A.I. Tales (2019)
Science Fiction Anthology
An anthology of four SF tales, short films from various directors around the world, although surprisingly none that feature Artificial Intelligences
After the Holocaust
After the Holocaust, Post-Holocaust or Post-Apocalyptic Films refer to works that depict survival in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation.
This is most commonly seen as being caused by worldwide nuclear war. Other works are set in the aftermath of pandemics, while more recent years have popularised the zombie holocaust and global warming/environmentally devastation scenarios, while many other works take place after an unspecified apocalypse.
The genre began as long ago as the silent era but was popularised in the 1950s. The 1980s and the success of Mad Max 2 (1981) brought a large outpouring of action films that took place in the post-holocaust venue. The 2000s saw the move away from action towards a focus on harsh survivalism.
This refers to films that take place in the aftermath of social collapse. For works that depict the collapse and its immediate aftermath see Nuclear War, Plague and Pandemic and Catastrophe.
AE: Apocalypse Earth (2013)
The Asylum Mockbuster/Planetary Adventure
Another of The Asylum’s mockbusters, intended to come out the same time as M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth. This feels like a cheap planetary adventure that recycles Avatar and Planet of the Apes
After Earth (2013)
Planetary Survival Adventure
Enough with the M. Night Shyamalan bashing. Here Shyamalan pulls off a solid and interesting planetary adventure where the only real misstep is that much of the film rests on the non-acting shoulders of Jaden Smith
Afterburn (2025)
Post-Apocalyptic Action
Action film with Dave Bautista as a treasure hunter retrieving items in a post-apocalyptic world. Directed by a former stuntman, this plays much to the action element with little else of substance
The Age of Stupid (2009)
Environmentally Devastated Future/Global Warming Documentary
Using the framework of an SF film, told from the perspective of a devastated future, this is a documentary about Global Warming, although one that falls short of making a convincing argument
A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) (2001)
Android Boy’s Quest
Steven Spielberg directs an unfinished Stanley Kubrick project about an android boy’s quest. The result is a beautiful and intelligent SF film where the sensibilities of either director merge with magnificent results
Air (2015)
Cryogenic Sleepers Drama
This comes with a great premise – two men are woken from cryogenic suspension only to find one of their cryo-tubes broken and they discover their purpose there may not be what they were told
The Alien Agenda: Endangered Species (1997)
Alien Takeover Anthology
The second of Kevin J. Kindenmuth’s surprisingly good compilations of video shorts around the loose theme of alien invasion and takeover
Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1 (2017)
Earth in the Aftermath of an Alien Invasion
An enigmatic film set in a future where aliens have invaded the Earth as a lone soldier is sent to crew a remote post and imagines he is seeing things
Allegiant (2016)
Young Adult Dystopian Future
The Divergent series is a fundamentally implausible scenario for people that think horoscopes are a profound insight into human nature. This is the most interesting of the films and gives us an imaginative future world
America 3000 (1986)
Gonzo Post-Holocaust Film
Head-scratching oddity from Cannon Films, a gonzo post-holocaust film set in a satiric women-ruled world with a culture based on half-remembered fragments of the present
American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1992)
Post-Holocaust Cyborgs
A routine post-apocalyptic action film with Nicole Hansen as the last fertile woman on the run hunted by killer cyborgs while being protected by Joe Lara
Among the Living (2022)
Post-Apocalyptic Survival
Modest, low-budgeted British film about people trying to survive in the aftermath of a catastrophe. A zombie film that has borrowed a few leaves from A Quiet Place
Antisocial 2 (2015)
After a Zombie Apocalypse
Antisocial, a horror film about zombies created by social media, proved a reasonable hit. This is a sequel that skips on a few years after the collapse of civilisation
Appleseed (1988)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
The first anime film to be based on the manga, this is set in a future where the heroine is the head of a heavily armoured SWAT team fighting terrorists. Several different incarnations followed.
Appleseed (2004)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
A dazzling reboot of the earlier manga/anime made with stunning photorealistic animation design and breathtaking action scenes that made this a benchmark for modern anime. Sequels followed.
