Armageddon Now! Our Favorite Post- Apocalyptic Movies

We're all geared up for the scary, disease-filled, Matt Damon starring Contagion. To get you ready for the movie, we've come up with this list of the all-time classic, memorable post-apocalyptic movies. If you're ever wandering the wasteland and need a movie to feel your pain, this batch should do quite nicely...

The fiery, post-armageddon thrills and showdowns of Priest in 3D are led by Paul Bettany playing a warrior priest who disobeys Church law by teaming with a young sheriff (Cam Gigandet) and a beautiful priestess (Maggie Q). The three band together to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest's niece before they turn her into one of them.

Ok, so he looks like a burlap sock puppet with goggles. But 9 and his fellow burlap buddies are really the central figures in an underrated, mysterious post-apocalyptic and dark adventure to determine why they're being hunted by the ominous machines...and what their ultimate destiny means to the rest of civilization.

Other than True Romance, this might be Brad Pitt's finest role to date. Or at least one of his quirkiest. As the leader of a revolution called the 12 Monkeys, it's Pitt's job to help enlighten future traveler Bruce Willis on his quest to find an antidote to a virus that could topple mankind for the long haul.

Leave it to Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle to create a post-apocalyptic zombie movie that's both batsh#t scary and artful at the same time. One of the most haunting images: Cillian Murphy all alone on a London street ravaged by the apocalypse and other unseen terrors. What's next? A great score, some awesome thrills and another solid entry from Boyle and company.

The world's gone to hell. How can you tell? Well, Vic the Dog can now subliminaly communicate his thoughts. Plus, he's a heck of a lot smarter than a pre "Miami Vice" Don Johnson, who mostly wanders the wasteland looking to procreate. Quirky, offbeat, and unlike any other post-apocalyptic movie out there.

It's one of the most acclaimed anime movies of all time (and was rumored for a live remake with Zac Efron [?!]). After the government drops the big one on Tokyo, an underground movement rises from the ashes, and respect for authority isn't foremost on their minds.

Haven't heard of this 2003 Japanese import? Seek it out. Machine guns, battles, and an elaborate plot to make even the hardiest of Matrix and Terminator fans scratch their heads going, what just happened? Don't think too hard. Detonate and enjoy.

Before she was flirting her way into Natalie Portman's graces in Black Swan, Mila Kunis was being schooled on the finer points of post-armageddon survival by grizzled veteran Denzel Washington. He knows his stuff, did most of his own stunts in the film...and he's Denzel. Book of Eli or Book of Dr. Seuss. We'll follow Mr. Washington on any adventure.

Through a post-apocalyptic landscape that looks and feels like Schindler's List on speed, this Kubrickian masterpiece from Alfonso Cuaron has Clive Owen shepherding the last pregnant woman on the planet to safety. It's a pulse-pounding race to a literal safe harbor, tension-filled and unpredictable up until the moving finale.

Ultra cheesy and most definitively of its time (late '80s), Cyborg still has infinite guilty pleasures to behold - mainly of the Van Damme fighting style variety, here cast against a behemoth who's a cross between Schwarzenegger's Terminator and that heavy metal punk the Kurgan in Highlander.

George Peppard preps for his later action leader role on "The A-Team" by growing a mean mustache and fighting oversized insects in the wasteland actioner Damnation Alley. Along for the ride is a younger, healthier Jan-Michael Vincent and the kid from the Bad News Bears (Jackie Earle Haley...later known as the new Freddy Krueger).

No post-apocalyptic movie list would be complete without George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. It has its subversive, underlying message about empty commercialism, but mostly, we enjoy it for its Hawksian fight for survival between ordinary citizens and the living dead. And the mall setting is novel, too.

The unholy union of The Road Warrior, The Warriors and Escape from New York, chopped together and stirred up deep-fried with a healthy dose of R-rated ultra-violence would look exactly like this. Rhona Mitra is the fetching lead, sent in to scatter the savages and find a cure to a lethal virus. She's sexy. But she'll also beat you up hardcore.

Speaking of anti-heroes, it doesn't get much cooler than Carpenter's Leone-esque Snake Plissken, dispatched to maximum security prison New York City to retrieve the president from a downed Air Force One. Inside the city, he'll encounter all types of hooligans, and Isaac Hayes as the A-number one, Duke of New York.

