for the Astronauts of the first film. Although it was never going to have the twists of its predecessor its worth sticking with for the last 30 mins as the plot take a left turn as we enter a city of underground mutants who worship an atomic bomb with a classic apocalyptic ending!
8.Day of the Triffids – is a 1962 British film unusually for the time in Colour.It has had a huge influence on modern movies like 28 days later (check out the opening scene man wakes up in hospital) and many Zombie films. Triffids are giant plants with the ability to kill with a poisonous sting; our hero wakes up in hospital with his eyes bandaged and has missed an unusual meteor shower that has blinded most people on Earth. He finds the population struggling to stay alive with this sudden affliction, some cooperating, and some fighting: after just a few days society is collapsing with the Triffids preying on the survivors.
7.Dawn of the Dead- This was the second film made in George A Romero's Living Dead series and shows in larger scale a zombie epidemic. In the film the dead have risen and prey on human flesh. The film follows a group of survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a shopping mall. As time passes the undead try to get into the mall and the outside society has collapsed. The novelty of their situation begins to wear and one of the women becomes heavily pregnant. By this time, all emergency broadcast transmissions from the outside world have stopped which gives a real sense of claustrophobia and isolation. Their end comes as a gang of bikers break into the mall and, in the process, let in the zombies by far the best Zombie film much imated by "the walking dead" tv show and remade in 2004.
6.Waterworld- famous for being one of the most expensive flops of all time it is actually a great film if you are prepared to give a chance. Set in the distant future the polar ice caps have completely melted, and the sea level has risen covering virtually all the land. The Mariner" (Kevin Costner), is a drifter who sails the Earth moving to manmade atolls seeking to trade his dirt! which is now a precious commodity. There, it is revealed that he is a mutant with webbed feet and gills. The story has him protecting an orphan girl who has a tattoo with directions to the mythical dry land from a bunch of renegades on jet skis named smokers..... please come back its a good film!
5.Logans Run-this was one of the last great 70’s sci fi classics before the big fx of Star Wars and close encounters made its look and fx dated by comparison.After a Nuclear war people live In a domed city of the future Everyone dies or “Renewed” at age 30 anyone who disagrees and tries to escape the city are tracked down by Sandmen and murdered. Logan, a Sandman is forced to search for “Sanctuary” – a place to which people have apparently escaped classic 70’s stuff that also spawned a prime time TV show.
4.The Omega Man- Made in 1971 based on the novel I Am Legend it is better than the recent Will Smith remake despite some cheesy make up and effects, the Omega man is the classic last man on Earth story. A Biological war has killed most of the world's human population. Army Colonel Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) is immune and rules Los Angeles in day trying to track down and kill the other survivors who have joint together as "The Family" - a cult of night dwelling mutants infected with a plague from the fallout of the war. At night he is a prisoner in his own fortified home as the Family seeks to destroy him.Alien and Gladiator director Ridley Scott tried to remake this film in the 90’s what a movie that could have been.
3. Mad Max 2 -The second film in the Mad Max trilogy begins with a classic prologue back-story; a narrator informs us that the world has "crumbled and...The cities have exploded;" and that the world had gone to (Nuclear) war. The survivors roam the country side in feral biker gangs with oil the main commodity, the films comic-book post-apocalyptic/punk style has been copied endlessly. Max (Mel Gibson) is an ex police man with a supped up sports car and sawn off shotgun who defends a band of settlers who have working a oil refinery against a crazed gang of marauders in a motley collection of bikes and cars. Ends with a great car chase thru the wasteland as Max drivers an armored oil tanker pursued by the biker gang.
2. 28 days later –set in my hometown of London I found this film truly terrifying as the scenery and accents were all so familiar. A man awakens from a coma in a deserted Hospital. He discovers a virus called “Rage “ has spread throughout the country turning most people into mindless, vicious killers ("the Infected") these are not lumbering Zombies you would find in the dawn of the dead or most recently “the walking Dead”tv series, he meets up with fellow survivors to escape the city and heads to an army base in the north of the country who’s commander as his own ideas on dealing with the infection. Very violent and extremely unsettling directed by Danny Boyle before he went on to worldwide fame with Slumdog millionaire.
1.Planet of the Apes- a sci fi legend. Which won many awards in its day, one of the first sci fi franchises with 4 sequels and a TV show.3 Astronauts Led by Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash-land on an unknown planet in the year 3978 A.D. after a 2006-year voyage (during which the crew ages only 18 months). The three set off through a desert, they find an oasis where they decide to go swimming and are captured by Gorillas on horseback. The gorillas take Taylor to "Ape City," where he discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and Humans, who cannot talk,are considered vermin are hunted and then enslaved .Taylor manages to escape the Ape City to “The Forbidden Zone “where he discovers the apes' world was, at one time, controlled by humans, but at some point in history, apes developed and the roles reversed. The ending is one of the great twists of cinema if you don’t know it stop reading now. As chuck rides only the beach with his new mate a familiar object comes into view and Heston sinks to his knees bellowing “they finally did it & god damn you all to hell!”the picture zooms out to reveal the remains of the Statue of Liberty, half buried in the shoreline so it was Earth along set years after some nuclear apocalypse so that’s why it qualifies as not only one the great sci fi films but the greatest post apocalyptic film.
Notable Mentions: The Day After, 28 weeks Later, A Boy and his Dog, 12 monkeys
I am legend – this was a case in what could have been...the first hour brilliant, the second ruined by a rushed ending and awful CGI affects (Hollywood take note watch 28 days later)
