50 Awesome Movie Apocalypses

Tank Girl (1995)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Water is sparse thanks to a comet pummelling Earth in 2022.

By 2033, water is being used to control the planet's population - much to the chagrin of resistance group member Tank Girl (Lori Petty).

In terms of awesomeness, there are mutant kangaroo men running around. Well, hopping.

What's not to like about that?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Team up with Tank Girl and kick some ass.

Daybreakers (2009)

The Awesome Apocalypse: It's 2019, and the human race has almost entirely been wiped out, replaced by a society of vampires.

The result is a back-to-front world where day is night and night is day. Which is a good excuse to party all day, right? Or night. Wait, we're confused.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Start looking for a cure…

Man Of Steel (2012)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Technically there are three apocalypses in Man Of Steel (one actual, one imagined, one almost).

Here, we're talking about the destruction of Krypton, which goes up in a fiery blaze thanks to the planet's depleted resources.

This one's more awe-inspiring than awesome, we've never seen destruction look so pretty.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get sent to Earth as a baby by your father.

Book Of Eli (2010)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A nuclear apocalypse has left Earth in tatters, setting the human race back centuries.

There are even highway bandits now.

Still, Denzel's walking around the place, being super cool, so it can't be all bad. Imagine being rescued by Denzel! RIGHT?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Be a bad-ass. Or try to hang out with Denzel. To be honest, this is already our motto.

Armageddon (1998)

The Awesome Apocalypse: The end of days is on the cards in Michael Bay's daft blockbuster.

A huge meteor shower is headed for Earth, and it's going to hit us in 18 days, wiping out all life. That is, if Bruce Willis can't stop it.

Still, it's hard to hate an end of the world scenario where Aerosmith are so prominent. No?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get your ass to Mars. Though, you know, wear a space suit and take some supplies, obvs.

Idiocracy (2006)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Five hundred years in the future, people have lost much of their intellect and become, well, really, really dumb.

Why? Blame our culture, which has turned into one big advertorial. This is scarily plausible…

Is this just us, or does it seem like a really fun place to visit? No? Fair enough.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get lots of omega 3 and turn off the idiot box.

Hell (2011)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In 2016, Earth has literally become hell after solar flares destroyed the planet's atmosphere and caused the temperature to rise 10°C.

Cue a desperate scrabble for survival.

Still, think of the money you'd save at the tanning salon.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Priority numero uno: find supplies. Water and food are paramount. Then keep them hidden - people will kill you for 'em.

Plus try to get somewhere cold. The Alps sound pretty inviting…

Right At Your Door (2006)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A number of dirty bombs are set off in Los Angeles, filling the air with ash that could prove fatal.

The race is on to find clean air. But are we our own worst enemies?

This is awesome in the OHMYGODTHISCOULDHAPPEN kind of a way. Utterly terrifying.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get gas mask. Go home. Nail every door and window shut.

Carriers (2009)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A plague takes out most of mankind, leaving just a handful of people wandering our scarred planet, including Brian (Chris Pine) and Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci), Bobby (Piper Perabo) and Kate (Emily VanCamp). But how long is it until they succumb to the plague?

This is a tough one to find a positive spin on, to be fair. All your enemies will die?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Wear face masks. Stay away from anybody who's infected (duh). Ditto crazy people.

Legion (2010)

The Awesome Apocalypse: This one's a biggie: God himself has given up on humanity, and he's sent some rather mean-looking angels to usher in the apocalypse.

Could Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) be the key to stopping it?

Let's hope so - he's got some supercool weapons and a suave suit.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Make sure you've got an angel on your side. Then let him do all the fighting.

I Am Legend (2007)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A plague has wiped out most of the human race and transformed the rest of it into crazy CGI monstrosities that'll eat you if you're stupid enough to go out after dark.

The film's pants, but the sight of a New York repossessed by nature is phenomenal.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't go out at night. Get a dog for protection.

When The Wind Blows (1986)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Don't let the cosy cartoon imagery fool you, this is actually a horrify tale of Earth's end of days, as two Brits that survive a nuclear attack are unaware they're slowly dying from the resultant poisoning. Sob.

Yeah, there's no postive spin we can put on this particular plot. It's making us want to cry just thinking about it.

Still, it's pretty impressive that a bunch of pictures can have such a profound affect. Great message, too.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Um, ignorance is bliss?

Miracle Mile (1988)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Harry (Anthony Edwards) discovers that nuclear war will be unleashed in 70 minutes via a handy cautionary phone call.

Whoever made the call wasn't kidding - pretty soon Los Angeles looks like Harrods during the Christmas sales.

Still, you do get to walk around on the tops of cars. We've always wanted to do that. Fun!

How To Survive It If It Happens: Um, sorry, but with this one, you're probably doomed.

