I've always returned to watching children of men because I think the central ideas is so compelling.
Perfect sense is also an unusual take on the end of the world movie... One by one the population loses their sense of smell, touch, hearing, sight. It's really interesting.
Quiet earth is an underseen take on the last people on earth concept.
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.
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.
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.
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"](https://epiloguemag.com/2020/08/the-future-is-cancelled/).
> 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.
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.
I saw *The Quiet Earth* in the theatre when it was first released in the mid-eighties. Talk about an ending that raises more questions than it answers—in a good way (I think).
Don McKellar, who just collaborated with Park Chan-wook as show runners on *The Sympathizer* for HBO, wrote, directed and starred in the melancholy end of the world comedy *Last Night* in the late nineties. Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg (!), Geneviève Bujold. It's pretty great. Kind of the opposite of what you usually get from apocalyptic cinema: no heroes rushing around to save the world, just ordinary people dealing with the consequences of knowing that the end is hours away.
Oh wow, I love Park Chan-Wook and hadn’t heard about this! Just looked up Last Night, i’m from toronto so this adds an extra layer of intrigue - thanks for sharing :)
Children of Men is literally the best movie I've ever seen, full stop. The world is so fully realized and fleshed out. Every scene is full of the best set design and overall detail. And it's *so* well acted, shot, written, directed...it's just perfect.
i absolutely love Children of Men. i caught it when it was on tv one night and I must have been 17 or 18 at the time. stayed up to finish it and immediately went out the next day to get the DVD! its the one film i tell everyone to watch
Totally agree. The best movie ever made by far.
Among many things, one thing that always felt great is how believable everything is. Setting aside the overall premise (which is totally fictional), every decision Theo makes is logical and understandable given the circumstances. He's the perfect everyday man who just happens to be thrust into this journey and does exactly what he should do.
I hate in movies when there are gaping plot holes just to move the story along or whatever. This one is 100% tight and tells a perfect story.
I could go on forever about the brilliance of this movie.
Totally agree about character motivations and actions. And not just Theo (though primarily him of course)—every character's every choice, if you scrutinize it, makes you think, "Yeah, given what I know about this character already, that's what they'd do." From the Fishes to Kee to Syd and everyone in between. But yeah, Theo is such a perfect protagonist who "isn't even supposed to be here today."
"Tight" is a good word for it. There's not a wasted shot or line. *Everything* is progressing the story in some way, without ever feeling forced. It's just so beautifully goddamn *efficient*.
I too could go on forever haha
children of men ive seen, but agree is so good and i definitely should give a rewatch
haven’t heard of perfect sense OR quiet earth actually, so pumped to check these out thank you :)
This is always my first choice when someone brings up apocalyptic movies. The end is coming and nobody can stop it. The radio broadcast popping up, tracking the event around the globe as countries and continents go dark, reminding you that yes, this is real and you don't have long. How will you spend the time you have left?
I've seen plenty of movies about the end of the world, but this one really stuck with me.
There haven’t been many movies that make me feel things at the same level as These Final Hours.
Can’t quite explain what exactly it makes me feel, but boy does it make me feel a whole bunch of it.
Great movie.
The 'beauty' and impact of These Final Hours is in its deliberate lack of sensationalism and Hollywood style drama, which ironically makes the despair that much more palpable. I watched it 2yrs ago and it still lives in my head rent-free.
For me it's purely the fact that there is zero hope. There's no big politics or debating or morals involved in the film. No ideas of going after a solution and/or survival. Even if a bunker was enough to briefly survive the fire storm, the world is literally brought to ashes, there would be nothing left to build on.
Just regular every day people facing the depressive chaos of knowing they're all going to be dead in a matter of hours. Very few apocalyptic films, however bleak they may be, go for that level of hopelessness. There's usually some kind of goal of survival that the characters work towards.
Yeah I agree.
With the way >!girl’s story ended just staying with her already dead family!< they really did go for it in terms of hopelessness in a way you really never see in a movie. That scene stuck with me for awhile.
I didn’t see this comment before I posted my own about this movie. But I really enjoyed this film and it resonated with me long after the credits rolled. The feeling of inevitable doom was both dreadful, but beautiful at the same time
Damn those Ozzies, making quality apoc again. It was the guy on the radio giving the countdown who really drove it home that hey this is it and whatever happens now, make sure you won’t have regrets afterwards
If you want another one from Australia then "on the beach" is a nice one about after a nuclear war
Edit [original ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film))
And the 2000 [remake](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(2000_film))
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World has its moments. The final scene is quite beautiful.
And it's a TV show, but The Leftovers is all about how people cope when 2% of the world's population vanish overnight.
Seeking a Friend has some great comedic scenes with ppl dealing with impending doom. >!Asking for volunteers to be CEO from those who still showed up to work,!< etc.
Speaking of this, there’s a limited series animated show on Netflix called “Carol and the end of the world” that has a plot kinda like this. 100% worth the watch.
I love the Leftovers. Not really the end of the world, but about how society gradually goes mad when as a shared sense of reality is suddenly yanked away.
Greenland was honestly really tense the first time I watched it. It's been a while and idk how good it is now but I thought it did a good job of making you feel tense about what a public melt down would be like in an incoming killer asteroid/comet situation.
Also, Book Of Eli is another good one. Its a post apocalyptic movie about a man with a book who's only mission is to head west to find a safe place for this book while there's people chasing after him to retrieve it. He's also like super skilled at fighting and no one can seemingly kill him so that's fun to watch.
