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- Don't Look Up
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Apocalyptic Movies And Shows On Netflix That Make Us Want To Bunker Down
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People love watching post-apocalyptic movies, and Netflix knows this. Whether the streaming service creates its own movies and television shows set at the end of the world, or merely makes them available, Netflix has plenty of options.
This list takes a look at the many apocalyptic films and television series on Netflix that make us want to bunker down and try to survive. Would you be able to take on The Walking Dead or survive the end of days? Tie on a blindfold to keep the Birdbox monsters from wiping you out? Only time (and watching these shows and films) will tell!
- 150 VOTES
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Premise: God has lost faith in humanity and dispatches his angels to destroy everyone. Michael falls to Earth and severs his wings, believing there is still hope. He arrives at a diner on the edge of the Mojave Desert and informs a pregnant woman that she carries humanity's savior. They fight off hordes of possessed people before Gabriel arrives and turns the heat up to 11. Ultimately, humanity is left to fight for itself, with a little angelic help.
How Doomed The World Is: The world in Legion isn't entirely doomed… yet. While it seems doomed from the onset, there's hope for humanity in the baby born in the diner. Whether or not humanity can survive God's latest decision to wipe them out is up to the survivors, who must follow the Word and restore God's faith in humanity and his angels.
How Likely Would You Survive: In all likelihood, most ordinary folks not associated with Michael wouldn't survive. They are the puppets the avenging angels use to wipe out humanity, and there's no proper defense against possession.
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- 236 VOTES
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Premise: The zombie plague took the world by storm, reanimating the dead with an insatiable hunger for living flesh. Small pockets of survivors remain, but various hazards in the new world are constantly trying to eliminate them. And it doesn't help that everyone is infected. A bite is fatal and turns a person into a walker, but when they die naturally or from any other cause, they still turn, ensuring the world is truly the domain of the dead.
How Doomed The World Is: The world as we knew it is gone, but there's hope for the survivors if they band together. The walkers in The Walking Dead aren't the true villains of the story; the most dangerous things out there are other survivors, many of whom kill mercilessly, enslave their captives, or worse. Anyone who hopes to survive needs to do so with a strong team, or they'll succumb, sooner or later, to other survivors or the walking dead.
How Likely Would You Survive: Most people aren't surviving this series, and that's clear by the vast number of undead walking across the landscape. If you find a good group of survivors who will work together and fight off anyone who tries to hurt the group, you might survive, but expect to lose people along the way.
More The Walking Dead - 344 VOTES
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Premise: Strange things begin to happen around a family staying at a vacation rental outside of New York City. The animals in the surrounding woods behave oddly, and a young boy is infected with a disease after something bites him. Paranoia runs rampant as things begin to devolve, and it appears that, somehow, civilization has collapsed. It's theorized that everything is merely the first wave in an attempt to disrupt and destroy the United States from within, and while this is seemingly proven in the end, it's never confirmed.
How Doomed The World Is: The world isn't entirely doomed in Leave the World Behind, but it appears to be on the verge of several hardships moving forward. On top of the unusual occurrences, someone bombs NYC, and there's a good chance the survivors will face extreme hunger in the very near future.
How Likely Would You Survive: Anyone who prepared themselves well enough may survive for some time in a bunker, but many dangers in this new world order are likely to make survival difficult for even the most prepared people.
- #234 of 252 onThe 200+ Best Psychological Thrillers Of All Time
- #260 of 375 onThe Best Movies Based On Books
- #158 of 168 onThe 160+ Scariest Psychological Thrillers
- 460 VOTES
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Premise: Humanity has been judged and is to be wiped out by mysterious entities. If you gaze upon them, you're compelled to kill yourself, and the world dies off with massive suicides. Also, if you see the entities, you'll try to force others to do so before offing yourself, so there are numerous dangerous obstacles. Surviving means covering your eyes so you can't see the entities. Of course, this only makes surviving attacks from unblindfolded survivors more difficult.
How Doomed The World Is: In Bird Box, the world as we know it is effectively over. What few survivors remain must do so without opening their eyes to the world. Doing so will result in insanity and perishing, so short of blinding oneself, a blindfold will only do so much.
How Likely Would You Survive: Most people wouldn't survive due to the sheer number of unblindfolded people. Also, most people aren't used to surviving in a world without sight, so the vast majority of people who take the precaution of blindfolding themselves wouldn't likely survive, either.
