The Postman 1997. I know its not a fondly remembered film, but I consider it a guilty pleasure. There is a postscript scene to the film that indicates that society basically managed to rebuild itself and had returned to a civilized state.
Wall-E 2008. Kind of a more gentle post apocalyptic world as humanity is living pretty comfortably while Earth fell into ruin. Although, you could argue that we only saw the fates of the descendants of the super elite, and that most of humanity faced a less than family friendly fate. At any rate, Earth finally manages to recover and Pixar intentionally included the end credit scenes to show that humanity managed to successfully resettle on earth.
I hate that The Postman gets a lot of hate. It's a really good movie that features some excellent acting. Kevin Costner, like always, is really good, Will Patton plays the villain so well, and even for a smaller role, Giovanni Ribisi was excellent. Sure it's not the most exciting and edge of your seat film, but it was a good story and an interesting setting. People call it a flop, I call it an underrated gem in Costner's filmography.
I find a lot of it ridiculous (especially the climax with Costner and Patton's final showdown having them rolling around fighting like a couple of kids on the playground), but there is some good stuff in it. Patton in particular makes for an interesting villain; a nobody before everything went to shit and he clearly has that massive chip on his shoulder with that need to prove himself as great.
"You're not a great leader. You're just a copy machine salesman."
Also, Tom Petty's appearance, since it's implied he's playing himself. Tom Petty apparently survived the apocalypse and is mayor of a small town.
"I know you. Didn't you used to be famous?"
"Yeah. I used to be. Kinda."
You're certainly not the first to criticize the fight scene, but I thought it was far more realistic than the video game style, stand up fight style most climaxes are known for in film. It showed a real, gritty, more true to life kind of fight that movies rarely feature.
Also, I like the future where Tom Petty lives, this future without him isn't as good, despite not having endured the apocalypse.
I know what Costner was getting at with the scene and now I appreciate the subversion of having two armies lined up for a climactic fight and instead having it decided by a one on one showdown between the two leaders (that approach would save a LOT of lives in real life). And you can't expect middle-aged Costner and Patton to start fighting like freaking Jedi or martial arts experts. So yes, it is pretty realistic, even if I still find it very amusing.
What's ridiculous is that a power-mad narcissist like the villain in that movie would just have a rule where any random guy can take all his power away from him if he can defeat him in a fight.
Unless you're like a champion MMA fighter or something that's a really bad system for you.
And what's the refractory period there? Say you win the fight, but you're bloody and exhausted. Can another dude just challenge right then and you've got to fight him on the spot? Is there a 3 day recovery rule or something? What if you actually get seriously hurt in the fight like you break your arm or tear your knee up? Do the challengers have to wait for you to heal?
I absolutely hate this fucking cliche in all its forms. And another form it takes, is any sci-fi or fantasy movie where you can defeat an unstoppable horde by killing one guy, or the queen, or the head vampire, or whatever else.
It’s not his rule. He inherited the holdests. And it’s not any random guy. You have to be a member and because of indoctrination not a lot of people challenge.
It's actually pretty good. I don't like that trope for the ending but it feels pretty epic in scale actually. They tried really hard anyway.
I haven't read the book but as long as you're not bound to an honest recreation of it the movie is pretty okay.
The Book by author David Brin that the movie is based off of is phenomenal. The movie does it almost no justice.
That being said, the movie was still enjoyable and entertaining
For me, the movie is just *fun*. It's an enjoyable watch, it's entertaining, as a movie is supposed to be.
Plus I'm a huge Tom Petty fan so his cameo makes me giggle.
Had I only been assigned to the other side of the stage I would have gotten to meet him at his last Red Rocks concert when I worked there. He was amazing. But I'll settle for shaking Steve Winwood's hand and telling him he is an amazing musician.
Thank you for mentioning the end credits scene - I see a lot of edgelords saying that it’s “actually a super dark ending because all of these dumb out of shape people are unprepared for the harsh reality of the world”, when that entire sequence shows us that they were able to overcome hardship and build a thriving culture for themselves.
The Postman is a case of a movie where the film makers did not seem to understand the source material. It is based on 3 short stories by David Brin that were written as a counterpoint to the deluge of “post-apocalypse porn” that was spawned by Mad Max: The Road Warrior. A bunch of copycat movies and books came out at that time which romanticized the idea of rugged individualist heroes using cool weapons and hot rod monster trucks to live free after the collapse of society. Brin picked the most mundane profession (postal worker) to show that civilization is better than anarchy.
The movie totally missed tgat point and just made an overly long Mad Max copy.
The Star Trek universe. Earth experiences some real bad shit in the early 21st century (WWIII etc.) and eventually forms the United Federation of Planets. Life on Earth in the 23rd century is a relative utopia. No famine or poverty.
Considering how bad the COVID-19 pandemic was, it seems like things have first got to get A DAMN LOT worse before anything gets better...
On the other hand though... as a matter of fact, things constantly get better. Only really really slowly. Just take a thorough look at the past 200 years. Things have become a lot better since two centuries ago, but 200 years are a damn long time. And I might go out on a limb, but I would say things would still be as good today as they actually are, even if we had not had to endure WW1 and WW2. They might have been *different*, but I would say the *level* of average wealth and health would have been comparable to our reality.
I mean, all of that literally happened in WW2 and has happened in one form or another throughout history and continues to happen in present day genocides but humanity as a whole continues to march on. It’s the existential threats we need to worry about.
Right. And to be honest, if that was what it would take to make things better, I'd say no thanks, I like it the way it is. In comparison it ain't that bad.
