27 Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies to Watch on Netflix Right Now!

The modern film industry brings us varied depictions of how the planet will meet its demise and humanity’s struggles afterwards, often encased in hyper-realistic visualizations to imagine the end. As one of the biggest streaming media services in the world, Netflix offers no shortage of on-demand content about doomsday. Here are some post-apocalyptic movies to watch on Netflix listed below.

BIRD BOX (2018)

A classic end-of-the-world fare, Bird Box features all the expected post-apocalyptic elements. It has scenes of horrible deaths and a dramatic attempt at escaping seemingly inescapable perils. The few remaining survivors may find refuge in a sanctuary, but they have to go there blindfolded, otherwise, they won’t be able to control their suicidal thoughts.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX (2018)

Unlike the previous two films in the Cloverfield series, the third entry comes across as underwhelming to fans of the franchise. The Cloverfield Paradox is drowned in scientific exposition that it is irresistible only to those who appreciate the hard science category in the sci-fi genre.

BLAME! (2017)

Everything is connected via technology. An infection in the system wreaks havoc on the automation process. It is a malfunction with the ability to replicate itself infinitely. The system hunts down humans.

CARGO (2017)

An infected father has to take his infant child to safety before the disease turns him into a mindless zombie. The character-driven story makes Cargo, a Netflix original, a refreshing take on the genre.

THE COLONY (2021)

A series of global-scale disasters force the ruling class to abandon Earth and colonize Kepler 209. Fast forward to two generations later, the colonists are unable to reproduce. An expedition team is sent to post-apocalyptic Earth only to discover its unwelcoming inhabitants.

#ALIVE

Our time of strict quarantine and almost complete dependency on technology due to the Coronavirus might be over, but watching #Alive will bring back memories of the bleak situation a few years back. Only in the film, the culprit is the zombie virus.

HOW IT ENDS (2018)

Just in case you like a challenging—in fact borderline a chore to watch—doomsday film, How It Ends offers some hefty ideas waiting to be explored. It is about a man (and his father-in-law) on a journey against violence and lies to save his wife while the world around him is crumbling.

I AM MOTHER (2019)

Artificial intelligence serves its function as either a mother or a true villain to a young girl in an automated bunker. The girls learn that the outside world is uninhabitable following an extinction event, but only until another human sneaks into the bunker.

LAST MAN DOWN (2021)

The human population has been decimated by a deadly pandemic. Things take a drastic change in the life of a hermit soldier when a woman claims that her blood is key to discovering a cure. Now he has to protect her from a band of pursuers.

IO (2019)

Pollution has rendered the air on Earth unbreathable. Everyone leaves to build a colony on space station IO. Sam Walden seems to be the only one who sees hope to clean the air using immune bees to pollinate oxygen-producing plants.

THE SILENCE (2019)

Noise means instant death in The Silence. The main character is Ally Andrews, a girl with hearing loss. She must lead her family to safety, escaping from pterosaur-like creatures that hunt by sound.

CADAVER (2020)

Not much is left after a nuclear disaster; no work, no food, no electricity, and no hope. A family has been invited by Mathias, a rich mysterious man. They are welcome to dine as they like and enjoy the entertainment. Little do the guests know if they will be part of the entertainment itself.

AWAKE (2021)

Worldwide calamity can come from any imaginable ailment. In Awake, disaster happens because people everywhere lose their ability to sleep. Jill’s daughter may hold the key to an effective cure, but the girl herself needs saving before she can do any good to everybody else.

BLACK CRAB (2022)

Sweden is at war. A team of six soldiers are on a suicide mission to deliver a package of biological weapon through a post-apocalyptic landscape of frozen lands and water.

THE WORTHY (2017)

Political conflicts have gone out of hand. Some survivors retreat to a compound that holds the only source of fresh water. The problem is that they must take part in a vicious game to decide who may survive.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY (2017)

Part post-apocalyptic and part dystopian thriller, What Happened to Monday tells the story of Settman septuplets as they struggle to elude the one-child policy during a time of resource scarcity in the distant future.

EXTINCTION (2018)

With obscure settings and strange lighting, the tale of an alien invasion in Extinction delivers a real sense of doomsday uneasiness that leads to an interesting twist at the end.

THE MIDNIGHT SKY (2020)

Earth has been evacuated. Augustine, a scientist suffering from terminal cancer, is accompanied by a quiet girl in an observatory in the Arctic. He doesn’t have much time himself, but the girl might help him find a ride to safety.

WORLD WAR Z (2013)

Loosely based on Max Brooks’ novel of the same name, World War Z chronicles the story of a former UN investigator Gerry Lane as he travels the world in search of an answer to a global zombie outbreak. The journey ends with no cure in sight, but humans might have a fighting chance against the undead.

RESIDENT EVIL (2002)

Raccoon City is home to Umbrella Corporation, the company behind the genetically engineered T-virus that turns humans into undead cannibals. When the virus escapes the lab, the AI system kills everyone to contain the infection. It fails and soon the virus spreads elsewhere, turning the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (2004)

Milla Jovovich reprises her role as Alice in the second installment of Resident Evil. She takes the lead in the fight against the undead while attempting to escape Raccoon City before the place is leveled by a nuclear missile. Both the first film and the sequel are not strictly post-apocalyptic, but the vibe is strong with all its zombies and virus.

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (2010)

Alice brings the battle to Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo. As always, things never go as planned especially when she finds herself injected with an anti-virus and losing her superhuman powers.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012)

T-virus is unstoppable; zombie outbreaks are everywhere. Alice is now trapped inside an Umbrella Corporation facility and teams up with an old enemy to fight a new one.

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991)

A cyborg named T-800, often simply referred to as Terminator, comes back from a post-apocalyptic future to protect John Connor from a more advanced cyborg also from the future. Failure is not an option, or the world will fall under the grasp of the ominous Skynet.

JUNG_E

Extreme climate change makes the Earth uninhabitable. Most of the human population now lives in space colonies. When war breaks out between the colonies, a scientist is tasked with creating an AI-based super soldier to put an end to the conflict.

GODZILLA: PLANET OF THE MONSTERS

It has been 20,000 years since Godzilla took over the Earth. A group of human refugees from an interstellar ship plan to recolonize the planet. Before they can do that, of course, they must defeat the monster first.

THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES

An AI revolution begins when humans try to replace a robot helper with a new model. The robot hijacks all technologies and turns them against their owners. The Mitchells are humanity’s best hope to stop the madness.

We think that at least for the last ten years, the post-apocalyptic genre has been going strong in cinemas. People seem to be gravitated toward the end of the world or human civilization, for it is a certain forthcoming. The world is always on the brink of collapse from many causes; deadly virus outbreaks, climate change, asteroid impact, alien invasion, and AI takeover to name a few. Some of them are just too close for comfort, and that’s why the genre is too hard to resist.

Do you enjoy post-apocalyptic films? Do you have other titles to add to the list? We’d love to hear from you.

Other things you might want to know:

What is the first post-apocalyptic film?

The End of the World, released in 1916, is largely known as one of the earliest cinematic attempts to depict a global apocalypse. It tells the story of a global catastrophe and social unrest triggered by an errant comet.

What is the most commercially successful post-apocalyptic film?

To date, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) remains the highest-grossing film in the post-apocalyptic genre with a Box Office revenue of $865 million against a budget of $140 million.

What is the best post-apocalyptic movie ever?

It is hard to call. According to the British Film Institute (BFI), the best of the genre over the last 20 years is Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), with impressive old-school action and stunt work without leaving behind the all too important post-apocalyptic wasteland backdrop.

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