Here it is… Part 2 of my Favorite Post-Apocalypse Films of the 1980’s. Its taken me quite some time to cull the herd down to these ones. A warning… some of these are considered terrible – but that’s their charm. Hell, most folks think most of these suck. That’s ok. I thought Guardians of the Galaxy sucked. See how that works?
Don’t forget that just because these are my favorites, that doesn’t mean they are the best. It also doesn’t mean this is a list of all of the postapoc movies out there – these are just the ones I enjoy and have been able to watch more than once. 😉
Don’t forget to click the movie poster to see the film, trailer, or scene.
Endgame – The Running Man meets 1984… In the year 2025, a nuclear holocaust has left New York City an irradiated, but not abandoned, wasteland. The ruined city is inhabited now by scavenger packs and telepathic mutants, who are persecuted by the elite survivors. Keeping the people happy is the reality television program Endgame, where hunters and gladiators fight to the death…
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – The third installment in the original trilogy. Often cursed by fans, I thought it was brilliant. We get to see a slightly lighter side of the wasteland and watching Max come to grips with his humanity is wonderful…
Miracle Mile – I owned the soundtrack to this before I ever saw the movie. I was a huge Tangerine Dream fan and got my hands on every album of their’s I could. When I finally watched the movie, back in the late 80’s, I absolutely fell in love with it. I’ve seldom run into folks who’ve even heard of it, but after seeing it, they tend to love it as well. It’s a bit tense and you may feel tired at the end. Please, please, check this one out…
Night of the Comet – Can you believe I watched this in my English class back in high school, 1987? I don’t recall in what context we watched it, but it was PA and it was friggin’ awesome!!! The tail of a passing comet engulfs the world and those it doesn’t kill outright, become changed to “zombies”. Apparently only those who were protected by some kind of metal structure were saved from this fate – enter our two sisters and a couple of fellas making their way through this nightmare. This one is a fantastic example of 80’s nostalgia…
Slipstream – The Earth has finally succumbed to an unknown ecological disaster simply known as “The Convergence”. The landscape and weather has changed. The “slipstream” has become the main mode of transportation in this changed landscape. Producer/director Gary Kurtz (remember him? He had a hand in a couple little-known films called Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back) had hoped that this would be his meal ticket. Unfortunately, it drove him into bankruptcy due to it being a considerable flop – something I don’t quite understand as I feel it is a fantastic film full of some incredible actors ( Robbie Coltrane, Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham)… Oh well, such is life. It’s got Mark Hamill as a baddass and Bill Paxton as a whiny…. well, a whiny Bill Paxton…
Steel Dawn – Patrick Swayze is “the desert warrior. Carving the future with his sword“. Yeah… Swayze plays a character simply called “Nomad”, traveling the wastes and coming to be in the employ of a woman and her foreman, Tark (played by the late Brion James). Nomad is haunted by his past as well as hunted by an assassin called Sho (Christopher Neame – fans of Babylon 5 might recognize that name). Lots of swordfighting in this one…
Stryker – “The last war began in error. Who’s error, nobody knows, nor does it matter anymore. Nothing matters now other than survival. The nuclear holocaust wiped out all semblance of rhyme or reason. Cities obliterated, farmlands devastated. The ecology imbalanced and all that is left is a parched and arid wasteland, a scorched and seething Earth where what little water there is, is hoarded and kept under heavy guard. For water is power and whoever controls the water… controls the world.”
Sounds awesome, huh? Check it out…
2019: After the Fall of New York – In 2019 the world is devastated by an infection that prevents men from procreating. A group of survivors find that in New York there is a community of humans who for some reason has remained immune to contamination. The soldier Parsifal is sent on a reconnaissance mission to save the entire human race…
Testament – Along the same lines as The Day After, Roger Ebert said… “The film is about a suburban American family, and what happens to that family after a nuclear war. It is not a science-fiction movie, and it doesn’t have any special effects, and there are no big scenes of buildings blowing over or people disintegrating. We never even see a mushroom cloud. We never even know who started the war. Instead, “Testament” is a tragedy about manners: It asks how we might act toward one another, how our values might stand up, in the face of an overwhelming catastrophe.”…
Threads – This film was notable in being the first of its kind to depict a nuclear winter. Certain reviewers have nominated Threads as the “film which comes closest to representing the full horror of nuclear war and its aftermath, as well as the catastrophic impact that the event would have on human culture”…
Warrior of the Lost World – Yet another 1983 Italian Road Warrior ripoff… these never get old. For your pleasure, I have found the riffed version from MST3K. Trust me, it’ll make it worth watching…
Warriors of the Wasteland – Known as The New Barbarians when initially released in 1983, this is yet another Italian post-apocalyptic ripoff of The Road Warrior. When will it end? Apparently not yet…
And as a special added bonus, here’s Rifftrax doing what they do best with this flick…
Warriors of the Apocalypse – OK… this one is special. This is without a doubt the most terrible postapoc movie I have ever seen – in fact, it may very well be the worst movie I have ever seen period. Why is it one of my favorites? Because it’s got cannibalistic mutant midgets and people shooting frickin’ laser beams out of their eyes. Seriously, how can you not dig that?! It’s also very difficult to find. I purchased the VHS some years ago and have never seen it released on DVD. If you ever get the chance to watch it, please do… and never speak of it to anyone…
Warlords of the 21st Century – You guessed it, another ripoff, but this one’s a little different. For one it was filmed by Americans in New Zealand, and two, it’s actually pretty darned good. It features John Ratzenberger, so yeah, it doesn’t really suck…
Wheels of Fire – Oh geez.. another ripoff? Yep… Ok, fine, it sucks. But wait a minute… there is just no way I can do this movie justice. I found an excellent review that you should read…
Million Monkey Theater Movie Review for Wheels of Fire
When The Wind Blows – This is a very interesting film from 1986. Using drawn animation and stop-motion animation, it also features an incredible soundtrack – featuring artists such as David Bowie, Roger Waters, and Genesis. It is sorta-kinda along the same lines as The Day After and Threads. I strongly suggest watching this one…
World Gone Wild – Not as blatant a ripoff as most of the Italian flicks, this one is actually entertaining and one of the better postapoc movies of the 80’s. It stars real actors such as Bruce Dern and Michael Paré. The mainstay of pretty much every PA flick is either a lack of gasoline and/or water. The subject of this one is the latter and deals with a community trying to protect it from an evil cult of renegades (which seems to also be all too popular in these movies). Anyhoo, check it out. It ain’t that bad…
And there you have it – the last, best decade, as far this middle-aged scifi geek is concerned. Most of the movies during this time were simply cashing in on The Road Warrior… hell, most of ’em were made in 1983, most likely within the span of a few weeks. But while some were just fun and silly, there were a few that really attempted to scare the crap out of us and tell us just how really shitty a post-apocalyptic future could be.
I can’t help but wonder though, just how much radiation would it take to mutate me to the point that I’d be able to shoot frickin’ laser beams out of my eyes?
From the Wastes... 