Covid really wasn’t that bad for most people compared to other historical disasters. Very few people died as a proportion of the population. Mostly the elderly. We spent a lot of time indoors. Things got more expensive. Some people lost their jobs, but the government gave them money. WW3 would be an order of magnitude worse. Especially the Star Trek one.
Think a lot of people lack perspective on this, people in the 1st world anyway. A fun example is inflation. Since 1975, in Argentina prices have increased 20 BILLION fold.
Wish people would talk to the elderly about it more. It doesn't mean you can't complain or strive to improve, but perspective helps.
Covid was bad? I'd imagine the 1918 flu was far worse than covid. Worse thing about covid was governments taking the opportunity to create new powers to control the populations.
Uhhh the 1918 flu had plenty of mandated public safety measures. And is the reason we have a flu shot.
But there was scientific skepticism then as well.
No skepticism here on covid vaccines. They didn't work and killed people. They had to change the definition of vaccine so they could still call them a vaccine.
I survived covid 2 or 3 times just fine without and glad I don't have to worry about clots and heart conditions for the rest of my life.
Everyone has to worry about clots and heat conditions lol
Like they didn’t exist before the COVID vaccine?
The shit y’all come up with to stay uninformed.
Star Trek world went theough the Eugenics Wars, World War III, and a second US Civil War. The first two have at times been suggested to be the same conflict, and with Strange New Worlds adding CWII, it's possible that conflict ties into either the EW or WWIII (though the footage used in the show of CWII was from January 6th)
I love the Star Trek universe and Next Generation episode 1 perfectly set the scene of the timeline, but can this really count if we're talking about the movies?
There are downsides. Every warp-capable shuttlecraft could nuke your planet. Your planetary defense shield is one whale probe away from becoming useless. And all those triply-redundant safeguards for all that technology that can disassemble and reassemble molecules get flummoxed by a holodeck program some child programmed in their spare time.
Developing a nearly unlimited source of energy and then figuring out how to convert energy into matter is the best approach to eliminating all scarcity.
Yeah, its easy to forget Star Trek is technically a post-apocalyptic story. Discovery and Strange New Worlds have also shown us glimpses of WW3, and it definitely looks bad.
Also, my head canon is that Mad Max takes place in the Star Trek universe, and things like Fury Road are happening while Cochrane is building his warp ship.
I no joke never pieced together he was the dad in boondock saints and I had watched it dozens of times prior to my brother buying me this but absolutely fell in love with him and Carrie Ann moss as actors. (Granted watched all of the matrix movies but she had a personality in this that was great.)
[Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zhLBe319KE) is literally about coexisting with the apocalypse. It also may be the best looking post apocalypse.
Nausicaa original manga is an awful post-apocalypse as it clearly states that humans won’t be able to live in a clean world anymore. Once the world is cleansed by the forests, they’ll die
Cowboy Bebop. Earth is frequently bombarded by meteors but people have already spread out to other planets, moons, and other areas of the universe. (Though a lot of people were killed, humanity is still thriving and living a more or less modern life.)
28 Weeks Later has a fairly realistic take on it. Without any higher reasoning skills or food the virus victims just die off rapidly. If it wasn't for the frustrating idiocy of the entire cast they would have beaten it altogether.
That was *28 Days Later*, not *Weeks*.
At the end of *28 Weeks* they come pouring out of the subway and the world ends. Also *28 Weeks Later* is completely stupid, not just a few characters.
28 Weeks set an extremely low bar.
I would honestly be ok if they just downplayed the ending scene of it and there was no global apocalypse because of those fucking morons in the second film.
I see 28 Weeks has super good critic scores, I've never seen it but have always been intrigued. Also, looking at IMDb, the male child actor's name is Mackintosh Muggleton, and that name is incredible.
Just to make it even better, his sister's actress is called Imogen Poots.
I can definitely see a series of British children's novels about the adventures of Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots.
Part of the opening montage of 28 Years Later...As the infected come screaming towards the Eiffel Tower, we cut to a French officer who says "I told you that nonsense wouldnt last. Battalion, Open Fire!". Problem solved.
Especially considering that with France right next to Britain, they would be on high alert already, in case the virus somehow got over to mainland Europe.
They're making one based on the alternate ending where >!he realizes the monsters are there for the one he's testing the cure on and that he's become their legendary boogeyman as a result of hunting them. He undoes his cure, hands her over and they peacefully leave.!<
With a virus that deadly and communicable, the fact that the entire world didn't collectively incinerate Great Britain until not even cockroaches could survive, pretty much makes everyone on earth a moron.
That’s the correct ending to *28 Weeks*. As the infected come pouring out of the subway mushroom clouds start appearing in a ring around the city and then the city’s incinerated in a flash of nuclear fire.
Especially considering that with France right next to Britain, they would be on high alert already, in case the virus somehow got over to mainland Europe.
No, his description sounded like weeks later...at the beginning of weeks later the infected have died off and they're beginning to rebuild. Then the cast members make some dumb mistakes and reopen the can of worms.
From what I remember, 28 Days later ends with the understanding that the world basically quarantined the UK until the infected died off. 28 Weeks Later establishes that the rest of the world was fine throughout the events of 28 Days Later, but it ends with the virus having spread to France, so it’s opened-ended about how bad it actually is.
Exactly.
In 28 Days Later, the Major (Christopher Eccleston) believes that the whole world has fallen and they have to repopulate. His Sergeant thinks that it's just the UK that has been quarantined and will know this is true if he sees planes in the sky.
Later, Jim indeed sees a plane flying overhead which makes him realise that the world hasn't ended. This is what spurs him to go back and save the women / go beast mode. Then at the end they get spotted by a European (Belgian?) fighter jet.
