The 30 best movies about the end of the world, ranked

Sara NetzleyFri, September 11, 2026 at 10:03 PM UTC

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‘12 Monkeys’ (viral outbreak), ‘Melancholia’ (giant planet colliding with Earth), ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (water wars)Credit: Universal; Magnolia Pictures; Warner Bros.

Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice. Hollywood says let’s do both — and maybe throw in some dragons for good measure.

Cinema has long been fascinated by the many ways civilization might crumble, whether it’s due to aliens (War of the Worlds, A Quiet Place), technology (The Matrix, Terminator 2), environmental catastrophe (Snowpiercer), or a mysterious collapse in the human birth rate (Children of Men).

Read on for Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 30 best apocalyptic movies available to stream now — and take a moment to be grateful that you’ve still got electricity and working internet as you do.

01 of 30

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

‘Damn you! God damn you all to hell, climate change!’Credit: Everett Collection

The Day After Tomorrow reminds us that global climate change isn’t just about a warming Earth — at least in Roland Emmerich’s telling, it can also usher in a new ice age. Equal parts earnest, lumbering, and delightfully over-the-top, Emmerich’s disaster epic follows a paleoclimatologist (Dennis Quaid) as he braves a global superstorm on foot to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal), who’s taken refuge in the New York Public Library. Come for the flooding of New York, stay for Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum LITERALLY OUTRUNNING A VISIBLE COLD SNAP. Mind your carbon footprint, kids!

Where to watch The Day After Tomorrow: Prime Video (to rent)

02 of 30

Tank Girl (1995)

Lori Petty in an extremely ‘90s vision of the post-apocalypseCredit: Everett Collection

Wait, hear us out! Tank Girlwas a critical punching bag, but this hyper-stylized adaptation of a British comic book — comet strike, scarce water, warring survivors — deserves your consideration. Its shortcomings mattered less in 1995 than Tank Girl’s (Lori Petty) audacity in taking up space as an action hero lead — you know, roles that were (and still are) dominated by men. The irreverent plot challenged traditional storytelling structures, and its irreverent heroine spent 104 minutes flipping her middle finger at the status quo.

With its poppy, choppy script, editing, and visual style, Tank Girl was sneered out of theaters. Jump forward a quarter of a century and critics were only slightly kinder to Birds of Prey, which embraces a similar no-effs-given riot grrrrl vibe.

Where to watch Tank Girl: Prime Video (to rent)

03 of 30

Doomsday (2008)

The post-apocalyptic future is going to look like ... a 1980s nightclubCredit: Everett

Not looking for nuance in your zombie apocalypse? Director Neil Marshall’s got you covered with Doomsday. Thirty years after Scotland was violently quarantined to contain a plague, a military team led by Rhona Mitra’s Major Eden Sinclair is sent to look for a cure.

Marshall (The Descent and Dog Soldiers, both outstanding horror films) stuffed Doomsday with nods to everything from Mad Max (1979) to Gladiator (2000) to Escape from New York (1981). The movie’s a little too chaotic to be good, but it does offer fist-pumping pleasures if you toss said fists in the air and go with it.

Where to watch Doomsday: Prime Video (to rent)

04 of 30

Logan’s Run (1976)

A guy nearing the ripe old age of 30. In the immortal words of Roy Batty, time to dieCredit: Everett

In 2274, life is great under the geodesic domes where humans have built a utopia following war, overpopulation, and pollution … until you turn 30 and your body is vaporized in the mandatory “carousel” ceremony to avoid overcrowding. Logan’s Run, starring Michael York and Peter Ustinov, is a retro throwback that’s a little too interested in warning its audience about the dangers of the groovy sex-and-drugs movement. It’s also a perfect slice of ‘70s sci-fi cheese, with all the garish miniskirts and tin-foil robots that entails.

Where to watch Logan’s Run: Prime Video (to rent)

05 of 30

Cloverfield (2008)

Three hot Millennials and an advertisement all staring at the same scary monsterCredit: Paramount/Everett

The first iPhone was introduced on June 29, 2007. On Jan. 8, 2008, Cloverfield was released. Those dates are relevant because the buzzy conceit of the J.J. Abrams-produced monster mash — that a dude with a handheld camcorder captured an attack unfolding before his eyes — was about to become commonplace.

But even if the found-footage novelty wore off in the intervening years, Cloverfield still grabs you by the throat. Starring then-unknowns, including Lizzy Caplan, the shaky-cam view of a monster destroying New York remains, as EW wrote, “a surreptitiously subversive, stylistically clever little gem.”