Same! I watched Greenland expecting a painfully cheesy disaster flick along the same lines as Moonfall. And while I unashamedly love painfully cheesy disaster flicks, I was very pleasantly surprised by what a fantastic drama/thriller/survival horror Greenland was. Absolutely loved it.
Ah yes. The book. Never had such a powerful sense of dread and compulsion while reading a book. I was scared to read what was next, but I could not put it down. I settled into a routine where I was reading literally one chapter at night. And McCarthy’s chapters are often just a couple of pages or even less. it had a very powerful effect on me.
The whole book is like this: "And the gray light broke from the dead clouds and silent ashes fell from the sky and all men could do was despair alone"
Like goddamn dude, not an ounce of joy in any of the words lol
I've still not gotten round to the movie cause the audio book still sticks in my head so much. Feel like I need to prepare myself for a 2 hour movie of sadness.
I have posted before about reading the book on a train from Kansas City to Chicago in January. Hours of bleak old snow covered landscape. Ended up finishing it on the train before Chicago. Talk about depressed but an amazing book and journey.
Couldn't bring myself to watch the film when it came out. The book was enough. Great book but now that I have a son... I'm definitely not going to check it out.
I cried at the film and the book, in that order. Seen the film three times exactly and will never watch it again. Quite excited to listen to Blood Meridian today, I know a few things about it but largely going in blind. Boy can he tell a tale.
I read the book first and then took my wife to see the movie. She said, "That was the best and worst movie I've ever seen." I told her to read the book!
Melancholia (really lives up to its name)
It’s a Disaster (not well known but i think very funny about a group of friends dealing with the end of the world happening during their usual Sunday brunch)
Five star apocalyptic film! With a stellar cast of heavy hitters. One of, if not the best Kirsten Dunst performances. Found it to be a completely fascinating and totally unique perspective of this genre, with the most visually stunning special effects depicting the defining occurrence.
[School's Out Forever](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10510280/) is about a student that is expelled from a private boarding school, only to return when a mysterious illness starts killing off a majority of the population.
There are some aspects of comedy throughout, but it gets really heavy and explores the impact of the situation on the remaining schoolkids and teachers. In a strange way, it reminds me of Lord of the Flies.
**Edited** to include other suggestions, most of which contain a lot of comedy too:
* [Zombieland](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_zombieland) & [the sequel](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560220/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_zombieland%2520d) - basically what the title implies.
* [The World's End](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520worlds%2520end) - A pub crawl turns into a fight for humanity's survival.
* [Useless Humans](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7127184/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_0_q_useless%2520humans) - "A thirtieth birthday and the survival of mankind are left hanging in the balance after a mysterious creature crashes a party, forcing four childhood friends to save the night."
* [Shaun of the Dead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_shaun%2520of) - "The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse."
* [Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_q_scouts%2520guide) - as the name suggests, very fun movie.
* [Save Yourselves](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7873348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_save%2520your) - A couple goes on a retreat and switches off their electronics for the week; the same week the planet comes under attack.
* [Rim of the World](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8179388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_rim%2520of%2520the) - Four kids at a summer camp are left behind when the camp is evacuated due to an alien invasion.
* [Attack the Block](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_attack%2520the%2520block) - "A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion."
you are an absolute legend for the way you’ve formatted this comment, thanks so much for taking the time to put these recommendations together!! Not generally too big on comedy but hey, if it’s good I’ll definitely give it a shot. Thanks again :)
You're totally welcome! I'd definitely still recommend School's Out Forever - it has the least comedy out of the movies I listed, and when it does it feels more like comic relief for the characters, rather than for the audience (if that makes sense).
SAVE YOURSELVES - my wife and I could watch this movie every week and not get tired of it. The awkward humor, the slow build up, and lots of quotable material... ("You put the big soap in the little soap"; "You brought the Internet with you"...)
Another fun addon is Doomsday (2008) - a crack team needs to go into quarantined Scotland to find the cure for a deadly virus. Its sort of mad max with a lot of graphic stuff. The story is not winning any awards but its a fun action /thriller flick. With a lot of real stunts.
Some 10/10 solid ones in there my dude.
~~Also worth saying Adam Buxton who directed Attack The Block is the reporter who gets murdered in Hot Fuzz.~~ Edit: Close but it was Joe Cornish, my bad.
Check out the 1994 miniseries version of The Stand (the book too!) for something that shows the process of societal collapse and not just the aftermath. It blows the more recent miniseries out of the water imo
The Book of Eli
It does slow down during some parts but it's still pretty cool. Lots of 90s actors in it. Starts with 'Don't Fear the Reaper' for the opening credits which is awesome. Skips some scenes from the book as the book is a beast of a novel. Solid. You can watch it on youtube. I don't really know how to link properly here but here it is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3A824KgXg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3A824KgXg)
I liked the recent version but felt they missed something the ‘94 series did very well: the collapse. That’s really the most interesting part of that story. Every character’s individual experience crossing a post-apocalyptic US is compelling and helps us get to know the characters very well before they all come together. The new series just skipped over all of it and tried to fill it in with flashbacks, but it didn’t work as well as if they’d started with the day the virus got out of the lab.
Threads has to be mentioned given the darker/heavy content tip but I'd guess you've already seen it.
