Top 5 Post Apocalyptic Movies

Top 5 Post Apocalyptic Movies

Our current movie project Northstar taps into a long tradition of literature and films that are set in a possible future where a devastating event has either stopped or altered the course of civilization. The other day I sounded out the other two Lullskull guys and together we compiled a short list of  movies that inspired the way we’ve approached this genre in our own project. We’re still discovering new films on a regular basis, so please offer your suggestions!

Note: I define “Post Apocalyptic” as a story  where an event, either natural or man-made but always HORRIBLE, has already occurred as the story begins or has happened recently enough to totally mess up the main character’s daily routine. This differs from “Dystopic” fiction, which typically imagines a crappy future that isn’t the direct result of say a Biblical Superflu, a Texas-Sized Asteroid or a Robot Holocaust. Dystopias (think Blade Runner or 1984) are usually just something that happened “naturally”, and I dunno, maybe that’s worse because the implicit message is everyone was lazy enough to let it happen. Now that we’ve got that cleared up:

1) The Road Warrior

In a dried out Australian wilderness, a young Mel Gibson ekes out a hardscrabble (yet devastatingly cool) existence after civilization has literally run out of gas. The Road Warrior delivers just about every trope everyone imagines when they think Post Apocalyptic: It has villains that are a cross between someone you’d see walk of out a Clash show in 1977, and someone you’d still see walk out of a leather club in 2013. It has a group of angelic, shoulder-padded survivalists holed up in a fenced off compound like it’s some cobbled together medieval castle. And finally, it has an iconic hero thrust into the middle of it all with nothing more than a souped up car, a leather jacket and an awesome dog with mismatched eyes. This movie is a no fuss hour and a half of hard nosed action with a twist ending that still feels nearly mythological. The lesson: if the end of the world happens, keep moving. And this movie moves.

2) The Terminator

With The Terminator, we have a Post Apocalyptic scenario in reverse; instead of following the hero after she’s been put through the end of the world wringer, we watch her face down the relentless, red-eyed, heavy metal reality of a nuclear holocaust that hasn’t even happened yet. What’s still impressive is that Sarah Conner’s development as a  character  is just one of the many things you can pick out underneath what on the surface is a taut chase movie through 1984 Los Angeles, where a man from the future travels back to the woman he fell in love in order to help her become that woman (among other spoilery things) in the process. Besides ruthless pacing, dynamic action, and a deft use of time travel, let’s face it, The Terminator is ultimately held together by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This a performance that demonstrates how sheer screen presence can overcome piddly questions like why a robot would have such a thick Austrian accent.

3) Escape from New York

Director John Carpenter has had a deep influence on Northstar, particular with a string of films he made between 1978 and oh, around 1982. The most appropriate for this discussion is Escape From New York, where yet another cooler than cool hero is thrown into a ravaged environment and forced to contend with an overwhelming power structure that is using him only so long as he’s useful. Beyond that, they’ll just blow out his carotid arteries with a miniature bomb! So Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken is forced to save the President in a New York that’s been cut off into a Manhattan shaped super-max. In a near future where the crime rate has gone up 400% (probably something that was very plausible to urban dwellers in 1981), our “hero” has to stick to a personal code of conduct, even if he himself has crossed the line from hero to petty criminal. Despite being a consistent dick, Plissken sticks to his particular guns; a reflexive selfishness that is maybe the only sane reaction to a world where those in power have gone crazy.

4) 12 Monkeys

Inspired by the gorgeous short film La Jetee, 12 Monkeys asks what the remnants of humanity would do if they had the technological means to reverse the end of the world. But as with other great time travel stories, going back to a better time usually creates more of a mess than actually coping with an unthinkable present. Bruce Willis plays a guinea pig that is sent back multiple times from a ghastly future where an ominous community has devised a time machine that looks like it’s being held together by duct tape (it’s also incredibly imprecise… at one point Willis ends up in World War 1, only to get shot!). His mission is to figure out the origins of a virus so lethal that it’s forced everyone to live underground. As James Cole (Jeeze, Willis’ characters are always sacked with forgettable names) hopscotches across the timeline to discover who released the plague, he interfaces with a bug-eyed Brad Pitt (BTW besides Achilles, this might be my favorite thing he’s ever done), falls in love and ultimately comes face to face with a dream that’s plagued him all his life. Like the Terminator, both time travel and the bulwark of a possible apocalypse are used as a means of exploring how fate and free will determine the course of our lives, and 12 Monkeys has risen over the years as a shining example of original sci-fi that not only entertains, but enlightens.

5) Children of Men

A more recent film in the genre to really shake things up is Children of Men, where civilization is on the brink of total collapse after 18 years of global infertility. Interestingly, the UK seems to be the last governmental structure to stay intact (in a great moment, background newspaper headlines tell everyone the US basically nuked itself), but I guess Escape from New York didn’t teach us jack, because Parliament took a page from Hitler’s rule-book and now London resembles 1939 Berlin. Starring as a former activist that’s been whittled down to a hollowed out wisp of a man, would-be Bond Clive Owen is quickly forced to escort the only pregnant woman alive through a hellish countryside where multiple, highly armed factions vie for the future of humanity. There’s much to love when it comes to this film, from it’s desperate portrayal of power, to the apathy many would succumb to as a result of an apocalyptic scenario that is out of anyone’s control, but what really strikes me is how uncompromisingly brutal this world is. There’s violence in this film that sticks with you. The film ends with a brilliantly executed race against time through a prison camp that collapses into to a chaotic mess of surreal urban combat. As Owen’s Theo does his best to escort an utterly vulnerable woman with child through a hail of bullets, it’s hard to imagine a better image of hope in the face of overwhelming odds.