It's rarely consolation to say this, but things could certainly be worse.
Luckily, Netflix has got plenty of solid options available if you want to watch
people banding together to survive after the world has fallen to pieces.
We start our list with Bird Box, A Netflix film based on the novel of the same name
by Josh Malerman. It shows some of the world before civilization fell,
but the movie mostly takes place after a vast majority of the world's population has died out.
Monsters have invaded our world - monsters that drive people insane if they catch even
a glimpse of them. The last few survivors live in homes with blacked-out windows,
strapping blindfolds on whenever they need to venture out for supplies.
The movie stars Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Trevante Rhodes, and John Malkovich, and features
some really intense scenes and fun set pieces. There are some logical leaps, but Bird Box is a
darn entertaining romp - especially considering that it deals with such dreary subject matter.
"I am not cleaning this s*** up."
Is there any other Joel Edgerton as good as tragically downbeat Joel Edgerton?
It Comes at Night relishes in putting the veteran actor through the ringer,
and the film does a great job of making you question what is really going on
and who you can actually trust. It makes the most of its tiny cast and minimalist setting,
and allows the viewer's imagination to run wild and fill in the scariest blanks.
It Comes at Night focuses on a family of three - Paul,
Sarah and Travis - living in a remote cabin. A horrible and extremely contagious illness
has wiped out much of the world population, and the family has a strict set of rules,
to avoid contact with the infected and to remain alive. Unfortunately, their strict rules are
overturned when another family stumbles across the cabin and asks for their help.
Edgerton is great as Paul, and the rest of the cast has some heavy lifting to
do to keep the tension high in It Comes at Night.
This is one of those films where you just know everything is going to go wrong,
and anticipation of the hammer dropping is almost as thrilling as when it all goes sideways.
"So it’s just your wife and your son and nobody else?"
"Just them."
How It Ends probably qualifies more as a disaster movie than a post-apocalyptic one,
but it ticks a lot of the same boxes.
This Netflix original is something of a grounded, more "real world" type of Mad Max,
as the movie at its core is essentially a roadtrip through a ruined Earth. It's a post-apocalyptic
buddy road trip with Forest Whitaker and the guy from Divergent! What more could you want?
How It Ends follows a man named Will, played by Theo James, who sets out on a cross-country road
trip to rescue the woman he loves after a series of cataclysmic events. He teams up with Tom,
his girlfriend's dad, and the duo try to make it from Chicago to Seattle. Blocking their path
is a host of outlaws and panicked people, trying to make sense of what has happened to the world.
"North Korea? Is it the Chinese? Who else could do this?"
Post-apocalyptic movies may be a dime a dozen in the United States,
but they're a rarer breed in Middle Eastern cinema. In fact, The Worthy attracted a lot
of attention upon its release for this very reason. It does an awful lot with a relatively
small budget, and it's a good way to get a fresh perspective on a well-trodden genre.
In The Worthy, the world's water supply has been almost entirely contaminated,
killing most of the population. It was poisoned by a political group to silence their enemies,
but things got out of hand and nearly everyone died because of it. The plot centers on a small
group of survivors who have found a clean source of water in an abandoned factory.
As word gets out that the group has access to clean water, all sorts of raiders come knocking.
The Worthy deals with themes similar to many post apocalyptic films,
but seeing it from the perspective of a culture that rarely touches the genre is fascinating.
Go in open minded and we think you'll find a lot to like.
Snowpiercer has got a lot of good going for it. There's the phenomenal cast,
headed up by names like Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton,
John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, and Parasite's Kang-ho Song. Speaking of Parasite,
Snowpiercer is director Bong Joon-ho's first ever English-language film. It's also extremely slick,
based on the classic French graphic novel. That's a lot to like right there.
Snowpiercer is dense and determined to get its audience thinking; like Parasite,
it deals in symbols of the class structure and social constructs of our own world.
The basic premise is this: the world has entered another ice age,
and the last remnants of humanity are on a massive train that continually travels the globe.
The train is segregated by class - the rich are in the lavish front cars,
while poorer residents are pushed towards the back. Eventually, a few of the people in the
back of the train lead a revolt, and their push towards the engine sets off some wild revelations.
Like many of Bong Joon-ho's films, Snowpiercer gets absolutely bonkers by the end. Check it out.
"Still cold."
Cargo is a fascinating beast. It's a zombie movie, but the zombies don't play a big part
in the overall proceedings. It's a fairly low-budget affair, featuring several unknown
actors and two first-time directors. On the other hand, the project is anchored by a lead
performance from Bilbo Baggins himself, Martin Freeman. It's an Australian film about the end
of the world and just what people can do to survive as everything comes crashing down.
Cargo focuses on a couple and their young child who live on a houseboat off the coast
of mainland Australia. The rest of the country has been overrun by a virus that transforms
its victims into zombies, so Andy and Kay only venture off the boat when they need supplies.