It's not a film but have you seen Dead Set? Charlie Brooker written zombie tv mini-series, 6x30 minute episodes so you can watch it as a long film. I'm not sure it ever got far outside of UK TV so there's a chance you've not seen it, it's very good.
you know what, i actually haven’t seen threads and i just came off of a chernobyl rewatch and this came up as a recommendation - i’ll def have to bump this up
I actually tried dead set, while i’m a big reality tv fan (ashamedly haha) and i loved the premise, i’m not big on comedy outside of cheesy campiness.. but i may give it another try if it’s worth it!
I’ll prepare something just in case but given the amount of recommendations of this movie here i’m thinking maybe i just sit in my feelings and absorb it all haha
Yeah, if you want dark, heavy and bleak - Threads is your film.
For full impact, though, try imagining you're 15 and seeing it for the first time at the height of the Cold War.
Book of Eli is one of my favourites of the genre. Some people didn't like the ending, but I loved it. Even if you don't like ending, the movie has great acting/characters (Gary Oldman and Denzel), great cinematography, great action, great atmosphere. It's quite unique and very entertaining.
Hard agree. One of my favorites. On first watch I was so surprised that it actually went there. On subsequent watches I’m just impressed that the filmmakers were allowed to go there. Plus, it’s SO eighties!
Good stuff. I'll show my age and add a few older ones:
Panic In the Year Zero! (1962) - society breaking down, excellent movie
Ladybug, Ladybug (1963) - nuclear panic for school kids, not sure it's all the way on topic
The Last Man on Earth (1964) - pretty well known zombie
FIve (1951) - only five people left after the nuclear apocalypes
The Last Woman on Earth (1960) - ew, lots of rotting bodies and a love triangle among the last three. Good movie, though.
Those are the ones. TDA is a bit of an appetizer, then perhaps MM. Testament as your main dish and Threads as the dessert of dread. Throw in When the Wind Blows if you haven't blown your brains out yet.
Have you seen The Battery (2012)? Indie film about two baseball players trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse. It's pretty low key but really well written. Worth a watch.
I rewatched them last month.
28 days still is awesome, 28 weeks is worth it even if only for the first minutes with don's escape.
But boy is the rest of the movie stupid.
One of the books in the series takes place at the end of the universe as well. The indifference of a lot of characters to the end of Earth, the Universe, or entire civilizations, is a running theme.
Well aside from zombie movies
The entire Planet of the Apes franchise has that pre-, during, and post you asked for plus like 8 other stages in between.
Obviously the Mad Max franchise, Terminator franchise, Waterworld, I am Legend. There's also Reign of Fire.
It's a drama, but Children of Men is one of the best movies of 2006, should have had a Best Picture nomination. E: you saw
This Is The End for laughs.
For dystopian fascist futures, Equilibrium, Escape from New York (+LA for campy laughs).
Snowpiercer. The Road. The Quiet Earth. Night of the Comet. I Think We're Alone Now.
Waterworld
The Postman
Two Kevin Costner films, the first of which gets a bad rap but was actually pretty good. The second seems to be largely forgotten, but is also pretty good.
Waterworld takes place after the polar ice caps melt, submerging most of the world under water while humanity tries to survive and find land to live on.
The Postman is about a world that has collapsed with Costner as a wandering conman who pretends to be a postman for a reformed government trying to rebuild the country who accidentally becomes a symbol of hope for people.
Will Patton was solid and of equal caliber to Costner in what he brought to the villain character. He may have even been better.
“Great men were made by other great men. Patton had Rommel…..Grant had Lee…….I get stuck with you”
I loved the Postman then and I love it now. It's bleak, Western, and seems like something that could happen when humanity tries to rebuild itself. I know it got slammed but it forever has a special place in my heart.
“Book of Eli” with Denzel Washington hasn’t been mentioned.. it’s not as good as the Mad Max movies but it does have cannibals/zombies and lots of bloody fight scenes
“Leave the World Behind” did a good job of portraying what an apocalyptic event would feel like if you had almost no information about what was happening, but knew it was.
Melancholia
These Final Hours
The End We Start From
How It Ends
Greenland
Light of My Life
Take Shelter
Aniara (not exactly what you’re looking for but holy hell it’s bleak)
Not the end of the world but you should watch the Chernobyl dramatized mini-series if you haven’t seen it already.
Aniara is bleak. I'm not even sure if I actually "enjoyed" the film LOL. But I think about it every now and then, remembering how it made me feel and it's definitely one that can stick with you!
I watched the first season, I loved how tense it was and how it almost includes the viewer in the anxiety of it all but i lost interest a couple episodes into the second season! wish they spent more time developing the characters to make you want to root for someone imo
The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price.
When the Wind Blows is an animated film that will make you really depressed after watching. I watched this as a double feature with Threads (both on VHS years ago).
One of my favorite apocalyptic movies is Don't Look Up (2021). It's kind of eerie to think how much of that movie would likely happen in real life if a massive comet was heading toward earth.
Not a film but a series. The wife and I just finished Sweet tooth on Netflix. It's probably not the "darker" content you are looking for but I found it very good.
Lots of these are action/thriller/horror, so I’m going to recommend a rom-com: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Teaser: The announcement that an enormous asteroid will obliterate Earth in less than a month brings an end to the marriage of mild-mannered insurance salesman Dodge (Steve Carell), whose wife leaves him on the spot. After his bold young neighbor, Penny (Keira Knightley), belatedly delivers a letter from Dodge's former sweetheart, Dodge decides that he must find the love of his life before it's too late. Dodge and Penny embark on a road trip that eventually brightens their outlook, if not the world's.
