“You can always find something good in everything bad,” psychotherapists teach people. From this point of view, all post-apocalyptic films begin with good news - the end of the world has happened, but still someone managed to survive!
Post-apocalypse as a popular genre
Throughout human history, predictions about the death of the world were especially popular, but as a genre of post-apocalypticism, it began to form only at the beginning of the 19th century. Newborn cinema did not consider the idea of the end of the world as a box office spectacle, and therefore, until the middle of the 20th century, all films of this genre can literally be numbered on the fingers.
Particularly noteworthy on this list is, perhaps, only one tape - the British black and white science fiction film of 1936 "Things to Come", based on the book of the same name by Herbert Wales. Producer and director W. C. Menzies not only asked the famous science fiction writer to create the script, but also allowed him to actively participate in casting, approving costumes, and even shooting the film. However, at the stage of editing, most of the filmed scenes were cut out without any agreement with the writer.
After World War II and the invention of the nuclear bomb, when the possibility of destroying the world ceased to be hypothetical and entered the world consciousness, causing a wave of mass psychosis, post-apocalypticism became one of the most demanded genres, whose popularity has not declined for decades.
The end of the familiar world comes not only because of the nuclear holocaust, but also as a result of pandemics, alien invasion, machine uprising, ecological collapse, unexplained supernatural phenomena and traditionally - according to divine will. A post-apocalyptic film can be about the events that take place immediately after the catastrophe or the world that was formed years later on the ruins of our civilization, as a rule, collected from the debris of technology and social values.
The War Game (1965)
Taught by the history of mass panic during the radio broadcast of Wales' novel War of the Worlds, the British government banned the screening of the television film War Game directed by Peter Watkins. Filmed as a TV report about the consequences of the USSR thermonuclear attack on Britain, the film, in sparse, "documentary" colors, paints the horror of survival in the ensuing chaos. The army burns corpses, the police shoot at people looting food warehouses, government policies lead to uprising, and in the midst of all this, the story of several orphans seeking their future in a new world. The film ends with footage of a Christmas service in a ruined church, in which the vicar seeks in vain for words of hope for his few surviving flock.
Despite the limited theater distribution, the film won several prestigious awards at once, including the 1967 Oscar for Best Documentary. It was shown on British television 20 years after its creation, a week before the fortieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Whether you are a fan of the cult series The Walking Dead or are you more into the action comedy Z Nation, playing Resident Evil or reading zombie comics - say thank you George Romero. It was in his film "Night of the Living Dead" that the revived corpses first acquired familiar traits and habits.
The story of seven strangers caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse began as an independent American horror film with a budget of just over $ 100,000. The film grossed over $ 30 million at the box office and, although initially heavily criticized, was ultimately recognized as "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant."
After the first film, Romero shot five more, although they are not a direct continuation of each other, but united by a single theme. A fan of the franchise is calling the best part of the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. “When there is no more room in hell, the dead come to earth,” says his advertising slogan.
In 1990, a remake of the first part with the same name was released on the screens, but with a slightly modified script, which was edited by Romero himself. It was followed by a whole series of "rethinking", to which the cult director had nothing to do.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Another film, released in 1968, became a classic of the genre and entered the list of Empire magazine as one of the 500 "Greatest Movies of All Time." This is Frank Schaffner's Planet of the Apes. This is a post-apocalyptic science fiction about a future in which monkeys not only turned into creatures endowed with developed intelligence and speech, but also created their own social system, while people are dumb and lead a primitive existence. One of the most powerful moments of the film, many recognize the shots at the end of the film, in which the hero realizes that the planet on which his spaceship landed is not some kind of "new", but the good old Earth, but hundreds of years after a nuclear war.
The first tape was followed by four more sequels, two remakes, a comic book series, as well as television and animated series.
A Boy and His Dog (1974)
And again, the earth after a nuclear war. Two people are wandering across the endless desert - a young guy and his dog. The young man gets food, and the dog - a victim of genetic engineering, endowed with a telepathic gift, but deprived of the opportunity to get food for himself - is looking for women for his companion and warns of numerous dangers. Marauders, mutants, rabid androids, underground cities, political intrigue and a generous dose of male chauvinism at the very end - that's what awaits you in this film, the only directorial work of actor L. K. Jones.
Stalker (1979)
Andrei Tarkovsky's film combines elements of science fiction and a philosophical parable. Although the director came up with the idea to make a film after reading the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic, and the authors themselves worked on the script, according to Tarkovsky, “the film has nothing to do with the novel, except for the words“Stalker”and“Zone”.
Mad Max (1979)
The Australian action film directed by George Miller has held the Guinness Book of Records for twenty years as the film with the highest profit-to-cost ratio. About 500 thousand dollars were spent on the spectacular film, 30 of which went to Mel Gibson's fee, for whom the role of Max Rokotansky was the first step to Hollywood Olympus. At the worldwide box office, the action movie grossed about $ 100 million.