Appleseed Alpha (2014)
Anime/Post-Holocaust Cyborg Action
Shinji Aramaki returns to the Appleseed franchise for a third time with this prequel. Though it abandons the Cyberpunk milieu, Aramaki crafts action scenes with a stunning realism
Arcadian (2024)
Siege Against Monsters
A post-apocalyptic film that seems a conceptual merging of I Am Legend and A Quiet Place where Nicolas Cage and sons are at siege from monsters that surround their farmhouse every night
Armageddon Tales (2021)
Anthology of Post-Apocalyptic Tales
An anthology of short films from three different directors set in the world after the collapse of civilisation
Attack on Titan (2015)
Live-Action Anime Adaptation/Invasion by Giants
The live-action adaptation of a popular manga series, this comes with a completely WTF premise about humanity defending itself from an invasion by a horde of misshapen giants that like to bite people’s heads off
Attack on Titan II: End of the World (2015)
Live-Action Anime Adaptation/Invasion by Giants
Sequel the demented Attack of Titan with its wild images of humanity under attack from mindless giants that bite their heads off, which was shot back-to-back and released a few months later
Azrael (2024)
Post Apocalyptic Cult
A film that takes place with no dialogue set in a post-apocalyptic world where people have forsaken speech as Samara Weaving is pursued by a cult
The Battery (2012)
After the Zombie Apocalypse
Just when the zombie genre seemed to be creatively exhausted, this is one of the freshest takes in some time. This does nothing radical with the basics, just offers a series of wry, sharply written vignettes as two bored slackers greet the apocalypse
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
Planet of the Apes Sequel
The fifth and final of the original Planet of the Apes films. After four well worthwhile entries up to this point, a tired air infects this production as it assembles the elements in a haphazard clutter
BattleBots (2018)
Battle Robots
Prolific bad movie director Mark Polonia offers his own no-budget take on the Transformers films where the Transformers are two men in bulky costume who wrestle one another
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000)
Earth Under Alien Rule/L. Ron Hubbard Adaptation
The adaptation of the alien invasion novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard starring John Travolta is a completely ridiculous film that was laughed off screens and is regarded as a classic bad movie
Battletruck (1982)
Post-Holocaust
A fairly blatant copy of Mad Max 2, although this is one of the better-made and budgeted. Crucially what is lacking is much in the way of the action that made Mad Max a hit
The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell (2006)
Gonzo Post Holocaust
A gonzo post holocaust film that was put out under the National Lampoon label. Beyond having a great title, this represents as close to near-total ineptitude in filmmaking as it is possible to get
The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
Post-Holocaust Absurdist Comedy
Richard Lester adapts an absurdist Spike Milligan play set in the aftermath of the nuclear holocaust where the survivors are mutating into animals and items of furniture. A film with a really bizarre sense of humour that most at the time did not get
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Planet of the Apes Sequel/Telepathic Mutants
The second and most underrated of the Planet of the Apes films. For a time it repeats the original but gains considerable imagination and a striking satiric bite with the introduction of the mutants
Beowulf (1999)
Epic Legend
An adaptation of the classic epic legend Beowulf that bizarrely recasts the story as a Christopher Lambert-starring action movie and sets it in a post-apocalyptic future
Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
Time Travel to Post-Holocaust Future
B budget film from Edgar G. Ulmer that was made quickly to exploit the success of George Pal’s The Time Machine concerning an Air Force pilot who is thrown through time into a mutant ruled future
The Big Bang (1987)
Gonzo Animation
French-Belgian adult animated film in the gonzo trippy vein of Ralph Bakshi and Bill Plympton – a visually madcap satire of science-fiction tropes and 1980s East-West tensions, full of wackily surreal visuals
Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)
Mysterious Catastrophe After Which People Are Forced to Not Look Outside
Bird Box was a hit on Netflix and this is a sequel. The talented Pastor Brothers take the basics of the original and actually make a much better film out of them filled with fine tension
The Black Rider: Revelation Road (2014)
Post-Holocaust Film in the Aftermath of The Rapture
The third Revelation Road film, this offers the bizarre novelty of a faith-based Mad Max copy with divinely inspired action hero David A.R. White cruising the post-apocalyptic wastelands in the aftermath of The Rapture
Blast from the Past (1999)
Out of the Nuclear Fallout Shelter Comedy
A comedy with the amusing premise where Brendan Fraser is raised in a nuclear fallout shelter since the Cuban Missile Crisis and emerges into the present for the first time, mistaking it for a post-apocalyptic world
Blue Remains (2000)
Anime/Underwater Post-Holocaust Environmentalism
Epic and beautifully animated anime set largely underwater about the struggle to save a dying Earth from an evil super-computer that wants eradicate humanity
