World War III and other apocalyptic wars (between humans)

[edit] 1950s

1958. Teenage Cave Man 1958. Terror from the Year 5000 1959. On the Beach by Stanley Kramer, starring Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins and Ava Gardner. The crew of an American submarine finds temporary safety from the fallout in Australia after the nuclear holocaust (from the 1957 novel by Nevil Shute). 1959. The World, the Flesh and the Devil, adapted from M.P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud.

[edit] 1960s

1960. Atomic War Bride The 1960 film adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine had an atomic war to explain the downfall of civilization. 1960. The Final War by Shigeaki Hidaka, a Japanese film about a third world war started when the US accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Korea (Japanese title: Dai-sanji sekai taisen: Yonju-ichi jikan no kyofu). 1961. The Last War by Shuei Matsubayashi, another Japanese film about WWIII (Japanese title: Sekai daisenso). 1962. La Jete by Chris Marker. 1962. Panic in Year Zero!, a 1962 movie about a family that escapes Los Angeles that was devastated by a nuclear attack. 1962. This Is Not a Test 1964. Fail-Safe, theatrical release based on the novel of the same name. Drama in which a technical failure causes a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union by the United States. Deals with American and Soviet attempts to prevent escalation into a full-scale nuclear war. 1964. Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick, adapting the novel Red Alert by Peter George. 1964. The Time Travelers 1965. The Bedford Incident 1967. The End of August at the Hotel Ozone (Czech title: Konec srpna v Hotelu Ozon) 1967. In the Year 2889, a remake of the 1955 film Day the World Ended

1967. Journey to the Center of Time 1968. Planet of the Apes, adapted from the novel La plante des singes by Pierre Boulle. 1969. The Bed Sitting Room

[edit] 1970s

1971. Glen and Randa 1971. The Omega Man. An immune survivor of a biological/nuclear war battles plague-altered quasi-vampires bent on erasing all vestiges of science and technology. The movie is based on Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend. 1973. Refuge of Fear (Spanish title: El refugio del miedo) 1974. The Third Cry (Swiss film, French title: Le Troisime Cri) 1974. Zardoz 1975. A Boy and His Dog. A young man and his pet dog struggle for survival and encounter strife in a harsh, post-apocalyptic wasteland where food and sex are scarcities. 1975. La citt dell'ultima paura 1976. The People Who Own the Dark by Amando de Ossorio (Spanish title: ltimo deseo) 1977. Wizards by Ralph Bakshi. A good wizard and his evil brother battle some two millennia after Armageddon. 1977. Damnation Alley. A surviving American ICBM crew sets out across the United States in an armored vehicle in search of survivors in Albany, New York. Loosely based on the novel by Roger Zelazny. 1978. Deathsport 1979. Ravagers

[edit] 1980s

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior re-sparked interest in the post-apocalyptic genre

1981. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 1982. 2020 Texas Gladiators 1982. The Aftermath 1982. Human Highway 1982. Warriors of the Wasteland

1982. She, a low-budget B-movie, an extremely loose adaptation of the novel She by H. Rider Haggard, starring Sandahl Bergman as a post-civilization warrior. 1983. 2019, After the Fall of New York 1983. Barefoot Gen, based on the actual atomic bombing of Hiroshima (not technically post-apocalypse, but rather post-disaster) 1983. Endgame 1983. Exterminators of the Year 3000 1983. Le Dernier Combat by Luc Besson 1983. Stryker 1983. Testament 1983. Warrior of the Lost World 1983. Yor, the Hunter from the Future 1984. Dark Enemy 1984. Nausica of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki 1984. Sexmisja. A Polish comedy. 1984. Radioactive Dreams. After an atomic war Phillip Hammer and Marlowe Chandler have spent 15 years on their own in a bunker, then they find the keys to the last MX missile. 1984. Red Dawn 1985. City Limits 1985. Def-Con 4 1985. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985. Warriors of the Apocalypse. After civilization is wiped out by nuclear war, an adventurer leads a group of wanderers on a search for the fabled Mountain of Life. 1986. Dead Man's Letters 1986. Fist of the North Star 1986. The Sacrifice 1986. When the Wind Blows by Jimmy Murakami, adapting the graphic novel by Raymond Briggs 1986. Whoops Apocalypse 1987. Cherry 2000

1987. Death Run 1987. Hell Comes to Frogtown 1987. Steel Dawn 1987. Survivor 1987. Urban Warriors. Three technicians working in an underground laboratory discover that a nuclear war has destroyed most of the aboveground world. 1987 The Survivalist. The Soviet Union threatens a retaliatory nuclear attack, amid the chaos, only The Survivalist has a plan. 1988. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo 1988. Miracle Mile 1988. World Gone Wild 1988. Empire of Ash 1989. Empire of Ash II 1989. Empire of Ash III 1989. Black Rain, another film about the actual bombing of Hiroshima. 1989. Deadly Reactor 1989. Cyborg 1989. The Blood of Heroes

[edit] 1990s

1990. By Dawn's Early Light 1990. Hardware 1990. Mindwarp 1991. Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro 1993. Cyborg 2 1995. Fist of the North Star 1996. Star Trek: First Contact. A late-21st century Earth is devastated by nuclear conflict. 1997. The Postman, partly based on the David Brin novel 1998. Six-String Samurai

[edit] 2000s

2000. On the Beach. A remake of the 1959 film. 2002. Equilibrium. After barely surviving yet another worldwide conflict, mankind rejects all emotion and outlaws all forms of expression which might encourage emotional response. 2003. Time of the Wolf. 2004. Appleseed. 2006. Children of Men. A film adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same name. Set in the near-future where all women become infertile. 2007. The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.