Where to watch Cloverfield: Paramount+

06 of 30

Resident Evil (2002)

Where’s Dominic Toretto when you need him? I thought this was a familyCredit: Everett

The Raccoon City squad is clearly doing something right. Although this adaptation of the Resident Evil video games drew mixed reviews, it spawned seven more live-action films (including Zach Cregger’s 2026 reboot), four feature-length animated ones, and two Netflix shows.

From its tense first act as things go to hell in an underground lab to a military team’s attempt to clean up the mess, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil never takes its foot off the gas. EW agreed, writing, “It’s a tickly pleasure to watch Milla Jovovich run, kick, and generally whip walking-dead heinie.” Two decades later, there’s still a lot of heinie to whip.

Where to watch Resident Evil: Prime Video (to rent)

07 of 30

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Look, Steve, you can’t ring in the end of the world in a sweater like that, you just cannotCredit: Everett

Who would you spend your last days on Earth with? Following the news that an asteroid will destroy the planet in three weeks, Steve Carell’s sad-sack Dodge shrugs off humanity’s newfound nihilism and hits the road in search of his high-school sweetheart, with his manic pixie neighbor (Keira Knightley) riding shotgun.

EW praised writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s apocalyptic rom-com for its “idiosyncratic, explosion-free bittersweetness,” which should give you a hint that the connection Dodge is seeking was sitting next to him all along.

Where to watch Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: Prime Video (to rent)

08 of 30

I Am Legend (2007)

Will Smith is legend in ‘I Am Legend’Credit: Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros

If you’re casting the last man in New York, better make him Will Smith. While fans of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel cried foul at the changed ending, Smith is riveting as the scientist trying to cure the plague caused by a “miracle” cancer treatment that turned humans into monsters. (No spoilers, but I Am Legend also features the most devastating death of any movie on this list. IYKYK.)

In 2007, EW’s critic questioned the relevance of the film’s focus on infectious disease. Meanwhile, a sequel starring Smith and Michael B. Jordan is officially in the works.

Where to watch I Am Legend: Prime Video (to rent)

09 of 30

Reign of Fire (2002)

Matthew McConaughey trying to decide how to translate ‘Alright alright alright’ into dragon languageCredit: Everett Collection

This time around, it’s dragons turning humans into an endangered species. Reign of Fire — a “rip-roaring, videogame-busy, Mad Maximum entertainment,” per EW’s review — is best remembered for Matthew McConaughey’s dragon-balls-to-the-wall performance as a bald, bearded, biceped berserker who travels across the pond to help Christian Bale’s more cautious Englishman exterminate the fire-breathing lizards. USA! USA! USA!

Where to watch Reign of Fire: Prime Video (to rent)

10 of 30

Love and Monsters (2020)

Dylan O’Brien and his trusty canine in ‘Love and Monsters’Credit: Jasin Boland/Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

In the criminally under-watched Love and Monsters, the criminally under-utilized Dylan O’Brien (from Send Help, Teen Wolf, or The Maze Runner, depending on your fandom) stars as a young romantic who emerges from his monster-pocalypse bunker and sets off on a dangerous journey to reunite with his lost love (Jessica Henwick), with the gruff assistance of Michael Rooker’s survivalist.

Love and Monsters has action and scares, yes, but it’s also earnest, goofy, and big-hearted, making this John Hughes/John Carpenter mashup well worth your time.

Where to watch Love and Monsters: Paramount+

11 of 30

District 9 (2009)

Sharlto Copley not realizing he’s slowly turning into an alien in ‘District 9’Credit: Everett

“Madly original, cheekily political, and altogether exciting,” four-time Oscar nominee District 9 depicts an apocalypse created by xenophobia and fear. Nearly 30 years after a million starving aliens were stranded near Johannesburg, a bureaucrat tasked with forcibly relocating them is exposed to an alien chemical and starts to experience changes.

South African-born director Neill Blomkamp uses found-footage news reports, surveillance video, and interviews to present his searing apartheid allegory, and Sharlto Copley is electric in his feature-film debut as a man who discovers his empathy as his humanity slips away.

Where to watch District 9: Prime Video (to rent)

12 of 30

Melancholia (2011)

What if feels like to marry Alexander Skarsgård and break up with him on the same nightCredit: Magnolia Films/ Everett

In Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, the apocalypse is literal and metaphorical, both the extinction-level planet on a collision course with Earth and the depression weighing down bride-to-be Kirsten Dunst on the day she’s set to marry Alexander Skarsgård. EW praised von Trier for creating striking visual tableaux that convey “a profound emotional depth that transcends words.”

