1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Stanley Kubrick's classic war movie might be a satire, but that doesn't stop it from also being one of the most genuinely terrifying movies ever conceived. Kubrick concedes humanity's ability to bring about its own destruction, with most of the film taking place inside a War Room as the various characters - many of them played by Peter Sellers - try to handle a diplomatic crisis. That it ends in the most tragi-comically ultimate manner possible, in which the world is essentially blown to smithereens to Vera Lynns Well Meet Again, is the damning, hilarious punchline to it all. Kubrick's satire underpins our capacity for creativity, in so much as it amounts to creating horrific weapons of mass destruction, rather than channelling it into something even half-way constructive. What it tells us: if a nuke ends the world, the post-apocalyptic period will be like the Fallout video games. What are your favourite apocalyptic movies? Let us know in the comments below.