Doomsday film

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Poster for the 1964 doomsday black comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

A doomsday film is a motion picture which tells the story of an actual or fictitious doomsday event and/or its aftermath. This event may be global in scale or a more localized catastrophe—such as the destruction of a city—which can serve as a dramatic microcosm of a full-scale doomsday event. Alternatively, a doomsday film may tell a suspenseful story in which a doomsday event is narrowly averted. The doomsday theme can be regarded as defining a distinct sub-genre of such broader film genres as suspense, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, action, disaster, war, adventure, or even comedy.

List of noteworthy doomsday films in chronological order

Before 1950

• Things to Come (1936, UK)
• The Beginning or the End (1947, US)

1950s

• Seven Days to Noon (1950, UK)
• When Worlds Collide (1951, US)
• Above and Beyond (1952, US)
• The War of the Worlds (1953, US; remade in 2005)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, US; remade in 1978)
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956, US)
• On the Beach (1959, US)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959, US)

1960s

• The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961, UK)
• The Day of the Triffids (1962, UK)
• Panic in Year Zero, (1962, US)
• (1964, US)
• Fail-Safe (1964, US)
• The Last Man on Earth (1964, US)
• Crack in the World (1965, US)
• The War Game (1965, UK)

1970s

• (1970, US)
• The Omega Man (1971, US)
• A Boy and His Dog (1975, US)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978, US; remade in 2004)
• Mad Max (1979, Australia)

1980s

• The Road Warrior (1981, Australia)
• Special Bulletin (1983, US)
• Testament (1983, US)
• The Day After (1983, US)
• Night of the Comet (1984, US)
• Threads (1984, UK)
• Ghostbusters (1984, US)
• (1985, Australia)
• The Quiet Earth (1985, New Zealand)

1990s

• By Dawn's Early Light (1990, US)
• (1991, US)
• Independence Day (1996, US)
• Mars Attacks! (1996, US)
• Armageddon (1998, US)
• Deep Impact (1998, US)
• Last Night (1998, Canada)
• The Matrix (1999, US)

2000s

• Reign of Fire (2002, US)
• (2003, US)
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004, US)
• War of the Worlds (2005, US)

See also

• Apocalyptic literature
• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction
• Disaster film

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