The Book of Eli (2010)
Post-Holocaust Action
Denzel Washington as an enigmatic Man With No Name wandering the post-holocaust apocalyptic landscape. This follows the cliches of the genre before it bizarrely morphs into a Biblical allegory partway through
Bounty Killer (2013)
Post-Apocalyptic Action
A film about post-apocalyptic bounty hunters pursuing bankers, this was an Occupy Movement era film and hits a deliriously unserious comic-book tone
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Post-Holocaust
This adaptation of a Harlan Ellison story is a B-budget delight that zings with witty dialogue and a young, unknown Don Johnson giving a very funny performance as the titular boy roaming the post-apocalyptic landscape with his dog
Breathe (2024)
Earth With Depleted Oxygen Supplies
Film set in a harsh future as people struggle to survive in a world where oxygen supplies have been reduced to near zero. An okay film that suffers from an implausible premise
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
Space Opera/Man Unfrozen in the Future
In the aftermath of Star Wars, the comic-book/serial hero was revived in this heavily Star Wars influenced remake that was released theatrically and then served as the pilot of a tv series
Captain Nova (2021)
Time Travel
An appealing Danish-made film in which a pilot travels back in time from the future to save the world from environmental disaster but finds she is now stuck in her twelve year-old body
Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Horrors Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
This has the fascinatingly original idea of setting a horror film inside the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The location is unique and the film generates a fair and reasonable tension
Cherry 2000 (1987)
Oddball Post-Holocaust Quest
Overlooked work of considerable charms, this mashes the setting of Mad Max 2 and the plot of The African Queen with a sense of oddball humour. The show is stolen by Melanie Griffith as a tough wasteland tracker
Circuitry Man (1990)
Cyberpunk/Post-Holocaust Quest
Qurkily appealing Cyberpunk film in which a female bodyguard and a male pleasure android must make a journey across a post-apocalyptic wasteland
City of Ember (2008)
Young Adult/Underground City
Excellent Young Adult adapted work about teenagers in a vast underground city coming to an awareness of the forgotten surface world. The underground world is a production designer’s marvel
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cross-Historical Epic
A cross-historical epic from The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. An uneven film driven more by its determination we view it as an epic. Surely a studio publicist’s nightmare, it grasps at the meaning of it all yet eludes telling audiences what it is about
Cold Harvest (1998)
Post-Holocaust Action
This is a competent but unremarkable action movie variation on the Mad Max film set in the aftermath of a plague as Gary Daniels must guide a group with an immunity through the wastelands
Colonials (2023)
Colonist Return to Post-Apocalyptic Earth
A low-budget film with some very accomplished effects that takes place in a devastated future as a Martian colonist returns to find what has happened to Earth
The Colony (2013)
Grim Survival in a Frozen Future
This creates a fascinatingly different future – a world of grim survivalism amid a new Ice Age in the aftermath of Global Warming. The look of the film is fantastic, only to fritter it on an action focus and Mad Max cliches
The Colony (2021)
Astronaut Returns to a Post-Apocalyptic Earth
A Roland Emmerich-produced film about a space expedition returned to a post-apocalyptic Earth to find a very changed world
Crumbs (2015)
Post-Holocast Film
Forget Mad Max et al, this Ethiopian film is a fascinatingly different take on the post-holocaust film – set after the collapse of civilisation where the junk culture of today has developed a mythology of its own
Cyborg (1989)
Post-Holocaust Kickboxing
The first of Albert Pyun’s kickboxing killer cyborg films featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme who was largely unknown at the time. Pyun creates wall-to-wall action but there is almost nothing else to the film
Cyborg X (2016)
Post-Holocaust Cyborg Wars
From Arrowstorm Entertainment, a low-budget company that make highly professional films. Here they have even roped Danny Trejo into playing a role in a passable attempt to replicate a 1990s Albert Pyun post-holocaust cyborg film
Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)
Doctor Who Film
The second of the theatrically released Doctor Who films intended to highlight the popularity of The Daleks, this is an improvement in that it dispenses with the first film’s buffoonish comedy elements
Damnation Alley (1977)
Post-Apocalyptic Trek
Disastrous adaptation of the Roger Zelazny novel where the story of a Hell’s Angel on a trek across the post-apocalyptic wasteland is recast with a G.I. and a girl and kid along for the journey, plus the addition of giant mutant cockroaches
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Planet of the Apes Prequel
The Planet of the Apes series excels itself and stages a massively exciting inter-species war. The CGI/mocap apes come with an extraordinary range of nuance – quite whether it is performance or animation is up for debate but the results are outstanding