Deep Impact (1998)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In just 365 days, a comet's coming that will rearrange Earth's face.

Happily, an underground bunker big enough to fit one million people is just waiting for you. As well as about a billion others…

Nothing like a bit of community spirit!

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get to that underground retreat before anybody else does.

War Of The Worlds (2005)

The Awesome Apocalypse: The shit's about to hit the fan in this apocalyptic invasion flick, in which dormant alien 'tripods' turn the human race into slaves and set about terraforming.

But if you found a safe place to hide, we reckon this particular apocalypse would be an amazing thing to witness.

We can't emphasise enough how important it is to find a safe spot before you crack out the binoculars, though

How To Survive It If It Happens: Put your faith in Tom Cruise. He'll see you through.

2012 (2012)

The Awesome Apocalypse: The Mayans were right - the world's going to end in 2012 (hindsight-fnar).

Cue humongous tidal waves, earthquakes and storms that threaten to tear the world apart.

If you're going to go, might as well go in style!

How To Survive It If It Happens: Secure yourself and your loved ones a spot aboard a life-saving ark.

Waterworld (1995)

The Awesome Apocalypse : It's the year 2500 and the polar ice caps have melted, turning the blue planet into exactly that - a planet with almost no land to speak of.

That's a whole lot of water…

Yay! Free swimming lessons!

How To Survive It If It Happens: Grow fins.

Soylent Green (1973)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Overpopulation has run rife by 2044, so much so that New York City alone is now home to a staggering 40 million people.

And you thought it was bad now…

Oh god, this is horrible. We're really starting to regret the angle of this feature.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't eat anything produced by Soylent Green. Trust us on this one.

The Day After (1983)

The Awesome Apocalypse: War rages between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, developing in all-out war between the US and the Soviet Union.

The fall out? America is a "blackened wasteland" populated with "burn, blast and radiation victims".

Um, which means possible X-Men style mutations? No, we're out.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get the heck out of America. Pronto.

Delicatessen (1991)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In the near future, food's in short supply.

Which doesn't seem to bother a French landlord, who's keeping his butchers' stocked by harvesting fine cuts from his tenants.

So, murder: bad. But apoca-burgers? Yum!

How To Survive It If It Happens: Well, don't get a room above a butchers' shop. Easy really.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (2005)

The Awesome Apocalypse: More of a demolition than an apocalypse, this one, as big, bloated aliens called Vogons decide to blow Earth up in order to pave a clear way for them to build a hyperspace bypass.

Which is a good excuse to spend the day in your dressing gown.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get a ride on a Vogon ship to avoid being vaporised.

Zombieland (2009)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Zombies! A mutant strain of mad cow disease that turned into mad person disease has decimated the United States, where dead people transform into carnivorous and damn near unkillable eating machines.

Still, it's a good excuse to make some new friends.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Follow the handy survival rules of Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg).

Well, he's made it this far…

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

The Awesome Apocalypse: An alien microbe threatens life on Earth, first wiping out an entire town in New Mexico, then threatening to swallow America whole.

It's also able to eat through rubber, meaning it's impossible to contain. The microbe's codename? Andromeda.

Which is... a pretty name for the end of humanity?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Just don't try to stop Andromeda with a nuclear explosion - it would feed off it.

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Vincent Price is the sole survivor of Earth, which has been overrun with vampires.

(If it sounds familiar, it's because it's based on the same story as I Am Legend , only given a Hammer-style twist.)

If you're going to live on a vampire planet, Vincent Price is probably the right person to hang out with.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get yourself a stake. And a bottle of holy water.

Contagion (2011)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Awesomely terrifying, mostly because it's just so realistic.

The MEV-1 virus attacks the human respiratory system, and what starts out as a seeming common cold soon turns into something deadly. The apocalypse is nigh.

*curls up in the corner and starts crying*

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't. Touch. Anything.

The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

The Awesome Apocalypse: This comes right at the tail end of the film (so, you know, SPOILERS), as a demonic sacrifice goes awry and something very big and very bad (dubbed the Ancient Ones, naturally) is about to pound the world into dust.

Cue one of the bloodiest apocalypses you've ever seen - and one stuffed with some of the most amazing movie monsters ever put on the screen. We're still having bad dreams over that mermaid...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't go down to the woods…

Pontypool (2008)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A virus has made its way into the English language so that if certain terms of endearment or conflicting phrases are uttered, people transform into zombies.

This is one natty concept for an apocalypse. Though it's pretty out there in terms of believability, the idea of a language-born virus is inspired.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Stuff your ears with cotton wool.

28 Days Later (2002)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Medical research monkeys infected with 'Rage' are unleashed and their virus spreads through the human race, turning the infected into mini versions of the Hulk.

