The most memorable post-apocalyptic films and TV shows

As a time-travel film, “12 Monkeys” hops between a post-apocalyptic landscape and the world before everything fell apart. A virus has wiped out almost all of the life on Earth, and a reluctant man is sent back in time to try and find out who did it, what happened, and if there is any chance of finding an antidote. Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt both give memorable performances in this Terry Gilliam mindbender.

In “Children of Men,” there is no cataclysmic event. People aren’t living in the smoking remains of churches or what have you. However, humans have stopped procreating, and years of that have left civilization in war-torn chaos. Alfonso Cuaron’s directing acumen also gave us a great one-take set piece in “Children of Men” as well.

Civilization also still exists in “The Hunger Games,” but things have gotten bleak. The class stratification has gotten larger, and those in charge rule with an iron fist. Based on a series of YA novels, “The Hunger Games” became a massively popular film franchise and helped turn Jennifer Lawrence into a star.

No civilization here! “The Omega Man” is one of the iconic stories of a person who is, as far as they can tell, the one last human left on Earth. In a way, that’s true, but the twist of “The Omega Man” is that Charlton Heston is not necessarily alone. This story was also used as the basis for Will Smith’s “I Am Legend.”

Speaking of Charlton Heston, he’s also in “Planet of the Apes.” Now, in the film, humanoid, intelligent apes have a civilization going, so in that sense things aren’t apocalyptic. However, how things got to that point definitely makes “Planet of the Apes” a post-apocalyptic film.

Aliens can turn a planet post-apocalyptic awfully fast. That’s the case in “A Quiet Place.” John Krasinski stars and directs this well-received horror film about aliens with hearing that is so acute you basically have to be silent.

This iconoclastic comedy based on a graphic novel is…weird. It doesn’t all work. However, if you are of a certain mindset, “Tank Girl” is a cult classic worth seeking out. It’s about a woman named Tank Girl! She has a friend named Jet Girl! There are talking kangaroos! We sold you, didn’t we?

Overconsumption has ravaged Earth, leaving Wall-E, a trash-collecting robot, to clean things up. Then, he meets Eve, another robot. The two fall in love in Pixar’s bold sci-fi film where the two protagonists are robots who basically don’t talk.

The first, but not last, zombie entry on this list. Zombies play a huge part in post-apocalyptic films, but not every zombie movie is post-apocalyptic. “Zombieland” definitely is, though. Jesse Eisenberg plays a fastidious fellow whose series of rules have helped him survive the zombie apocalypse, and then he joins forces with a few other living humans. The film got a delayed, and forgettable, sequel, but the first movie is quite fun.

The first Mad Max movie is maybe, or maybe not, post-apocalyptic. The three other films, though, definitely are. With all due respect to the second and third movies in the franchise, “Fury Road” really took things to the next level. George Miller’s film is a white-knuckled car chase extravaganza, bravura filmmaking that earned “Fury Road” a series of Oscar nominations.

More zombie chaos. “28 Days Later” begins with Cillian Murphy waking up in a hospital with nobody around. Why is nobody around? Because of a “rage virus” that effectively makes people zombies. The difference is that these aren’t shambling zombies. They run, and they want to chow down on your flesh.

“Night of the Living Dead” effectively introduced the “zombie movie” to American audiences, but it isn’t a post-apocalyptic movie. George Romero’s second film, “Dawn of the Dead,” is a different story. A zombie apocalypse has overtaken society, leaving a band of survivors to shack up in a mall and try to survive. This is the film that really made “zombie movies” a thing.

Bong Joon-ho makes socially-conscious genre pieces, and “Snowpiercer” is no different. Like his Oscar-winning “Parasite,” a lot of “Snowpiercer” is focused on class and economic disparity. It also happens to take place on a perpetually-moving train on which all of humanity now lives.

With its heady plot and exciting special effects, “The Matrix” made quite a splash back in 1999. The sequels are more directly involved in all the post-apocalyptic stuff, but we aren’t going to pretend like those movies are any good. In fact, we’d argue “The Matrix” doesn’t hold up entirely to be frank. It’s still a good watch, though, and a defining post-apocalyptic movie.

We’re talking about the well-received TV series that ran from 2004 until 2009, not the forgettable 1978 series that was a “Star Wars” ripoff. Cylons, a race of androids, destroy the planets humans have been living on, only leaving about 50,000 survivors that were aboard ships at the time. Only one military ship, the Galactica, survives.

“The Last Man on Earth” is effectively a comedic take on “The Omega Man.” However, after a bold pilot episode, the title proves not literal quite quickly. At that point, the show became a hit-or-miss comedy. Sometimes the show was funny, but it wasn’t always able to really nail the humor, and the show ended on a major cliffhanger after being canceled.

HBO’s miniseries “Station Eleven” is a rare breed: A post-apocalyptic story that isn’t dystopian. We’ve been talking about zombies, viruses, wars, and so on. There is heart, and hope, in “Station Eleven.” The 10 episodes tell a contained, impressive story that actually managed to shake up the usual post-apocalypse paradigm.

The CW has long been awash in shows about the supernatural (like “Supernatural”) and superheroes. A post-apocalyptic show (about good-looking twentysomethings playing teenagers) fit right in. “The 100” is about a group of “juvenile detainees” in the future who are sent to Earth years after a nuclear apocalypse forced humanity into space. It ran for seven seasons and, fittingly, 100 episodes.

You may not think of it in this way, but “Adventure Time” is a post-apocalyptic show. Sure, it’s a Cartoon Network program about a boy and a dog, but it’s about them wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Just because the colors are bright and many characters are kind doesn’t mean this isn’t the apocalypse.

“The Walking Dead” is the defining piece of zombie media since “Dawn of the Dead,” we would argue. “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” made AMC a prestige TV network. “The Walking Dead” made it a hit network. It was a massive show, one that yielded multiple spinoffs. Did it go on for too long? Perhaps, but can you blame AMC? “The Walking Dead” is the show about the undead that gave a network new life.