Ah.
Does Red Dwarf count? No “apocalypse” mentioned, AFAIK, but it does involved the characters frequently encountering remnants of a long-extinct human civilization.
La Jetée has always been one of my favorite in this genre…over 50 years old and it still seems more modern than many of its successors. Moving, thought-provoking, bracing, with a neat time-travel subplot that–well, you should see for yourself.
Now that it’s in the public domain (I think) you can see it all on YouTube.
Deep Impact is pre-apocalyptic.
Love these kinds of movies. Can’t wait to see the book of Eli. I have never seen the Postman, due to bad word of mouth. I think I will go for it, though.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A 2nd for 12 Monkeys.
Running Man?
And of course, Homega Man. (Simpson’s Halloween)
One I might try to track down is Robert Altman’s (little seen, apparently) post-ice-age thriller Quintet. Pretty much every review I’ve ever seen on it is strongly negative, however.
Another pre-Apocalyptic movie is the Canadian flick Last Night. (Featuring an early appearance by Sandra Oh!)
In the obscure category is The Last Man on Earth, with Vincent Price. A surprisingly good early cinematic take on “I Am Legend.” (Well, surprisingly good if you aren’t expecting much. Which I wasn’t.) I agree with Richard Matheson that Vincent Price wasn’t right for the lead, but it’s still a pretty good picture.
Also Panic in the Year Zero (1962) starring Ray Milland. Californians scatter to the hills in the face of nuclear war.
If we count “The Day After”, then certainly “Threads” qualifies too. A BBC production about what life would be like in England after a Soviet/US thermonuclear exchange, “Threads” is possibly one of the most depressing movies of all time. Excellent, and available on youtube in its entirety. At least for now.
I liked “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”, even if I admit it wasn’t as good as “The Road Warrior.”
I was going to see this one time but got to thinking that the whole premise was just dumb. I mean why would we have a nuclear war with Jason Robards. As far as I can tell he didn’t even have any nukes. And any way we had him outnumbered 300,000,000ish to one.
I don’t mind a little suspension of belief, but come on here, there’s a limit to what we can swallow
That’s my preference, too - examining how society collapses, then how the survivors carry on (or don’t). It frustrates me that so many post (or pre- or ongoing) apocalyptic films are just turned into buckets o’ blood films - the ideas are far more interesting than that.
The hell that was River City, Iowa, the only civilized place left in a land torn assunder, where the inhabitants chose to live life stuck in a repressed age, where the greatest thrill is the Ladies’ Auxiliary, and the repression of the devil’s game.
There were any number of SF movies in which time travelers, or people awakening from suspended animation, or astronauts who were subject to time dialation/spacewarps returning to a nuked Earth. The common theme is people from our time plunked down unexpectedly into a post-apocalyptic future, rather than ragged survivors. The Time Travelers names this trope.
I was always a big fan of the 70’s flics - Planet of the Apes was mentioned already, but Logan’s Run (movie not TV) stands out in my mind - I loved the Washington DC scenes.
Ha - Spoke beat me to it!
How is Logan’s Run post-apocalyptic?
We really need to draw a line between dystopian and post-apocalyptic movies. Logan’s Run is dystopian, but it is in no way post-apocalyptic. The society in it is completely intact and viable; it even looks like kind of a fun place to live, if you can get over the age-crystal deal. Likewise Death Race 2000. These are dystopian films. So is Mad Max (the original) - Mad Max is really more of an updated take on a Western film than anything resembling post-apocalyptic fiction. The sequels, on the other hand, are post-apocalyptic.
Well gee, I don’t want to spoil it for you since it sounds like you haven’t seen the movie. (Or if you did you’ve forgotten the experience.) :dubious: But you know after they escape in their quest for “Sanctuary” they wind up in the ruins of a very familiar city…
My favorites-
Testament- small northern California town survives a nuclear attack. It centers on a single family- specifically the mother. A really young Lukas Haas and his giant ears appear. So do Kevin Costner and Rebecca Demornay.
Six-String Samurai- What if the Russians had bombed and invaded the US back in the 50s. Elvis, the King of Lost Vegas has died and a new king must be crowned. Guitar-Samurais battle their way across the wasteland to be crowned King. Ridiculous and over the top but so damn cool. “If I were you, I’d run!” “If you were me, you’d be good looking.”
Soundtrack by the Red Elvises.
The Day After- tv melodrama. It’s awesome. Lithgow, Robards, Flounder from Animal House, The Guttenberg. Uncle Leo from Seinfeld has a small part at the end. I was super excited when I found it on VHS at a video store that was going out of business… a week later a special DVD edition was on sale at Target.
Def Con 4- Three astronauts crash to earth after the nuclear war and tries to survive. The hilarious title aside (Def Con 4 isn’t THAT big of a deal. Def Con 1 would be more accurate), this is pretty fun 80s dytopia. I remember a cannibalistic Scotsman. Not much else, but I did really like it when I saw it.
Boy and His Dog- I wish Vic was a little bit younger but Don Johnson is pretty good. The voice of Blood is dead on.
There’s the animated ‘9’. But I didn’t care for it at all.
Soylent Green doesn’t qualify as a true p-a film either, but it still was a horrifying peep into one potential future. Just because people are still surviving with less resources doesn’t mean the world as we know it still exists, which is as bad, if not worse than a plague, nukes, meteors etc. in my book.
Blade Runner and the whole “get off the earth while you can” genre seems to fit the category of dim future world, don’t they?