10 Great Apocalypse Movies To Watch While You Wait For The Last of Us 2
The Last of Us Part 2 is perhaps the most hotly anticipated video game release of the year, if not the past decade. It is very nearly here, but unfortunately, there is still some waiting to do. With the Uncharted franchise, the developers, Naughty Dog, blended cinematic storytelling with a top of the range gaming experience.
It was a commercial and critical success and they elevated this game design to new heights with their post-apocalyptic epic The Last of Us. While we all wait, let's look at ten great films, some that inspired the game directly and some which fill that Last of Us-sized hole that has been steadily growing in the seven-year wait for the sequel.
10 The Road (2009)
As apocalypse movies go, it is hard to get more bleak and harrowing than The Road. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee star as the anonymous Man and Boy who travel across a wasteland America. No explanation is offered for the world's end, and no sign of hope or relief is given.
There are some scenes where the father and son must hide from other survivors, which are very reminiscent of TLOU. Even some of the plot points unfold like the game; seemingly safe but with building dread until some unspeakable horror is revealed.
9 28 Days Later (2002)
Now considered a classic, this is one of the first scripts from writer Alex Garland and a terrifying installment in the zombie genre. A man wakes up from a coma to find the world in turmoil.
While the film is known for implementing running zombies as opposed to the archetypal slow-moving creatures of the past, it is its shots of a near-empty London that remains truly iconic. It's a device now used by many to show, that in a world gone to hell, the most terrifying and unexpected thing to find is silence.
8 Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
Here's an underrated gemthat shares more than a little DNA with TLOU. Beginning in an underground bunker, somewhere in the UK, the focus is on a group of children who are kept under restraint while they're taught school lessons.
While, like TLOU, it swaps the apocalypse from a viral to a fungal infection, the film keeps enough originality and mystery to completely flip the genre on its head and offer a story that hasn't been seen before.
7 Escape From New York (1981)
Offered here as a small break from the highly bleak titles on the list, Escape From New York is a classic example of old-school movie fun. It doesn't feature zombies, but it is set in a world where the entire city of New York has been turned into a prison.
The streets become a warzone of crime and looting, and some of the tensest sequences in the game come from scenes like that. And while its a cliché, it is often true that humans are far more terrifying than any monster.
6 A Quiet Place (2018)
One of the most recent additions to the post-apocalypse genre (and another hotly anticipated sequel), A Quiet Place's success is partly reliant on its very solid premise; remain as silent as possible, or risk being killed. Part of what makes TLOU so enjoyable is the sensory experience it gives to the player.
So many sequences are reliant on the player being able to hear where enemies are and remain as silent as possible as they sneak around them. With the sequel looking like it's ready to double-down on that mechanic, then perhaps this film could offer some useful hints.
5 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
The surprise sequel to the surprise hit has more than enough tension to rival TLOU. Part of the game's best story mechanics is the way it plays with trust. Often entire sequences are played with characters who are highly ambiguous when it comes to their moral alignment.
10 Cloverfield Lane follows a group of people who, through a supposedly charitable act, find themselves sheltering from an alien invasion in an underground bunker. The film is a real pot-boiler of tension as personalities clash and people constantly lie to each other for the sake of survival.
4 Dawn of the Dead (1978)
George A. Romero practically invented the zombie movie, and Dawn of the Dead may be his masterpiece. While TLOU is set well after the breakdown of society and Dawn of the Dead is right at the beginning, both movies use the zombie genre to discuss wider themes.
In the movie, a group of survivors finds themselves in a mall. After clearing out the zombies, they begin an idyllic life where their every need is fulfilled. A deadly indictment of American consumerism at the time, the film offers a bleak image of life that, ultimately, is not strong enough to survive the chaos.
3 The Book of Eli (2010)
Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis each play a man and a woman who must cross an American wasteland, carrying a secret that could save all of humanity. While it is closer to something like Mad Max than a zombie film, The Book of Eli is full of oppressive and half-destroyed cityscapes that fill the backgrounds of TLOU.
Similarly, the action of the movie also resembles the game, with Washington as a brawler who attacks with a number of improvised weapons; including a machete and a bow.
2 Train to Busan (2016)
Naughty Dog is known for putting movie-quality set-pieces into their level design. Many sequences in their games make the player feel the way they would if they were a hero in a movie. The South-Korean zombie smash-hit Train to Busan often has the exact feeling that Naughty Dog is going for.
A father and young daughter find themselves trapped on a train at the beginning of a zombie outbreak. Trapped on all sides, they must improvise and collaborate to survive until the train reaches its destination.
1 Children of Men (2006)
Cited by game director Neil Druckmann as a key influence on TLOU, Children of Men is often considered to be one of the most believable post-apocalyptic movies in terms of atmosphere, if not in story. Clive Owen must transport a woman cross-country, the first to fall pregnant in over twenty years.
The film is filled with people who have given into panic, resorting to violence and corruption to survive in a world that appears to have no future. Fantastically directed by Alfonso Cuarón, the film is full of scenes that are eerily similar to some of TLOU's cutscenes.