If you have to spend two plus hours with a solitary man on planet Earth, then you could do worse than Mr. Jiggy with It. Will Smith is a bit more somber here, but he's still plenty charming and tough enough to ward off those rabid, infected nightcrawlers. And his dog's really nice.

Prior to Star Wars, '70s sci-fi tale Logan's Run was all the rage. In retrospect, the boxy robot with the vacuum tube arms hasn't aged so well. But we still love Michael York as a Sandman turned runner, trying to figure out if human beings really can live past their '20s. Psst, Logan, trust us...grey hair isn't the end of the world.

The final shot's still a doozy. And everything that comes before it--once Charlton Heston and his astronaut crew get stranded on this planet of simians--is aces. Roddy McDowell (not to be confused with Malcolm) makes a fun and empathetic ape man, and Linda Harrison might be the sexiest prehistoric woman to ever grace the screen.

Ask any in-the-know movie geek. Quiet Earth, which quietly came out in the '80s to little mainstream fan fare, is a landmark sci-fi, post-apocalyptic movie about an energy experiment gone wrong, and what happens to the scientist responsible.

It's not just Red Dawn, Point Break, Roadhouse and The Outsiders. Patrick Swazye proved his classic machismo plus sensitivity worth in this lo-fi actioner, too, roaming the arid post-apocalypse desert alongside his real-life wife, Lisa Niemi. The headband's totally cliche, but there's plenty of fun action to be had in this intentional B-movie campfest.

Whatever happened to Lori Petty? You enticed us with your sweet, sexy rides on the waves of Point Break, proved you were cute as buttons in League of Their Own, and then kicked us in the butt, happily, with your outstanding lead heroine in the cult classic Tank Girl. If we're trapped in a world gone to seed, then we know if Petty's by our side, she'll have our back and other parts.

It's not that good. But if you're the host of an all-night post-apocalyptic movie marathon, then you could do worse than Terminator Salvation, if for no other reason than to see Christian Bale growl at his gnarliest and debate McG's ability to produce outstanding visuals while singlehandedly bringing down the Terminator franchise.

Back when Mel was still in everyone's good favor, he used to make awesome action movies. The Road Warrior was one of his best, and one of the '80s most excellent genre movies. Who doesn't want to see Max save salvation from some Motely Crue wannabes, in a thrilling, climactic chase that has yet to be topped for sheer roller coaster intensity.

Will Smith's fine in I Am Legend. But everyone owes it to themselves to also catch Charlton Heston in the original inspiration and adaptation of the Richard Matheson story. The doo-dads look silly, but the story of the last man's fight for humanity is still compelling.

Say what you will about Kevin Costner, but the guy managed to star in two overwrought, and gloriously bad but genius post-apocalyptic movies in the '90s (Waterworld being the other choice selection). Here, wearing leftovers from Robin Hood, Costner rides his steed as one of the last remaining mailmen.

If you prefer reality and genuine dramatic tension in your post-apocalyptic cocktail, watch The Road for its gritty, honest themes of endurance, family and humanity, and the two remarkable lead performances from vet Viggo Mortensen and incredible newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee.

It's a T.V. miniseries, but plays like a massive movie epic, and it's based on one of Stephen King's greatest novels. Gary Sinise is fine as the good guy leader who gathers his forces in Colorado to take on the baddies based in Las Vegas. Also worthy is Rob Lowe as Nick, the deaf mute who also posseses some amazing powers of virtue and decency.

The best part of Wall-E is arguably the extended opening sequence wherein Wall-E wanders a waste-ridden, polluted Earth alone, waiting for the arrival of someone and some place new to call home. Then, Eve arrives. The rest is Pixar and cinematic history.

Movies don't get much more bloated, self-serious, or crazily, what-were-they-thinking enjoyable than Costner's magnum opus of Hollywood budgeting gone awry. It tanked on its initial release (surprise). But in the years since it has grown in cult importance. One look at Dennis Hopper's seriously messed up villain and you understand why. This thing's nuts.

If you like post-apocalyptic movies or zombies getting beat up or just some of the most amusing shenanigans seen onscreen in years, then Zombieland's for you. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg invite you to batter up...bon apetite...and don't forget the Twinkies.

Did we miss your favorite post-apocalyptic extravaganza? Let us know in the comments below!