[edit] Television

The Day After

1959. The Offshore Island, a TV adaptation of a play by Marghanita Laski.. Numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone and its revivals, including "Time Enough at Last" (1959); "The Old Man in the Cave" (1963); "A Little Peace and Quiet" (1985); "Quarantine" (1986); "Shelter Skelter" (1987); and "Voices in the Earth" (1987) 1965. The War Game by Peter Watkins. 1978. Future Boy Conan, an anime series by Hayao Miyazaki. Supermagnetic WMDs devastate Earth and causes virtually all land to be submerged underwater. 1982. Whoops Apocalypse 1982. World War III. Miniseries with Rock Hudson. 1983. The Day After. The effects of nuclear war on a Kansas town. 1984. Threads. BBC Television Docudrama.

1984-1987. Fist of the North Star. Post-apocalyptic anime series. 1990. The Girl from Tomorrow, Australian children's drama in which a girl from the 31st century (after the Northern Hemisphere has been destroyed in the Great Disaster, later revealed to be a nuclear holocaust) becomes stranded in the 20th century. In the sequel, Tomorrow's End (1993), she and her friends fight to prevent history from being changed in such a way that the Southern Hemisphere is destroyed as well. 1992. Woops!, a very short-lived sitcom about the survivors of a nuclear war. 1996-1997. Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anime series. 2000. Fail Safe, televised play based on the novel of the same name directed by Stephen Frears and produced by George Clooney. Drama in which a technical failure causes a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union by the United States. Deals with American and Soviet attempts to prevent escalation into a full-scale nuclear war. 2002. Saikano. Anime series. 2004-2005. Desert Punk. Anime series. 2006. Jericho (CBS), about the residents of a small Kansas town which remains isolated in the aftermath of a series of nuclear attacks on America.

[edit] Novels
[edit] 1880s

1885. After London by Richard Jefferies

[edit] 1930s

1933. The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells, predicting an extended world war fought with modern scientific weapons, societal upheaval, and the beginning of space travel. Filmed as Things to Come in 1936. 1934. Quinzinzinzili by Rgis Messac, also predicting a great world war that ends with the vanishing of humanity. Only a group of children survives and forms a strange new mankind. 1937. By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet.

[edit] 1940s

1948. Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley. Also screenplay. 1949. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.

[edit] 1950s

1950. Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov. (A later book, Robots and Empire, gave a different explanation) 1952. Star Man's Son by Andre Norton

1954. Tomorrow! by Philip Wylie 1955. The Chrysalids (U.S. title: Re-Birth) by John Wyndham 1955 Few Were Left by Harold Rein 1955. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett, in the aftermath of a nuclear war scientific knowledge is feared and restricted. 1956. The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick 1957. On the Beach by Nevil Shute (also the films based on the book) 1958. Red Alert by Peter George. Filmed as Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick. 1959. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, the aftermath of a nuclear war in a rural Florida community. 1959. A Canticle for Leibowitz and later its sequel Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, both by Walter M. Miller, Jr. 1959. Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald.

[edit] 1960s

1961. Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye. 1963. Triumph by Philip Wylie 1964. Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein 1964. The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick 1965. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick 1967. Ice by Anna Kavan. Nuclear winter is encroaching the entire planet. 1968. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, filmed as Blade Runner. 1969. Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny (made into a movie 1977). 1969. Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

[edit] 1970s

1970. The Incredible Tide by Alexandar Key. 1970. The Year Of The Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker. 1971. Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy. 1971. The Overman Culture by Edmund Cooper. 1972. Malevil by Robert Merle. 1974. The Last Canadian by William C Heine.

1975. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. 1975. Caravan by Stephen Goldin. 1975. The Coming of the Horseclans by Robert Adams, followed by seventeen other books in the horseclans series. 1977. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. 1976. Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick in collaboration with Roger Zelazny. 1979. Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham.

[edit] 1980s

1980. Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. 1980. The Fifth Horseman by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. 1982. Survivors by John Nahmlos. 1983. The Last Children of Schewenborn (Die Letzten Kinder Von Schewenborn) by Gudrun Pausewang (in German). 1983. Pulling Through by Dean Ing 1983. Trinity's Child by William Prochnau 1983. Hiero's Journey (sequel The Unforsaken Hiero 1985), by Sterling E. Lanier. A "metis" priest/killman quests across post-apocalyptic northeastern North America, seven thousand years in the future. 1984. Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells 1984. Emergence by David R. Palmer 1984. Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka 1985. Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence 1985. The Postman by David Brin and the 1997 movie of the same name. 1985. This is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow 1987. Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon 1988. The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper 1988. The Last Ship by William Brinkley.

