5. The Day After
I was 6 years old when my mom made the crucial error of letting me watch all of this movie. I spent the next few days staring out the window, thinking I'd see mushroom clouds billowing nearby, signalling the end of all I knew at the time. There's a reason why ABC had to open up a phone bank full of counselors to take calls from jittery viewers. It was that disturbing to anyone who saw it, not just because of the climate we were in at the time, but because of how the film personalized the disaster. The movie dealt with the fallout of a nuclear attack on a small Kansas town, but rather than just looking at it from a national perspective, it honed in on the individual tragedies. Disturbing stuff, and a movie I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.
4. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Do you really need any other reason than this shot of rodeo star Slim Pickens riding a nuke like some wild bronco? I think not.
3. The Lord of the Flies
People forget that this story takes place not long after a nuclear war. The original novel and the two subsequent films were always an allgory to the fall of man and the loss of civilized culture. And it made it cool to hit fat people with rocks. Just kidding. I've always been partial to the 1963 film than to the 1990 follow-up, which while good featured some truly horrendous acting.
2. Dawn of the Dead
Zack Snyder's beautiful and far superior remake captured the zombie apocalypse and made it look cool. Snyder more than captured the spirit and social critiques of the George Romero classic, updating it for a more modern audience. Not a small feat by any stretch. Featuring some amazing acting by the always dependable Sara Polley and Ving Rhames, Dawn of the Dead is one of those movies I get sucked into watching every single time it's on. It's nearly flawless.
1. 28 Days Later
For years, the zombie sub-genre floundered. Lame remake after lame remake was attempted using the same old formula. Lumbering zombies, idiot archetypes serving as a movable feast for the undead masses. It was tired, lazy, and uninspiring, and sapped my love for the genre altogether. That was until Danny Boyle gave it a jumpstart with unique, genre busting 28 Days Later. He didn't just jumpstart it, he gave it a swift kick in the ass. Get those ponderous, inept zombies sloughing with their arms outstretched outta here! Throw in an amped up rage virus that transforms it's victims into track stars with an appetite for human guts. Cut the lousy soundtrack that sounds like something playing on your neighbors doorstep on Halloween night, focus on mood, ambiance, and the dreadful heaviness of silence instead. From the moment Cilian Murphy wakes up in his hospital bed and discovers nearly all of humanity has been transformed, I was in it's thrall.
Honorable Mentions: Mars Attacks, anything with Bruce Willis in it(Armageddon, The 5th Element, 12 Monkeys) War of the Worlds(the original, dammit!), The Day the Earth Stood Still(again, the original!!)
Worst End of the World Film? The Core. I remember all the buzz this movie had at the time. It featured a "hot" cast of actors just coming off huge films, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank primarily, but the story tried so hard to be cool that it slipped and fell on it's own butt. From the moment DJ Qualls tells us he needs "an unlimited supply of Xena tapes and Hot Pockets", I was ready to stick my own head in the microwave and wait for the Earth's demise.