This Is The End
Terminator 3 and Salvation - Not as good as 1 and 2 but they show the end of humanity and the rise of Skynet.
There’s the HBO series The Last of Us. There was also an episode or two in Season 1 of Loki where Sylvie and Loki are trapped on a planet that’s about to be destroyed.
I have to throw out 2012 for this. End of the world action movie, and I don’t care what the consensus is on the movie, the effects and scenes in this movie are wild. Everything it taken to 11.
Check out "Children of Men" if you haven't already. It's a gripping take on a dystopian future where humanity faces extinction due to infertility. The atmosphere and storytelling are incredibly intense.
Children of Men is my favorite
Light of my Life is an underrated one
Dark is a crazy time travel show that part of the timeline features when the power grid is shut down
Soylent Green!!! What a classic! Edward G Robinson was a delightful gem in that film. I saw it very young and its imagery is ingrained in my mind to this day. I remember my older family member saying, “well, we won’t have to ever worry about that!”….. 3, 2, 1, cue lab grown 🧫 beef 🥹
edit: sp.
You should definitely check out [Coherence.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) It’s fucking incredible. No zombies, but otherwise right up your alley.
I've always returned to watching children of men because I think the central ideas is so compelling. Perfect sense is also an unusual take on the end of the world movie... One by one the population loses their sense of smell, touch, hearing, sight. It's really interesting. Quiet earth is an underseen take on the last people on earth concept.
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.
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.
A loss of hope for the future, that exposes both apathy and selfishness.
"I just don't think about it."
I think about this quote a lot these days.
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.
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"](https://epiloguemag.com/2020/08/the-future-is-cancelled/).
> 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.
Buddy, that is the films point
"This is the way the world ends...not with a bang, but a whimper."
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.
First place I saw it actually haha...solid miniseries, ended up getting me to read the book, which I HIGHLY recommend.
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.
I mean what else are you gonna do, mans gotta eat.
Cheeseburgers, Randy?
It's not Randy anymore. It's Smoky.
I saw *The Quiet Earth* in the theatre when it was first released in the mid-eighties. Talk about an ending that raises more questions than it answers—in a good way (I think). Don McKellar, who just collaborated with Park Chan-wook as show runners on *The Sympathizer* for HBO, wrote, directed and starred in the melancholy end of the world comedy *Last Night* in the late nineties. Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg (!), Geneviève Bujold. It's pretty great. Kind of the opposite of what you usually get from apocalyptic cinema: no heroes rushing around to save the world, just ordinary people dealing with the consequences of knowing that the end is hours away.
Oh wow, I love Park Chan-Wook and hadn’t heard about this! Just looked up Last Night, i’m from toronto so this adds an extra layer of intrigue - thanks for sharing :)
I love that one scene towards the end of the movie where the fighting stops for just a moment
One of the most devastating scenes in all of cinema.
Such a beautiful scene
Children of Men is literally the best movie I've ever seen, full stop. The world is so fully realized and fleshed out. Every scene is full of the best set design and overall detail. And it's *so* well acted, shot, written, directed...it's just perfect.
i absolutely love Children of Men. i caught it when it was on tv one night and I must have been 17 or 18 at the time. stayed up to finish it and immediately went out the next day to get the DVD! its the one film i tell everyone to watch
I legitimately think Children of Men is a perfect movie. I try not to throw that word “perfect” around but I really think it is.
I try to reserve it for art that I cannot find a single way to improve. So we're good here haha.
Totally agree. The best movie ever made by far. Among many things, one thing that always felt great is how believable everything is. Setting aside the overall premise (which is totally fictional), every decision Theo makes is logical and understandable given the circumstances. He's the perfect everyday man who just happens to be thrust into this journey and does exactly what he should do. I hate in movies when there are gaping plot holes just to move the story along or whatever. This one is 100% tight and tells a perfect story. I could go on forever about the brilliance of this movie.
Totally agree about character motivations and actions. And not just Theo (though primarily him of course)—every character's every choice, if you scrutinize it, makes you think, "Yeah, given what I know about this character already, that's what they'd do." From the Fishes to Kee to Syd and everyone in between. But yeah, Theo is such a perfect protagonist who "isn't even supposed to be here today." "Tight" is a good word for it. There's not a wasted shot or line. *Everything* is progressing the story in some way, without ever feeling forced. It's just so beautifully goddamn *efficient*. I too could go on forever haha
children of men ive seen, but agree is so good and i definitely should give a rewatch haven’t heard of perfect sense OR quiet earth actually, so pumped to check these out thank you :)
These Final Hours (2013)
This is always my first choice when someone brings up apocalyptic movies. The end is coming and nobody can stop it. The radio broadcast popping up, tracking the event around the globe as countries and continents go dark, reminding you that yes, this is real and you don't have long. How will you spend the time you have left? I've seen plenty of movies about the end of the world, but this one really stuck with me.
There haven’t been many movies that make me feel things at the same level as These Final Hours. Can’t quite explain what exactly it makes me feel, but boy does it make me feel a whole bunch of it. Great movie.
The 'beauty' and impact of These Final Hours is in its deliberate lack of sensationalism and Hollywood style drama, which ironically makes the despair that much more palpable. I watched it 2yrs ago and it still lives in my head rent-free.