- 517 VOTES
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Premise: The zombie apocalypse has come, and the world is doomed, leaving Rose (Jaime King) desperate to save her daughter Anna. She embarks on a journey to do just that, finding security with a small band of refugees as she makes her way across the deadly zombified world she finds herself in.
How Doomed The World Is: The Zombocalypse is vast and costs most people their lives early on, but some survive. Black Summer is a spinoff of the first season of Z Nation, which depicts humanity's struggle to survive the zombie apocalypse, which evolves into many forms. Given what we know of that series, the world isn't entirely doomed, but it's not going to go back to the way it was any time soon.
How Likely Would You Survive: Surviving in Black Summer requires a great deal of stamina and know-how. Pairing with the wrong group of survivors could spell certain doom, but it is survivable. Most people wouldn't make it, but anyone with some weapons training and the knowledge of the nature of the zombocalypse can make it through, but the odds aren't in anyone's favor.
More Black Summer- #294 of 657 onThe 500+ Best Current Shows On Netflix
- #320 of 1,056 onThe 250+ Best Streaming Shows Of The Last Few Years
- #7 of 46 onThe Best Zombie Related TV Series
- 635 VOTES
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Premise: A solar flare hits Earth and disrupts all electronics. More than that, it affects humans's brain chemistry, making it impossible for them to sleep. As the clock ticks toward sleep-deprived insanity, the government works to find a cure, using only one woman who can sleep. Just as things go from worse to apocalyptic, a cure is discovered - but administering it is dangerous.
How Doomed The World Is: Given the scope of the problem, most of the world's population would perish within a week. The few who carried on would likely go insane and become a danger to themselves and others. Awake highlights the risks of not sleeping and magnifies them by showing what happens to the planet if everyone suddenly cannot fall asleep.
How Likely Would You Survive: If you could not administer the “cure,” there's no chance of survival. Humans need sleep to survive, and staying awake indefinitely can lead to psychosis and possibly death. The movie doesn't even allow people in comas to sleep, so eventually, everyone would perish.
More Awake- #23 of 60 onThe Best New Sci-Fi Movies Of The Last Few Years
- #74 of 80 onThe 65+ Best PG-13 Sci-Fi Adventure Movies
- #224 of 335 onThe Best Netflix Original Movies Ever
- 727 VOTES
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Premise: Four hundred years ago, aliens exterminated the entirety of the human race. Extinction takes place in the aftermath, focusing primarily on three people: Ezra, Feena, and Abram. An alien faction revived them to restart the human race and its civilization, but doing so is difficult, seeing as the aliens who initially exterminated humanity are still around.
How Doomed The World Is: While the planet is bereft of humans, save for the few revived by beneficial aliens, there is hope. It won't be easy, but the revived humans must work together with their alien benefactors to take on their mortal enemies and restart humanity. Unfortunately, the series was canceled after the first season, so it never received a conclusion.
How Likely Would You Survive: Not very likely at all, as everyone is pretty much dead and gone for four centuries by the time the series picks up. Surviving after being revived is incredibly difficult, so there's little chance most people would make it through Extinction in one piece.
More Extinction- #118 of 178 onThe Best Alien Movies Of All Time, Ranked
- #106 of 138 onThe 100+ Best Disaster Movies Of All Time
- #11 of 15 onUnderrated Sci-Fi Movies Where Earth Fends Off An Alien Invasion
- 853 VOTES
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Premise: When a massive comet is discovered on an impact orbit with Earth, two scientists try to save the planet. They're opposed by politicians who lie to the public and attempt to sway attention away from the impending doom, but eventually, folks look up and see the comet as it approaches Earth. With only one chance to break up the comet and change its trajectory, it's up to the politicians to make the call. As you can imagine, they don't make the right one.
How Doomed The World Is: The world is 100% doomed to absolute destruction. Don't Look Up isn't about surviving a planetary apocalypse, because the planet is utterly gone upon impact. This comet makes the one that took out the dinosaurs look like a grain of sand, and the planet cannot survive.
How Likely Would You Survive: There's no hope of survival in Don't Look Up. Surviving isn't so much the point as it is showing how politicians can doom us all with bad and selfish policy decisions.
