As modern movie-goers, we're all kind of obsessed with the apocalypse. Time and time again, filmmakers are finding new and interesting ways to depict the end of civilization as we know it... and audiences continue to lap it up in their masses. There's no limit, apparently, to the number of times one person can watch a city reduced to ashes. What is it about the apocalypse that interests us all so much, then? Does it stem from a deep-seated or innate desire to watch society crumble, thus freeing us from the confines of modern life? Does our lust for global destruction hark back to our animalistic instinct to survive at any cost? Or do we just like to watch stuff getting blown up and destroyed? Whatever the reason, there's no denying the inherent appeal of the apocalypse film. But what about those films set after the apocalypse, when humans are forced to scavenge and survive in a dangerous, ruinous landscapes? When a narrative hones in on individuals who must navigate the fallout of a worldwide catastrophe and use all the wits in order to live? Here, then, are 20 post-apocalyptic movies everybody should see before they die. To earn a place on this list, the films in question had to hit a certain criteria: said films had to be set - for the most part - in the wake of a full-on apocalyptic event that has left most of the world devastated. Films like Children of Men, more "dystopian" in nature, weren't considered.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