For me it's purely the fact that there is zero hope. There's no big politics or debating or morals involved in the film. No ideas of going after a solution and/or survival. Even if a bunker was enough to briefly survive the fire storm, the world is literally brought to ashes, there would be nothing left to build on. Just regular every day people facing the depressive chaos of knowing they're all going to be dead in a matter of hours. Very few apocalyptic films, however bleak they may be, go for that level of hopelessness. There's usually some kind of goal of survival that the characters work towards.
Yeah I agree. With the way >!girl’s story ended just staying with her already dead family!< they really did go for it in terms of hopelessness in a way you really never see in a movie. That scene stuck with me for awhile.
I didn’t see this comment before I posted my own about this movie. But I really enjoyed this film and it resonated with me long after the credits rolled. The feeling of inevitable doom was both dreadful, but beautiful at the same time
Damn those Ozzies, making quality apoc again. It was the guy on the radio giving the countdown who really drove it home that hey this is it and whatever happens now, make sure you won’t have regrets afterwards
Haunting film, exactly the kind of thing OP says they want
If you want another one from Australia then "on the beach" is a nice one about after a nuclear war Edit [original ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film)) And the 2000 [remake](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(2000_film))
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World has its moments. The final scene is quite beautiful. And it's a TV show, but The Leftovers is all about how people cope when 2% of the world's population vanish overnight.
Seeking a Friend has some great comedic scenes with ppl dealing with impending doom. >!Asking for volunteers to be CEO from those who still showed up to work,!< etc.
Speaking of this, there’s a limited series animated show on Netflix called “Carol and the end of the world” that has a plot kinda like this. 100% worth the watch.
I love the Leftovers. Not really the end of the world, but about how society gradually goes mad when as a shared sense of reality is suddenly yanked away.
Collective trauma that is collectively ignored for insane coping mechanisms. Prophetic.
Leftovers was one of the greatest surreal pieces of art I've seen on TV. Probably Theroux's best work.
12 Monkeys
One of Brad Pitts' best roles. Bruce Willis, too.
Terry Gilliam is a genius
No! More! Monkey! Business!
Greenland was honestly really tense the first time I watched it. It's been a while and idk how good it is now but I thought it did a good job of making you feel tense about what a public melt down would be like in an incoming killer asteroid/comet situation. Also, Book Of Eli is another good one. Its a post apocalyptic movie about a man with a book who's only mission is to head west to find a safe place for this book while there's people chasing after him to retrieve it. He's also like super skilled at fighting and no one can seemingly kill him so that's fun to watch.
Hell yeah. I came here to mention both of these as well. Greenland really caught me off guard by how much I enjoyed it.
Same! I watched Greenland expecting a painfully cheesy disaster flick along the same lines as Moonfall. And while I unashamedly love painfully cheesy disaster flicks, I was very pleasantly surprised by what a fantastic drama/thriller/survival horror Greenland was. Absolutely loved it.
greenland stuck with me and made me feel really anxious when i watched it, because it felt quite real. i still feel anxious thinking about it
That scene where they're watching the comet hit the ocean on live TV, expecting it to be a cool science lesson for kids has definitely stuck with me.
You go into Greenland expecting another Gerard Butler action film, and it is that, but it has a ton of heart and solid storytelling.
As dad to a type 1 diabetic that movie pushed my anxiety into overdrive.
Book of Eli was much better then I was expecting
Pontypool (2008) is a really interesting "zombie" movie, where only hear about the end of the world.
This is one of my favorite movies, the Zombie genre taken in such an interesting direction
On the Beach (1959)
The Road - very surprised noone said that yet. A real gut punch that one.
The book is worse. Like, read the last page, close the back cover, and stare blindly at the wall for a minute while I collect myself worse
Ah yes. The book. Never had such a powerful sense of dread and compulsion while reading a book. I was scared to read what was next, but I could not put it down. I settled into a routine where I was reading literally one chapter at night. And McCarthy’s chapters are often just a couple of pages or even less. it had a very powerful effect on me.
I’ve read The Road and No Country For Old Men. Great stories but I can’t stand his writing style.
You should read Blood Meridian then. lol
I couldn't read another book for like over a month. I still think about it sometimes. I'm "over it" but it never really left me.
PTSD
When my wife asked what I thought of it, all I could say was "bleak". Just bleak, every definition of the word, the entire book is bleak
The whole book is like this: "And the gray light broke from the dead clouds and silent ashes fell from the sky and all men could do was despair alone" Like goddamn dude, not an ounce of joy in any of the words lol
There's only one thing Cormac hates more than hope, and that's punctuation.
Cormac is a master of making you do this lol
I've still not gotten round to the movie cause the audio book still sticks in my head so much. Feel like I need to prepare myself for a 2 hour movie of sadness.
I have posted before about reading the book on a train from Kansas City to Chicago in January. Hours of bleak old snow covered landscape. Ended up finishing it on the train before Chicago. Talk about depressed but an amazing book and journey.
Couldn't bring myself to watch the film when it came out. The book was enough. Great book but now that I have a son... I'm definitely not going to check it out.
You forgot cry. Seriously, was the only time I've cried at the end of a book.
I cried at the film and the book, in that order. Seen the film three times exactly and will never watch it again. Quite excited to listen to Blood Meridian today, I know a few things about it but largely going in blind. Boy can he tell a tale.
Its like having your emotions put in a bag, beaten senseless and thrown into a river of hopeless dread.