[edit] 1990s

1990. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg (extension written by Silverberg of the Asimov story of the same name) 1991. Yellow Peril in Chinese by activist Wang Lixiong under the pseudonym Bao Mi, about a nuclear civil war in the People's Republic of China

1997. Aftermath by Levar Burton. American civilization crumbles after a civil war pitting blacks against whites and a devastating earthquake. 1999. Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois, set 10 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into nuclear war. 1999. Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles

[edit] 2000s

2001. Project Phoenix: Dead Rising by Darrin Brent Patterson. 2003. Apokalipsa wedlug Pana Jana by Robert J. Szmidt 2003. The City of Ember and its sequel, The People of Sparks, and prequel, The Prophet of Yonwood, by Jeanne DuPrau 2004. Cowl by Neal Asher. 2004. Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson 2004. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell contains one of six novellas set in a postapocalyptic future. 2005. The Empire of Texas by Rodger Olsen is about a post-apocalyptic United States 2005. Deadlands by Scott A. Johnson 2006. The Road (novel) by Cormac McCarthy. A father and son's postapocalyptic tale of survival. 2006. The Book of Dave by Will Self. Split between modern London and postapocalyptic London where a new society and religion is based on the legacy of a cab driver. 2006. World War Z by Max Brooks 2007. The Pesthouse by Jim Crace 2007. The Oblivion Society by Marcus Alexander Hart

[edit] Book series and uncertain dates

Masters of the Fist and The Long Mynd by Edward P. Hughes The Goodness Gene by Sonia Levitin The King Awakes and The Empty Throne by Janice Elliott, set in a Medievalstyle society several generations after a nuclear war. Both novels deal with the return of King Arthur and his friendship with a youth from the post-holocaust world The Last War by Kir Bulychev The Steel, the Mist and the Blazing Sun by Christopher

The World Ends in Hickory Hollow by Ardath Mayhar Time Capsule by Mitch Berman Series The Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley Series Deathlands by James Axler Series Firebrats by Scott Siegel and Barbera Siegel Series Horseclans by Robert Adams Series Mortal Engines Quartet by Phillip Reeve Series Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody Series Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Series The Ashes by William W. Johnstone Series The Pelbar Cycle by Paul O. Williams Series The Survivalist by Jerry Ahern, first novel Total War from 1981 Series Traveler by D. B. Drumm, first novel First, You Fight from 1984 Series Wingman by Mack Maloney, follows a former U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds pilot trying to restore a balkanized and largely disarmed United States of America while flying the last remaining F-16 Fighting Falcon in existence The Vampire Hunter D novels (and later anime movies), set ten thousand years after a nuclear war occurs in 1999 Trilogy The Greatwinter Trilogy by Sean McMullen

[edit] Short stories and plays

1920. R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek 1937. By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Bent. 1941. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov 1950. "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles. 1954. The Offshore Island (play) by Marghanita Laski. "Autobahn nach Poznan" by Andrzej Ziemianski "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut in "Welcome to the Monkey House". 1950. "Dear Devil" by Eric Frank Russell "Let the Ants Try" by Frederik Pohl under the pseudonym James MacCreigh

"Magic City" by Nelson S. Bond "Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison. Filmed in 1975. "Enta Geweorc" by Nicholas Waller (Interzone 198, 2004). "Time to Rest" and sequel "No Place Like Earth" by John Wyndham "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison "Extinction is Forever" by Louise Lawrence. A scientist uses a time machine to travel to the future and film the results of a nuclear war in a bid to prevent it from happening. However, his actions could have serious repercussions for the mutated descendants of the human race.

[edit] Comics and manga

Kamandi comic books, featuring the last boy on earth, first published in 1972. Comics franchise Judge Dredd, first popularized in 1977 by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra and Pat Mills. Webcomic Post-Nuke, taking place during a post-apocalyptic nuclear winter The comic book Ex-Mutants is set in a post-nuclear world. Japanese manga (and subsequent anime adaptations) Appleseed by Masamune Shirow Manga series Fist of the North Star Manga series Desert Punk. Manga series Saikano Comic series 'The Last American, originally from Marvel in 1990/1991, rereleased by Com.X

[edit] Pandemic (Plague)

[edit] Films

The 1964 film The Last Man on Earth The 1969 film The Seed of Man by Marco Ferreri (Italian title: Il Seme dell'uomo) The 1971 film The Omega Man The 1975 film The Ultimate Warrior The 1978 film Plague, also known as Induced Syndrome (UK), M-3: The Gemini Strain (USA), or Mutation.

The 1980 Japanese film Fukkatsu no hi also known as Virus, directed by Kinji Fukasaku The 1985 film City Limits The 1986 film Dead Man's Letters by Konstantin Lopushanskij The 1988 film Dead Man Walking The 1995 film Twelve Monkeys directed by Terry Gilliam The 2001 film Ever Since the World Ended The 2002 film 28 Days Later, and its 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later The 2006 film Children of Men The 2007 film Resident Evil: Extinction The 2007 film I Am Legend

