Post Apocalyptic Movies

[Albert Armes]

Peter Watkins "The War Game"
"Threads"

I checked out the War Game last time you recommended it. Wonderful piece of television. Scarlet would be such a good camera for a Watkins genre movie.

Albert

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

1968 Planet of the Apes

Blew my fucking mind... we (humans) blew up the earth and monkeys evolved to speak and rule.

 

[Michael McVicar]

Damnation Alley- A bad adaptation, of a good book, by a great author, Roger Zelazny. Quote from Zelazny - "Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects." It's too bad the movie made from his book didn't.

 

[Stephen Matthews]

My eldest daughter really loves City Of Ember! Great movie.

Graeme

It's funny I was expecting to hate the movie (I see most movies nowadays to see what is out there) funny thing was I ended up really liking the movie. I really like that when a movie surpasses your expectations, doesn't happen often but when it does it's very nice.

By the way thank you for just about everything you have done Graeme, I still use your Nattress effects for FCP, you truly are a wizard of digital imagery.

 

[Emyr R. E. Pugh]

"Threads"

Graeme - fantastic choice! I wonder if it scared the life out of you as much as it did me...

I recently went back to watch Threads again and actually ended up watching it twice. Can't think of anything else that fills me with warm feelings of nostalgia and abject terror at the same time. Perhaps the bleakest of all post-apocalyptic films. I've heard some people say Testament is bleaker, but never had the chance to see it.

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet, but The Quiet Earth is a real gem.

 

[Cam Crowley]

'Threads' scared the absolute shit out of me as a kid - one of the only films to ever give me full on nightmares.

12 Monkeys is one of my favourites - it sort of counts as post-apocolyptic! On that point - do films such as 12 Monkeys and the Terminator films (1 2 and 3) count - ie post-apocolypse but with time travel to a contemporary world to stop the apocolypse?

Seems no one rates Kevin Costner's attempts at the genre! (neither do I)

Cam

 

[Ace]

Fantastic gems in this thread, look forward to watching them all. The quiet earth is a real good one.

Watching threads now! Love the good old beeb films..

 

[Andrew Wilding]

If we broaden the discussion to from post apocalyptic to dystopian, we can add -

A Clockwork Orange

and

Blade Runner

The first of which is as close to a perfect movie as I've ever seen, and the second stands out to me as one of the very greatest achievements of cinematography.

 

[Chris Pickle]

Has anyone here actually seen The Road? My good god what a movie. I barely even consider it post-apocolyptic. It's way past that. All PA movies prior at least had a sense of some sort of life or society. At least they could grow fricking vegetables. But not so in The Road. It's worse then hell. The theme of the movie is not; 'do you have the will and strength to survive and protect your family?'. The theme is; 'do you have the will and strength to blow your children's brains out in order to save them from the terrible conditions?'

I was always a big fan of PA movies. I read The Postman as a kid a zillion times. As a man, there was always a part of me that thought living in PA would be cool. Then I watched The Road. I'll take room service, take-out Chinese food, consumerism, SUVs, ironic t-shirts, and 'hair product' for the rest of my life-thank you very much.

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

The Road art dept worked out of our studio... during construction. AllI remember is 1000 dead fish they were shellacking for the dead beach scene... cant wait to see it!

 

[David Rasberry]

Has anyone here actually seen The Road? My good god what a movie. I barely even consider it post-apocolyptic. It's way past that. All PA movies prior at least had a sense of some sort of life or society. At least they could grow fricking vegetables. But not so in The Road. It's worse then hell. The theme of the movie is not; 'do you have the will and strength to survive and protect your family?'. The theme is; 'do you have the will and strength to blow your children's brains out in order to save them from the terrible conditions?'

I was always a big fan of PA movies. I read The Postman as a kid a zillion times. As a man, there was always a part of me that thought living in PA would be cool. Then I watched The Road. I'll take room service, take-out Chinese food, consumerism, SUVs, ironic t-shirts, and 'hair product' for the rest of my life-thank you very much.

Best and most realistic of the near future apocalypse movies in my book. Went to see it on a cold bleak rainy winter day. The movie was cold and bleak. When I came out I was cold and bleak.

Add Silent Running to the list.

Also the various films of "I am Legend" the most recent Will Smith version, Omega Man with Charleton Heston, and The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price.

 

[Chris Pickle]

Best and most realistic of the near future apocalypse movies in my book. Went to see it on a cold bleak rainy winter day. The movie was cold and bleak. When I came out I was cold and bleak.

Add Silent Running to the list.