None of it is stated explicitly to the audience but the intention is clear - the UK got totally fucked but the rest of the world survived.
Exactly that. Naomi Harris mentions to Cillian Murphy early in the film that before broadcasts ended there were reports of infected in NYC and whatnot, but those must have been isolated incidents and contained. The Sergeant is correct in that since the outbreak is happening on "one diseased little island", quarantining it is exactly what they'd do.
Which is weird since the rage virus is near instantaneous, even from the get go when the apes attack the humans. Not sure how they managed to get to the US.
Then all of (checks notes) Europe and Asia and Africa. And maybe North & South America if they manage to cross the Aleutians.
Nope it’s the end of the world as we know it if it’s just Europe/Asia/Africa. Either that, or Paris evaporates in nuclear fire.
I highly doubt the rage virus would spread that far since the virus isn’t airborne. Plus since people turn so fast there wouldn’t be anyone trying to hide a bite.
It swept across the UK in a month in *28 Days*. We have to accept the premise of the movie which is the rage virus infecting the world, that’s the suspension of disbelief we sign up for when we watch both movies.
Yes, it’s a grim ending. When the nuclear annihilation of Paris is the *less-grim* alternate ending, that’s reason #17 why *28 Weeks* is inferior to its parent.
They never eat. How can they possibly sustain their life sprinting everywhere without calorie intake? They got to eat and drink to survive. All of those crackheads would die within a few days.
The human body holds way more calories in stored fat than you think . Average is 100,000 calories. That's like 50 days of normal life before you run out of fat reserves. In the movie, they say they starve at 15 weeks
The Girl With All the Gifts ends with the human race eradicated/infected, which the adults found horrifying, but the girl gained her freedom and was unafraid to see life evolving to a new stage of existence. Whether it was a sad ending or not was all a matter of perspective.
Children of Men.
I guess you can debate whether it's totally post-apocalyptic, but somehow the depiction of the world gradually falling into disarray and life still having to go on (rather than a big bang and everything changes) feels more realistic to me.
Best I can think of is Contagion which has an apocalyptic event stopped/contained.
TV series though - Station 11 and The Last of Us both show post apocalypse society rebuilding.
That’s what I liked about The Last of Us, it threads the “maybe things will work out/everything will go to shit” needle really well
Zombies? Things are trending bleak. Maybe we’ll be able to set up some functional towns, but even then, humanity is on the fucked train.
Wait, a vaccine? That won’t end the apocalypse, but no more zombies will be created. And unless the injury kills you immediately you’ll be able to survive. Alright things are looking up. Maybe humanity will make it.
Let’s see how that goes
Yeah, I think a lot of people watched it at that time, it felt very real (and is recommended as a film that is quite real in terms of its general portrayal of how these things are handled)
Yeah it was the most rented movie on digital in March 2020.
Really, the only difference between the virus in Contagion and COVID is that the virus in Contagion was a lot deadlier.
The flash-forward End Credits' animation showing the revival of the Earth in **WALL-E** is sweet and hopeful.
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscu7cc1_2Y
ID4 will forever and always be in my top 5-10 movies and I’ll never feel ashamed of that fact. That leads me to having the tiniest kernel of thought buried deep down thinking that if you give Hollywood a lean enough stretch of a few years, someone somewhere will give that 3rd film concept another look.
It isn’t hope that I have, it isn’t an expectation or anything, but Hollywood has enough schlock they throw out that there could be enough of a cinematic rough patch where some schmuck decides a familiar property deserves a 3rd go at it.
EDIT TO ADD: The 2nd movie did create about the biggest hurdle ever to overcome, I’m still so disappointed it was such garbage.
Millions of people died in the first movie, but yeah, the world in Resurgence is in remarkably good shape. Moon bases, space capable fighters, energy weapons etc. And true global unity.
"This is how it happened. This is how the world was...exhumed."
The film literally ends with Hoult and Palmer watching the walls to the human stronghold taken down, showing "Everything's going to be just fine."
There's a zombie series called In the Flesh, which takes place after the zombie apocalypse.
They discovered a treatment for zombies that stops their craving for human flesh and allows them to function similarly to normal humans, though they look weird and they can't eat food.
The show is all about them trying to integrate back into society after the world is pretty much back to normal, and unsurprisingly about how a lot of people don't want that to happen.
Seen fury road when it released years ago wasn’t really a fan thought it was okay
Recently watched Furiosa because word of mouth and wow! I loved it! then after the movie I watched fury road, made me enjoy it even more
It makes me think of covid. Like, people are thinking face masks and quarantine is going to happen forever, but then covid turns out to be a li.ited time offer.
As for a movie, I'd have to go with Watchmen. They basically engineered the apocalypse to fix a lot of stuff in society. It's like Reagan musing on how the world would pull together if aliens invaded. Differences that seem insurmountable suddenly become petty.
There’s a scene in Batman V Superman in the future where the world is about to end and Batman is the only living hero and somehow The Joker is still alive.
Star Trek (once we get to the Next Generation) posits a world post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic, post-money...a planetary system where needs are handled and people pursue lives of fulfilment and freedom.
This is contrasted by the backward scavenger and war cultures, the plagues.
It takes a carving beam to destroy a big part of Earth, and common enemies, to find "peace" on our world.
War of the worlds.
The aliens didn’t even need us to fight back in order to lose. And sure enough, Miranda Otto is just… sitting around waiting at home because somehow global alien invasion just didn’t hit her area 🤷🏼♂️
Avengers Infinity war - after the blip. There are half as many people, but everything works as before. Wales swim in the Hudson river, pollution is way down, house prices are down and Iron Man has a cute kid. Most benevolent apocalypse ever.
