# Apocalyptic/Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Movies



## UltraParanoia (Jun 27, 2013)

Hey all, 

How good are Apocalyptic/Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Movies!

I have seen ALOT & I think I've seen everything worth seeing, but I thought it can't hurt to ask. Maybe someone here has seen something I havent that was great?


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## Tyler (Jun 27, 2013)

Have you seen Children of Men? The cinematography in that one is great.

The Divide is a pretty disturbing movie but really shows how crazy people can become in the post apocalyptic lifestyle.

The Road is obviously a popular one but the sense of realism in that one is what made it most enjoyable for me. Hope these help!


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## UltraParanoia (Jun 27, 2013)

Yep. Children of Men is a good movie, underrated.

The Divide was really cool, hard to watch at times which I like!
The Road is great, really bleak. 1 of the better more recent takes on the apocalypes


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## Vhyle (Jun 29, 2013)

Ahhh, my favorite genre of all time. I have an unhealthy obsession with post-apocalyptic fiction, that primarily stemmed from the Fallout series games. Ever since the first game's release in 1997, it has consumed me ever since. I love it.

The Road - very bleak, grim... a fantastic, realistic adaptation to the genre. I haven't read the book, however, but I'd like to.

The Book of Eli - another great film.

Mad Max - a classic from the 70s. Not quite as dark as the others, however. It shows a more tribal take on human civilization and mannerisms that could very well result from an apocalyptic event.

Hell (German 2011 film) - a more independent effort, but very well done. It's all in German, so there are subtitles. You can find it on Netflix.

Apex - relatively unknown sci-fi/post-apoc film. Cheesy acting, but great post-apocalyptic setting. You won't find it on any streaming sites, so you'll have to dig deep within the realms of the intertubes to find it.

9 - animated film produced by Tim Burton. Pretty unique storyline, and very dystopian. And of course, the overall grim nature that is to be expected from Tim Burton.

I Am Legend - not in the post-nuclear vein per se, but post-disaster nonetheless. Very popular film so I'm sure it doesn't warrant much explanation. A great watch.

Waterworld - again, not post-nuclear, but this film definitely counts. It was a major flop on its release, but I personally love it! One of my favorite movies.

I know there are many unknown and underground gems to be found in the genre, on Neflix or various other outlets. I've come across quite a few unknown films on there that I simply haven't gotten around to watching yet. I'm confident I'm missing out.


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## flexkill (Jun 29, 2013)

Waterworld is a ridiculous movie IMHO.....It's right up there with Battlefield Earth.....just terrible. Just my


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## Vhyle (Jun 30, 2013)

flexkill said:


> Waterworld is a ridiculous movie IMHO.....It's right up there with Battlefield Earth.....just terrible. Just my



Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus of it, but I loved it. I found the storyline to be pretty original. Not to mention the factor of nostalgia, since it was released in 1995.


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## UltraParanoia (Jun 30, 2013)

Vhyle said:


> Ahhh, my favorite genre of all time. I have an unhealthy obsession with post-apocalyptic fiction, that primarily stemmed from the Fallout series games. Ever since the first game's release in 1997, it has consumed me ever since. I love it.
> 
> The Road - very bleak, grim... a fantastic, realistic adaptation to the genre. I haven't read the book, however, but I'd like to.
> 
> ...


 
I'm much the same man, it's probably not the healthiest hobby but we'll be prepared if anything happens 

I've read about Hell before, I think that'll be my next watch. 
I didnt really enjoy The Book of Eli. It had a lot of killer ideas & the fight scenes were great, but overall for me it was a bit meh. 
Although it's vampires it still has a really bleak feel, Stake Land is unreal


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## Murmel (Jun 30, 2013)

Vhyle said:


> The Road - very bleak, grim... a fantastic, realistic adaptation to the genre. I haven't read the book, however, but I'd like to.



I've read The Road.

Not much happens in it. When you tell people about it, it sounds incredibly boring. But it's actually much better than you might think.
The man and the boy have the most awkward conversations ever though, seldom do you get sentences stretching more than five words


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Jun 30, 2013)

The road was pretty darn similar in book and movie.