The Day (2011)
Post-Holocaust Survivalism
A post-holocaust film that takes its tone from the bleak survivalism of The Road. Much focus on the grim harshness of trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world but there nothing particularly original in the film’s treatment
The Day of the Triffids (1981)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Lethal Plants Amok
Excellent and extremely faithful tv adaptation of the John Wyndham book. This tells the story in terms of ordinary people forced to survive in a harsh world overtaken by killer plants and contains some exceptional writing
The Day of the Triffids (2009)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Lethal Plants Amok
Disappointing tv mini-series remake of the John Wyndham novel about England overrun by killer plants. This abandons most of the book’s sociological portrait for cliche melodramatics
Dead Fire (1996)
Space Station Action
Action film set aboard a space station that houses cryogenically frozen survivors of a devastated Earth as C. Thomas Howell tries to stop a mad Matt Frewer
Deadman Apocalypse (2016)
Post-Holocaust Action Underground
Despite the hope that this might have been an adaptation of DC’s disembodied superhero, this is no more than a post-apocalyptic adventure that takes place in tunnels only about three feet high, including the car chases
The Death Cure (2018)
Young Adult/Dystopian-Post-Holocaust Adventure
The Maze Runner was a solid Young Adult effort that built out an effective Conceptual Breakthrough story; this, the second of two sequels, feeld like a series of canned action scenes in search of a purpose
Deathsport (1978)
Post-Holocaust Action
Terrible film made to exploit the success of Death Race 2000 with David Carradine as a mystical post-apocalyptic Range Guide. This is however a post-apocalyptic action film that prefigures much of Mad Max 2
Defcon-4 (1985)
Nuclear Holocaust and After
A breath of originality in a decade overrun with Mad Max copies, a clever and original little film in which the crew of a space station return to Earth after the nuclear holocaust
Defcon 2012 (2010)
After an Alien Invasion/Mayan End of the World
Amateur low-budget production about mysterious happenings in the aftermath of an alien invasion. This has many ideas but none of them much coalesce into a plot
Deluge (1933)
Massive Worldwide Flood
The world’s first disaster movie concerning a worldwide flood. This has some extremely impressive effects for the era showing New York being drowned. Less interesting are the dramatics in the ruins
Le Dernier Combat (1983)
Mute Post-Holocaust
Luc Besson made his directorial debut with this remarkable film. At a time when everybody was making copies of Mad Max 2, Besson demonstrates a poetry in depicting a post-apocalyptic world where people have lost the ability to speak
Dr Who and the Daleks (1965)
Doctor Who Film
This was the first of two Doctor Who movies produced during the height of Dalekmania during the 1960s. Alas a comedy element in the form of the asinine buffoonery of Roy Castle is allowed to dominate and kills the show off
The Domestics (2018)
Post-Holocaust Survivalism
Solidly effective work of post-holocaust survivalism with a couple on a 400 mile journey where they have to pass through territories held by various gangs
Doomsday (2008)
Plague Ravaged Future Wasteland/Action
Immensely satisfying film from Neil Marshall set in a walled-off, post-pandemic Scotland where he seems to have set out to pay homage to sf/action films like Escape from New York and Mad Max 2
Dreams (1990)
Japanese Ghost Story Anthology
It is some surprise that Akira Kurosawa’s only full venture into fantastic cinema was with his penultimate film here. A beautifully filmed anthology of eight tales, including several ghost stories and two anti-nuclear parables
Dredd (2012)
Comic-Book Adaptation/Future Law Enforcement Officer
A second film version of the Judge Dredd comic-book. More faithful than the Sylvester Stallone version, this comes with a satisfyingly visceral kick, yet a low-budget means that we see little of Dredd’s satiric future
The Driver (2019)
Car Ride Through the Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie action film that features Mark Dacascos driving through the post-apocalyptic landscape in a luxury car looking for a home for his daughter
The Dungeonmaster (1984)
Warrior's Virtual Quest/Anthology
An anthology film produced by Charles Band where assorted directors turn in seven episodes all centred around a videogame warrior put through a series of tests by The Devil
Earth Abides (2024)
After the Apocalypse
Earth Abides is a classic novel that essentially defined the theme of survival in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation. This is a TV mini-series adaptation of the book but badly fumbles it
Earthtastrophe (2016)
Earth Transported to Another Solar System
Syfy Channel disaster movie where Earth is suddenly transported into another Solar System amid cheap effects and an improbable time travel solution is sought to reverse this
11.22.63 (2016)
Time Traveller Tries to Prevent the Assassination of JFK/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adapted mini-series in which James Franco finds a mysterious door that leads back to 1960 and sets out to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy
Embers (2015)
Catastrophe That Has Left the Population with Periodic Amnesia
An often hauntingly made film set in a world where the populace is affected by periodic amnesia and memory resets. Memento in effect recast as an apocalyptic story
Empire of the Sharks (2017)
Drowned Future/Killer Sharks
Another killer shark film from The Asylum, the people behind the Sharknado. This is a sequel to their earlier Planet of the Sharks and takes placed in a Waterworld-styled drowned future
Endgame (1983)
Post-Holocaust Action
Joe D’Amato directs one of the numerous 80s Italian Mad Max 2 copies. One of the very first films to depict televised human bloodsports later popularised by the likes of The Running Man and The Hunger Games
Everything Beautiful is Far Away (2017)
Journey Across a Post-Apocalyptic Desert
An indie film about a man, a woman and a robot head who meet and conduct a journey together across a desert at some point after it seems that civilisation has collapsed
The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983)
Post-Holocaust Action
An Italian exploitation film that blatantly copies the plot of Mad Max 2. It offers the benefit of some vigorous action scenes and English-language dubbing that is out of this world
The Falls (1980)
Absurdist Post-Holocaust
Early Peter Greenaway film where in typically eccentric fashion he tells a series of absurd stories about survivors of a mysterious event who names all begin with Fall who have begun to mutate and develop an obsession with birds
Fando and Lis (1968)
Surrealism
The first film from Alejandro Jodorowsky, more like a student film that seems a rehearsal for the surrealistic and outrageous imagery of El Topo, although no less uniquely Jodorowsky-esque for all that
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Anime/Alien Soul Devourers
Despite being made by the same company, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Final Fantasy videogame. It is a visually stunning work of anime that takes place on an epic scale set after Earth has been invaded by spirit beings
Finch (2021)
Man and a Robot
Unexpectedly delightful film about a man and a robot. With Tom Hanks alone with a robot for company in the aftermath of civilisation, it becomes in effect Cast Away meets Wall-E
First Spaceship on Venus (1959)
Soviet Space Mission
A Soviet space exploration film from East Germany concerning an expedition to Venus. This was the first film to depict an international space mission but proves stolid dramatically
Fist of the North Star (1995)
Post-Holocaust Martial Arts/Manga Adaptation
The live-action English-language adaptation of the Japanese manga/anime that comes off as a muddled post-holocaust action film that doesn’t know what it wants to be
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
Time-Travelling Science-Fiction Fans
Science-fiction fans go time travelling in this British film that offers a good many wry fannish in-jokes mixed with a modestly clever time travel scenario
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Post-Holocaust Action
45 years on, George Miller returns with a fifth entry in his Mad Max saga, a prequel to Fury Road. As to be expected from Miller, this an exhilarating action piece and makes a welcome return to his post-apocalyptic junkyard world
Future Hunters (1986)
Action Adventure/Time Travel/Quest for a Mystical Object
Undeniably entertaining Filipino action film that tries to throw in everything including time travel, post-holocaust action, adventure quests, magical artifacts, lost worlds, Nazis and dwarves
Future World (2018)
Post-Holocaust/Android on a Quest for Meaning
James Franco co-directed effort about an android on a quest across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Franco draws on cliches established by the Mad Max films and only makes an Albert Pyun film with pretensions
The Galaxy Destroyer (1986)
Earth After an Alien Invasion
An ultra low-budget film about a man on a space journey returning to Earth to find it invaded by aliens. This tries to do Mad Max and Star Wars on the budget of about $1.99
Genesis (2018)
Post-Holocaust Survival/Android Self-Awareness
Apparently the first in a projected trilogy. The ambitiousness of this aside, the film only trades in unoriginal cliches of post-apocalyptic survival and android self-awareness
Genesis II (1973)
Cryogenic Sleeper Awakes in a Post-Holocaust World
An unsold Gene Roddenberry tv pilot that is a fascinating almost-ran. Roddenberry rehashes Star Trek by way of Buck Rogers in a post-holocaust setting. This could have made for a worthwhile series
Glen and Randa (1971)
Innocents After the Fall of Civilisation
One of a handful of 70s films about how the Love Children would inherit the Earth. A fascinating, almost Terrence Malick-like work about innocents drifting through the detritus of civilisation, trying to understand what they see
Godkiller: Walk Among Us (2010)
Animation/Gods in a Burned-Out Future
An ‘illustrated film’ – essentially comic-book panels with voiceover narration. The story about gods inhabiting a burned-out future is far more ambitious than can be crammed into the film
Greenland: Migration (2026)
Post-Apocalyptic Disaster Movie
Greenland was a disaster movie on the familiar theme of a comet colliding with the Earth. This is a desultory sequel where the survivors emerge from the shelters to now have to survive in a changed post-apocalyptic world