[edit] Novels

The 1826 novel The Last Man by Mary Shelley The 1912 novella The Scarlet Plague by Jack London The 1949 novel Earth Abides by George R. Stewart The 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham The 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, filmed as The Last Man on Earth (1964); The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007) The 1954 novel Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys The 1975 novel The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson The 1977 novel The Last Canadian (book by William C. Heine. The planet is decimated by a virus, as told through the eyes of one survivor. The 1977 novel Empty World (book by John Christopher. A virus wipes out the weak and the old, until the planet is populated by young teenagers only. The 1978 novel The Stand by Stephen King The 1982 novel The White Plague by Frank Herbert The 1984 novel Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler The 1985 novel Blood Music and the 1983 novelette of the same name by Greg Bear The 1989 novel Plague 99 by Jean Ure and its sequels Come Lucky April and Watchers at the Shrine The 1990 novel A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren

The 1992 novel The Children of Men by P.D. James The 1993 novel Doomsday Book by Connie Willis The 1998 novel Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt. Set 1000 years after a civilization-destroying plague. The 1999 novel The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen The 2001 novel The Night of the Triffids by Simon Clark (sequel to The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham) The 2001 novel Hole in the Sky by Pete Hautman The 2002 novel Year Zero by Jeff Long The 2003 novel Idlewild by Nick Sagan The 2003 novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood The 2003 novel Full Circle By Michael Boyle The 2003 novel trilogy Fire-Us The 2004 novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell The 2004 novel Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne The 2004 novel A Planet for the President by Alistair Beaton The 2004 novel White Devils by Paul McAuley The 2004-2007 series The Uglies Trilogy: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and the companion novel, Extras by Scott Westerfeld, which takes place in a future civilization that arose after our current civilization collapsed because of an engineered bacterium that attacked not people, but oil, changing its chemical composition so that it exploded on contact with oxygen (first explained on p. 345 of Uglies) The 2006 novel Burning Stones by Steven Mills The 2007 novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks The 2007 novel Quentel by Deric R Budendorf The 2007 novel Dead Sea by Brian Keene The 2007 novel Plague Year by Jeff Carlson (slated to be a trilogy) The Trilogy including Monster Island (2006), Monster Nation (2006), and Monster Planet (2007), by David Wellington

[edit] Other

The 1950 short story The City by Ray Bradbury

The 1951 short story The Visitor (The Illustrated Man) by Ray Bradbury The 1998-present manga Eden: It's an Endless World by Hiroki Endo The 1999 video game Abomination: The Nemesis Project The 2000 game Deus Ex (in relation to the Gray Death) The 2001 role-play game After The Bomb The 2001-present webcomic Wandering Ones by Clint Hollingsworth The 2002-present comic series Y: The Last Man features a lone man & his monkey in a world populated only by women, series written by Brian K. Vaughan and published by Vertigo Comics The 2003-present comic series The Walking Dead follows a small group of people attempting to survive a zombie outbreak, series written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics The 2004 game Trauma Center: Under the Knife. An organization called Delphi uses man-made viruses to destroy the human race and especially doctors. The 2005-2006 comic series Marvel Zombies

[edit] Astronomic impact (meteorites)

[edit] Films

The 1962 film The Day of the Triffids, based on the novel of the same name. In the film, the Triffids were aliens that arrived as spores in an earlier meteor shower. The 1979 film Meteor The 1984 film Night of the Comet. When a comet passes too close to earth, two girls are left amid mutants. The 1995 film Tank Girl. Loosely based on the comic by Jamie Hewlett The 1998 film Armageddon The 1998 film Deep Impact

[edit] Television

The 1997 TV movie Asteroid The 1999 TV drama The Last Train (Cruel Earth in Canada) British TV six part drama. The 2006 TV series Three Moons Over Milford

[edit] Novels

The 13th century novel Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafis

The 1932 novel When Worlds Collide by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer, and the 1951 and 2008 films of the same name. The 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham on a blinding meteor strike and the (bioengineered?) Triffid plants. The 1977 novel Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle The 1997 novel Titan, by Stephen Baxter The 1998 novel Moonfall, by Jack McDevitt The 2001-present book series Remnants, by K.A. Applegate The 2002 novel The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper The 2004 novel Earth, the New Frontier by Adam Celaya The 2004 novel Singularity by Bill DeSmedt, in which it turns out that a presumed meteor that struck the earth is in fact a microscopic black hole that entered the earth's crust, and never exited. The 2005 novel It's Only Temporary by Eric Shapiro

[edit] Other

The 1956 short story "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Leiber. A small family struggles to survive at near-zero temperatures after Earth is ripped from its solar orbit. The 1979-1980 anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, talks of the impact of a massive space colony on Earth. The 1980-1984 animated series Thundarr the Barbarian The 1996-1997 anime series After War Gundam X, sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam The 2000 console game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, a Nintendo 64 game. The 2001 console game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, for PlayStation 2 The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which includes video games, short stories, and animated features, revolves largely around the fate of a planet which is ravaged by the impact a a giant meteor/asteroid, summoned by magic. iD Software's new project, Rage, is set after a meteor collision with the Earth.

[edit] Alien invasion

[edit] Films

The 1953 film The War of the Worlds, based on the novel of the same name. The 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, based on the novel by Jack Finney

The 1962 film The Day of the Triffids, based on a John Wyndham novel of the same name (in the novel, the Triffids seem to have been bioengineered on Earth, while in the film they were aliens who arrived as spores in a meteor shower). The 1988 film They Live The 1990 film I Come in Peace (also known as Dark Angel, directed by Craig R. Baxley The 1996 film Independence Day The 1996 film Mars Attacks!, based on the trading card series Mars Attacks (1962) The 2000 animated film Titan A.E. The 2001 CGI animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within The 2005 film War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg, along with the independent 2005 productions H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, all based on the H. G. Wells novel.

