War happens.
It's a sort of basic facet of human society. Â Past wars have also been extremely brutal - the use of chemical weapons in the first World War, the wholesale extermination of Jews in the second - and those fantasizing about what would occur if an all out third world war broke out end up necessarily contemplating the Apocalypse. Â A (hopefully) fantastical state that occurs at the end of a war so brutal that it has all but destroyed civilization. Â You may roll your eyes, but some of the world's top scientists believe that our future as a race will be cut short because of....well...because of us. Â Whether it's nuclear armageddon, chemical warfare, alien invasion, or some other reason, these are a few of the best (and worst) cinematic visions of Apocalypse.
Film Rating: Â Four Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Severe
This 1984 film from the United Kingdom's BBC was released during the height of the Cold War and brilliantly scared millions about the repercussions of nuclear war. Â The film starts with regular life in the United Kingdom - people going shopping, on dates - continues into the early chaotic days where the threat of nuclear attack is suddenly very real, and follows its characters though the nuclear attack itself (and the ineffective government response; the government collapses rather quickly as one might imagine). Â But then the film keeps going. Â It keeps going until a full generation after the nuclear attack, where the human survivors have basically been brought back to the stone aged: Â Dying from small diseases, humans collected into bands of roving gangs that rape and pillage, all living in the crumbled debris of civilization. Â The film effectively makes the point that an all out nuclear war wouldn't simply be an event in time, it would be a civilization altering event, that would fundamentally push the human race back to the stone age. Â Intense viewing, not to be watched right before bed unless you want nightmares.
Film's Star Rating: Â Five Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â SevereÂ
Based on the McCarthy book of the same name, this is one of the most bleak visions of future apocalypse ever put to film.  The book is difficult reading and the film is almost just as good.  Both are unrelenting in their unwillingness to provide even a small comfort to the story's two protagonists, a father and his son roaming a destroyed America.  The world is washed out, the plants are dying, all of society has been destroyed, as they forage for scraps while they slowly starve.  We're never told what event has occurred, but it was obviously something pretty horrible.  Human beings have become the biggest danger (of course!), as many turn to cannibalism to survive.  On and on they go, the father and his son, each motivated only by their love for each other, a vague destination in mind, living in a world where most rational people would have long ago  committed suicide (as did the boy's mother in the film's start).  It doesn't get much more brutal than this.  The sort of film you might want to watch if you desire to feel physically ill and emotionally wasted after viewing. Â
Film's Star Rating: Â Four Stars out of FiveÂ
Bleakness Rating: Â Severe
Mad Max is a franchise, with three films already made and a new film being released this upcoming Summer of 2015. Â In the original Mad Max film, civilization still existed, but it was on the ropes. Â Max was part of a police force that attempted to bring some law and order to the lawless Australian Outback. Â But by the time The Road Warrior occurs, many years have passed, and it's obvious that even that mild hold on civilization that held in the first film has fallen. Â The world envisioned in this film is one of perpetual deserts, where barbaric tribes fight one another for the last supplies of water and oil. Â Are there still cities and organized pockets of civilization? Â The film doesn't address the issue, but given how insane some of those left alive have become, I'm sort of betting that the warring tribes in the film is fairly representative for what is left of proper society. Â This is a classic action film as Max, the perennial drifter, and lone hero (who has maybe one hundred lines of dialogue in the whole film), decides to help a small group of survivors being hunted by - well, I suppose the term "barbaric horde" works as well as any other. Â There doesn't appear much to eat, or that there's any infrastructure, and mostly the world seems to offer an endless desert and sunburns. Â As a film, it earns its severe bleakness rating.
Film's Star Rating: Â One Star out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Manageable
In The Postman, Kevin Costner wanders a post-apocalyptic America - albeit one with many different communities that are unconnected - and ends up finding the jacket of a postal carrier.  Representing an icon of bygone era, he begins a mail route and starts connecting these once isolated communities.  Of course, one such community is managed by a psychopathic dictator who threatens the other more peaceful communities.  The film is a long slow slod through scenes - read the book instead.  At least, this is one film on the list where life at least seems manageable, in that there are communities  that have banded together and managed to survive.  It's not so much that the world has been destroyed as much as been sent back to the Wild West, which seems almost manageable.
Film's Star Rating: Â Three Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Bleak Yet Livable Existence
The Book of Eli takes its lead from the Mad Max franchise. Â Eli, played by Denzel Washington is a loner that moves throughout the apocalypse, and also just happens to have the fighting moves of a ninja. Â He ends up in a conflict with the dictatorial leader of a small town and well...bodies end up piling up. Â As a world to inhabit, it's got all the standard apocalyptic tropes: Â Water and fuel are precious resources, government has collapsed, and men are held in bondage under evil dictatorial personalities. Â Still, there are communities to exist within, and even though life within these communities appears understandably bleak, people seem able to eke out an existence of sorts.
Film's Star Rating: Â Zero Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Severe
In this sci-fi future apocalypse, an alien race is terraforming the planet Earth (that's what aliens always do, they always terraform!) and the remaining humans live as prehistoric cavemen. Â The humans end up using an "intelligence machine" (I'm not making this up) and becoming "smart" and instantly re-gain the former intelligence held when they were apart of a civilization. Â And, of course, they have to fight the aliens for control of the planet. Â While the life in this apocalyptic scenario is incredibly bleak, it is problematically portrayed because this is perhaps the worst film ever made! Â Let me repeat that: Â This is a horrible film. Â Do not watch this film under any circumstances! Â It's not even bad in that "so bad it's good" sort of way. Â It's only bad in that it gives you a migraine.