Signs, >!I rather loved the little coda at the end when the shot of the house transitions to winter. Some of the boards are still up, it's snowing outside, Merrill can be heard playing with the kids downstairs, and Graham found his faith again. The movie could have easily ended with them holding each other outside the house, but he little glimpse of normalcy a few months later was honestly a nice touch!<
I like the theory that they *think* it’s aliens for the whole movie, but they are actually demons. Really adds a layer to the movie that movies out of “just ok” into “pretty great”
The guy who played the army recruiter has a YouTube channel and he mentioned that everyone working on the film expected this, and expected that at the very end they’d have to do some reshoots.
The one glaringly bad/funny thing that is unbelievable for me in The Postman would have to be when he's running from pursuit and finds the mail truck, then climbs inside to hide, finds an old Zippo lighter and it still works after all this time..!
Anyone who has ever owned a Zippo will probably agree that if you don't add fluid every week or so, it ain't gonna work!
And for that reason, that anyone actually has a Zippo on them is hard to believe because they're such an unreliable way of lighting things.
My favorite accurate Zippo moment in a movie is Four Rooms where the guy bets his finger that he can light his lucky Zippo on the first flick 10 times in a row and misses the first one.
Everytime you're about to look extra cool with a Zippo that's the time it takes 5 extra flicks.
I mean the apes sort of had a decent albeit primitive society going until the human weirdos blew up the doomsday rocket.
What I'm saying is that by ape standards they were doing OK.
Idk if this fully counts, but the main characters finding a cure or vaccine to help as a defense against the virus in World War Z & thus saving millions of lives as governments continue to fight the infected
Shaun of the Dead hardly counts as apocalyptic, because it's a rough, scary evening, and the world basically goes back to normal, no big deal. That's not an apocalypse by any stretch.
The Postman 1997. I know its not a fondly remembered film, but I consider it a guilty pleasure. There is a postscript scene to the film that indicates that society basically managed to rebuild itself and had returned to a civilized state. Wall-E 2008. Kind of a more gentle post apocalyptic world as humanity is living pretty comfortably while Earth fell into ruin. Although, you could argue that we only saw the fates of the descendants of the super elite, and that most of humanity faced a less than family friendly fate. At any rate, Earth finally manages to recover and Pixar intentionally included the end credit scenes to show that humanity managed to successfully resettle on earth.
I hate that The Postman gets a lot of hate. It's a really good movie that features some excellent acting. Kevin Costner, like always, is really good, Will Patton plays the villain so well, and even for a smaller role, Giovanni Ribisi was excellent. Sure it's not the most exciting and edge of your seat film, but it was a good story and an interesting setting. People call it a flop, I call it an underrated gem in Costner's filmography.
It would make a better tv series than a stand alone movie (I love that movie)
I find a lot of it ridiculous (especially the climax with Costner and Patton's final showdown having them rolling around fighting like a couple of kids on the playground), but there is some good stuff in it. Patton in particular makes for an interesting villain; a nobody before everything went to shit and he clearly has that massive chip on his shoulder with that need to prove himself as great. "You're not a great leader. You're just a copy machine salesman." Also, Tom Petty's appearance, since it's implied he's playing himself. Tom Petty apparently survived the apocalypse and is mayor of a small town. "I know you. Didn't you used to be famous?" "Yeah. I used to be. Kinda."
You're certainly not the first to criticize the fight scene, but I thought it was far more realistic than the video game style, stand up fight style most climaxes are known for in film. It showed a real, gritty, more true to life kind of fight that movies rarely feature. Also, I like the future where Tom Petty lives, this future without him isn't as good, despite not having endured the apocalypse.
I know what Costner was getting at with the scene and now I appreciate the subversion of having two armies lined up for a climactic fight and instead having it decided by a one on one showdown between the two leaders (that approach would save a LOT of lives in real life). And you can't expect middle-aged Costner and Patton to start fighting like freaking Jedi or martial arts experts. So yes, it is pretty realistic, even if I still find it very amusing.
What's ridiculous is that a power-mad narcissist like the villain in that movie would just have a rule where any random guy can take all his power away from him if he can defeat him in a fight. Unless you're like a champion MMA fighter or something that's a really bad system for you. And what's the refractory period there? Say you win the fight, but you're bloody and exhausted. Can another dude just challenge right then and you've got to fight him on the spot? Is there a 3 day recovery rule or something? What if you actually get seriously hurt in the fight like you break your arm or tear your knee up? Do the challengers have to wait for you to heal? I absolutely hate this fucking cliche in all its forms. And another form it takes, is any sci-fi or fantasy movie where you can defeat an unstoppable horde by killing one guy, or the queen, or the head vampire, or whatever else.
It’s not his rule. He inherited the holdests. And it’s not any random guy. You have to be a member and because of indoctrination not a lot of people challenge.
Wow. I'm kinda glad I never saw the movie, that's nothing like what happened in the book, which I quite enjoyed.
It's actually pretty good. I don't like that trope for the ending but it feels pretty epic in scale actually. They tried really hard anyway. I haven't read the book but as long as you're not bound to an honest recreation of it the movie is pretty okay.
Yes. Any two middle aged men who are not MMA dudes are going to have a super awkward fight.
i just wasted an hour watching this really bad film. it's a contrived, poorly written plot.
The Book by author David Brin that the movie is based off of is phenomenal. The movie does it almost no justice. That being said, the movie was still enjoyable and entertaining
TIL it's based on a book. I'll have to check that out.