[edit] Novels

The 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (also in several other media) The 1951 novel The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein The 1953 novel The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham The 1956 novel The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch. Alien flora is seeded on Earth, and quickly comes to dominate all landmasses, threatening Human extinction. The 1979-1992 book series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (also in several other media) The 1980 novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard and the Razzie award winning film based on the novel The 1980 novel The Mist, by Stephen King The 1980 novel The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak The 1985 novel Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle The 1987 novel The Forge of God by Greg Bear The 1996 novel The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski aliens conduct a preemptive strike against humanity with relativistic missiles The 1997 novel Shade's Children by Garth Nix. "Overlords" destroy all human life over the age of 14. The 1998 novel The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg

The Eight Worlds series, by John Varley The Outlanders series by Mark Ellis aka James Axler The Tripods series by John Christopher The Legacy Trilogy trilogy by Ian Douglas

[edit] Other

The 1982-1983 anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its sequels The 1983-1984 anime series Genesis Climber Mospeada The 1986-1989 manga Outlanders, by Johji Manabe. The 1988 computer game Manhunter The 1995 console game Chrono Trigger, where modern civilization is at risk of being destroyed by an alien parasite in 1999 AD. The 1998 computer game Half-Life and its sequel The 1999 console game Chrono Cross, where in alternate time lines modern civilization was destroyed by an alien parasite in 1999 AD. The 2005 console game Destroy All Humans!, in which the player controls a Furon alien in an attempt to overthrow mankind. 2005-2006 Anime series Eureka Seven and its video games are set 10,000 years after humans had to leave the earth due to a Coralian apearing in Africa. In the current timeline, the remnants of humanity are now settled on a planet they refer to as the "Promised Land". The 2006 video game Gears of War, which portrays humans fighting a losing war against alien monsters that have emerged from underground. The 2007 computer game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. In the midst of the Third Tiberium War, an alien faction known as the Scrin lands on Earth seeking the alien mineral Tiberium for themselves. The Halo video game series - An alien alliance called the Covenant begin attacking human colonies in 2525. By 2552, almost all of the human colonies are destroyed and the Covenant are attacking Earth.

[edit] Ecological catastrophe

[edit] Films

The 1960 film The Last Woman on Earth by Roger Corman, where the Earth's oxygen levels drop suddenly, suffocating most lifesurvivors in an oxygenproducing jungle speculate that this happened because of "a bigger and better bomb" but the reasons are not made clear.

The 1960 film Beyond the Time Barrier X-plane arrives in future after solar radiation catastrophe The 1961 film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, where the Van Allen belt catches on fire. The 1964 film The Day the Earth Caught Fire Earth starts hurtling toward sun as a result of man's nuclear testing The 1972 film Silent Running directed by Douglas Trumbull The 1974 film Where Have All The People Gone? A solar flare destroys virtually all of the human population. One family has survived, and endeavours to travel across America to their family home. The 1975 film Logan's Run, in which a society chased into domes by an ecological disaster holds a ceremonial death ritual for all citizens who reach the age of 30 to control the population. A man who formerly helped control the population flees the domed city to avoid his own ceremony. The 1979 film Quintet directed by Robert Altman The 1986 film Nausica of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki based on the manga of the same name The 1989 film Slipstream, by Steven Lisberger The 1990 film Omega Cop After an environmental holocaust a lone cop battles a gang of rampaging marauders. The 1993 film The last border - viimeisell rajalla by Mika Kaurismki. One man's quest for revenge in a world where toxic waste has driven the remains of civilization into the Arctic Circle. The 1995 film Waterworld starring Kevin Costner The 2003 film It's All About Love written, directed and produced by Thomas Vinterberg The 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow written, directed and produced by Roland Emmerich. Based in part on the novel The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber The 2005 film Serenity and 2002-2003 television show Firefly by Joss Whedon, in which the Earth's resources and biosphere get used up prompting mass exodus for the stars.

[edit] Novels

The 13th century novel Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafis The 1946 novel Mr. Adam by Pat Frank depicts a world in which a nuclear power plant explosion renders the entire male population infertile.