The first film was followed by three sequels and it is possible that a fourth will be released. In 2016, the action movie Mad Max: Fury Road became the first film in the franchise to receive ten Oscar nominations and take six of them. The influence of the series on popular culture is obvious - references to the franchise can be found in feature and television films, literature, comics, computer games. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, David Fincher, James Cameronme call the second part of "The Road Warrior" (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981) among their favorite films.
Blade Runner (1982)
Filip K. Dick's free adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Directed by Ridley Scott is a prime example of neo-noor. Slow tempo, futuristic visuals, dark soundtrack and, most importantly, a complex, ambiguous and vague plot made the film one of the best examples of the genre. In October 2017, a sequel to the story of the world of the future “Blade Runner 2049” was released, where the problem of distinguishing between people and replicants, “sharp as a razor's edge,” again demanded rethinking.
Dead Man's Letters (1986)
A dark Soviet sci-fi film about the world after a nuclear explosion, provoked by a random computer error. The protagonist, a major scientist, abandons his place in the bunker, where the few survivors are escaping, in order to stay with the dying children. The title of the film is a reference to the letters that a gay man writes to his deceased son, reflecting on how humanity came to such a tragic outcome.
Delicatessen (1991)
Post-apocalypse, horror and black comedy are all mixed in the film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. In a world where simple food is rare, meat is a special delicacy. And some are ready to eat their neighbor not only figuratively, but also literally.
12 Monkeys (1995)
Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Christopher Plummer - this is the stellar cast of the film by the famous director Terry Gilliam, in which you can see not only pictures of the post-apocalyptic future, but also a journey into the past that provoked this future. The filmmakers darkly dissect the nature of human memories, their impact on the perception of reality, the impact of modern technology on the ability of people to communicate with each other.
28 Days Later (2002)
Before Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic drama turns into a dashing zombie horror with a crazy military and a strange virus, you have time to feel the frighteningly calm views of the desolate lifeless London. These magnificent panoramas inspire fear, also because they were filmed with an amateur movie camera, giving everything that is happening a touch of documentary drama.
Monstro (Cloverfield, 2008)
The film "Monster" was the first in a franchise of three films, united by a common disaster - a giant 76-meter monster, from which alien parasites are showered, equipped with teeth, claws, shells and four pairs of eyes. From the bite of the parasite, a person bleeds through the skin and eyeballs, his torso swells and then shatters into pieces. The first film was filmed in the manner of cinema verite - a documentary narration, as a cut from a personal video camera found by the US Department of Defense and attached to a case called "Cloverfield".
The fan of the franchise especially highlights the second part - Cloverfield, 10 (10 Cloverfield Lane, 2016) - a sci-fi psychological thriller, an almost intimate story of a woman who wakes up after an accident in an underground bunker with two men assuring her that the rest of the world will never again the same. The third part - The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) - space fiction with travel to a parallel universe.
The Road (2009)
The Road is a post-apocalyptic drama directed by John Hillcoat based on the novel of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winner Cormick McCarthy. In a world that the disaster has turned into a desert, where all living things are dying and gangs of marauders are prowling in search of the most obvious source of food - other survivors, the father is trying to protect his son and keep at least a little humanity in himself and the child. A dark, dull, harrowing film, far from commercial success, but critically acclaimed.
Burden (Cargo, 2017)
One of the most humane and sad films about the zombie apocalypse from Australian directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke. The hero Martin Freeman has only 48 hours before he turns into a zombie, and during this time he must find a safe home for his little daughter.
A Quiet Place (2018)
In 2020, almost the entire population of Earth was destroyed by creatures of unknown origin, attacking all living things that make sounds. The creatures have armored skin and the finest hearing. In this post-apocalyptic world, a family is trying to survive - a father, a pregnant mother and two children. They have already lost their third child and are willing to do much to protect the rest. However, the weak spot in the monsters is destined to be found not by adults, but by their hearing-impaired daughter. Critics praised the film, calling it not only "terribly frightening" but also "smart." The sequel to the film has been announced, which should be released no earlier than 2020.
Bird Box (2018)
Simultaneously with "Quiet Place", where humanity is driven to death by the ability to make sounds, a thriller came out, where a person's eyesight is threatened by misfortune. This post-apocalyptic world is inhabited by creatures that can drive you crazy and make you kill anyone who looks at them. Now, if you want to survive, it is worth taking with you a box of birds that sense the approach of supernatural entities. So, with a bird box and two babies in her arms, you need to walk past the river and through the forest for the heroine of the film to get to a safe shelter.
The advent of the film led to the #BirdBox flash mob, in which people try to perform their daily activities while blindfolded.