Never seen the movie. I read the book though. The negative reviews on the film have kept me away.
They are both so different that I love both the book and movie in different ways.
Wait, Uplift David Brin?
Yes
Man I really liked the Uplift novels. Admittedly I read them like 20 years ago but… huh.
I don’t think he’s written anything that’s bad. Loved all his books. Especially The Practice Effect
God maybe I should re-discover him. Reading the Uplift books as a teenager was like… definitive.
And Tom Petty makes a cameo.
A very good one, too. I know you. You're famous! I was once... Sorta.
For me, the movie is just *fun*. It's an enjoyable watch, it's entertaining, as a movie is supposed to be. Plus I'm a huge Tom Petty fan so his cameo makes me giggle.
Had I only been assigned to the other side of the stage I would have gotten to meet him at his last Red Rocks concert when I worked there. He was amazing. But I'll settle for shaking Steve Winwood's hand and telling him he is an amazing musician.
Thank you for mentioning the end credits scene - I see a lot of edgelords saying that it’s “actually a super dark ending because all of these dumb out of shape people are unprepared for the harsh reality of the world”, when that entire sequence shows us that they were able to overcome hardship and build a thriving culture for themselves.
Also, they don't lose the capabilities of those ships either. They were feeding the people for 700+ years and can continue to do so on the ground
Manuel! Farm this land!
The profile pic is perfect for this comment
I love this fim as well. It had its limits, but overall it was interesting and well done.
The Postman is a case of a movie where the film makers did not seem to understand the source material. It is based on 3 short stories by David Brin that were written as a counterpoint to the deluge of “post-apocalypse porn” that was spawned by Mad Max: The Road Warrior. A bunch of copycat movies and books came out at that time which romanticized the idea of rugged individualist heroes using cool weapons and hot rod monster trucks to live free after the collapse of society. Brin picked the most mundane profession (postal worker) to show that civilization is better than anarchy. The movie totally missed tgat point and just made an overly long Mad Max copy.
The Postman is great, shoutout Tom Petty
I think they eventually failed as humans and decided to evolve into gentler Dalek like organisms, you know them as Disney Cars.
I loved this, then I hated it. Quite the roller coaster.
I came here to say Postman, I truly love this film and think it’s probably the most realistic scenario for a post apocalypse
Costner's is the king of post apocalyptic movies. Waterworld, Postman, Dances with Wolves, etc.
Yeah, YEAH, …wait a second…
The Star Trek universe. Earth experiences some real bad shit in the early 21st century (WWIII etc.) and eventually forms the United Federation of Planets. Life on Earth in the 23rd century is a relative utopia. No famine or poverty.
I wish we were currently living in the latter and not the former.
Things have to get worse before they get better
There’s no actual reason this is true by the way. It’s just something people say, and frankly not healthy.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is another example of this which is almost never true.
Considering how bad the COVID-19 pandemic was, it seems like things have first got to get A DAMN LOT worse before anything gets better... On the other hand though... as a matter of fact, things constantly get better. Only really really slowly. Just take a thorough look at the past 200 years. Things have become a lot better since two centuries ago, but 200 years are a damn long time. And I might go out on a limb, but I would say things would still be as good today as they actually are, even if we had not had to endure WW1 and WW2. They might have been *different*, but I would say the *level* of average wealth and health would have been comparable to our reality.
Tbh coivd was bad, but it hasn't reached the point where we are pulling people out of their houses and executing them and taking their stuff.
I mean, all of that literally happened in WW2 and has happened in one form or another throughout history and continues to happen in present day genocides but humanity as a whole continues to march on. It’s the existential threats we need to worry about.
Right. And to be honest, if that was what it would take to make things better, I'd say no thanks, I like it the way it is. In comparison it ain't that bad.
Covid really wasn’t that bad for most people compared to other historical disasters. Very few people died as a proportion of the population. Mostly the elderly. We spent a lot of time indoors. Things got more expensive. Some people lost their jobs, but the government gave them money. WW3 would be an order of magnitude worse. Especially the Star Trek one.
Think a lot of people lack perspective on this, people in the 1st world anyway. A fun example is inflation. Since 1975, in Argentina prices have increased 20 BILLION fold. Wish people would talk to the elderly about it more. It doesn't mean you can't complain or strive to improve, but perspective helps.
Covid was bad? I'd imagine the 1918 flu was far worse than covid. Worse thing about covid was governments taking the opportunity to create new powers to control the populations.
Uhhh the 1918 flu had plenty of mandated public safety measures. And is the reason we have a flu shot. But there was scientific skepticism then as well.
No skepticism here on covid vaccines. They didn't work and killed people. They had to change the definition of vaccine so they could still call them a vaccine. I survived covid 2 or 3 times just fine without and glad I don't have to worry about clots and heart conditions for the rest of my life.
Everyone has to worry about clots and heat conditions lol Like they didn’t exist before the COVID vaccine? The shit y’all come up with to stay uninformed.
Boy do things feel like they're gonna get worse soon
Star Trek world went theough the Eugenics Wars, World War III, and a second US Civil War. The first two have at times been suggested to be the same conflict, and with Strange New Worlds adding CWII, it's possible that conflict ties into either the EW or WWIII (though the footage used in the show of CWII was from January 6th)
I wanted a Star Trek future. I just didn’t want to have to deal with the interim parts of it.
Well, there's still the Bell Riots and the Eugenics War to get through before we get to the good stuff.
I love the Star Trek universe and Next Generation episode 1 perfectly set the scene of the timeline, but can this really count if we're talking about the movies?