The 1956 novel The Death Of Grass by John Christopher, which was made into the film No Blade Of Grass, in which a virus that destroys plants causes massive famine and the breakdown of society The 1961 novel The Wind From Nowhere by J.G. Ballard - First published novel. World destroyed by increasingly powerful winds The 1962 novel Hothouse by Brian Aldiss, which presents a dying Earth where vegetation dominates and animal life is all but extinct. Originally published in the United States in abridged form as "The Long, Hot Afternoon of Earth." The 1962 novel The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard Climate change causes flooding. The 1962 novel The World in Winter (UK)/The Long Winter (US) by John Christopher in which a decrease in radiation from the sun causes a new ice age. The 1963 novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, in which all the water on Earth freezes The 1964 novel The Drought by J.G. Ballard A super drought evaporates all water on earth. The 1964 novel Greybeard by Brian Aldiss, in which the human race becomes sterile The 1965 novel A Wrinkle in the Skin (The Ragged Edge(US)) -John Christopher - Civilization destroyed by massive world-wide earthquakes The 1966 novel The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard Jungle in Africa starts to crystallize all life and expands outward The 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, which was made into a 1973 film Soylent Green directed by Richard Fleischer, showing a world where humanity had become massively overpopulated. The 1969 novel The Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock which is set in a new ice age on earth The 1972 novel The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, in which the United States is overwhelmed by environmental irresponsibility and authoritarianism. The 1976 novel The HAB Theory by Allan W. Eckert, in which the stability of the Earth comes into question. The 1981 novel The Quiet Earth written by Craig Harrison and the film adaption by the same name The 1983 novel The Last Gasp by Trevor Hoyle The 1984 novel In the Drift by Michael Swanwick (also an alternate history story), in which the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor incident resulted in a very large release of radioactivity, devastating the Northeastern U.S.

The 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, in which the dystopia is fueled by rampant infertility caused by pollution. The 1986 novel Nature's End by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. The 1991 novel Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn, in which space-based civilization exists despite the government's wishes during an ice age. The 1993 novel The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk The 1993 novel Deus X by Norman Spinrad, the results of global warming The 1993 novel This Other Eden by Ben Elton in which the earths population is forced to live in Biodomes for 50 years while the environment recovers from mankind's actions. The 1995 novel Mother of Storms by John Barnes - where a tactical nuclear strike in the North Pacific releases massive amounts of methane, spawning world-wide super hurricanes. The 1995 novel Ill Wind (novel) by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason in which a microbe consumes all materials based on petroleum. The 1998 novel Aftermath by Charles Sheffield, in which Alpha Centauri goes supernova and causes cataclysmic climate change The 1998 novel Dust by Charles Pellegrino, in which all the insect species on Earth die out, and the ecology crashes as a result The 1999 novel The Rift by Walter Jon Williams. The 2003 novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood The 2003 novel Clade by Mark Budz The 2003 novel The Secret Under My Skin by Janet Mcnaughton, set in a period following a technocaust, when scientists were blamed for environmental disasters and taken to concentration camps. The 2004 novel Crache by Mark Budz The 2004 novel The Snow by Adam Roberts, in which the world is buried under kilometres of unnatural snow. The 2006 novel Small-Minded Giants by Oisn McGann The novels Children of Morrow and Treasures of Morrow by H. M. Hoover, set in California several centuries after pollution all but wiped out the human race The novel trilogy Snowfall by Mitchell Smith (Snowfall, Kingdom River, and Moonrise) in which North America has retreated into hunter-gatherer societies and military kingdoms some 500 years after an apocalyptic ice age.

The novels Mara and Dann, Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog: A Novel by Doris Lessing Set in a future ice age. Other Lessing novels like Memoirs of a Survivor and Shikasta deal with apocalyptic themes.

[edit] Television

The 1976-1979 TV series Ark II - pollution devastates humanity The 2003 television movie Encrypt The 2004 television movie Category 6: Day of Destruction where Chicago is suffering from a series of tornadoes from numerous changes occurring in the climate The Captain Planet two-parter Two Futures, in which the character Wheeler gets a glimpse of what could happen if damage to the environment was allowed to continue unchecked

[edit] Other

The 1952 short story The Birds by Daphne du Maurier, made into the 1963 film The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock - in which birds begin launching spontaneous mass attacks against mankind The 1973 collection of short stories Flight of the Horse by Larry Niven The 1977 short story The Screwfly Solution tells the tale of a virus which turns males into female-hating psychopaths when sexually aroused. The 1986 short story The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King in which a distillate of a Texas aquifer, originally harvested and distributed worldwide to reduce human propensity for violence--curses humanity with premature Alzheimer's disease and senility. The 1993 console game Secret of Mana takes place long after a time of environmental collapse that destroyed the world's older advanced civilizations. The 1994-2006 Japanese manga series Yokohama Kaidashi Kik, set in a peaceful post-cataclysmic Japan, after an untold environmental disaster. The 1998-1999 anime series Cowboy Bebop in which a man made disaster has caused earth's moon to fragment, resulting in a constant rain of meteor strikes on the planet and forcing humanity to move out into the solar system. The 2002 video game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, in which a flood has decimated the fictional world of Hyrule. The 2002-2003 anime series Overman King Gainer, which depicts humanity living in domes after an ecological disaster. The 2005 short story The Garden Where My Rains Grows by Brian Keene, set in a post-apocalyptic world where it started raining one day and never stopped.

The 2005-2006 anime series Zoids: Genesis where an earthquake triggers a series of worldwide natural disasters that devastate Planet Zi. The 2005-present radio drama Nebulous by Graham Duff, in which much of the world was destroyed by an event known as "the Withering". The 2006 anime series Ergo Proxy by the Japanese production company Manglobe, in which an undefined global ecological disaster has decimated the surface of the Earth, and the small remaining human population lives in isolated, city-state dome complexes. The 2006 PC game, Battlefield 2142, in which a new ice age renders most of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable. Wars are fought over the remaining habitable land. The Command & Conquer: Tiberian series of games in which a radioactive, self-replicating alien crystal known as Tiberium has rendered most of the Earth's surface uninhabitable. The game Dark Sun from TSR, Inc.

