5 Best Apocalyptic Movies Of The Last Two Decades
In challenging times, some people find relief in humor and uplifting movies, while others prefer to immerse themselves in films that describe dark foreboding events.
If you're in the second category, this list is for you: we've rounded up the best disaster movies for you to wallow in anxiety.
28 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle's horror starring Cillian Murphy was once again remembered as the world was grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. According to the movie’s plot, a virus, accidentally invented by medics instead of a cure, affects the whole of the UK in just one month. While the British islands are under strict quarantine, the four survivors make their way through infected London looking for shelter and fighting off people who were turned into brutal killers by the disease.
For those who have already seen the original film, we suggest checking out the extras: Boyle filmed at least 2 alternative endings.
Children of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuarón also offers a terrifying glimpse of post-apocalypse London in the not-too-distant future. The year is 2027, and humanity mourns the death of the youngest man on the planet and foretells the imminent end of the human race. In Children of Men, women have lost their ability to procreate, and to avoid chaos in the country British government brutally hunts down immigrants recognized as criminals.
The protagonist, a former political activist, has a dangerous mission: to get one special person out of the doomed country. The person is the first girl to get pregnant in the last 18 years.
I Am Legend (2007)
The legendary film based on Richard Matheson's novel of the same name tells about post-apocalyptic New York City, where out of millions of residents only one is left - a medic and former military man Robert Neville. At night, he fights off townsmen turned zombies, meanwhile by day he raids the streets in attempts to find a cure for the virus they are infected with.
The Road (2009)
An incredibly foreboding yet really poignant drama about how in the darkest of times the support of family can be your savior. The main characters, a father and son, are forced to constantly tramp around the barren planet that was irreversibly damaged by numerous cataclysms. The heroes escape from the cannibals and try to find canned food - the only currency of the new world.
The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kody Smit-McPhee, for whom The Road was a big debut that paved the way to a Jane Campion movie and Oscar nominations.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The movie is the rare case when a reboot of an iconic franchise actually lived up to fans' expectations and breathed life into the original story. Following a brutal war over depleted natural resources, humanity has fallen into total chaos, the seas have dried up, and across the vast desert, a group of fugitives is trying to find the mythical Green Place.