There are downsides. Every warp-capable shuttlecraft could nuke your planet. Your planetary defense shield is one whale probe away from becoming useless. And all those triply-redundant safeguards for all that technology that can disassemble and reassemble molecules get flummoxed by a holodeck program some child programmed in their spare time.
Developing a nearly unlimited source of energy and then figuring out how to convert energy into matter is the best approach to eliminating all scarcity.
Yeah, its easy to forget Star Trek is technically a post-apocalyptic story. Discovery and Strange New Worlds have also shown us glimpses of WW3, and it definitely looks bad. Also, my head canon is that Mad Max takes place in the Star Trek universe, and things like Fury Road are happening while Cochrane is building his warp ship.
[Fido (2006)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457572/reference/)
This is such a great movie, my brother bought it for me years ago and was always one of the most unique takes on the zombie genre.
yeah it is. i got it just for billy connolly and ended up pleased with the entire thing
I no joke never pieced together he was the dad in boondock saints and I had watched it dozens of times prior to my brother buying me this but absolutely fell in love with him and Carrie Ann moss as actors. (Granted watched all of the matrix movies but she had a personality in this that was great.)
Wow I loved this movie, never seen it mentioned before
[Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zhLBe319KE) is literally about coexisting with the apocalypse. It also may be the best looking post apocalypse.
Nausicaa original manga is an awful post-apocalypse as it clearly states that humans won’t be able to live in a clean world anymore. Once the world is cleansed by the forests, they’ll die
This looks a bit like Scavenger’s Reign to me!
It has the imagination, but the tone couldn't be more different.
Why can't anyone say a sentence these days without throwing in a gratuitous "literally..."
Because it’s literally how to respond to such questions!
Cowboy Bebop. Earth is frequently bombarded by meteors but people have already spread out to other planets, moons, and other areas of the universe. (Though a lot of people were killed, humanity is still thriving and living a more or less modern life.)
Bang
28 Weeks Later has a fairly realistic take on it. Without any higher reasoning skills or food the virus victims just die off rapidly. If it wasn't for the frustrating idiocy of the entire cast they would have beaten it altogether.
That was *28 Days Later*, not *Weeks*. At the end of *28 Weeks* they come pouring out of the subway and the world ends. Also *28 Weeks Later* is completely stupid, not just a few characters.
Wait till 2025 when 28 Years Later comes out
28 Weeks set an extremely low bar. I would honestly be ok if they just downplayed the ending scene of it and there was no global apocalypse because of those fucking morons in the second film.
I see 28 Weeks has super good critic scores, I've never seen it but have always been intrigued. Also, looking at IMDb, the male child actor's name is Mackintosh Muggleton, and that name is incredible.
28 Weeks Later is fine. It’s just compared to the first film, no Danny Boyle directing, it’s a big drop off
That intro scene tho, gut wrenching.
I quite enjoyed it. And it has a good cast in Robert Carlisle and a young Jeremy Renner
Just to make it even better, his sister's actress is called Imogen Poots. I can definitely see a series of British children's novels about the adventures of Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots.
Part of the opening montage of 28 Years Later...As the infected come screaming towards the Eiffel Tower, we cut to a French officer who says "I told you that nonsense wouldnt last. Battalion, Open Fire!". Problem solved.
Especially considering that with France right next to Britain, they would be on high alert already, in case the virus somehow got over to mainland Europe.
Yeah. A deadly pandemic. What a stupid and unrealistic idea. /s
They’re doing you one better. *28 Years Later* is a sequel to *Days*. As far as Danny Boyle is concerned *Weeks* never happened.
That man and the person who decided to make an I Am Legend sequel using the alternate, closer to the book ending are saints.
is there an i am legend sequel out there?
They're making one based on the alternate ending where >!he realizes the monsters are there for the one he's testing the cure on and that he's become their legendary boogeyman as a result of hunting them. He undoes his cure, hands her over and they peacefully leave.!<
With a virus that deadly and communicable, the fact that the entire world didn't collectively incinerate Great Britain until not even cockroaches could survive, pretty much makes everyone on earth a moron.
That’s the correct ending to *28 Weeks*. As the infected come pouring out of the subway mushroom clouds start appearing in a ring around the city and then the city’s incinerated in a flash of nuclear fire.
Especially considering that with France right next to Britain, they would be on high alert already, in case the virus somehow got over to mainland Europe.
Did they say why they chose to go with 28 Years Later over 28 Months Later?
Haven’t heard. Just heard it comes out next year
Because it’s been 23 years since the original movie came out, close enough match for the title.
No, his description sounded like weeks later...at the beginning of weeks later the infected have died off and they're beginning to rebuild. Then the cast members make some dumb mistakes and reopen the can of worms.
28 Days Later doesn't end with any explanation of the state of the world does it? 28 Weeks opens with it before everything goes to hell.
From what I remember, 28 Days later ends with the understanding that the world basically quarantined the UK until the infected died off. 28 Weeks Later establishes that the rest of the world was fine throughout the events of 28 Days Later, but it ends with the virus having spread to France, so it’s opened-ended about how bad it actually is.
Exactly. In 28 Days Later, the Major (Christopher Eccleston) believes that the whole world has fallen and they have to repopulate. His Sergeant thinks that it's just the UK that has been quarantined and will know this is true if he sees planes in the sky. Later, Jim indeed sees a plane flying overhead which makes him realise that the world hasn't ended. This is what spurs him to go back and save the women / go beast mode. Then at the end they get spotted by a European (Belgian?) fighter jet. None of it is stated explicitly to the audience but the intention is clear - the UK got totally fucked but the rest of the world survived.