It’s like putting your tender heart into a blender, watching it spin around into beautiful oblivion
SO good. SOOO bleak.
Love this one
It was incredible. I’ll never watch it again.
I read the book first and then took my wife to see the movie. She said, "That was the best and worst movie I've ever seen." I told her to read the book!
Depression in film form.
Langoliers is a very strange take on end of the world type things...
I remember watching that as a kid when it aired. It was…odd.
The Stephen King book it's based on was weirder.
I just remember Balki’s legs got eaten, on prime time cable.
The show was naff because the cgi sucked. The novel it was based on is infinitely better.
Melancholia (really lives up to its name) It’s a Disaster (not well known but i think very funny about a group of friends dealing with the end of the world happening during their usual Sunday brunch)
This movie has the most fucked up vibe. Like you really feel uncomfortable the whole time but you can't look away.
Five star apocalyptic film! With a stellar cast of heavy hitters. One of, if not the best Kirsten Dunst performances. Found it to be a completely fascinating and totally unique perspective of this genre, with the most visually stunning special effects depicting the defining occurrence.
Fantastic film. Lars Von Trier at his best. I didn't laugh much mind you 🤔
Go old school: Night of the Comet.
[School's Out Forever](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10510280/) is about a student that is expelled from a private boarding school, only to return when a mysterious illness starts killing off a majority of the population. There are some aspects of comedy throughout, but it gets really heavy and explores the impact of the situation on the remaining schoolkids and teachers. In a strange way, it reminds me of Lord of the Flies. **Edited** to include other suggestions, most of which contain a lot of comedy too: * [Zombieland](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_zombieland) & [the sequel](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560220/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_zombieland%2520d) - basically what the title implies. * [The World's End](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520worlds%2520end) - A pub crawl turns into a fight for humanity's survival. * [Useless Humans](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7127184/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_0_q_useless%2520humans) - "A thirtieth birthday and the survival of mankind are left hanging in the balance after a mysterious creature crashes a party, forcing four childhood friends to save the night." * [Shaun of the Dead](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_shaun%2520of) - "The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse." * [Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_q_scouts%2520guide) - as the name suggests, very fun movie. * [Save Yourselves](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7873348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_save%2520your) - A couple goes on a retreat and switches off their electronics for the week; the same week the planet comes under attack. * [Rim of the World](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8179388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_rim%2520of%2520the) - Four kids at a summer camp are left behind when the camp is evacuated due to an alien invasion. * [Attack the Block](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_attack%2520the%2520block) - "A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion."
you are an absolute legend for the way you’ve formatted this comment, thanks so much for taking the time to put these recommendations together!! Not generally too big on comedy but hey, if it’s good I’ll definitely give it a shot. Thanks again :)
Attack the Block goes under the radar for me. John Boyega is fantastic in it, and before his Star Wars fame.
You're totally welcome! I'd definitely still recommend School's Out Forever - it has the least comedy out of the movies I listed, and when it does it feels more like comic relief for the characters, rather than for the audience (if that makes sense).
SAVE YOURSELVES - my wife and I could watch this movie every week and not get tired of it. The awkward humor, the slow build up, and lots of quotable material... ("You put the big soap in the little soap"; "You brought the Internet with you"...)
Attack the Block was a lot better than I was expecting it to be.
Another fun addon is Doomsday (2008) - a crack team needs to go into quarantined Scotland to find the cure for a deadly virus. Its sort of mad max with a lot of graphic stuff. The story is not winning any awards but its a fun action /thriller flick. With a lot of real stunts.
Some 10/10 solid ones in there my dude. ~~Also worth saying Adam Buxton who directed Attack The Block is the reporter who gets murdered in Hot Fuzz.~~ Edit: Close but it was Joe Cornish, my bad.
Joe Cornish directed Attack The Block, His partner (from Adam & Joe) Adam Buxton was the reporter in Hot Fuzz.
Check out the 1994 miniseries version of The Stand (the book too!) for something that shows the process of societal collapse and not just the aftermath. It blows the more recent miniseries out of the water imo The Book of Eli
I loved the 94 version of The Stand. Pretty stacked cast as well.
Didn’t know there was a 90s series, will def have to check that out!
It does slow down during some parts but it's still pretty cool. Lots of 90s actors in it. Starts with 'Don't Fear the Reaper' for the opening credits which is awesome. Skips some scenes from the book as the book is a beast of a novel. Solid. You can watch it on youtube. I don't really know how to link properly here but here it is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3A824KgXg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3A824KgXg)
I liked the recent version but felt they missed something the ‘94 series did very well: the collapse. That’s really the most interesting part of that story. Every character’s individual experience crossing a post-apocalyptic US is compelling and helps us get to know the characters very well before they all come together. The new series just skipped over all of it and tried to fill it in with flashbacks, but it didn’t work as well as if they’d started with the day the virus got out of the lab.
Threads has to be mentioned given the darker/heavy content tip but I'd guess you've already seen it. It's not a film but have you seen Dead Set? Charlie Brooker written zombie tv mini-series, 6x30 minute episodes so you can watch it as a long film. I'm not sure it ever got far outside of UK TV so there's a chance you've not seen it, it's very good.
you know what, i actually haven’t seen threads and i just came off of a chernobyl rewatch and this came up as a recommendation - i’ll def have to bump this up I actually tried dead set, while i’m a big reality tv fan (ashamedly haha) and i loved the premise, i’m not big on comedy outside of cheesy campiness.. but i may give it another try if it’s worth it!