[edit] Cybernetic revolt

Main article: Cybernetic revolt

The novel The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan The film Alphaville, une trange aventure de Lemmy Caution by Jean-Luc Godard The 2003 TV miniseries and subsequent 2004 television show Battlestar Galactica. The novel Colossus (1966) by Dennis Feltham Jones, and the film adaptation titled Colossus: The Forbin Project (not exactly an apocalypse, however) The anime and manga DragonBall Z, throughout the second of its major story arcs. The short story and computer game I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison The novella It Happened Tomorrow by Robert Bloch The "Legends of Dune" series by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, consisting of the novels Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Dune: The Machine Crusade, and Dune: The Battle of Corrin. The 1909 short story The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (more machinery than computers) The 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel apek The Matrix trilogy (The Second Renaissance) The novel The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams

The novel Mockingbird by Walter Tevis Neuroshima, the Polish role-playing game from Portal Publishing. The future depicted in the Terminator film series The Hazel O'Connor song The Eighth Day The video game Command & Conquer: Firestorm - The Brotherhood of Nod's AI system CABAL goes rogue and takes control of Nod's cyborg units. The 2004 movie adaption of I, Robot. The game GURPS Reign of Steel

[edit] The decline and fall of the human race

The novel At Winter's End (1988) by Robert Silverberg The poem Bedtime Story from Collected Poems 1958 1970 by George Macbeth Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series The novel The Bridge (1973) by D. Keith Mano Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End The novel City (1952) by Clifford D. Simak Friday (novel) by Robert A. Heinlein, which portrays human society on a future Earth as slipping into a gradual, but inevitable, collapse. Galpagos by Kurt Vonnegut. After an ambiguous eradication of the human species, several people on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands get stranded there. Much to the dismay of the only male left, the women of the island continue the human species for thousands of years where they evolve into seal-like creatures. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle The latter part of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine The 1974 John Boorman film Zardoz The Japanese manga Biomega, NOiSE, Blame! and Net Sphere Engineer by Tsutomu Nihei The Japanese manga and anime The Big O, where humans apparently suffered mass amnesia 40 years prior and are afraid to leave their city, Paradigm. It is a sort of mecha/apocalypse subclass of its own; the protagonist has to battle mechanical beings and other robots who are trying to destroy the remnants of the human race. The Cartoon Network/Adult Swim animated parody of the barbarian/postapocalyptic genres, Korgoth of Barbaria

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King The 1979 Australian movie Mad Max depicts a declining civilization. The sequel suggests that peak oil is the cause. Michael Haneke's film Le Temps du Loup (The Time of the Wolf), following a family through the (French?) country side after an undefined catastrophic collapse of civilization. The movie A.I. depicts human extinction after 2000 years. The manga/anime series Wolf's Rain takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where constant conflicts between nobles leaves whole parts of the earth uninhabited, cities in ruins, and technology rare. Only the nobles possess futuristic ships, and the richest have domed cities where the debilitated earth can still support life. A second apocalypse ends the series, with a presumable renewing of the planet. The song In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans, which describes, stage by stage, the decline of the human race. Covers the 26th, 36th, 46th, 56th, 66th, 76th, 86th and 96th centuries. The television series The Future Is Wild, which uses computer animation to simulate the sort of creatures that may evolve from present-day animals. In the world depicted in the series, the human race either has become extinct or has left Earth. The reason is not given. The short story "To Serve The Master" By Philip K. Dick The 2006 film Children of Men, where the human race has become infertile. The 1984 film 1990:The Bronx Warriors In 1990 the Bronx is declared a No Mans Land after a catastrophic uprising. The 1997 film The End of Evangelion, in which all humankind are reverted to a "primordial soup" and merged into a single consummate being. The The House of the Dead series of video games. Scientist Dr. Curien finds a way to reanimate the dead, though not without disastrous results. Later in the series' timeline, Caleb Goldman uses the undead in his mission to destroy the human race and protect the Earth from further destruction by humans.

[edit] Monsters and biologically altered humans

The 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham's, on a blinding meteor strike and the (bioengineered?) Triffid plants. Film Them! - desert nuclear tests create mutated gigantic ants - 1954 The last two novels of James Herberts Rats Quadrilogy show how after a nuclear war, humanity is overthrown by mutated Giant Black Rats. The 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, filmed as The Last Man On Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007)

The films Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), and Diary of the Dead (2008) by George Romero. "The Mist" by Stephen King, 1980 The comic series Marvel Zombies The Walking Dead is a comic chronicling the story of survivors in a world overrun by zombies. The 2002 film 28 Days Later, and its 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later The 2002 film Reign of Fire, in which dragons take over The 2004 film version of Dawn of the Dead The 2005 anime series Trinity Blood involving a war between humans and vampires. The 2006 novel Cell by Stephen King The 2006 film Pulse, in which the world is overruned by Humanoid Ghosts, and everything is destroyed by them. The 2006 book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks The Trilogy including Monster Island (2006), Monster Nation (2006), and Monster Planet (2007), by David Wellington The 2007 film Resident Evil: Extinction. In this third chapter of the game-based movie, a virus infects most of the Earth's population, turning them into zombies. The few survivors move away in armored groups, or hide underground. The 2007 anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, in which cloned "Beastmen" fight an apocalyptic battle with humanity.