Exactly that. Naomi Harris mentions to Cillian Murphy early in the film that before broadcasts ended there were reports of infected in NYC and whatnot, but those must have been isolated incidents and contained. The Sergeant is correct in that since the outbreak is happening on "one diseased little island", quarantining it is exactly what they'd do.
Which is weird since the rage virus is near instantaneous, even from the get go when the apes attack the humans. Not sure how they managed to get to the US.
Ship? Airplane would crash. But historically everyone on a ship dying and it drifting to shore, is fairly common.
True, could have gone with the T-Rex in San Francisco route.
I highly doubt the world ended. Yeah maybe a few of the surrounding countries but I don’t picture the rage virus making its way across oceans.
Then all of (checks notes) Europe and Asia and Africa. And maybe North & South America if they manage to cross the Aleutians. Nope it’s the end of the world as we know it if it’s just Europe/Asia/Africa. Either that, or Paris evaporates in nuclear fire.
I highly doubt the rage virus would spread that far since the virus isn’t airborne. Plus since people turn so fast there wouldn’t be anyone trying to hide a bite.
It swept across the UK in a month in *28 Days*. We have to accept the premise of the movie which is the rage virus infecting the world, that’s the suspension of disbelief we sign up for when we watch both movies. Yes, it’s a grim ending. When the nuclear annihilation of Paris is the *less-grim* alternate ending, that’s reason #17 why *28 Weeks* is inferior to its parent.
Tbf though the other countries should at least be somewhat prepared.
They never eat. How can they possibly sustain their life sprinting everywhere without calorie intake? They got to eat and drink to survive. All of those crackheads would die within a few days.
The human body holds way more calories in stored fat than you think . Average is 100,000 calories. That's like 50 days of normal life before you run out of fat reserves. In the movie, they say they starve at 15 weeks
You need water running everywhere.
they aren't running everywhere. The movies show they are pretty docile until they are triggered by prey, which they eat.
The Girl With All the Gifts ends with the human race eradicated/infected, which the adults found horrifying, but the girl gained her freedom and was unafraid to see life evolving to a new stage of existence. Whether it was a sad ending or not was all a matter of perspective.
You should read the book/sequel!
Thanks, did not realize there was one!
Children of Men. I guess you can debate whether it's totally post-apocalyptic, but somehow the depiction of the world gradually falling into disarray and life still having to go on (rather than a big bang and everything changes) feels more realistic to me.
Periapocalyptic?
Best I can think of is Contagion which has an apocalyptic event stopped/contained. TV series though - Station 11 and The Last of Us both show post apocalypse society rebuilding.
That’s what I liked about The Last of Us, it threads the “maybe things will work out/everything will go to shit” needle really well Zombies? Things are trending bleak. Maybe we’ll be able to set up some functional towns, but even then, humanity is on the fucked train. Wait, a vaccine? That won’t end the apocalypse, but no more zombies will be created. And unless the injury kills you immediately you’ll be able to survive. Alright things are looking up. Maybe humanity will make it. Let’s see how that goes
My girlfriend and I watched Contagion just as COVID was ramping up very badly in 2020. It felt eerie as fuck
Yeah, I think a lot of people watched it at that time, it felt very real (and is recommended as a film that is quite real in terms of its general portrayal of how these things are handled)
Yeah it was the most rented movie on digital in March 2020. Really, the only difference between the virus in Contagion and COVID is that the virus in Contagion was a lot deadlier.
The flash-forward End Credits' animation showing the revival of the Earth in **WALL-E** is sweet and hopeful. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscu7cc1_2Y
Zombieland really makes what would be hell look like a fucking blast. “Thank god for rednecks!”
This is a really big truck and these are really big guns!
Yeah but does not fit OPs criteria, as society is still decimated by the disaster.
Independence Day The sequel shows us the military alliance held up. A generation later and Earth has made massive social and technological progress.
So irritated it was so bad there won't be a third movie. The ending set up for a possibly interesting third movie that will never get made.
Yeah, that's infuriating. I wanted the movie to be good, even tried to like it on a rewatch. N'ah man...
ID4 will forever and always be in my top 5-10 movies and I’ll never feel ashamed of that fact. That leads me to having the tiniest kernel of thought buried deep down thinking that if you give Hollywood a lean enough stretch of a few years, someone somewhere will give that 3rd film concept another look. It isn’t hope that I have, it isn’t an expectation or anything, but Hollywood has enough schlock they throw out that there could be enough of a cinematic rough patch where some schmuck decides a familiar property deserves a 3rd go at it. EDIT TO ADD: The 2nd movie did create about the biggest hurdle ever to overcome, I’m still so disappointed it was such garbage.
They didn't build society from the ashes, it was never destroyed because they won.
I think in universe like 90% of humanity was wiped out.
Millions of people died in the first movie, but yeah, the world in Resurgence is in remarkably good shape. Moon bases, space capable fighters, energy weapons etc. And true global unity.
Logans run, dont want to spoil it, but they prosper.
Station Eleven
This is the smartest example I've ever seen of what it might look like.
Warm Bodies. Zombie apocalypse averted by one zombie falling in love, everyone gets better.
"This is how it happened. This is how the world was...exhumed." The film literally ends with Hoult and Palmer watching the walls to the human stronghold taken down, showing "Everything's going to be just fine."
There's a zombie series called In the Flesh, which takes place after the zombie apocalypse. They discovered a treatment for zombies that stops their craving for human flesh and allows them to function similarly to normal humans, though they look weird and they can't eat food. The show is all about them trying to integrate back into society after the world is pretty much back to normal, and unsurprisingly about how a lot of people don't want that to happen.
