10 Greatest Apocalypse Movies Of All Time

The entire Mad Max saga could easily squeeze itself onto this list, but if you have to choose a single representative, it would have to be The Road Warrior. It was, by far, the best in the litany of the "Action Flick Meets Post-Apocalyptic Dread" films to come out around the time. (Eat your heart out, Cyborg.) It's also the instalment of the series that totally defined the overall look and tone of Mad Max's dystopia.

It's a barren, dusty, weirdly sexy wasteland that proved leather never goes out of style, even after the world's natural resources have been mostly obliterated. It's essentially an old Western dressed up in bondage gear.

Whereas the original Mad Max merely tacked on the apocalypse scenario to give us a reason for the borderline gratuitous amount of violence it contained, and Beyond Thunderdome tried too hard to create an utterly insane and excessively complex dystopia, this sequel found the sweet spot.

There's a reason Fury Road was modelled on The Road Warrior, and it has surprisingly little to do with the gimp costumes.