The sight of a deserted London is what gives this apocalypse its kick - who didn't shudder with foreboding when Cillian Murphy wandered through a barren central London? Stays with you for weeks...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't get anywhere near an infected person.

Also, have a baseball bat handy.

This Is The End (2013)

The Awesome Apocalypse: The end. You know, a big fat apocalypse of Earth-swallowing proportions. Made all the cooler by a cast of a-listers all playing themselves.

We don't want to give too much away, but it's fair to say that this is one mind-blowing apocalypse with all the explosions, body-crushings and celebrity deaths you could ever want...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get together with a group of celebrity pals and sweat it out.

The Matrix (1999)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Sentient machines have long-since ravaged Earth, colonising the human race and setting up a simulated reality so that humans are blissfully unaware that they've been enslaved at all.

Though we don't really get to see much of the apocalyptic Earth, the few glimpses we're given are pure cybernetic nightmare. We hope we're long dead before this happens to the human race...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Take the red pill and set yourself free.

But only if you don't mind living with weird metallic rivets all over your body.

Logan's Run (1976)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In the year 2274, humanity exists within a sealed city that's protected by a massive dome.

Also, if you're up for your 30th birthday, you're likely to get 'renewed'. Aka killed. Yep, this is a harsh apocalyptic climate that also somehow manages to be sexy - have you seen what they made Jenny Agutter wear?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get some good running shoes.

Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A good old-fashioned zombie apocalypse, this one, with a grisly phenomenon sweeping the United States.

In short: if you're dead, you won't be for very long. Which makes for one bloody, gory, rip-roaring apocalypse that doesn't pull any punches.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Lock yourself in a mall. Live happily ever after. (One would hope.)

Night Of The Comet (1984)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A red mist settles over the Earth, turning people to dust. It also randomly reanimates dead people to create hordes of the living dead.

It doesn't take a genius to figure this one out: zombies and the apocalypse equal amazing.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Hook up with your sister to fight back. Sistahs are doing it for themselves!

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

The Awesome Apocalypse: How it happened remains a mystery in this stellar sci-fi.

All we know is that in Earth's distant future, man will topple from the top of the food chain and be replaced by talking, highly-intelligent apes.

It's terrifying because, well, who hasn't looked at a chimp and thought, 'He looks like my Uncle Frank'? Also, talking monkeys are always amazing.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Grow out the biggest beard you can and pretend to be a rare sort of bald monkey.

Escape From New York (1981)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In a 'future' 1997, New York City has been surrounded by a 50 foot containment wall that entirely surrounds the island. See, it's been turned into a prison for the worst of the worst…

Here, it's the idea that rivets - an entire city turned into a jail. Plus we get added cool in the form of Snake Plissken, the only guy tough enough to survive such a hell hole.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't get sent to jail.

Dredd (2012)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In the future, the United States is now known as the Cursed Earth because it has become a barren wasteland where an overpopulated metropolis called Mega-City One is the site of 17,000 daily crimes.

Think London's bad? It's a piece of cake compared to this apocalyptic vision. Particuclarly impressive is the concept design for Mega-City One, which looks every bit like the comics.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Become a Judge and help try to keep this hell clean.

Wall-E (2008)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Earth's a tip. No, really. Mass over-consumption by us greedy humans has turned it into a literal rubbish tip, meaning that by 2105 all humans have fled into the comfort of space, living aboard luxury starliners.

Meanwhile, a sole trash compactor is left cleaning up the mess, meaning that not only is this an apocalypse that offers up a character we can't help cooing over, it also surrenders that staggering sight of skyscrapers made entirely out of boxed-up rubbish.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Make sure you've secured yourself a spot on one of those starliners. It'll be a long wait, otherwise.

Stake Land (2010)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Economic crisis collapsed our financial systems, and now a vampire epidemic has seized North America, turning it into a fearsome place of wonton blood-letting.

This flick earns cool points for combining two awesome things: vampires and the end of the world. What's not to love?

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't get bit.

Also, try to make it to Canada if you can. It's better there. (Or so we hear).

Melancholia (2011)

The Awesome Apocalypse: A large blue planet called Melancholia has been hiding behind the sun, but now it's on a collision course for Earth.

Scientists predict a 'fly by' visit. When have scientists ever been right?

True, Lars Von Trier's film wallows in Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg's ennui, but it also offers up some gorgeous sights - among them Melancholia inching ever-closer to Earth. And that Earth-shattering climax will haunt you for days.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't be on Earth.

The Road (2009)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Almost all plant and animal life has been delimitated by an unspecified event that has transformed our once fair land into a dirty, near-inhospitable waste.