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## AlexRuger (Jun 30, 2013)

The Road is...something special. That book put a cloud over my life for a couple weeks after finishing it. I've yet to experience a book move me that much before or since. Have yet to see the movie, but I plan on it. 

Also, +1 on Children of Men. Unbelievable cinematography, and I love the story's approach to the genre. Very original. Also, you can't beat Michael Caine as an old hippie blasting Radiohead and making fart jokes.

Do zombie movies technically count?


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## Murmel (Jul 1, 2013)

7 Strings of Hate said:


> The road was pretty darn similar in book and movie.


I thought the movie was bad to be honest. The book was good though.


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## Mexi (Jul 1, 2013)

the book shits all over the movie. which is a shame, because cormac mccarthy's work deserves better.


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## Basti (Jul 1, 2013)

Stephen King's The Stand is a great post-apocalyptic book. They actually made a tv series of it some time ago but I've never watched it. 

Book of Eli was a pretty good film, but the ultimate point of it sort of put me off.


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## Mexi (Jul 1, 2013)

Basti said:


> Stephen King's The Stand is a great post-apocalyptic book. They actually made a tv series of it some time ago but I've never watched it.



I remember seeing it as a kid with my older brother and dad (who are big stephen king buffs) but don't remember very much of it. I thought about re-watching it online, but my brother advised against it; apparently it is just a weak adaptation of an otherwise stellar novel. it does have gary sinese though!

The Stand Movie Trailer (1994) - YouTube


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## wankerness (Jul 1, 2013)

The movie of "The Stand" is about as good as a major-network adaptation could be, I guess. Which is to say it has bad effects and obviously is missing a lot of the nastier bits, but other than that it's pretty well-done for what it is.

The scariest post-apocalypse movie ever made is "Threads," though that also features the apocalypse itself (it's about nuclear war and the aftereffects). The best is "Children of Men." The most entertaining is "The Road Warrior." Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is also essential viewing, but The Road Warrior is definitely superior. There are a zillion bad mad max ripoffs too but none of them that I've seen were really worth watching. 

12 Monkeys doesn't really count cause only about 1/4 of the movie takes place in the post-apocalypse, but it's one of my favorite sci-fi movies so hey figured I'd mention it. La Jetee is the movie that inspired it and I think that's a masterpiece but it's probably not what you're looking for at all.

Some zombie movies definitely count (ex Land of the Dead, I am Legend, 28 Days Later) but I think we already have about 20 zombie movie threads, so getting the two mixed up is probably a waste of time and a thread-hijacking. I'd still mention "Stake Land" though since it deals pretty heavily with what the post-apocalypse society would be like and it's got some of the grittiness of something like "The Road." 

EDIT: This list is pretty entertaining, I like some of the inclusions in there. Ex "Beasts of the Southern Wild." I definitely can see why someone would call that a post-apocalyptic movie even though I've never seen it described as such and never would have thought of it as one. Some of the other inclusions probably shouldn't be there, like Robocop or Blade Runner or Brazil, I think of them as dystopian instead of full-blown post-apocalyptic. I'm not sure why Alien or 2001 are on there at all.

IMDb: POST APOCALYPTIC MOVIES (by PostApocalypticA.com) - a list by marcomancosu

Wall-E is a good one that I never would have thought of. So is the original Planet of the Apes.


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## The Grief Hole (Jul 1, 2013)

The best: On The Beach. 

I wouls also recommend Hardware (lemmy is in it) and Nausicca, Valley Of The Wind.


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## isispelican (Jul 1, 2013)

Blindness


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## skeels (Jul 1, 2013)

+1 for 9, Mad Max, Mad Max 2 (the Road Warrior), Nausica and. .....those other ones. 

Love me a good post-apocalyptic flick.

But I am also old. Oooooooold, I say!

So, the classics I know, while they may not shine as brightly-orrrr darkly?- in context, were smart and powerful.

Check these out. ALL the Planet of the Apes movies.
Soylent Green- gotta watch the whole thing. .
Logan's Run
A Boy and his Dog- funny stuff, trust me

And watch Eraserhead too, just for kicks...

And Freaks.



It's a love story.




Minus some arms and legs.