If your memory of Melancholia is the dreamy shot of a wedding dress-clad Dunst floating in murky green water, it’s well worth your time to sink into this mournful, contemplative story.

Where to watch Melancholia: Criterion Channel

13 of 30

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Edward Judd, Janet Munro, and Leo McKern in the under-seen ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’Credit: Everett Collection

The Day the Earth Caught Fire was released the year before the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that political climate is very much on writer/director Val Guest’s mind as he explores what happens when the U.S. and the USSR test nuclear weapons near the South and North Poles, respectively, at almost the exact same time. (Answer: That’s a whoopsie!)

The Earth shifts off its axis, and scientists determine that the resulting ecological disaster can only be fixed by... setting off more nuclear bombs. The film, told through the eyes of a London journalist (Edward Judd), is smart, absorbing, and still timely.

Where to watch The Day the Earth Caught Fire: Tubi

14 of 30

A Quiet Place (2018)

John Krasinski trying not to make a sound in ‘A Quiet Place’Credit: Jonny Cournoyer/Paramount Pictures

Possibly the scariest film on the list, A Quiet Place taught moviegoers just how loud a cough or a cleared throat can be in a silent theater. Real-life couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski — who also directed and cowrote the film — fight to keep their growing family safe in a world ravaged by monsters that hunt by sound. EW called the film “a nervy, terrifying thrill,” and when you catch yourself holding your breath in those excruciatingly tense moments, you’ll undoubtedly agree.

Where to watch A Quiet Place: Paramount+

15 of 30

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Psst. He’s RIGHT BEHIND YOU, MaryCredit: Michele K. Short/Paramount Pictures

When it premiered, EW’s review likened 10 Cloverfield Lane to a solid Twilight Zone episode. Not only is that a compliment (who doesn’t love a banger TZ episode?), it’s entirely apt. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up after a car crash to find herself imprisoned in a bunker by a stranger (John Goodman, playing a Badman) who claims he saved her from a world-ending attack.

Is he telling the truth, or is she the victim of a good, old-fashioned kidnapping? The only way to find out is to escape, which leaves both Michelle and the audience horribly uncertain if she can — and if she should.

Where to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane: Paramount+

16 of 30

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9 (2009)

A couple of sock puppets (they can talk and stuff, but probably don’t have souls) run from the apocalypse in ‘9’Credit: Everett

Trust a Tim Burton production to make the apocalypse look cutely creepy. In 9, based on first-time director Shane Acker’s Oscar-nominated student thesis, humanity’s legacy rests on the small, soft shoulders of sentient rag dolls voiced by Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, and Christopher Plummer.

These “stitchpunk” creatures, made from scraps scavenged from the ruined world, are so beautifully designed that you may not mind the “ethereally thin and conventionally upbeat” plot mentioned in EW’s review.

Where to watch 9: Prime Video (to rent)

17 of 30

This Is the End (2013)

Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, and Craig Robinson as (checks notes) Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, and Craig RobinsonCredit: Suzanne Hanover/Sony Pictures/Everett

It’s the end of the world as they know it, and Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and their merry band of friends feel fine. These famous fellas play fictionalized versions of their public personas who are trapped in Franco’s house after the Rapture unleashes untold horrors.

EW hailedThis Is the End, co-written and co-directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg,as “the smartest, the most fearlessly inspired, and the snort-out-loud funniest” comedy in ages. That praise rings true more than a decade later thanks to joke after filthy joke, cameo after foul-mouthed cameo, scare after genuine scare.

Where to watch This Is the End: Prime Video (to rent)

18 of 30

War of the Worlds (2005)

“Dakota, get down, Dad just knows he can outrun those tripods but he can’t do it if you’re hanging onto his neck”Credit: Frank Masi/Paramount

Sometimes it takes a space invasion to mend family rifts. At least, that’s the case for Tom Cruise’s character in War of the Worlds when giant alien tripods start turning people into ash as they try to flee. Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel is a street-level look at civilians experiencing an attack that recalls the horrors of 9/11, creating, in the words of EW’s critic, a “potent and almost violating sense of disruption and terror.” The audience feels this deeply as Cruise’s Ray risks his life again and again to protect his young daughter (Dakota Fanning).

