There was a time when watching a post-apocalyptic movie meant seeing the world recover from an alien invasion, or pandemic, or even a nuclear strike. Nowadays, they’re mostly about zombies - in fact, the living dead have captured the pop culture zeitgeist strongly enough to increase the “tomatometer” of many zombie movies, new and old.
Post-apocalyptic movies can also be cheap to produce, as they typically consist of empty wastelands and garbage-strewn streets. But as we’ll see on this list of top-rated English movies, a decimated earth can be the setting for some exciting or humorous situations. Here are the best post-apocalyptic movies ever made, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
This is the End (2013) - 83%
There would have to be a comedy in here somewhere, and Seth Rogan / Evan Goldberg’s film shows their hapless friends surviving several awkward encounters with each other - and the spawn of Satan.
For a raunchy comedy, This Is The End showcases a strong (and most negative) depiction of how sunny Californians would deal with the Rapture. Playing fast and loose with Biblical mythology, it also features an unequivocally happy ending for a movie determined to be cynical and fatalistic. Unlike the other movies on this list that kids can watch but may not enjoy, several demonic encounters make This is the End only for adults.
28 Days Later (2002) - 86%
28 Days Later reimagines zombies as a fast, relentless plague set to overrun mankind as quickly as possible. Director Danny Boyle posits that post-apocalypse England will be chaotic and deadly, forcing our character to survive in a world gutted of people, resources, and hope. Scenes set in abandoned London, done with very little CGI, are still stunning to behold.
28 Days Later owes as much to Aliens as it does to Night of the Living Dead (more on that later), with a zombie threat that’s deadly and instantaneous. It fostered the surprisingly entertaining 28 Weeks Later in 2007, with the next film, 28 Months Later (of course), still in pre-production.
Planet of the Apes (1968) - 88%
The seminal post-apocalyptic movie that has lost little of its sting in 50 years, Planet of the Apes imagined a distant future where nuclear war is long over, men have devolved, and the planet is ruled by a new race of superior beings.
An intriguing movie where the titular apes actually didn’t appear until the second act, the first entry in what would become a venerable franchise features a memorable and a shocking warning at the very end. The story and underpinning science were compelling enough to spawn 8 sequels and counting.
The Matrix (1999) - 88%
The Matrix uses a post-apocalyptic setting to do some high-concept world-building - what if we were all just part of a virtual reality experience?
This may sound expensive, but the movie is often conveniently set in (a virtual recreation of) present-day earth, with a few scenes in a futuristic, disheveled sewer. A deft mix of philosophy, eastern religion, and eye-popping martial arts battles, the Wachowski Siblings directed just the right tone and pacing to enthrall millions of moviegoers.
Never has the apocalypse looked so dismal and leathery at the same time!
Mad Max (1979) - 90%
Mad Max is an action-adventure film that takes advantage of a post-apocalypse wasteland to stage a series of rip-roaring car chases. Although many aspects of the film are now cliched - the breakneck pursuits, the ragtag warrior wardrobe, the loner out for revenge - in 1979 they were fresh and exciting.
Why the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max is the way it is - we don’t know “who killed the world”, as one of the survivors asks in Mad Max: Fury Road - and how to fix it doesn't matter to our hero. Max is a lost soul looking for redemption, and gasoline, in a world gone mad.
Zombieland (2009) - 90%
Zombieland was a surprise hit in 2009, mining laughs from all the zombie movie cliches we didn't know we knew. Dispensing with the need to establish bad guys, grave situations, or even scientific reasoning, Zombieland is gruesome, pedantic fun.
A sequel in 2019 Zombieland: Double Tap - currently running at 68% on the “tomatometer” - keeps the same vein of goofiness and irreverent dark humor. Zombieland sets out to show moviegoers that the apocalypse can be fun!
Children of Men (2006) - 92%
If there’s one movie few have seen that deserves more attention, it's Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. After his success with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, director Cuaron went on the lens Oscar-winners Gravity and Roma; but not before completing this pet project.
Clive Owen gives a career-defining performance in a movie that could have been a typical rumination of a crumbling, post-apocalypse society but is instead a haunting and oft stunning view of the future. Children of Men is also challenging cinematically, with camerabatics that aren't typically found in such a serious movie. There’s good reason why Children of Men has such a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Snowpiercer (2014) - 95%
Snowpiercer is a great and often non-linear film - which is odd considering it takes place solely on one cold, endless train track. The film cleverly grafts several subtle observations on class, conservation, and the human spirit between gunfights and a machete battle in the dark (really).
Some say this is Chris Evan's best role since The Avengers, depending on how audiences like him in Knives Out. The concepts and characters in Snowpiercer were strong enough to sire a troubled TV series for TNT. While you're at it, check out the comic books that inspired this criminally underrated movie.
Wall-E (2008) - 95%
Not sure how this movie got on this list, as its provenance as a predictor to an over-shopped apocalypse is as thoughtful and probable as Bugs Bunny’s encounters with Marvin the Martian. Still, Wall-E is a cracking good adventure, performed initially without dialogue before it literally blasts off into space.
Yes, the movie carries a message about consumerism and pollution, but it also has cute robots, fantastic cruise ships, and a semi-sentient love story. Not a zombie in sight!
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - 97%
The great-granddaddy of all zombie movies, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was a cheap black-and-white production shot in the crew’s spare time outside Pittsburgh.
Although not strictly post-apocalyptic - the apocalypse was just beginning when our heroes are chased into a farm-house - it set the stage for these lumbering antagonists for an entire generation. Of course, we didn't saddle them with the term “zombie” in 1968 - they were merely “the living dead”.