Top 5 post apocolyptic films

Post apocalyptic films are a sub genre of films which feature a certain amount of time after a cataclysmic series of event on a massive scale. The main locations of these films are the ruins of modern civilisation, taking  advantage of the depressingly dramatic effect of urban decay. Main characters are normally ordinary people simply trying to survive, however it is not unheard of to include some ridiculously over the top action hero just to be different. The antagonists of this genre generally comes in two forms:  The same thing which destroyed the world as the main antagonist (e.g monsters, enemy soldiers or , most popularly, zombies)  this has the "we have to stick together to survive" type of vibe, having a clear enemy can make the film much more simple, also if the antagonist is interesting enough, it can attract a large audience on it's own, without the film needing anything close to a good story structure or convincing characters (we see this particular effect in World War Z). The other type of antagonist is that of the other survivors, specifically looters and bandits, these antagonists are less interesting but they serve to deliver pseudo-psychological messages about the "duality of man" or something like that. Either way, my group and I all have great respect for the genre, which is why we decided to choose it as our film genre, to show this here are my 5 favourites:

5.  CarriersCarriers is a film set in rural America struck by a deadly virus, it primarily focuses on the main character's decent into disease and madness. It is somewhat different to other films within the genre as it is less focused on the world around the survivors and more on the deterioration of the human mind during a crisis. Normally films can't really pull this off, but in my opinion this film had quite an accurate message until the disappointingly anticlimactic ending. Our film will have a few similarities to Carriers, mainly the whole atmosphere that the world is always working against the characters.


4. Zombieland
    
Although this film has no real relevance to my coursework, any list of my favourite post apocalyptic film has got to have this ridiculous masterpiece. Zombieland follows a teenager trying to get to terms with the the new, zombie infested wasteland that was once the world. It is the typical action film with over the top fight scenes and many comedic ways of zombie killing. It is not exactly a unique film but it is certainly a classic within the genre.

3. Book of Eli


The book of Eli is about one man wandering a ravaged, war-torn wasteland in search of a sacred book which he hopes can restore the world back to it's previous state. The film is full of elaborate fight scenes with impossible stunts as the main character is seemingly invincible. It breaks the trend of the normal man in a destroyed world which is the general basis of many post apocalyptic films. Unfortunately this is a trend we hope to follow, with our main character being a relatively normal man instead of the over zealous super human in The Book of Eli. One thing we hope to take from this film is the style of the antagonists, as there are no zombies, normal run of the mill thugs and bandits take the role of the main enemies. There are many "colourful" individuals used in the film, we hope to take note of certain traits in the characters and add them to our psychopathic antagonist.

2. I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a staple among zombie and post apocalyptic films alike, it is widely considered the best to come from it's genre in the past 10 years and for good reason. I Am Legend follows the story of a researcher in New York who is the sole survivor of a deadly virus which has ravaged New York, killing most of the population and turning many others into cannibalistic ghouls which have decimated the remaining population. The film focuses heavily on the empty shell of New York, with the backdrop being an amazing example of urban decay after the apocalypse. This film has many themes in which we intend to capture in our film, primarily the lone survivor protagonist which features heavily in this film. We intend to model Will as somewhat of a twist on Robert Neville,  however this film is much more glamorous than what we hope for, so we will add more of a gritty aspect to this protagonist.

1. 28 Days Later

28 Days Later is a British film in which we have gathered the most inspiration from, this is mainly because of its similarities with our initial idea, the obvious exception to this is the lack of zombies. The film is about a virus which afflicts England known as "the rage virus", a pathogen which turns the infected into ravenous psychopaths which only want to spread their infection. The film features a group of survivors trying to get out of London to any form of civilisation, through which they have to face the infected, as well as the newly formed paramilitary. The film is done in a gritty, hyper realistic way, which we hope to replicate throughout our film. It is my favourite post apocalyptic film mainly because of the grittiness but also because of the zombies, although we don't have any in our film (as it is extremely over done) I like the concept and this film makes the zombies genuine threats.