DISQUS

Kevin · 1 year ago

How could you forget 12 Monkey's? Eco-terror group wants to kill everybody to save the planet? The terrorist responsible could be the person you befriend or sit next to on an airplane? Can't get more historically relevant than that.

Robert Fure · 1 year ago

Blah, Throw Donnie Darko in the trash. And whats up with a lack of apocalyptic wastelaaaaaaaaaaands? Mad Max or A Boy and His Dog. But I guess that is what the world is like after Doomsday. You're lucky!

Scanain · 1 year ago

Other notable mentions:

Planet of the Apes
2010
Deep Impact
V (tv series)
Invasion of the Body Snatches
28 Days later

(fair few more I'm not thinking off)

Chris · 1 year ago

Soylent Green, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine, A Boy and His Dog, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, Day of the Triffids, even The Blob could be considered apocalyptic enough if Plan 9 was a contender ... one could keep going for a while. In considering this is titled the Greatest Doomsday Scenarios, you probably should consider more movies than you have.

Cody · 1 year ago

one word, Outbreak. is it not scary enough to leave the fate of human health to Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr???? I think not!

David · 1 year ago

What about Judgment Day in the Terminator films?

bruce berger · 1 year ago

fail safe - mutual assured destruction of soviet union and the US - henry fonda as president sacrifices nyc because a fail safe fails and soviet union will be subject to a nuclear holocaust

JAB_au · 1 year ago

Donnie Darko, this has nothing to do with a Doomsday Scenario. Were was I when they even touched on the entire world being destroyed. Talk about a misinterpretation of a film.

George P. Burdell · 1 year ago

Um, I forgot 12 Monkeys, that is a classic. Does Water World count? I am sure that is Al Gore's favorite at least. As for Dawn of the Dead, that might get to count twice, I loved the recent one with them all holed up in the mall. Lastly, long live Dr. Strangelove and playing Thermo-Nuclear War......

Matt · 1 year ago

FYI, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", the remake, is being filmed right now at my University
(Simon Fraser) in Vancouver. Guess who stars: Keanu! Hows that for a holocaust?

Bellus · 1 year ago

In "When world collide", Bellus is the star which the planet orbits. The star is on a collision course with Earth.

David · 1 year ago

I liked Titan A.E.'s disposal of earth. Aliens destroy us, because we scare the shit out of them, and attempt to hunt humans into extinction.

Otis · 1 year ago

Donnie Darko took place in an unstable time tangent that was set to collapse the entire universe 28 days from when it opened (seriously, this is a main plot point, and if you can't gather that from the film, then maybe you should stick with Terminator). Sounds doomsday to me.

xXx_Hunter_xXx · 1 year ago

otis im so sorry but you just dont have a clue do you? thats not what donnie darko is about even. donnie darko is all a draem that a messed up boy has and he hates everyone around him. he trys to help them but he dies anyway. the movie is about all traddegy and sarrow not some whacky 28 days later stuff.

so sorry that your wrong.

Valkyrie · 1 year ago

Actually, Hunter, you're wrong and Otis is right.

Try watching the Director's Cut sometime. There's a reason why they mention time travel in there.

Toby · 1 year ago

Ahhhh... come on.... no Terminator in the top ten? That's a classic. The Invasion was pretty
good too.

I agree with the Donnie Darko comments. It wasn't meant to be an apocalypse.

Kirk · 1 year ago

Humans blacking out the sky in order to stop the robot army from generating electricity in The Matrix.

I always said the most interesting part of that film is that humanity deserved it.

If you watch the animatrix it shows that, through humanity's ignorance and unwillingness to accept the machines as sentient, we began a war that we could not win.

Unkyduck · 1 year ago

Colossus, the Forbin Project.

Worldwide computer network becomes self aware.
"I guess I'd better kill everybody who could pull the plug"

Good plot idea poorly realized. Canadian Gordon Pinsent as Prez.

Otto Tingleberryt · 1 year ago

1984 pretty much sums up how fascism has already taken over, and what our children have to look forward to.

pengin · 1 year ago

Donnie darko was about the world ending, but not in the way it's been interpreted here. Watch it again.

The Mutt · 1 year ago

I wouldn't say Colossus: The Forbin Project is "poorly realized" at all. I think it's brilliant.
Twice as smart as any film on this list. Subtle, scary and with a long-lasting creepiness that
haunts me to this day.

Sure the computer stuff is incredibly dated, but you can hardly blame the film for that.

"This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and
content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey and live. Disobey and
die."

