There is just something about the world potentially ending that has hooked audiences for decades, which is why apocalypse movies are always in style and always in development across Hollywood.
The latest apocalypse movie comes in the form of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, with Anya Taylor-Joy stepping in as a young Furiosa after Charlize Theron stole the show with the character previously. Taylor-Joy will be joined by Chris Hemsworth in a villainous role, as Furiosa tries to make her way back home across the desert, after falling into the hands of the wrong people.
And while more apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movies are no doubt on the way, there are plenty to look back on in order to see just how we got here. To do it, we let the people decide by surveying nearly 2,000 moviegoers at Fandango to see apocalpyse movies audiences think are very best of the genre. We're counting them down by the number of times each title was selected on our ballot.
Too Long, Didn’t Read summary:
• The new Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is another in a long line of big-budget, popular apocalypse movies.
• From zombie outbreaks to biblical tales to weather phenomenon and beyond, apocalypse movies have clearly scratched an itch for moviegoers for decades.
• Some of the most popular films on this list include The Matrix, The Terminator, A Quiet Place and WALL-E.
23. Akira (1988)
91% on the Tomatometer
Widely considered one of the most iconic anime and cyberpunk films ever made, Akira was directed and co-written by Katshurio Otomo and based his 1982 manga of the same name. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic 2019 in the futuristic city of Neo-Tokyo, where the leader of a biker gang and his childhood friend, who has acquired telekinetic abilities, take on an entire military complex as part of a greater rebellion. The film earned cult classic status thanks to various theatrical and VHS releases, and has also been highly influential in the science fiction and adult animation genres.
22. Don't Look Up (2021)
55% on the Tomatometer
This film was written, produced and directed by Adam McKay, known for movies like The Big Short (2015) and Anchorman (2004), and is a satirical tackling of the climate change crisis. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two low-level astronomers on a giant media tour trying to warn humanity about a comet that is threatening the world’s end. The all-star cast for Don’t Look Up also includes Jonah Hill, Melanie Lynskey, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Cate Blanchett, Ariana Grande and Meryl Streep. The movie was a big streaming hit for Netflix and ended up earning four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.
21. Train to Busan (2016)
95% on the Tomatometer
This Korean horror film mostly takes place on a high-speed train from Seoul to Busan, following trapped passengers that are fighting their way through a country-wide viral zombie outbreak that has led to an apocalypse. Train to Busan premiered in the midnight screenings section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win at least 10 awards around the world during its festival run. It would go on to pull in a worldwide gross of nearly $100 million, good enough to break records in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore at the time. The post-apocalyptic movie was directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, who also did 2020’s Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, which takes place in the same universe.
20. This is the End (2013)
82% on the Tomatometer
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg make their directorial debuts in a feature-length film adaptation of their 2007 short film called "Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse." This Is the End features stars like Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson playing fictionalized versions of themselves after a global biblical apocalypse comes to Los Angeles. There's even a special cameo appearance by the Backstreet Boys. The movie carried various titles during production such as The Apocalypse and The End of the World, before eventually landing on its official title.
19. Idiocracy (2006)
71% on the Tomatometer
Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph star in this sci-fi comedy as two average folks from the year 2005 who are put into a hibernation experiment and forgotten about for a few hundred years. They eventually wake up in an anti-intellectual society that is facing a deteriorated infrastructure, with out-of-control consumerism and a culture defined by explicit, lowbrow humor. Idiocracy was directed and co-written by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butt-Head and Office Space fame, and, despite lacking a major theatrical release, would go on to become a cult classic, in part because of how eerily accurate some of the film’s predictions have turned out to be.
18. Children of Men (2006)
92% on the Tomatometer
Directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón, this film is set in a 2027 where society is on the brink of collapse due to decades of human infertility. Clive Owen stars as a civil servant trying to help out a preganant refugee, played by Clare-Hope Ashitey, who is looking to flee the chaos that is her reality. Children of Men, which is based on P.D. James’ acclaimed 1992 novel, also stars Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam and Michael Caine.
