Best (post)apocalyps/ epidemic films and series
by ybrwegman | created - 01 Jul 2013 | updated - 10 Apr 2015 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 849,316 | Gross: $1.48M
2. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,697 | Gross: $3.03M
3. Utopia (I) (2013–2014)
TV-MA | 50 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After a group of people, who meet online, discover a bizarre graphic novel which seems to hold mysterious answers, they find themselves being tracked down by a merciless organization known merely as 'The Network'.
Stars: Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Neil Maskell, Fiona O'Shaughnessy
Votes: 51,059
4. 12 Monkeys (1995)
R | 129 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Joseph Melito
Votes: 646,260 | Gross: $57.14M
5. Stalker (1979)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko
Votes: 144,575 | Gross: $0.23M
6. Planet of the Apes (1968)
G | 112 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant and humans are enslaved.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans
Votes: 192,862 | Gross: $33.40M
7. Children of Men (2006)
R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Votes: 528,978 | Gross: $35.55M
8. The Walking Dead (2010–2022)
TV-MA | 45 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma to learn the world is in ruins and must lead a group of survivors to stay alive.
Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan
Votes: 1,080,456
9. Take Shelter (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart
Votes: 107,952 | Gross: $1.73M
10. The Road (I) (2009)
R | 111 min | Drama, Thriller
In a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.
Director: John Hillcoat | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall
Votes: 253,971 | Gross: $0.06M
11. The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018)
TV-14 | 22 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Almost two years after a virus wiped out most of the human race, Phil Miller only wishes for some company, but soon gets more than he bargained for when that company shows up in the form of other survivors.
Stars: Will Forte, January Jones, Cleopatra Coleman, Kristen Schaal
Votes: 63,749
12. Delicatessen (1991)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime
Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.
Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Marie-Laure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon, Pascal Benezech, Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Votes: 89,989 | Gross: $1.79M
13. The City of Lost Children (1995)
R | 112 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon
Votes: 71,625 | Gross: $1.51M
14. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.
Director: Rupert Wyatt | Stars: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, Karin Konoval
Votes: 557,912 | Gross: $176.76M
15. The World's End (2013)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from twenty years earlier unwittingly become humanity's only hope for survival.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike
Votes: 298,021 | Gross: $26.00M
16. 28 Days Later (2002)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer
Votes: 444,948 | Gross: $45.06M
17. Planet Terror (2007)
R | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it's up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodríguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton
Votes: 223,088
18. This Is the End (2013)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Fantasy
Six Los Angeles celebrities are stuck in James Franco's house after a series of devastating events just destroyed the city. Inside, the group not only have to face the apocalypse, but themselves.
Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen | Stars: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel
Votes: 434,631 | Gross: $101.47M
19. Snowpiercer (2013)
R | 126 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris
Votes: 388,636 | Gross: $4.56M
20. The Mist (2007)
R | 126 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher
Votes: 339,905 | Gross: $25.59M
21. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,050,420 | Gross: $171.48M
22. Time of the Wolf (2003)
R | 114 min | Drama
When Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home, they find it occupied by strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Anaïs Demoustier, Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau
Votes: 11,473 | Gross: $0.06M
23. The Hunger Games (2012)
PG-13 | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci
Votes: 1,002,758 | Gross: $408.01M
24. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.
Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 720,604 | Gross: $424.67M
25. Contagion (2011)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Votes: 315,744 | Gross: $75.66M
26. Perfect Sense (2011)
R | 92 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
A chef and a scientist fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions.
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Lauren Tempany, Connie Nielsen
Votes: 63,912 | Gross: $0.00M
27. Sunshine (2007)
R | 107 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis
Votes: 267,143 | Gross: $3.68M
28. The After (2014 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 55 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Eight strangers are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation.
Director: Chris Carter | Stars: Aldis Hodge, Andrew Howard, Arielle Kebbel, Jamie Kennedy
Votes: 8,439
29. Blindness (2008)
R | 121 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant white blindness.
Director: Fernando Meirelles | Stars: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael García Bernal, Yûsuke Iseya
Votes: 75,168 | Gross: $3.07M
30. Zombieland (2009)
R | 88 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting bruiser in search of the last Twinkie and a pair of sisters striving to get to an amusement park join forces in a trek across a zombie-filled America.