FauxNixon · 1 year ago

Fantastic posting and a great list.

Tom Buckner · 1 year ago

Little-known but really good end-of-the-world movie: Last Night, starring Sandra Oh ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/ ). It's the last night of the world. Something will happen at midnight (they really go into zero detail except that it doesn't get dark anymore and the moment is known in advance). Society erupts, movingly.

Also good: Miracle Mile. Guy gets a wrong phone call, thus learning that the missiles are going to fly in about 90 minutes. Society erupts, entertainingly. (A drunk, pilled-up man watches a warhead zoom over L.A. and over the horizon, exclaiming "That one went all the way to Tia-f@#kin-juana!"

And how about On The Beach? Radiation cloud from war approaches Australia. Society erupts, a wee bit, very politely.

12 Monkeys is magnificent!

Will · 1 year ago

@Otto

"1984 pretty much sums up how fascism has already taken over, and what our children have to look forward to."

Lol. Dude, here's an excerpt of Wikipedia's article on Fascism: "In contemporary political discourse, the term fascist is often a slur, used by adherents of some ideologies to describe their opponents."

While you're on Wikipedia getting a finer education than the one you got at the local state-run facilities they call a public school, look up the words "ad hominem". You're welcome.

Kevin · 1 year ago

1984 isn't about the world ending. And its not about fascism. Its that all political ideologies can lead to a dictatorship. Doesn't matter left right or center leanings. INGSOC combines Nazism and Marxism/Stalinism.

Back on topic. I think the Matrix deserves to be in there. The Second Renaissance from the Animatrix seems like a close idea of how we would treat sentient machines.

Daemon29 · 1 year ago

What about I am Legend/Omega Man/Last Man on Earth? Or The Stand? And if Plan 9 counts, then I'd put Little Shop of Horrors in there, too...being eaten by a plant with the voice of the lead singer of The Four Tops is a pretty spectacular way to go.

Unlived · 1 year ago

Planet of the Apes!
The Road Warrior!
The Matrix!
C'mon now..........

Ixohoxi · 1 year ago

Hey Will, you're such a sly fox... because (1) people who cannot respond to facts always fault the source... (2) people who go overboard faulting the source are really pathetic... (3) people who use the "facism is a slur" defense are themselves trying to use ideology to describe *their* opponents... after all FACISM couldn't possibly apply to the U.S. politicial "system".

Hey Will, how about attempting to use intelligence to debate the hypothesis that 1984 is a chillingly accurate prediction of where the country has arrived at? Don't prop up strawmen to knock down, instead try refuting how controlled this country is. Freedom is a red herring, even multi-millionaires have their own slave-like duties to take care of.

[[[ Lol. Dude, here’s an excerpt of Wikipedia’s article on Fascism: “In contemporary political discourse, the term fascist is often a slur, used by adherents of some ideologies to describe their opponents.”

While you’re on Wikipedia getting a finer education than the one you got at the local state-run facilities they call a public school, look up the words “ad hominem”. You’re welcome. ]]]

Dannyboy · 1 year ago

The Matrix is definitely in the Top 20, but not the Top 10. Maybe if the sequels didn't happen that combined were worse than "Point Break," it would have had a better chance.

Jonny Boy · 1 year ago

How you missed "Mars Attacks" is beyond me!

Ack! Ack!

Our salvation: the warbling dulcet tones of Slim Whitman!

brent · 1 year ago

omg dr strangelove, one of the greatest movies of all time.

We can not allow a mine shaft gap!

haha simply brilliant.

Vermin · 1 year ago

Children of Men should be #1 on this list.

mark · 1 year ago

i agree with robert

donnie darko is overrated garbage and the stupid rabbit wasn't scary AT ALL.
anyone who calls that movie a "mindfuck" has not yet had their mind fucked.

Diver · 1 year ago

Wargames and Dawn of the Dead - the best two movies of all time for me! Although the list should be a bit longer...

TrafficoneMan · 1 year ago

Maximum Overdrive the mechines get taken over by some sort of green sky
i love it granted now a little outdated but wat a consept

crass brass in the car crash · 1 year ago

i hate doomsday movies i call them dumsday movies cuz they is dum ha ha your a dum but if i had to choose one terminator of course my horse tis the best film of all time total tradgety that Schwarzenegger never won an oscar i am telling you he is the best actor of any generation apart from ben affleck that guy is increadible he has managed to convince at least 3 quarters of people he is straight now thats quaility acting he is my hero i hope he makes a doomsday film that would be great like castaway but with a better ass