- 923 VOTES
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Premise: After a virus carried by rainfall wipes out nearly every human on the planet, few remain in small pockets. The Rain is set in Denmark, where almost everyone has succumbed to the virus. Six years after the first deadly rainfall, a group of survivors emerge to search for their father, who left the bunker and never returned. He's not merely their father but also a scientist who may hold some answers and, if they're fortunate, a cure.
How Doomed The World Is: The world is pretty doomed in The Rain, seeing as it rains pretty much wherever people populate. Surviving in places where it rarely rains is extremely difficult, though not impossible. There is a small hope of survival for the human race.
How Likely Would You Survive: Depending on where you lived when the deadly rain began to fall, there's a good chance you're not going to survive the rain, seeing as it rains pretty much everywhere people tend to live. If you have access to a decent shelter, and you don't get caught in a downpour, you may just make it.
More The Rain- #46 of 316 onThe 300+ Best Netflix Foreign Series, Ranked
- #185 of 807 onThe 700+ Best Netflix Original Series
- #10 of 68 onThe 65+ Best Dystopian TV Series
- 1036 VOTES
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Premise: When a high school teacher in Hyosan, Korea, unwittingly causes his school to become overrun with zombies, the outbreak extends to the entire city. As people on the outside attempt to contain the deadly zombie outbreak, the survivors left inside the city must work together to reach safety.
How Doomed The World Is: The world in All of Us Are Dead isn't doomed just yet, seeing as the outbreak is mostly contained. That said, getting things under control is no easy task.
How Likely Would You Survive: A person's ability to survive in this world is pretty much the same as any zombified place, but there's a catch. Because the outbreak is mostly contained in a small area, the odds of survival diminish significantly, as there are very few means of escape (and the dead only grow in number with each kill). Working together is the key to surviving the zombie plague in All of Us Are Dead.
More All of Us Are Dead- #185 of 687 onThe 600+ Best TV Shows Of The Last 5 Years
- #551 of 657 onThe 500+ Best Current Shows On Netflix
- #120 of 1,056 onThe 250+ Best Streaming Shows Of The Last Few Years
- 1122 VOTES
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Premise: Society collapsed a decade earlier in an event known as “The Great Crumble” following a viral pandemic. Most people across the planet were wiped out, but at the same time, children were born with different animal features. The survivors believed the children brought the plague, making them targets of just about everyone, but some survived and matured into incredible hybrids capable of amazing feats.
How Doomed The World Is: Despite losing much of the population to The Great Crumble, the world is on the mend. There are pockets of survivors all over the place, and the reoccurrence of hybrids suggests a new path for humanity moving forward - so long as the old is willing to step aside for the new in Sweet Tooth.
How Likely Would You Survive: If you survive the plague that wiped out most of humanity, you can survive in the world that follows. You'll need some serious survival skills, and working and living with a large group of like-minded individuals never hurts. Of course, you'll still have to deal with various dangers, factions, and diseases.
More Sweet Tooth- Dig Deeper...Pretty Sweet Tweets About Netflix's 'Sweet Tooth' That Left Us Craving More
- #44 of 657 onThe 500+ Best Current Shows On Netflix
- #413 of 1,056 onThe 250+ Best Streaming Shows Of The Last Few Years
- 1228 VOTES
Army Of The Dead
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Premise: After a zombified soldier escapes transport near Las Vegas, the entire city is walled in to keep the zombies contained. This works fairly well, but an elaborate heist arises, and several mercenaries enter the city to try and steal from a casino. Things go about as expected, with the additional wrinkle that the zombies are smart enough to plan an escape from the city. Their goal? Infect the rest of the population.
How Doomed The World Is: The world outside of Las Vegas isn't entirely doomed, but there is some concern, as zombies are capable of infecting people outside the city. Also, plenty of seriously incompetent people are involved in managing the containment, ensuring things will devolve quickly under their watch.
How Likely Would You Survive: Staying away from the infected area will keep you safe for the most part, but wandering inside will make you 100% chow for the Army of the Dead.
More Army of the Dead- #36 of 125 onThe Top 100+ Zombie Movies Of All Time
- #11 of 14 on14 Movies About Doomed Missions With Little To No Hope Of Survival
- #10 of 30 onThe Best Fast Moving Zombie Movies
- 1315 VOTES
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Premise: Something has happened to the sun, and its light is now lethal to all biological organisms. Into The Night follows a pack of survivors who unwittingly band together to survive the sun's encroaching rays as they pilot an aircraft toward an underground NATO bunker in Bulgaria. Still, they must race against the sun to survive, and it never stops coming!