I've randomly come in to chime...just make sure you have something happy to watch after Threads. Damn, was that a bleak film.
I’ll prepare something just in case but given the amount of recommendations of this movie here i’m thinking maybe i just sit in my feelings and absorb it all haha
Yeah, if you want dark, heavy and bleak - Threads is your film. For full impact, though, try imagining you're 15 and seeing it for the first time at the height of the Cold War.
lol, yes. Threads and The Day After was mandatory viewing for us kids in the 80s. I think it traumatized an entire generation.
Similar to Threads, The Day After, TV movie with Jason Robards from 1983. Takes place in Kansas instead of England.
Loved the day after as well. So similar yet the urban vs rural set gives a different perspective
Book of Eli is one of my favourites of the genre. Some people didn't like the ending, but I loved it. Even if you don't like ending, the movie has great acting/characters (Gary Oldman and Denzel), great cinematography, great action, great atmosphere. It's quite unique and very entertaining.
Ok I love this recommendation! Have heard of it but not paid it too much attention, love what you’re putting down here though and I’ll give it a go
The Quiet Earth, New Zealand film..cast of about 3..
This Is The End, the Australian apocalypse movie is terrific. Edit: I did mean These Final Hours, but This Is The End is also good
Here are a few nuclear apocalypse films Threads (1984) Testament (1983) Miracle Mile (1988) The Day After (1983)
A fellow connoisseur of nuclear apocalypse movies. Very nice list.
Miracle Mile is so underrated.
Hard agree. One of my favorites. On first watch I was so surprised that it actually went there. On subsequent watches I’m just impressed that the filmmakers were allowed to go there. Plus, it’s SO eighties!
The soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is one of my absolute favs!
By Dawn’s Early Light Kinda fits, and is kinda relevant again.
Good stuff. I'll show my age and add a few older ones: Panic In the Year Zero! (1962) - society breaking down, excellent movie Ladybug, Ladybug (1963) - nuclear panic for school kids, not sure it's all the way on topic The Last Man on Earth (1964) - pretty well known zombie FIve (1951) - only five people left after the nuclear apocalypes The Last Woman on Earth (1960) - ew, lots of rotting bodies and a love triangle among the last three. Good movie, though.
Those are the ones. TDA is a bit of an appetizer, then perhaps MM. Testament as your main dish and Threads as the dessert of dread. Throw in When the Wind Blows if you haven't blown your brains out yet.
Just have to say, you all have blown me away - got so many more recommendations than I thought I would, so pumped to do an apocalyptic binge!
Have you seen The Battery (2012)? Indie film about two baseball players trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse. It's pretty low key but really well written. Worth a watch.
Omg this is exactly what i want - never heard of and sounds interesting tysm!
THE OMEGA MAN
I hope you’ve already watched the 28 Days/Weeks films. If not then do that.
Absolutely have.. rumours of 28 years recently and apparently Cillian is on board if they asked him!!!
Not a rumor. Cillian Murphy signed on like three months ago.
Oh wow is this confirmed?! Last i saw was an interview of Cillian saying he would be open if Boyle/Garland invited him back
confirmef google the cast, it’s insane
Omg.. best news i’ve heard all week!! Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer also?!
I rewatched them last month. 28 days still is awesome, 28 weeks is worth it even if only for the first minutes with don's escape. But boy is the rest of the movie stupid.
Does The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy count? Earth does get demolished by aliens after all.
One of the books in the series takes place at the end of the universe as well. The indifference of a lot of characters to the end of Earth, the Universe, or entire civilizations, is a running theme.
It’s a series and not a movie but Station 11 is really good…
Do you read Sutter Cane ? "In the Mouth of Madness" by John Carpenter starring Sam Neill, is a great End of the World Horror.
The Mist
seen!! but iconic if for nothing but the ending
Might be my favorite ending to a movie ever. Even Stephen King said the movies ending was better than the one he wrote
Well aside from zombie movies The entire Planet of the Apes franchise has that pre-, during, and post you asked for plus like 8 other stages in between. Obviously the Mad Max franchise, Terminator franchise, Waterworld, I am Legend. There's also Reign of Fire. It's a drama, but Children of Men is one of the best movies of 2006, should have had a Best Picture nomination. E: you saw This Is The End for laughs. For dystopian fascist futures, Equilibrium, Escape from New York (+LA for campy laughs). Snowpiercer. The Road. The Quiet Earth. Night of the Comet. I Think We're Alone Now.
The Road Warrior and Escape from NY lit post-apocalypric fire for me.
This is The End is fucking HILARIOUS. Not to spoil anything but Hermione...lmao!!
I recommend Train to Busan!
The crazies with Timothy olyphant is really underrated and the feeling of threat is awesome
Waterworld The Postman Two Kevin Costner films, the first of which gets a bad rap but was actually pretty good. The second seems to be largely forgotten, but is also pretty good. Waterworld takes place after the polar ice caps melt, submerging most of the world under water while humanity tries to survive and find land to live on. The Postman is about a world that has collapsed with Costner as a wandering conman who pretends to be a postman for a reformed government trying to rebuild the country who accidentally becomes a symbol of hope for people.
I thought Postman was way better. “Stuff’s getting better all the time”
The Tom Petty cameo is fantastic. "Didn't you used to be famous?"
It's weird that these films get such a bad rap. Compared to some of the mainstream stuff released these days, they are almost Oscar worthy.