[edit] After the fall of space-based civilization

Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda series Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke The Dragon Masters, by Jack Vance The final two novels in Frank Herbert's Dune series, set after the disintegration of the Padishah Empire into many smaller factions. Dan Simmons's Endymion & The Rise of Endymion Few stories of Ray Bradbury Martian Chronicles mention catastrophe on earth

The Mote in God's Eye by Niven & Pournelle Yasuhiro Nightow's Trigun The PlayStation video game Xenogears Red Dwarf, the British Science-Fiction Sitcom Star Man's Son 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton Transfusion by Chad Oliver Warhammer 40,000 tabletop, card and computer games are set in a far future after the fall of the Eldar, where mankind wars amongst many other races. Larry Niven's Ringworld, an expedition from earth to find a futuristic planet, a ring surrounding a star, results in the members finding that a meteor puncture in the ring's floor and power failure caused the cities to break a part and civilization to collapse. The Last Legionary series by Douglas Hill, in which a lone soldier fights to bring down the organisation which unleashed a deadly radiation against his planet, killing all his people and rendering the planet uninhabitable.

[edit] The Sun's expansion

The 1912 novel The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, in which the Sun burns out and the last of humanity is sheltered in an arcology from the hostile environment and the creatures adapted for it. The 1971 short story Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven. The 1976 novel A World Out of Time by Larry Niven The episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," of J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 The episode "The End of the World," of the television series Doctor Who The novel Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke in which the last survivors of Earth arrive at a distant colony unexpectedly. The comic series Just a Pilgrim by Garth Ennis The video game "Tetris Worlds" The poem "Darkness (poem)" by Lord Byron describes the end of life on earth after the sun's extinction. The movie "Last Night (film)" by Don McKellar, which follows the lives of several individuals as they cope with their final six hours on Earth before the apparent incineration of the Earth by the sun (the cause of the apocalypse is never directly stated).

The short story "Finis" by Frank Lillie Pollock where a second sun's light incinerates the Earth. The 2007 movie, Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle. The film follows a spaceship crew in the year 2057 who are tasked with reigniting Earth's dying sun.

[edit] Religious and supernatural apocalypse (Eschatological fiction)

The evangelical Christian film series 1972 A Thief in the Night, sometimes referred to as the Mark IV films. The young adult book series Countdown by Daniel Parker, in which a demon wipes out the entire human population save for teenagers. The Deadlands: Hell on Earth role-playing game, in which the Earth is reduced to a haunted, radioactive wasteland as a result of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ravaging the planet shortly after an eldritch nuclear war. The End of the Age, by Pat Robertson The book and film series Left Behind, concerning the Rapture. The novels Black Easter and The Day After Judgment by James Blish, in which a black magician brings about the end of the world by releasing all the demons from Hell. The Power of Five series by Anthony Horowitz The sci-fi anime Neon Genesis Evangelion in which mankind's unearthing of a being known as Adam brings about Second Impact, a catastrophic shockwave which destroys Antarctica and subsequently leads to the extinction of thousands of organisms, the destruction of much of the civilized world, and the deaths of billions. The film Prince of Darkness, directed by John Carpenter, in which all Hell breaks loose. The film The Rapture (1991) The zombie novels The Rising and its sequel City of the Dead by Brian Keene. Rather than the zombies being an infection, as in most zombie fiction; these zombies are reanimated by demonic entities, the sisquisim, from the Old Testament. Keene has also written Conqueror Worms which is a very Lovecraftian tale of one of the last survivors on earth. The novel Shade's Children by Garth Nix, in which a group of extradimensional beings invade earth and cause all human adults to vanish. The manga and subsequent anime movies and TV series Silent Mbius by Kia Asamiya. The story is set in a Blade Runner-style world which has been invaded by demonic beings.

The novel The Taking, by Dean Koontz in which a malevolent demonic force kills off the majority of the human race. The Third Millennium (1995) and The Fourth Mellennium (1996), by Paul Meier The Tribe 8 role-playing game, in which sadistic demons invade (and conquer) the Earth. The Clamp anime X/1999 in which the seven Dragons of Heaven battle the Dragons of Earth to save the world. The Hellgate: London computer game to be released in 2007, where demons and humans are in constant struggle on earth. The Doom series of computer games, in which demons invade a human base on Phobos (changed to Mars in Doom 3) and then move on to Earth. Pulse (2006) The Shadow of Yesterday role-playing game, in which the unification of all people in a fantasy world under a single, supernatural language results in the destruction of a world by what is presumed to be an asteroid that becomes that world's new moon, one that eclipses the sun for a week out of each month.

[edit] Social or economic collapse

The 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. American society slowly collapses after the country's leading industrialists mysteriously disappear. The 1990 novel Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson. A man and a wolf band together to survive in an America devastated by financial collapse. The video game Deus Ex: Invisible War After total global economic collapse (an event known simply as 'The Collapse'), all religion is collected into one, which is in conflict with the new world order. Throughout the game, the player can choose to be on either side, affecting the game's outcome.