Where to watch War of the Worlds: Paramount+

19 of 30

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Black leather: The perfect outfit for when you’re out in the hot Australian sunCredit: Everett Collection

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, the sophomore outing of cop-turned-loner Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), operated on a fraction of the budget that Miller would have for his later installments. The difference shows in the flat, scoured Outback landscapes that Miller replaced with Creamsicle orange vistas in the 21st century, yet it didn’t prevent him from taking a bare-bones plot — Max helps a settlement fight off bandits after war and a gasoline shortage tore society apart — and pairing it with aggressively kinetic action scenes, then overlaying it all with an unsettling punk aesthetic to create a gripping, gonzo movie.

Where to watch Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior: Prime Video (to rent)

20 of 30

12 Monkeys (1995)

Brad Pitt makes a reasonable, sensible argument to Bruce Willis, who just won’t listenCredit: Phillip Caruso/Universal

In the mind-trip that is 12 Monkeys,Bruce Willis plays James Cole, a criminal from the year 2035 who starts to question his sanity as he bounces around time to locate the source of a plague destined to kill billions of people. In 1990, Cole meets Jeffrey Goines, a fellow mental institution patient played with bug-eyed slipperiness by Brad Pitt, whose performance nabbed him his first Oscar nod.

EW praised director Terry Gilliam for setting his crackpot imagination at full throttle to create a grim, twisty story that’s so memorably bleak, it spawned a top-notch SyFy show 20 years later.

Where to watch 12 Monkeys: Prime Video (to rent)

21 of 30

Delicatessen (1991)

Jacques Mathou puts in an order for, uh, let’s call it mystery meat in ‘DelicatessenCredit: Miramax/Everett

If you like a little absurdist humor in your apocalypse, pull up a chair. The surreal French film Delicatessen, cowritten and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and Marc Caro, points its off-kilter lens at the oddball residents of an apartment building that’s scraping by post-apocalypse. EW called the film a “lip-smackingly good and rudely imaginative vision of the future” where food is scarce and you’re better off not asking how your landlord-cum-butcher is sourcing his meat.

Where to watch Delicatessen: Prime Video (to rent)

22 of 30

Snowpiercer (2013)

Captain America rudely stuck in the back of a giant metaphor in ‘Snowpiercer’Credit: Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection

After an attempt to solve the climate crisis created a worldwide perma-blizzard, what’s left of humanity now circles the globe in a speeding train that’s strictly segregated by economic status. EW’s critic called Snowpiercer “boldly original and weirdly idiosyncratic,” and that’s exactly what you get as Chris Evans and his band of rebels fight their way from the nightmarish back cars to the front, where the 1% live in obscene luxury.

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, who would go on to win three Oscars for Parasite (2019), Snowpiercer is a bloody, exhilarating reminder that when you’re given the choice, you should always eat the rich.

Where to watch Snowpiercer: Hulu

23 of 30

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The T-8000 in borrowed pants, jacket, boots, sunglasses and motorcycleCredit: TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett

Terminator 2is the rare sequel that surpasses its predecessor — and its predecessor set the bar pretty darn high. This time, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s killer cyborg has been sent to the past to protect John Connor from the liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick), whose cutting-edge VFX blew audiences’ minds in 1991.

While the T-800 becomes a father figure for John (Edward Furlong) and wins over a tough, wary Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton and her gun show), the film also delivers a sobering look at humanity’s capacity for destruction. Watch that nuclear-blast-on-a-playground dream sequence and remember: There’s no fate but what we make.

Where to watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Paramount+

24 of 30

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Three very serious doctors and a couple of hippies they picked upCredit: 20th Century Fox

EW summed up the charms of the Planet of the Apes franchise in 2014: “When you get past the funny monkey masks, it’s a series that constantly stares into the void. It crossbreeds existential musing with the cheesiest of cheesy science-fiction.” Is there a finer compliment for a film that spawned almost a dozen sequels, prequels, and spinoffs (as well as a Simpsons homage)?

Even if — or especially if — you’ve caught the more recent incarnations from Rupert Wyatt, Matt Reeves, and Wes Ball, the original — cowritten by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson and starring Charlton Heston as an astronaut who crash-lands on a planet dominated by damn, dirty apes — is worth revisiting.

Where to watch Planet of the Apes: Prime Video (to rent)

25 of 30

Akira (1988)

Tetsuo has a temper tantrum in ‘Akira’Credit: Everett Collection

Not only did Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s pioneering Akira helpintroduce Disney-raised Western audiences to a wildly different type of cartoon filmmaking, the R-rated movie is widely considered one of the greatest animated films of all time — and many fans would happily drop “animated” from that accolade.