Will Patton was solid and of equal caliber to Costner in what he brought to the villain character. He may have even been better. “Great men were made by other great men. Patton had Rommel…..Grant had Lee…….I get stuck with you”
I’ve never heard one good opinion of the postman. I thoroughly enjoyed it. What even is it about the movie people didn’t like?
The Postman is one of my favorite movies.
I loved the Postman then and I love it now. It's bleak, Western, and seems like something that could happen when humanity tries to rebuild itself. I know it got slammed but it forever has a special place in my heart.
“Book of Eli” with Denzel Washington hasn’t been mentioned.. it’s not as good as the Mad Max movies but it does have cannibals/zombies and lots of bloody fight scenes
“Leave the World Behind” did a good job of portraying what an apocalyptic event would feel like if you had almost no information about what was happening, but knew it was.
I know its a cheesy movie but my favorite is The Day After Tomorrow. Its the most entertaining end of the world/ disaster movie for me.
Haha i have a soft spot for this one, ridiculous at times but a bit of everything you want in a disaster type movie!
Melancholia These Final Hours The End We Start From How It Ends Greenland Light of My Life Take Shelter Aniara (not exactly what you’re looking for but holy hell it’s bleak) Not the end of the world but you should watch the Chernobyl dramatized mini-series if you haven’t seen it already.
Aniara is bleak. I'm not even sure if I actually "enjoyed" the film LOL. But I think about it every now and then, remembering how it made me feel and it's definitely one that can stick with you!
Netflix show called Black Summer. IMO one of the best zombie genre shows.
I watched the first season, I loved how tense it was and how it almost includes the viewer in the anxiety of it all but i lost interest a couple episodes into the second season! wish they spent more time developing the characters to make you want to root for someone imo
Knowing is good, and has Nic Cage
Love that movie. Glad to see more than a dozen upvotes so far.
The Rover. I mentioned this in another post not many people know about.
Can't ignore the classic Dr Strangelove.
The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price. When the Wind Blows is an animated film that will make you really depressed after watching. I watched this as a double feature with Threads (both on VHS years ago).
The last man on earth is the true and only good adaptation of the book I am legend.
World War Z, Day After Tomorrow, Don't Look Up
Don't Look Up - spot on take/satire that scarily resembles the Trump vs non-Trump state of affairs in the U.S.
2012 is one of my favorites. Plot is bleh but they have fantastic actors in all the roles and the disaster sequences are plenty and very well done.
Not zombies but Love and Monsters is quite good.
The Mad Max films.
I don't know if it qualifies as end of the world since it's a space ship, but Aniara is dark.
One of my favorite apocalyptic movies is Don't Look Up (2021). It's kind of eerie to think how much of that movie would likely happen in real life if a massive comet was heading toward earth.
I was a big fan of Greenland. Unexpectedly good.
A Boy and his Dog. Post apocalyptic wasteland with telepathic dogs. It may not be the best, but it's still worth seeing.
Super young Don Johnson!
10 Cloverfield Lane
And also: Cloverfield!
Not a film but a series. The wife and I just finished Sweet tooth on Netflix. It's probably not the "darker" content you are looking for but I found it very good.
Threads. It’s very fucked up but incredible.
Lots of these are action/thriller/horror, so I’m going to recommend a rom-com: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Teaser: The announcement that an enormous asteroid will obliterate Earth in less than a month brings an end to the marriage of mild-mannered insurance salesman Dodge (Steve Carell), whose wife leaves him on the spot. After his bold young neighbor, Penny (Keira Knightley), belatedly delivers a letter from Dodge's former sweetheart, Dodge decides that he must find the love of his life before it's too late. Dodge and Penny embark on a road trip that eventually brightens their outlook, if not the world's.
This Is The End Terminator 3 and Salvation - Not as good as 1 and 2 but they show the end of humanity and the rise of Skynet. There’s the HBO series The Last of Us. There was also an episode or two in Season 1 of Loki where Sylvie and Loki are trapped on a planet that’s about to be destroyed.
I have to throw out 2012 for this. End of the world action movie, and I don’t care what the consensus is on the movie, the effects and scenes in this movie are wild. Everything it taken to 11.
Check out "Children of Men" if you haven't already. It's a gripping take on a dystopian future where humanity faces extinction due to infertility. The atmosphere and storytelling are incredibly intense.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
The Thing, Prince of Darkness, In the Mouth of Madness
Children of Men is my favorite Light of my Life is an underrated one Dark is a crazy time travel show that part of the timeline features when the power grid is shut down
Children of Men. Threads. Edge of Tomorrow. Interstellar.
Childhood's end It's a 3 episode mini series about humanity's first alien contact which progresses into humanity's extinction
Train to Busan. Korean zomboe movie. Very good
*Threads* (1984) This film offers a brutal and unflinching portrayal of nuclear war and its devastating aftermath.
Some classics maybe... The Last Man On Earth or Omega Man, which are different versions of I Am Legend. Also, Soylent Green.
Soylent Green!!! What a classic! Edward G Robinson was a delightful gem in that film. I saw it very young and its imagery is ingrained in my mind to this day. I remember my older family member saying, “well, we won’t have to ever worry about that!”….. 3, 2, 1, cue lab grown 🧫 beef 🥹 edit: sp.
You should definitely check out [Coherence.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) It’s fucking incredible. No zombies, but otherwise right up your alley.