Yahoo Lifestyle The 10 best apocalypse movies streaming on Netflix right now
From natural disasters to man-made horrors, the streaming giant has fan-favorites like "Bird Box," "Don’t Look Up," and more.
everett (2); netflix
Feeling less “Netflix and chill” and more “Netflix and chill your blood imagining all the ways the world could end” these days? If so, the streaming giant’s got you covered.
Whether you prefer it when humanity ends with a bang (Badland Hunters, Zombieland) or with a whimper (Don’t Look Up), read on for Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 10 best apocalypse movies streaming on Netflix right now.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
JoJo Whilden/ Netflix
Based on a book by Rumaan Alam, this star-studded film follows two families who are thrown together when a cyberterror attack knocks society offline. Director Sam Esmail told EW he wanted to “get inside your mind and unlock the fears that you might really have about our world” in Leave the World Behind, which was produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company. You can’t argue about the film’s pedigree — or the terror of a world without technology.
Where to watch Leave the World Behind: Netflix
Director: Sam Esmail
Cast: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon
Related content: Mahershala Ali on his 'prophetic' Leave the World Behind character and film's mysterious ending
Badland Hunters (2024)
Netflix
The newest film on this list is also one of the bloodiest. Ma Dong-seok (Train to Busan) plays a battle-hardened hunter who sets out to save a teenager from a mad scientist three years after a catastrophic earthquake left Seoul a lawless wasteland.
First-time director Heo Myeong-haeng, a former stuntman, packs Badland Hunters with the brutal, eye-popping fight sequences you want in your Korean action cinema, complete with super soldiers, fast-moving zombies, and an entertaining outing from the immensely likable Dong-seok.
Where to watch Badland Hunters: Netflix
Director: Heo Myeong-haeng
Cast: Ma Dong-seok, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui
Zombieland (2009)
The best-ever zombie apocalypse comedy/action/romance/road-trip flick stars Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and Abigail Breslin as a found family of survivors cheerfully bickering their way across a ruined America where the hungry undead greatly outnumber the available supply of Twinkies.
EW’s critic praised Zombieland’s “snarky banter and self-referential pop cultural allusions.” So buckle up, check the backseat, and enjoy that celebrity cameo, which sparks joy no matter how many times you’ve rewatched this film.
Where to watch Zombieland: Netflix
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin
Related content: Emma Stone wants to make a Zombieland film every 10 years
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
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It’s a Gojira-pocalpyse in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, the first in Polygon Pictures’ anime trilogy that follows a group of refugees returning to a ravaged Earth 20,000 years after the cranky lizard drove out all the humans.
Directors Hiroyuki Seshita and Kôbun Shizuno created a visual feast in this fresh, sci-fi-infused take on the monster mythos, continuing in Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle and Godzilla: The Planet Eater, which are also available on Netflix.
Where to watch Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters: Netflix
Director: Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita
Cast: Mamoru Miyano, Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Yūki Kaji
Related content: Every Godzilla movie, ranked from worst to best
Don’t Look Up (2021)
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The mega-comet is real, but it’s a fame and fake news apocalypse that ultimately dooms the Earth in Don’t Look Up. EW’s critic called the Adam McKay film a “winking indictment of climate-change deniers and alternative-fact peddlers” who are happy to ignore global existential threats as they chase a little more clout. As McKay told EW, “This movie came from my terror about the climate crisis and the fact that we live in a society that tends to place it as the fourth or fifth news story, or even deny that it's happening, and how horrifying that is, but at the same time [how] preposterously funny.”
Don’t Look Up stars Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, and, conservatively, a billion other famous faces. (As tempting a target as Earth is for killer comets, McKay’s gravitational pull on actors is even stronger.)
Where to watch Don’t Look Up: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill
Related content: How Meryl Streep became the U.S. president in Don't Look Up
The Bad Batch (2016)
EW’s writer describes The Bad Batch as “a uniquely berserk tale of love and cannibalism” from director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night). After an unnamed apocalypse upends society, Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is dumped in a fenced-off wasteland reserved for undesirables, where she meets human-eaters, cult leaders, and other oddballs, including Keanu Reeves and Giovanni Ribisi. Come for the heavy doses of body trauma, stay for the perma-shirtless Jason Momoa.
Where to watch The Bad Batch: Netflix
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves
Related content: Ana Lily Amirpour made a brilliant COVID-19 short for Netflix. It's unlike anything she's ever done
The Worthy (2016)
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This brutal Arabic thriller from the producers of Insidious and The Conjuring follows a band of survivors battling over scarce resources after a political faction poisons the global water supply. Emirati director Ali F Mostafa worked on a shoestring budget to create this violent cat-and-mouse story, which reminds us that the apocalypse is sometimes just an excuse for very bad people to do very bad things.
Where to watch The Worthy: Netflix
Director: Ali F. Mostafa
Cast: Mahmoud Al Atrash, Rakeen Saad, Samer Ismail, Maisa Abd Elhadi
The Midnight Sky (2020)
George Clooney directed, co-produced, and starred in The Midnight Sky, which finds his lushly bearded Arctic scientist attempting to prevent a crew of astronauts, including Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, from returning to Earth where a global catastrophe awaits them.
Filming took place in Iceland, and the weather proved to be its own mini-catastrophe for Clooney. “It was like 40 below, 60-70-mile-an-hour winds, and it's tricky because you could get lost 15 feet away from the camera," he told EW. “I lost like 25 pounds [for the part], so I was pretty weak in general and I'm also directing a big film and you need energy. I was pretty beat up."
Where to watch The Midnight Sky: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: George Clooney
Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir
Related content: With The Midnight Sky, George Clooney issues a warning for humanity
Bird Box (2018)
This deeply unsettling Sandra Bullock film finds humanity blindly stumbling to survive after an unseen force drives the bulk of the population to suicide. “It's a thriller about motherhood,” director Susanne Bier told EW. “[Bullock’s character is] very forceful, very uncompromising. She's a very contemporary female hero.”
EW’s critic called Bird Box “taut and defiantly in the moment.” Watch it, and you’ll never take the luxury of driving without a blindfold for granted again.
Where to watch Bird Box: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle Macdonald, Rosa Salazar, Sarah Paulson
Related content: Catfish star Nev Schulman reveals his blink-and-you'll-miss-it Bird Box appearance
I Am Mother (2019)
If you like a little sci-fi with your apocalypse, you should meet this Mother. After humanity’s extinction, a strange woman (Hilary Swank) upends the life of a teenager raised in an austere post-apocalyptic bunker under the care of a maternal robot voiced by Rose Byrne.
Australian filmmaker Grant Sputore’s debut outing offers a heady mix of rich characters, shifting loyalties, and thought-provoking ideas, along with a fierce performance from Danish actress Clara Rugaard as a young woman grappling with the threat to the only life she’s ever known.
Where to watch I Am Mother: Netflix
Director: Grant Sputore
Cast: Clara Rugaard, Rose Byrne, Hilary Swank
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