Based on a manga series, Akira follows a biker gang leader as he tries to stop his newly superpowered friend from unleashing destruction on post-apocalyptic Tokyo in a story that EW’s critic called “a violent, brooding, mature, quasi-intellectual tale of life after World War III.” The Little Mermaid, it ain’t, and cinema’s better for it.

Where to watch Akira: Crunchyroll

26 of 30

The Matrix (1999)

Laurence Fishburne teaches Keanu Reeves kung-fu in ‘The Matrix’Credit: Warner Bros./ Courtesy: Everett

Red pill or blue pill? The Matrix has become so embedded in popular culture in the decades since its debut that it’s easy to forget how groundbreaking the Wachowskis’ mind-bending sci-fi flick actually was. Keanu Reeves stars as hacker Neo, who discovers that humanity’s been enslaved by a malevolent cyber-intelligence and joins up with badass rebels Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to fight back.

The film’s sweeping camerawork, embrace of bullet time and wire-work fight scenes, and iconic, black-clad cyberpunk heroes led EW’s critic to callThe Matrix “the most influential action movie of its generation.” Plug in and find out why.

Where to watch The Matrix: Prime Video (to rent)

27 of 30

WALL-E (2008)

WALL-E and EVE on a date (we’re calling it a date) in ‘WALL-E’Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy of Everett

Pixar’s wonderful WALL-E offers two apocalypses for the price of one. In the film’s nearly silent opening act, Earth is a wasteland, the humans having abandoned their garbage-choked home centuries ago. But when the sweet, expressive trash-compacting robot WALL-E finds himself whisked off-world, we discover that future humanity is mired in a spiritual apocalypse brought about by sleek, cheerful techno-capitalism.

Stay through the end of director Andrew Stanton’s “puckishly inventive, altogether marvelous” Oscar-winning film for what might be the animation studio’s finest closing credits.

Where to watch WALL-E: Disney+

28 of 30

The Road (2009)

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee looking like they’re in the middle of a Cormac McCarthy adaptationCredit: Everett

A bleak, beautiful movie based on Cormac McCarthy’s bleak, beautiful novel, The Road isn’t for the faint of heart. The audience never learns what left the planet scoured and dead, but we do discover plenty about the dangers that were left behind as Viggo Mortensen struggles to keep himself and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) alive.

EW’s critic called the film “a marathon of doom and despair” — truly, who knew there were so many shades of gray? — but The Road is also a visceral reminder of a father’s love and the persistence of good in a world gone dark.

Where to watch The Road: Prime Video (to rent)

29 of 30

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Imperator Furiosa, War Boy Nux, and Immortan Joe’s erstwhile ‘wives’ in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’Credit: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros

Before Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth took the reins in this long-running franchise to do battle over Earth’s vanishing resources, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy navigated those same roads in Furiosa’s War Rig. Although Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was marked by conflict between the two leads during the fraught shoot, the result speaks for itself.

EW praised it for bringing the same “Molotov-cocktail craziness” of The Road Warrior. Fury Road pairs eye-popping road battles (accompanied by a man wailing on a flame-throwing guitar, natch) with a quietly feminist story of women liberating themselves from sexual slavery without sensationalizing their abuse. Fury Road is a study in contrasts: spare and bombastic, brutal and gorgeous. Witness it.

Where to watch Mad Max: Fury Road: Prime Video (to rent)

30 of 30

Children of Men (2006)

Clive Owen and Clare-Hope Ashitey in ‘Children of Men,’ the post-apocalyptic GOATCredit: Everett

The apocalypse in Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian masterpiece Children of Men creeps up over nearly two decades of global infertility, and by the time we meet Clive Owen’s Theo, despair has pushed humanity to the brink. But hope rekindles when Theo agrees to protect a young woman with a secret (Clare-Hope Ashitey).

Based on the novel by P.D. James, Children of Men depicts a near-future marked by economic collapse, draconian immigration policies, and bomb-blasted London streets. But the film also dazzles with its exhilarating action sequences, including a one-shot car chase that thrusts you into the thick of the chaos and stays with you long after the credits have rolled.

Where to watch Children of Men: Prime Video (to rent)

Bonus! These films didn’t make the cut but should still be mentioned while we’re on the subject of cinematic apocalypses:

Deep Impact (1998)

The good Armageddon.

Armageddon (1998)

The fun Deep Impact.

on Entertainment Weekly

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