How Doomed The World Is: The apocalypse is efficient and total – the only way to survive is to avoid direct sunlight, but the light kills everything, including plants. This means that anyone who survives by going underground will have to embrace the troglodytic lifestyle, because they aren't going to grow any crops outside. If they can find a way to survive entirely without sunlight and somehow keep themselves fed, there's a chance small pockets of survivors may exist. However, for the most part, the sun leaves the planet a dead husk.
How Likely Would You Survive: You won't survive this one unless you have a means of traveling westward for the rest of your life at a speed that keeps you out of sunlight. That's unlikely, just as it's unlikely many could survive in caves or bunkers for very long. The planet is doomed.
More Into The Night- #458 of 1,056 onThe 250+ Best Streaming Shows Of The Last Few Years
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- 1425 VOTES
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Premise: After an unknown seismic event disrupts travel and electronic communications, Will (Theo James) and his fiance's father (Forest Whitaker) make their way back to Seattle, WA, to ensure his fiance's safety. Their trip is hampered by everything from military roadblocks to motorcycle gangs and highway robbers, as everyone's desperation drives them to aggressive action. Ultimately, Will reaches Seatle and finds it inexplicably wiped out.
How Doomed The World Is: It's unclear how doomed the world is in How It Ends, but what is clear is that the west coast of the United States is compromised, likely via volcanic eruptions, which may not have happened naturally. The survivors have a difficult road ahead as they try to make it through countless dangers, and without any information as to what happened or why.
How Likely Would You Survive: If you have survival skills and, more importantly, a safe refuge, you'll probably survive whatever happened to the West Coast in How It Ends. Still, it's unclear exactly what happened, so the dangers remain relatively obscure. You'll have to keep your wits about you if you're going to survive.
More How It Ends- #193 of 335 onThe Best Netflix Original Movies Ever
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- 1523 VOTES
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Premise: Ninety-seven years after a nuclear apocalypse made the planet unlivable, the remaining survivors of humanity live in an orbiting space station called the Ark. The population is the result of three generations born in space, and they send 100 juvenile detainees to the planet to see if the surface is survivable due to the Ark's many system failures. The children arrive on the planet to find that people survived on the surface and are now called Grounders. They live in caves, though some have become cannibals.
How Doomed The World Is: The world isn't doomed per se, but it's not the world we know. Most of humanity's marks on the planet have eroded or been wiped out, leaving a lush and verdant ecosystem. Unfortunately, it's incredibly hazardous to people, and so are the Grounders. The survival of the people aboard the Ark isn't going to be a cake walk.
How Likely Would You Survive: You need serious survival skills to make it in The 100. If you can survive all the dangers the planet has to offer, you still need to contend with the Grounders, many of whom are incredibly hostile. On top of that, the series ends without any possibility of the human race moving forward due to infertility, so while the world survives people, the people won't survive the world.
More The 100- #79 of 302 onThe Best TV Shows Of The Past 20 Years
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- 1618 VOTES
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Premise: The world has fallen to the zombie horde - though in Daybreak, they're called “Ghoulies.” A group of teenagers work together to survive, as Josh Wheeler (Colin Ford) searches Glendale, CA, for his girlfriend, Sam Dean (Sophie Simnett).
How Doomed The World Is: The world is pretty much doomed in Daybreak, and there doesn't appear to be any way to fix it back to the way it was. Of course, this show is a horror comedy, so saving the planet isn't really something the survivors are interested in. They have their own motivations for making their way in the world, and most seem okay with simply surviving in the world they have to live in.
How Likely Would You Survive: The Ghoulies and the roving bands of Mad Max-style thugs are pretty nasty. Still, surviving is certainly possible, seeing as a group of teenagers has managed to stay afloat for a while. If you can handle all manner of deadly threats and get in good with a group of tough survivors, you may live to see another day.
More Daybreak- #92 of 657 onThe 500+ Best Current Shows On Netflix
- #173 of 1,056 onThe 250+ Best Streaming Shows Of The Last Few Years
- #31 of 308 onThe Best Shows Canceled After a Single Season
