10 Post Apocalyptic Films You Need To See

In 1982, a post-apocalyptic action film where the cast spoke with Australian accents must’ve seemed laughable to Twentieth Century Fox, who’d just spent $20 million making Megaforce, a “proper” film starring Barry Bostwick, Edward Mulhare and Michael Beck.

Well, Megaforce tanked at the box office and Mad Max 2 became one of the most influential films of the 1980s, setting the trend for post-apocalyptic fantasy for years to come and inspiring countless movies from cheap Italian rip offs to James Cameron’s The Terminator. The plot is your standard story of two conflicting groups duking it out in the wastelands, but it’s elevated by incredible production design and stunt work. If you only experience one apocalypse in your lifetime, make it this one.

The movie did for Mel Gibson and George Miller what the Dollars trilogy did for Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, and it’s worth noting that Miller did the film because he had more money and he sorely wanted to “do it right this time.” Which he did – it’s one of those rare sequels that outdoes the original in every way.

Unlike his fellow countryman Russell Mulcahy, Miller doesn’t shoot the picture like a music video but in a style somewhere between exploitation movie and Bond film. Both violent and spectacular, it could be Mel Gibson’s finest hour.

Be honest: how many of you prefer it to Fury Road?