Top 5

Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

What are your top favorite films that depict or deal with a post-apocalyptic scenario?

Here's some of mine.

1. Twelve Monkeys.  Ok, as a time travel movie of sorts the majority of the film takes place just before the apocalyptic events, but you get glimpses of what is to come, and the whole thing feels ominous.

2.  Delicatessen.  It's been a while since I've seen this, but I do recall the brilliance of the character whose more and more supposedly sure-fire suicide attempts are repeatedly foiled.  And also the floor of a bathroom crumbling away.

3.  The Road Warrior.  Not only the perfect sparse post-apocalyptic sets with makeshift technology, but also probably the greatest straight-up action movie.

4.  Six-String Samurai.  I don't hear a lot of people talk about this one, but it's a whole lot of fun.

5.  Le Dernier Combat (The Final Combat).  Sparse, laconic, brutal, strange.  Just like you'd expect a real post-apocalypse.

6 (if I can).  Waterworld.  Seriously, whatever qualms you might have about the film, can you deny the impact of the sets, costumes, atmosphere, all of that?  I have yet to see The Postman, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I actually love it.

Anime does a good job at really giving a good feeling of post-apocalyptic worlds too.  Almost any fantasy or adventure anime could be applied actually.  There are countless fantastic examples, but I'll mention Akira and Wolf's Rain as two of my personal favorites, even if they aren't the most appropriate examples.

I have a few more that are worth mentioning, but I'd like to see what other people come up with first.

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

Brian's got great choices.

This is one of my favorite styles of movies, I kind of obsess about the apocalypse.

5. 28 Days Later- Love this film, suprised the hell out me because I had heard nothing about it before watching it. I instantly fell in love with idea of the main waking up after civilizations crash. Little weary about this so called 28 weeks later.

4.Cherry 2000- Caught this randomly in my younger days, late night on skinemax or blowtime. Melanie Griffith played the sexy tough tracker with a bad ass car. B movie splendor.

3. Children Of Men- This may climb my personal favorite list in time. It's here because I've only seen it once so far. Brilliant one take scene near the end as he walks through chaos, dodging destruction by inches.

2. Road Warrior- The basis for any modern car chase/battle movie. I believe it's unintentional brilliance. Could watch this once a week for the rest of my life.

1.Planet Of The Apes- When I think of post apocalyptica, I think of Charleton. Of all his PA movies, the first and original Planet Of The Apes is by the far the best. I remember seeing this at around 12 years old and it completely gripped my mind forever. I also rank Soylent Green and Omega Man very high. The beginning scenes of OM are awesome. Driving through an empty city, the antizoom shots really give you the perspective of solitude.

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Runners Up

Waterworld, Postman, The Running Man,12 Monkeys, The New Dawn Of The Dead,

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

AndyLaBryn:

Brian's got great choices.

This is one of my favorite styles of movies, I kind of obsess about the apocalypse.

I was thinking of you of course when I started this thread.

28 Days Later and Planet of the Apes are ones I considered mentioning as well.  Interesting how Heston got into so many of those man-destroys-his-future kind of films for a while.

I guess the presence of mass zombies in any movie is going to be an arguable reason to label it as apocalyptic.  In that case I'd also like to add the original Night of the Living Dead.

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

tmoney:

Waterworld Risselada?  Really?  Not to knock your taste.  Just really suprised at the choice!  Really?!

I was probably in my mid-teens when I saw this.  It's probably been ten years since, and I haven't seen it again.  But I do remember thinking it was really great when I saw it, and not being aware of it's reputation and being labled "Fishtar" and all that until many years later.  I remember being surprised that people thought it was so awful.

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

Jymkata:

I just watched A Boy and His Dog recently and even though it's far from perfect, I really liked some of it's ideas. Plus, it entered the "weird alternitive dystopian reality" genre (another of my favorite genres) about half way through the film and had a killer black comedic ending! I also love that it was directed by one of my favorite low-life character actors - L.Q. Jones.

Jason, it's great to see you posting after a bit of an absence.

I almost mentioned A Boy and His Dog.  I almost figured that my friend Andy LaBryn above might have as well.  He told me about this movie when we were going to high school together.

Although I didn't think it was one of the greatest movies, I think it actually might apply to this situation more than many of the zombie movies people have been listing.  A zombie movie is in my mind less of a post-apocalyptic movie and more often a movie in the middle of the actual apocalypse.  When I think of a post-apocalyptic film I picture something more like the desert, scrap-metal landscapes of the Mad Max movies or The Final Combat or A Boy and His Dog (up until the final trippy ending segment at least!).  I even think about spaghetti westerns, including my favorite film of all time The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  Has anyone ever played the video game Fallout?  That's like the ultimate right there.

I guess it all depends on what form the massive destructive events take on.

Another interesting fact, A Boy and His Dog was based on a story written by Harlan Ellison, if that means anything to you.

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

You must be mixing me up with someone else, unless I'm being called out on bullshit.

 I don't think I've ever seen A Boy and His Dog, So if I actually said I did back in Highschool, I was lying and deserve to have my guts spilled out onto my families christmas tree.

I hesitated to mention  Dawn of the Dead, but the new one illustrates a good amount of time passing by after the initial onslaught of the zombies. They finally, after what seems like months, decide to try and make it to the boat and obviously don't succeed. And It appears to me that they don't succeed because there is absolutly no one left to help them. So I guess it would be very shortly after apocaplypse. A very young post apocalypse.

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

   I have seen "A Boy And His Dog" with a very young Don Johnson, and it does not make my list... not even close...   Here are mine :

   1.  The Omega Man

   2.  The Road Warrior

   3.   Soylent Green

   4.   The Ultimate Warrior

   5.   The Day The World Ended 

   ... and, with your permission, I would have to add just one more...

   6.   Wizards

Re: Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

Risselada:

Jymkata:

I just watched A Boy and His Dog recently and even though it's far from perfect, I really liked some of it's ideas. Plus, it entered the "weird alternitive dystopian reality" genre (another of my favorite genres) about half way through the film and had a killer black comedic ending! I also love that it was directed by one of my favorite low-life character actors - L.Q. Jones.

Jason, it's great to see you posting after a bit of an absence.

 

Another interesting fact, A Boy and His Dog was based on a story written by Harlan Ellison, if that means anything to you.

Hi Brian, it's good to be back - just got a little busy for a while here.

Yeah, I like that it was written by Ellison - I have Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions on my bookshelves (I know he just edited those, but they are great collections) and I got into him a couple of years ago when I started reading milestones in SciFi.