Also the various films of "I am Legend" the most recent Will Smith version, Omega Man with Charleton Heston, and The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price.

I saw The Road on a cold sleety winter night. I came out shell-shocked. I went with a pal. I have a son, he doesn't. He loved the movie as a movie, but wasn't affected directly by the story line like I was. It was one of the first times that I really considered having to actually live in a horrible condition, but having to be responsible for a loved ones well being. It's one thing to be a heroic loner wandering across the country, but it's a completly different situation if you had to keep your family safe. My son is handicapped; so the shudders I get...

Clearly the film still resonates... which I suppose is good. (I did love the film by the way... I just wish I hadn't seen it.

 

[Ace]

The Road is definitely the most gritty hard edged film in this genre. Even after reading the book, the film is truly and utterly devastating to watch. Along with that comes a sense of humility and responsibility for the world we leave our children, which Im sure resonates with every parent to see this film. As Chris Pickle mentioned in his post, when blowing your sons brains out becomes a Luxury, thats really something.

The problem with the post apocalyptic etc. genre is that a lot of these films revolve around the "happenings" and the world itself, and not enough about the human drama and stories of love. This is what makes The Road so special. Akin to a Samuel Beckett play performed by Broadway's best, The Road delivers drama and love in spades, and the story can almost hold a mirror up to the conditions many are faced in third world countries, and indeed the fucked up times world disasters are yet to bring the rest of us as we continue on our path of environmental destruction.

A must see in every sense.

 

[Sidney L. Plaut]

agree The Road is great film.

Matrix is a cool post apo.. too.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Fine I'll say it. But 28 days/weeks later is on these lists and it's far better than them:

The Postman.

It actually wasn't that bad. Or maybe my expectations had been so skewed by previous reviews.

If we're including pre-apocalyptic films (which I don't think we should since they're very different and separate) then you have to put The Sacrifice at the top of the list. But it's not at all what I would call dystopian or post-apocalyptic.

 

[Andrew Wilding]

But not so in The Road. It's worse then hell. The theme of the movie is not; 'do you have the will and strength to survive and protect your family?'. The theme is; 'do you have the will and strength to blow your children's brains out in order to save them from the terrible conditions?'

I would argue that the theme is "Do you have the strength to remain human and decent while the entire world crumbles around your feet?"

I actually felt that the film was in many ways uplifting - it seemed to be about the boys small goodness redeeming the rest of the species plunge into darkness...

 

[Stuart Hooper]

Fine I'll say it. But 28 days/weeks later is on these lists and it's far better than them:

The Postman.

It actually wasn't that bad. Or maybe my expectations had been so skewed by previous reviews.

If we're including pre-apocalyptic films (which I don't think we should since they're very different and separate) then you have to put The Sacrifice at the top of the list. But it's not at all what I would call dystopian or post-apocalyptic.

I actually really liked the Postman. I was a kid when I saw it and so maybe didn't have the most critical judgment, but I just thought it was a fun, cool, inspiring story. Maybe I'm nuts...

 

[David Rasberry]

Fine I'll say it. But 28 days/weeks later is on these lists and it's far better than them:

The Postman.

It actually wasn't that bad. Or maybe my expectations had been so skewed by previous reviews.

If we're including pre-apocalyptic films (which I don't think we should since they're very different and separate) then you have to put The Sacrifice at the top of the list. But it's not at all what I would call dystopian or post-apocalyptic.

I rather liked Waterworld too, but then I am a sailor. At least it moved the genre out of the desert settings that seem to be stock in trade for these movies.

 

[Stephen Matthews]

I rather liked Waterworld too, but then I am a sailor. At least it moved the genre out of the desert settings that seem to be stock in trade for these movies.

Yeah Waterworld is one of my guilty pleasures as well as judge dread which could almost fit into this category. It's funny all you need is a cool boat, or robot, or something abnormally big, or a mix of them you have me at that movie. surprisingly I did not like Cloverfield, but really liked the new Godzilla I know it's not great but another of my guilty pleasures. It's funny when I think about it I have a lot of movies that I like because they are so bad.

 

[Jason Murphy]

Have to second a few of Tim Hole's recommendations:

Time of the Wolf (dir. by Michael Haneke) is a great movie, and is a fascinating post-apocalyptic movie in that it's less concerned with the spectacle of destruction, but it's more concerned with how an ordinary middle-class family works their way through an unseen apocalypse as it's happening throughout the world around them.

Stalker is great as well, and would certainly fit into the post-apocalyptic genre in my book, though perhaps on a smaller scale (i.e. the desolation of a region, rather than worldwide devastation).