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## UltraParanoia (Jul 1, 2013)

AlexSmith said:


> Do zombie movies technically count?


 
I think so, yeah

I think I've seen more zombie movies than any other genre 
28 Days & Weeks later really capture the post apocalyptic feel


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## strungout (Jul 2, 2013)

I saw The Book of Eli last week. Everything about it was really cool...except the actual movie. Like others said it was a great idea, fight scenes were cool, but I felt there was SO MUCH MORE that could've been put in there. Like, y'know, actual intelligent content. I knew what the book was just by seeing the trailer. I was expecting some kind of (even half-assed) philosophical conversations about the book's power to bring freedom and hope to the remnants of mankind versus it being used to control them. Some kind of arguments and such. None of that. None of the characters have any depth at all. It's just a guy (good) with a book that he needs to deliver somewhere out west and another guy (bad) who wants the book for himself, gets it, but can't read it because it's not written with the alphabet. First guy ends up in the west, with no book, but he's memorized it anyway so... yeah... End of story.

There's two hours of my life I'll never get back...

Anyway, I've seen most of the movies mentioned so far, my favorite being the zombie ones, like 28 days and weeks later... and no one said Dawn of the Dead?! 

I didn't see Blindness, but I read the book by Jose Saramago and it was awesome! Not so much a post-apocalyptic world as a post-apocalyptic hospital... read it....do it!

Some I'd like to check out, like Soylent Green (always wanted to see it, never did... which is better, book or movie?), Threads and Children of Men...

I'm a gamer so if you are too, you should check out Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. ....ing awesome. Or a bit earlier one, Fallout 3, my all time fave. Dead Island was pretty cool too. Avoid Walking Dead: Survival instincts at all cost. No story, no depth and it's not even fun to kill zombies. The other one with 4-5 episodes is decent, tho limited in what you can and can't do. The characters are engaging, some you'll love and be pissed when they die. Some you'll be so glad you DO get to KILL THEM when they turn!


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## flint757 (Jul 2, 2013)

The first Walking Dead game was pretty awesome though. Not a game in the strictest sense, but a good story.


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## Xaios (Jul 2, 2013)

flexkill said:


> Waterworld is a ridiculous movie IMHO.....It's right up there with Battlefield Earth.....just terrible. Just my



My "Kevin Costner Post Apocalyptic Guilty Pleasure" is The Postman. Is it totally hammy in execution? Abso-freaking-lutely. It has a couple good ideas though and the general conceit of the plot isn't that far-fetched based on how they set it up.

Then again, it _is_ based on a Hugo-nominated book, so I guess the filmmakers aren't really the ones who deserve the credit.


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## wankerness (Jul 3, 2013)

flint757 said:


> The first Walking Dead game was pretty awesome though. Not a game in the strictest sense, but a good story.



It's far, far better written and more involving dramatically than the goddam TV show, that's for sure.


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## Basti (Jul 3, 2013)

Some of the movies based on games like Resident Evil, Underworld and Silent Hill are actually pretty cool, but you probably know already


UltraParanoia said:


> 28 Days & Weeks later really capture the post apocalyptic feel


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## Vhyle (Jul 3, 2013)

strungout said:


> I'm a gamer so if you are too, you should check out Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. ....ing awesome. Or a bit earlier one, Fallout 3, my all time fave. Dead Island was pretty cool too. Avoid Walking Dead: Survival instincts at all cost. No story, no depth and it's not even fun to kill zombies. The other one with 4-5 episodes is decent, tho limited in what you can and can't do. The characters are engaging, some you'll love and be pissed when they die. Some you'll be so glad you DO get to KILL THEM when they turn!



Ah yes, Fallout 3 is my all-time favorite game ever, and that speaks volumes. I've been a huge fan of the Fallout series ever since its debut in 1997. I have many, many memories of playing those games in my younger years. Bethesda's adaptation of the atmosphere was extremely well done. Such a great display of a bleak dystopia.


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## Basti (Jul 4, 2013)

The Crazies is good if you set off with low expectations


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## UltraParanoia (Jul 4, 2013)

Basti said:


> The Crazies is good if you set off with low expectations


 
I enjoy the original & the remake


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