It's a sort of basic facet of human society. Â Past wars have also been extremely brutal - the use of chemical weapons in the first World War, the wholesale extermination of Jews in the second - and those fantasizing about what would occur if an all out third world war broke out end up necessarily contemplating the Apocalypse. Â A (hopefully) fantastical state that occurs at the end of a war so brutal that it has all but destroyed civilization. Â You may roll your eyes, but some of the world's top scientists believe that our future as a race will be cut short because of....well...because of us. Â Whether it's nuclear armageddon, chemical warfare, alien invasion, or some other reason, these are a few of the best (and worst) cinematic visions of Apocalypse.
){kind=link}
1. Threads (1984)
Film Rating: Â Four Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Severe
This 1984 film from the United Kingdom's BBC was released during the height of the Cold War and brilliantly scared millions about the repercussions of nuclear war. Â The film starts with regular life in the United Kingdom - people going shopping, on dates - continues into the early chaotic days where the threat of nuclear attack is suddenly very real, and follows its characters though the nuclear attack itself (and the ineffective government response; the government collapses rather quickly as one might imagine). Â But then the film keeps going. Â It keeps going until a full generation after the nuclear attack, where the human survivors have basically been brought back to the stone aged: Â Dying from small diseases, humans collected into bands of roving gangs that rape and pillage, all living in the crumbled debris of civilization. Â The film effectively makes the point that an all out nuclear war wouldn't simply be an event in time, it would be a civilization altering event, that would fundamentally push the human race back to the stone age. Â Intense viewing, not to be watched right before bed unless you want nightmares.
){kind=link}
2. The Road (2009)
Film's Star Rating: Â Five Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â SevereÂ
Based on the McCarthy book of the same name, this is one of the most bleak visions of future apocalypse ever put to film.  The book is difficult reading and the film is almost just as good.  Both are unrelenting in their unwillingness to provide even a small comfort to the story's two protagonists, a father and his son roaming a destroyed America.  The world is washed out, the plants are dying, all of society has been destroyed, as they forage for scraps while they slowly starve.  We're never told what event has occurred, but it was obviously something pretty horrible.  Human beings have become the biggest danger (of course!), as many turn to cannibalism to survive.  On and on they go, the father and his son, each motivated only by their love for each other, a vague destination in mind, living in a world where most rational people would have long ago  committed suicide (as did the boy's mother in the film's start).  It doesn't get much more brutal than this.  The sort of film you might want to watch if you desire to feel physically ill and emotionally wasted after viewing. Â
){kind=link}
3. The Road Warrior (1981)
Film's Star Rating: Â Four Stars out of FiveÂ
Bleakness Rating: Â Severe
Mad Max is a franchise, with three films already made and a new film being released this upcoming Summer of 2015. Â In the original Mad Max film, civilization still existed, but it was on the ropes. Â Max was part of a police force that attempted to bring some law and order to the lawless Australian Outback. Â But by the time The Road Warrior occurs, many years have passed, and it's obvious that even that mild hold on civilization that held in the first film has fallen. Â The world envisioned in this film is one of perpetual deserts, where barbaric tribes fight one another for the last supplies of water and oil. Â Are there still cities and organized pockets of civilization? Â The film doesn't address the issue, but given how insane some of those left alive have become, I'm sort of betting that the warring tribes in the film is fairly representative for what is left of proper society. Â This is a classic action film as Max, the perennial drifter, and lone hero (who has maybe one hundred lines of dialogue in the whole film), decides to help a small group of survivors being hunted by - well, I suppose the term "barbaric horde" works as well as any other. Â There doesn't appear much to eat, or that there's any infrastructure, and mostly the world seems to offer an endless desert and sunburns. Â As a film, it earns its severe bleakness rating.
){kind=link}
4. The Postman (1997)
Film's Star Rating: Â One Star out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Manageable
In The Postman, Kevin Costner wanders a post-apocalyptic America - albeit one with many different communities that are unconnected - and ends up finding the jacket of a postal carrier.  Representing an icon of bygone era, he begins a mail route and starts connecting these once isolated communities.  Of course, one such community is managed by a psychopathic dictator who threatens the other more peaceful communities.  The film is a long slow slod through scenes - read the book instead.  At least, this is one film on the list where life at least seems manageable, in that there are communities  that have banded together and managed to survive.  It's not so much that the world has been destroyed as much as been sent back to the Wild West, which seems almost manageable.
){kind=link}
5. The Book of Eli (2010)
Film's Star Rating: Â Three Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Bleak Yet Livable Existence
The Book of Eli takes its lead from the Mad Max franchise. Â Eli, played by Denzel Washington is a loner that moves throughout the apocalypse, and also just happens to have the fighting moves of a ninja. Â He ends up in a conflict with the dictatorial leader of a small town and well...bodies end up piling up. Â As a world to inhabit, it's got all the standard apocalyptic tropes: Â Water and fuel are precious resources, government has collapsed, and men are held in bondage under evil dictatorial personalities. Â Still, there are communities to exist within, and even though life within these communities appears understandably bleak, people seem able to eke out an existence of sorts.
){kind=link}
6. Battlefield Earth (2000)
Film's Star Rating: Â Zero Stars out of Five
Bleakness Rating: Â Severe
In this sci-fi future apocalypse, an alien race is terraforming the planet Earth (that's what aliens always do, they always terraform!) and the remaining humans live as prehistoric cavemen. Â The humans end up using an "intelligence machine" (I'm not making this up) and becoming "smart" and instantly re-gain the former intelligence held when they were apart of a civilization. Â And, of course, they have to fight the aliens for control of the planet. Â While the life in this apocalyptic scenario is incredibly bleak, it is problematically portrayed because this is perhaps the worst film ever made! Â Let me repeat that: Â This is a horrible film. Â Do not watch this film under any circumstances! Â It's not even bad in that "so bad it's good" sort of way. Â It's only bad in that it gives you a migraine.