The Mayan calendar may have ended, as doomsday is averted for now, but that doesn't mean our cultural fascination with all things apocalyptic is over.
Celebrate dodging the end of days with these eight great end-of-the-world movies.
1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The classic dark comedy from 1964 was born out of anxiety over the Cold War and the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation. Sure, the whole surface of the earth is uninhabitable, but think of the mineshaft orgies!
2. Logan's Run
By 1976, it seemed like the human race might actually be too successful for its own good. The looming threat of world hunger and oil shortages translated into a dystopian future where people are killed when they reach the age of 30 to control the size of the population, significantly reducing the number of disaffected PhD students.
3. Mad Max
Before Mel Gibson went crazy, he was mad! Fighting over gasoline in the Australian outback, gangs of truckers scrabble over the few remaining resources in a lawless world, and Gibson inspires the Jigsaw Killer.
4. The Terminator
In the early 80s, computers got smart enough to be scary, and heavily-armed naked time traveling robots that look like Austrian bodybuilders are the natural extension of mankind's fear of being superseded by our own creations. Right?
5. 12 Monkeys
People who insist the world is ending soon are crazy! Or they're time travelers trying to live out their days in a doomed world. Also, they might fall in love with someone who died before they were born. This time, the world ends not with a bang, but a cough.
6. 28 Days Later
The rebirth (reanimation?) of the modern zombie movie. They move too fast to dodge, so the only option is to hide. Of course, the real enemies are the other survivors...
7. Idiocracy
Another installment of the "victims of our own ingenuity" genre, Mike Judge's masterpiece of social critique comes with plenty of sight gags and pratfalls. What if an average guy was the smartest person in the world? Is a world overrun by idiots even worth saving?
8. Wall-E
Perhaps we'll just get tired of Earth and leave it behind. Let's hope we take our super-cute little robots with us, though. Why must all our technology be so anthropomorphic?
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