17. Snowpiercer (2013)
94% on the Tomatometer
Snowpiercer is based on a French graphic novel and was directed by Bong Joon-ho, now best known for the Academy Award-winning film Parasite (2019). With a cast that includes Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer and Ed Harris, Snowpiercer takes place aboard a train that is carrying the last remnants of humanity in a post-apocalyptic ice age brought on by climate change. This film remains one of the most expensive South Korean productions ever, with a budget of $40 million, and was later adapted into a series for TNT.
16. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
95% on the Tomatometer
Based on a short story from 1940, this film is set in the Cold War during the early stages of the nuclear weapons race. It follows a humanoid alien visitor who comes to Earth along with a powerful robot, using a dramatic demonstration of power in order to warn mankind about the recklessness of atomic experimentation. The Day the Earth Stood Still is considered to be one of the best science fiction films of all time, and was deemed worthy enough of a remake starring Keanu Reeves in 2008.
15. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
95% on the Tomatometer
Night of the Living Dead follows a group of seven people hiding from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The film stars Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea and was directed, filmed, edited and co-written by George A. Romero. Despite the reanimated corpses being referred to as “ghouls” in this movie, this film is considered one of the most influential ever in the zombie genre, not to mention horror in general. It also launched a franchise with multiple sequels released between 1978 and 2009, all directed by Romero.
14. Blade Runner: 2049 (2017)
88% on the Tomatometer
This follow up to the 1982 classic Blade Runner lives up to its predecessor thanks to director Denis Villeneuve and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, who won his first Academy Award for this film. 2049 takes place 30 years after the events of the first installment, with Ryan Gosling starring as a new LAPD blade runner who unearths a secret that leads him on a quest to find a former LAPD blade runner, played by Harrison Ford, who has been missing for 30 years. Despite being a critical success, Blade Runner: 2049 fell short at the box office, but it's found an appreciative audience on streaming services.
13. World War Z (2013)
67% on the Tomatometer
Inspired by the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks, World War Z stars Brad Pitt as a former United Nations employee who is called upon to help stop a sudden zombie apocalypse that threatens to destroy the human race. Directed by Marc Forster, World War Z grossed over $540 million, becoming the highest-grossing zombie movie ever.
12. I Am Legend (2007)
68% on the Tomatometer
Will Smith stars in a post-apocalyptic action thriller set in New York City. A virus, originally created to cure cancer, turns deadly and infects 99% of the population, killing most of them and turning the rest into blood-thirsty vampires. Smith’s character is immune to the virus and works to try and develop a cure while also defending himself. I Am Legend is loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. While the movie ends differently than the book, there is a book-accurate alternate ending version of the film as well.
11. 28 Days Later (2002)
87% on the Tomatometer
Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, this post-apocalyptic horror film stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to find that a powerful virus, which locks victims into a permanent state of murderous rage, has turned the world around him into a seemingly desolate wasteland. 28 Days Later has been credited with revitalizing the zombie genre in the 21st century, despite Boyle not considering it a zombie movie. 28 Days Later was followed by the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, along with a graphic novel and comic book series. We recently learned that Boyle and Garland will re-team for the forthcoming 28 Years Later, and we can't wait to see how they expand the story.
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
90% on the Tomatometer
This dystopian sci-fi film is the first sequel to 2012's The Hunger Games, and features its two main characters – played by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson – now with major targets on their backs after their victory in the first movie inspired uprisings across Panem. The budget for Catching Fire was rumored to be twice as much as the first Hunger Games movie, and it would ultimately be the biggest box office earner of the whole franchise. Catching Fire was followed by two more sequels in 2014 and 2015, and a prequel film in 2023.
9. Planet of the Apes (1968)
86% on the Tomatometer
In the movie would launch a franchise that is still going strong 55 years later, Planet of the Apes stars Charlton Heston as part of an astronaut crew in the distant future that discovers a strange world where apes with human-like intelligence are the dominant species and humans are mute. The film is loosely based on Pierre Boulle’s similarly-titled 1963 novel, and won an honorary Academy Award for its groundbreaking prosthetic makeup techniques. The first Planet of the Apes title spawned four direct sequels, a Tim Burton remake in 2001, and the current reboot series.
8. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
45% on the Tomatometer
After climate change causes a new Ice Age and other natural disasters around the Northern Hemisphere, a climatologist played by Dennis Quaid has to risk his life to try and rescue his teenage son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is trapped in frozen Manhattan. The Day After Tomorrow was directed, co-produced and co-written by Roland Emmerich, and features 416 visual effects shots, requiring nine different effects houses and over 1,000 artists working for a year. At one point filmmakers considered using a miniature set for their destruction of New York, but instead used a 13-block-sized 3D model of Manhattan to pull it off.
7. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
92% on the Tomatometer
Not to be confused with the popular 2004 film, Dawn of the Dead, this zombie comedy was directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg, the latter of whom also stars as the titular character. When flesh-eating zombies are on the loose, it's up to slacker Shaun and his friend to save their friends and family. Inspired by films like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Wright and Pegg developed the film from an episode of their sitcom, Spaced (1999), and wrote the screenplay in eight weeks. Shaun of the Dead marks the first installment in their Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which also includes Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).
6. Zombieland (2019)
89% on the Tomatometer
Director Ruben Fleischer makes his feature film debut with this horror-commedy. Zombieland follows a group of survivors as they travel across America seeking safer ground, after a virus has turned most people into zombies. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg lead the way as two travelers, who eventually team up with Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, who play a pair of con-artists. Zombieland would become the top-grossing zombie film in the U.S. until World War Z took the crown in 2013. And, of course, that was good enough for a sequel in 2019, Zombieland Double Tap, with Stone and the others returning to more praise from critics, and more dollars from moviegoers.
5. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
97% on the Tomatometer
While this movie didn’t kick off the Mad Max franchise – that was done with the 1979 film Mad Max – it was the one that got George Miller, the director of the first three films, back behind the camera after 20 years. Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron joined as the new stars. The film was conceived as one continuous chase, with Miller using mostly practical effects to pull it off. The result was 10 Academy Award nominations with six wins, and a Furiosa prequel film, once again directed by Miller, with more to come in the franchise.
4. WALL-E (2008)
95% on the Tomatometer
From the magical pairing that is Disney and Pixar, this animated film follows a trash-collecting robot named WALL-E on an uninhabitable Earth in post-apocalyptic 2805, who falls in love with a visiting robot called EVE and pursues it across the galaxy. WALL-E was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, who also directed Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016). It was the first movie from Pixar to be nominated for six Academy Awards, ultimately winning one for Best Animated Feature.
3. A Quiet Place (2018)
96% on the Tomatometer
A Quiet Place follows a family in a post-apocalyptic world that's been invaded by deadly, mysterious creatures that hunt using sound, forcing what remains of humanity to live in silence. It was co-written and directed by John Krasinski who also stars alongside his wife, Emily Blunt, with the couple using some of their real family photos in the movie. A Quiet Place only contains about 25 lines of voiced dialogue, with the first not coming until nearly 40 minutes in, although the family is in constant non-verbal communication. The film became a massive success, paving the way for a 2021 sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, with Krasinski returning to direct and the main cast coming back. This summer, we'll get a look at another facet of the Quiet Place world with A Quiet Place: Day One.
2. The Terminator (1984)
100% on the Tomatometer
The Terminator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from post-apocalyptic 2029 to 1984 to kill a woman, played by Linda Hamilton, and stop her unborn son from eventually saving mankind. The movie was directed and co-written by James Cameron, who came up with the premise after a fever dream he had while making his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982). The success of The Terminator led to a franchise consisting of several sequels, a television series, comic books, novels and video games.
1. The Matrix (1999)
83% on the Tomatometer
Keanu Reeves stars in this thought-provoking film as Neo, a computer hacker who uncovers an evil cyber-intelligence. In what turned out to be a cultural phenomenon at the turn of the century, The Matrix popularized a visual effect known as “bullet time” and went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects. It was written and directed by the Wachowski sisters, Lana and Lilly, who have stayed heavily involved as the franchise has expanded with more sequels and plenty of other media.