When something goes wrong on one of their expeditions, it becomes a race against
time as they try to find somewhere safe for their baby to have a chance.
Cargo is based on the directors' previous short film of the same name, and Freeman and company
bring deeply emotional performances to the table. It's a brutal but ultimately uplifting watch.
Into the Forest is a movie that was destined to sink or swim on its two lead performances - there
are other actors in it, but the two sisters at the film's center are the driving forces behind nearly
every scene. Luckily, they're two of the best actors in the business: Ellen Page and Evan Rachel
Wood, each delivering dynamic performances in this creepy and thoughtful end-of-the-world film.
Without giving too much away, here's the basic premise: Wood and Page play Eva
and Nell, two sisters who live in a remote cabin with their father,
a widower named Robert played by Callum Keith Rennie. They aren't totally off the grid,
however, until the power goes out and doesn't come back on.
Soon, they start hearing rumors that power is out for the entire country, and possibly the world.
There's a lot of mystery in Into the Forest,
but it's a movie that's less concerned with what has happened than it is with characters responding
to it. It's quiet, thoughtful, and anchored by two powerhouse performances. Give it a go
if you want something a little different from your standard post-apocalyptic fare.
"Hey so those blue barreis should be ripe. They're
just past the bridge so I don't know, I'll be like a couple hours" Oh, I can taste it already."
You're forgiven if you didn't realize Mad Max: Fury Road was actually the fourth film in a
series. After all, the franchise had been dormant for 30 years when Fury Road was released in 2015.
If you want to go all the way back to the franchise's roots,
take a look at the original Mad Max on Netflix. Released in 1979, Mad Max long held
the record for "Most Profitable Film Ever." It reportedly cost under $400,000 to make,
and took in over $100 million internationally. Not bad for a little Australian film.
Mad Max, like the other films in the series, is the brainchild of director George Miller.
He imagined a dystopian world where oil had become the primary resource, and this original
film tells of how the remnants of society coped with that development. It may lack the sheen of
Fury Road, but it still features plenty of death-defying driving and insane stunt work.
Fury Road star Tom Hardy would have only been two years old at the time of this first outing.
The title character here, and in the next two films,
is played by the then-unknown and practically unrecognizable Mel Gibson. Don't miss this one.
"You and me, Max. We’re gonna give 'em back their heroes."
"Do you really expect me to go for that crap?"
The Girl with All the Gifts
The Girl with All the Gifts is essentially a zombie movie, but it has enough elements
of more traditional post-apocalyptic stories that it's worth a go, even if you think you're
all zombied out. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name, it features an impressive cast
of relatively unknown actors trying to cope with a society ravaged by a horrible disease.
There are more than a few similarities between this film and other apocalyptic hits. Notably,
it holds a lot in common with 28 Days Later and the video game The Last of Us. The Girl with All
the Gifts is about a fungal infection that turns humans into "hungries." Where the twist comes in
is with the second generation hungries: children who had infected mothers. These hybrids crave
human flesh but can still think and reason, and are seen as a potential source of a cure. As such,
they’re raised in a school under tight military guard so they can be studied.
The Girl with All the Gifts has some impressive sequences, and the lead actress, Sennia Nanua,
does a terrific job of keeping you both sympathetic and terrified.
"They’re mine! You can’t have them!"
I Am Mother
I Am Mother is one of those movies that plays with cliches in order to subvert your expectations.
Every time you think you've figured things out, another wrinkle is thrown in to make
you question everything you know. By the end of the film, you'll be questioning what you've seen,
wondering if it's following the pattern of similar films or just making you believe it is.
The film is about a young girl named Daughter who is raised by robots in a bunker. Her caretaker,
a robot named Mother, tells her that humanity has been destroyed and the world contaminated.
Their purpose in the bunker is to raise enough humans to repopulate the world.
All that is thrown into question when a woman comes knocking on the door of the bunker
and informs Daughter that she's being lied to.
A big part of I Am Mother's success comes from its tiny ensemble of talented performers.
The always-impressive Hilary Swank plays the woman who comes to the bunker.
Newcomer Clara Rugaard plays Daughter and commands a lot of screen time. Luke Hawker
does the motion capture for Mother, and Rose Byrne voices her with chilling detachment.
"Surface contamination levels remain hazardous to you,
and to all the unborns who will one day call this their home."
If you'd like some stylish animation with your post-apocalypse, you should give Blame!
a shot. It's a Netflix-produced film based on the manga of the same name,
and you should know that it’s pronounced "blam," not "blame". It gives off some of
the same vibes as Terminator and The Matrix - in the best ways.
The story goes like this: the AI system that humanity has used to reach its zenith has gone
rogue, and has started replicating itself and exterminating humanity.
A few small groups of survivors exist. Many of them are just trying to eke out an existence,
but a few are actively trying to fight back against the technology that is hunting them. The
action centers on a man named Killy, who may just be the weapon humanity needs to retake the world.
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