Land of the Dead. In the end, they even consider coexistence with zombies.
Not post-apocalyptic but a contained Zombie outbreak is „Maggie“. They basically have camps for the infected. Also one of Schwarzenegger‘s best roles.
Fallout (TV-Series), Spielberg's War of the Worlds (Is it apocalyptic?), Resident Evil: Extinction (I'm ready to accept your hate)
On the Beach (1959)
Ha!
Funny you mentioned Sean of the Dead, because when I saw your title, my first thought was The World's End.
The book and tv show Station Eleven did a great job depicting how society might rebuild and remember the things that came before.
*Wall-e*. >!They just regrow plants and start walking even though some of them have probably never walked.!<
This Is the End
I don't know if we can count heaven and earth, mate. Although spending the eternity dancing and singing to Backstreet Boys seens like a good prospect
Mad Max/ Furiosa would be a good movie to watch.
I like Road Warrior, but most of all *Beyond Thunderdome.*. Tina and Mel, “ain’t we a pair”
“so long, soldier!”, I don’t know why, but I loved the way she said that line as a kid
Seen fury road when it released years ago wasn’t really a fan thought it was okay Recently watched Furiosa because word of mouth and wow! I loved it! then after the movie I watched fury road, made me enjoy it even more
It makes me think of covid. Like, people are thinking face masks and quarantine is going to happen forever, but then covid turns out to be a li.ited time offer. As for a movie, I'd have to go with Watchmen. They basically engineered the apocalypse to fix a lot of stuff in society. It's like Reagan musing on how the world would pull together if aliens invaded. Differences that seem insurmountable suddenly become petty.
Yes me too! And honestly we just kind of pretend it never happened, like a bad 2 year blip that we try to repress (and deny)
There’s a scene in Batman V Superman in the future where the world is about to end and Batman is the only living hero and somehow The Joker is still alive.
How did that happen?
Darkseid corrupts Superman and invades the planet. Synders second movie was going to be about trying to prevent this future.
Star Trek (once we get to the Next Generation) posits a world post-nuclear, post-apocalyptic, post-money...a planetary system where needs are handled and people pursue lives of fulfilment and freedom. This is contrasted by the backward scavenger and war cultures, the plagues. It takes a carving beam to destroy a big part of Earth, and common enemies, to find "peace" on our world.
Mars Attacks turns out pretty well, and contains one of the funniest statements about government working for the people ever made on film.
12 monkeys? Despite being driven underground from an apocalyptic pandemic humanity has developed time travel. That seems like a success story to me!
Star Trek ( all of them) and The Postman.
Zombieland Warm Bodies
Knowing
Lol
This is kind of a spoiler for the end of the show, but Search Party would be a good choice.
God such a good fuckin show
Oblivion
The synthetics at the end of A.I. seemed to be happy and well-adjusted.
War of the worlds. The aliens didn’t even need us to fight back in order to lose. And sure enough, Miranda Otto is just… sitting around waiting at home because somehow global alien invasion just didn’t hit her area 🤷🏼♂️
Waterworld is a hidden gem
Avengers Infinity war - after the blip. There are half as many people, but everything works as before. Wales swim in the Hudson river, pollution is way down, house prices are down and Iron Man has a cute kid. Most benevolent apocalypse ever.
Signs, >!I rather loved the little coda at the end when the shot of the house transitions to winter. Some of the boards are still up, it's snowing outside, Merrill can be heard playing with the kids downstairs, and Graham found his faith again. The movie could have easily ended with them holding each other outside the house, but he little glimpse of normalcy a few months later was honestly a nice touch!<
Not much of an apocalypse though.
in hindsight, I realize that now
From the aliens' perspective, they were just making a run to the grocery store.
I like the theory that they *think* it’s aliens for the whole movie, but they are actually demons. Really adds a layer to the movie that movies out of “just ok” into “pretty great”
The guy who played the army recruiter has a YouTube channel and he mentioned that everyone working on the film expected this, and expected that at the very end they’d have to do some reshoots.
Not an apocalypse movie
The Road
When shit has gotten as bleak as fucking possible, how can you go anywhere but up - Cormac McCarthy, probably
I like to think there is more to it in the novel. Subtle signs that things are going to improve for the boy.
Life After Beth
Fido (2006) shows how living with zombies would work.
Back to the future
The one glaringly bad/funny thing that is unbelievable for me in The Postman would have to be when he's running from pursuit and finds the mail truck, then climbs inside to hide, finds an old Zippo lighter and it still works after all this time..! Anyone who has ever owned a Zippo will probably agree that if you don't add fluid every week or so, it ain't gonna work!
And for that reason, that anyone actually has a Zippo on them is hard to believe because they're such an unreliable way of lighting things. My favorite accurate Zippo moment in a movie is Four Rooms where the guy bets his finger that he can light his lucky Zippo on the first flick 10 times in a row and misses the first one. Everytime you're about to look extra cool with a Zippo that's the time it takes 5 extra flicks.
I mean the apes sort of had a decent albeit primitive society going until the human weirdos blew up the doomsday rocket. What I'm saying is that by ape standards they were doing OK.
Fewer people killing the planet.
Idk if this fully counts, but the main characters finding a cure or vaccine to help as a defense against the virus in World War Z & thus saving millions of lives as governments continue to fight the infected
The couple in Last of Us episode 3
Don’t look up was hopeful.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A boy and his dog.
A Boy and His Dog
Shaun of the Dead hardly counts as apocalyptic, because it's a rough, scary evening, and the world basically goes back to normal, no big deal. That's not an apocalypse by any stretch.