This place is vicious with a capital V. If ever a movie apocalypse became a reality, you better pray it's not this one. And if it does happen, pray even harder that you have Viggo Mortensen looking out for you - he's one of the coolest 'survivor dads' ever.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Wear layers. Trust no-one. Look for shelter.

And there's no shame in rooting through bins.

Damnation Alley (1977)

The Awesome Apocalypse: World War III has devastated Earth to such an extent that it's not been tilted off its axis.

Meanwhile, radiation has mutated all insect life. You want monsters? This apocalypse has 'em by the truckload as deadly radiation turns creepy crawlies into ever deadlier monsters. Amazing.

And we haven't even gotten to the storms…

How To Survive It If It Happens: Buy a really big can of bug spray.

Mad Max (1979)

The Awesome Apocalypse: In an unspecified future, law and order is on the brink of collapse in the wake of Earth's exhausted oil supplies.

Particularly troubling for people who love their hot wheels.

It's not exactly difficult to suss out why this apocalypse is awesome - just picture Mel Gibson behind a wheel, burning rubber and on the trail of whooping bad guys...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get first dibs on all the petrol in the world.

Threads (1984)

The Awesome Apocalypse: War between the United States and the Soviet Union rages out of control, threatening everything and everybody inbetween.

Can we survive if things go nuclear?

This is an apocalypse that really gets under your skin, mostly because it's something that could really happen. People prone to paranoia stay away...

How To Survive It If It Happens: Stock up on food and sun cream - when the war's over, you'll need to protect yourself after the ozone was depleted.

Also, shag like bunnies - repopulation is key.

12 Monkeys (1995)

The Awesome Apocalypse: An airborne virus has wiped out most of the human race. Luckily, humans have developed a crude time travel device that means one man may be able to stop it ever happening.

Frankly, any apocalypse that involves Bruce Willis gets our vote, though the weird future tech is particularly nifty - not least the kitted-out chamber in which Willis' character is interrogated.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Make sure you're a prisoner - like Bruce Willis, you may get picked to go back in time to a better world.

The Quiet Earth (1985)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) wakes up one day to discover himself utterly alone on the planet.

Could the mass extinction be a result of a scientific experiment - Project Flashlight - gone wrong?

This is a thinking man's apocalypse, replete with a Bruno Lawrence doing the 'one man show' thing excellently.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get some cardboard cut-outs to be stand-ins for your friends. That'll help with the loneliness.

Be worried if they start talking back.

Children Of Men (2006)

The Awesome Apocalypse: It's 2027 and human infertility is the biggest threat to human life.

That, and all the bloodthirsty crazy people running around with armed weaponry.

It's the down-and-dirty scumminess of this singularly miserable future that makes it so cool. Director Alfonso Cuaron doesn't dress the future up at all, imagining it as a kind of Third World nightmare where grisly things lurk around every corner. In this apocalypse, we are the enemy.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't be a refugee - some rather nasty immigration laws have just been passed, and they don't function in your favour.

The Omega Man (1971)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Charlton Heston's last man on Earth battles ravenous armies of the undead.

They were created by biological warfare gone wild, which has killed most of the population and transformed the rest into albino mutants.

You simply don't get much more awesome than Charlton Heston, especially when he's up against terrifying albinos.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Basically: get yourself a gun. And find a good hiding spot.

Dr Strangelove (1964)

The Awesome Apocalypse: More of a threatened apocalypse in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece (though not in that thrilling Vera-Lynn-soundtracked final montage), as Cold War face-offs threaten to result in a nuclear apocalypse.

This apocalypse gets 'awesome points' for the sight of Major TJ Kong riding a nuclear bomb. Yeee-haw!

How To Survive It If It Happens: It would be preferable to find a way to stop the apocalypse happening.

Perhaps if you could just stop the Cold War?

A Boy And His Dog (1975)

The Awesome Apocalypse: The world has gone to hell after a thermonuclear war that turned what used to be America into a barren wasteland.

In this harsh landscape, tinned food is used as currency and women are there to be taken by lusty men. Meanwhile, mutants (heard but never seen) come out at night.

Alright, so we never see the mutants, but the convincing bleakness of this particular apocalypse is breathtaking. Plus there's a psychic dog, decades before we got Up 's Dug - and he's just as adorable.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Don't be a woman.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The Awesome Apocalypse: Robots have taken over the Earth and they don't want to share it with us humans. Solution? Annihilation.

Also, they're not going to clean up after themselves, leaving mounds of human skulls out as a warning to us all.

This is frankly a movie version of hell, but there's no denying that the killer 'bots are awesome - they're basically grinning bounty hunters with laser guns. And lasers always rock.

How To Survive It If It Happens: Get yourself one of said killer robots, reprogram it so that it likes humans and send it back in time to stop this hell ever happening.