10 Great Movies Where the World Literally Ends

When On the Beach opens, the apocalypse has already happened and both humanity and Earth are in their final stages. Nuclear war has ravaged the face of the planet, and scientists and military comprise most of the remaining population, including Commander Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins), Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) and Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire), all converging on Melbourne - the last city standing. 

Of all the post-WWIII flicks, this is perhaps the strangest, not because it has any outright absurdity a la Mad Max, but because of the incongruity between the cast and the situation. Most of us are used to seeing Peck as a romantic hero or action hero, and Astaire as an all-singing, all-dancing showman - not morbid and stricken survivors waiting around for it all to end. 

But end it does! With radiation sickness, suicide pills, asphyxiation and deaths at sea. The film closes with shots of Melbourne empty and desolate, the last of humanity having been swallowed up by the fallout.

As is the case with so many disaster movies, it leaves us wondering: what is the point?