Director: Ruben Fleischer | Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 620,682 | Gross: $75.59M
31. Southland Tales (2006)
R | 145 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
During a three-day heat wave just before a huge 4th of July celebration, an action star stricken with amnesia meets up with a porn star who is developing her own reality TV project, and a policeman who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Carlos Amezcua
Votes: 40,615 | Gross: $0.28M
32. The Quiet Earth (1985)
R | 91 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A scientist awakens to find himself alone in the world. In a desperate attempt to search for others, he finds only two who have their own agenda.
Director: Geoff Murphy | Stars: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith, Anzac Wallace
Votes: 27,583 | Gross: $2.12M
33. Cloverfield (2008)
PG-13 | 85 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
Director: Matt Reeves | Stars: Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller
Votes: 420,320 | Gross: $80.05M
34. 30 Days of Night (2007)
R | 113 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
After an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires.
Director: David Slade | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Votes: 189,223 | Gross: $39.57M
35. Planet of the Apes (2001)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 2029, an Air Force astronaut crash-lands on a mysterious planet where evolved, talking apes dominate a race of primitive humans.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan
Votes: 228,804 | Gross: $180.01M
36. Monsters (2010)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion, a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Director: Gareth Edwards | Stars: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Mario Zuniga Benavides, Annalee Jefferies
Votes: 97,591 | Gross: $0.24M
37. District 9 (2009)
R | 112 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.
Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Vanessa Haywood
Votes: 716,285 | Gross: $115.65M
38. World War Z (2013)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
Former United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale
Votes: 718,717 | Gross: $202.36M
39. Knowing (2009)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson
Votes: 247,372 | Gross: $79.96M
40. 9 (I) (2009)
PG-13 | 79 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A rag doll that awakens in a postapocalyptic future holds the key to humanity's salvation.
Director: Shane Acker | Stars: Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 147,550 | Gross: $31.74M
41. Survivors (I) (2008–2010)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An unknown virus pandemic kills more than 90% of the world's population. Those immune must strive to survive and overcome the difficulties of this new world order, hoping that the virus will not mutate.
Stars: Julie Graham, Max Beesley, Paterson Joseph, Zoë Tapper
Votes: 8,918
42. The Faculty (1998)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett
Votes: 134,979 | Gross: $40.06M
43. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
G | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission searches for the only survivor of the previous expedition. He discovers a planet ruled by apes and an underground city run by telepathic humans.
Director: Ted Post | Stars: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison
Votes: 51,232 | Gross: $19.00M
44. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
G | 98 min | Action, Sci-Fi
The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.
Director: Don Taylor | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy
Votes: 39,054 | Gross: $12.30M
45. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
PG | 88 min | Action, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy
Votes: 35,807 | Gross: $9.81M
46. The Last Ship (2014–2018)
TV-14 | 60 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
The crew of a naval destroyer is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic kills off most of the earth's population.
Stars: Eric Dane, Adam Baldwin, Charles Parnell, Travis Van Winkle
Votes: 63,728
47. The Happening (2008)
R | 91 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
A science teacher, his wife, and a young girl struggle to survive a plague that causes those infected to commit suicide.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez
Votes: 216,351 | Gross: $64.51M
48. The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
PG-13 | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
A remake of the 1951 classic science fiction film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith
Votes: 178,441 | Gross: $79.37M
49. The Invasion (I) (2007)
PG-13 | 99 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
As a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, she also discovers her son might be the only way it can be stopped.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond
Votes: 82,631 | Gross: $15.07M
50. Under the Dome (2013–2015)
TV-14 | 1,668 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
An invisible and mysterious force field descends upon the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine, USA, trapping residents inside, cut off from the rest of civilization. The trapped townspeople must discover the secrets and purpose of the "dome" or "sphere" and its origins, while coming to learn more than they ever knew about each other and animals too.
Stars: Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford
Votes: 112,420
51. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
G | 93 min | Action, Sci-Fi
Ten years after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden
Votes: 33,650 | Gross: $8.84M
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