The Ultimate Dystopian & Post/Apocalyptic Films List (1300+ TITLES!)

VANISHING ON 7TH STREET (2010)



[VANISHING ON 7TH STREET taps into one of humankind’s most primal anxieties: fear of the dark. An unexplained blackout plunges the city of Detroit into total darkness, and by the time the sun rises, only a few people remain—surrounded by heaps of empty clothing, abandoned cars and lengthening shadows. A small handful of strangers that have survived the night (Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and Jacob Latimore) each find their way to a rundown bar. With daylight beginning to disappear completely and whispering shadows surrounding the survivors, they soon discover that the enemy is the darkness itself.]
www.magnetreleasing.com...
[The population of Detroit has almost completely disappeared, but a few remain. As daylight disappears they realize that the Dark is coming for them.]
www.imdb.com...

HIGH RISE (2015)


www.highrisefilm.com...
[The unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem...In this classic visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.]
www.imdb.com...

SYNCHRONICITY (2015)

[A mind-bending sci-fi thriller in the tradition of Dark City and Blade Runner, about a brilliant physicist who has uncovered the secret of time travel, and a ruthless corporate tycoon that will stop at nothing to steal it. To protect his discovery, he must travel back in time, but in the process, he endangers his own existence and the very fabric of reality.]
www.magnetreleasing.com...
[A physicist who invents a time machine must travel back to the past to uncover the truth about his creation and the woman who is trying to steal it.]
www.imdb.com...

MUTANT CHRONICLES (2008)

www.magnetreleasing.com...
[28th century soldier Mitch Hunter leads a fight against an army of underworld Mutants.]
www.imdb.com...
[The story is set in the year 2707.[4] The world is loosely based on that of the Mutant Chronicles role-playing game, where many technologies are steam powered and mankind has exhausted Earth’s natural resources. The protagonists must battle against mutated humans that were accidentally unleashed.

The plot revolves around a "machine" which came from space 10,000 years ago. The "machine" mutates people into barely intelligent killing drones, known as "mutants", that drag new victims to the machine for conversion. Sealed away thousands of years ago by human tribes, the machine is accidentally uncovered during a large battle in Eastern Europe between two of the four corporations that now rule the world. Within six weeks the world is almost completely conquered by the mutant gangs. Some of the population has been evacuated to Mars, but millions remain on the doomed Earth. A group of soldiers are assembled to take another ancient device to the heart of the machine in an attempt to destroy it in a suicide mission. In return, their loved ones receive coveted tickets to Mars.]
en.wikipedia.org...(film)

EDEN LOG (2007)

[A man wakes up deep inside a cave. Suffering amnesia, he has no recollection of how he came to be here or of what happened to the man whose body he finds beside him. Tailed by a mysterious creature, he must continue through this strange and fantastic world. Enclosed, Tolbiac has no other option to reach the surface than to use REZO ZERO, secret observing cells in this cemetery-like abandoned mine. He embarks upon this journey guided by the roots of a plant, leading the way and the main subject of attention of the REZO.]
www.imdb.com...
[Eden Log is a 2007 French science fiction horror film directed and co-written by Franck Vestiel. The film was Vestiel's first as a director, who shot the entire film using only hand-held cameras.]
en.wikipedia.org...

Okay, I think that covers the Magnet Releasing films that belong on the list. The trailer & reviews for surreal film Surveillance (2008) had me tempted to add it too, but the imdb data's don't convince me. From David Lynch's daughter, Jessica Lynch. Will have to watch it!

Although on paper the same kind of event is happening, The Signal (2007) and Cell (2016) are two totally different films. There's also the completely unrelated The Signal (2014), which is nothing like those two.

THE SIGNAL (2007)

[The Signal is an American horror film written and directed by independent filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry. It is told in three parts, in which all telecommunication and audiovisual devices transmit only a mysterious signal turning people mad and activating murderous behaviour in many of those affected.

The film's three interconnected chapters ("transmissions") are presented in a nonlinear narrative. Each of them manifests elements of (besides the overall genre of psychological horror), respectively, splatter film, black comedy, and a post-apocalyptic love story. The Signal was met with a mixed but largely positive critical reception.]
en.wikipedia.org...(2007_film)
[A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.]
www.imdb.com...

THE SIGNAL (2014)

[The Signal is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film directed by William Eubank and co-written with Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. The film stars Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States on June 13, 2014.[4] The film is among an increasing number of low-budget,[1] independent science fiction films to be included at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years.]
en.wikipedia.org...(2014_film)
[On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness - only to find himself in a waking nightmare.]
www.imdb.com...

CELL (2016)

[For Us, It's a Horror Film. For Our Grandparents, It's a Documentary

This movie is the closest we're going to get to a sequel to Maximum Overdrive from Stephen King, and it's actually pretty close. Instead of a bunch of disparate stragglers surviving in a world where humanity is overrun by machines being controlled by an alien force, we get a bunch of disparate stragglers surviving in a world where humanity is overrun by people being controlled by an alien force. So it also dips into Walking Dead knock-off territory, where everyone who uses basically becomes a fast zombies, but on the plus side, this still has a lot of King vibes in it. -DVDExotica]

[When a strange signal pulsates through all cell phone networks worldwide, it starts a murderous epidemic of epic proportions when users become bloodthirsty creatures, and a group of people in New England are among the survivors to deal with the ensuing chaos after.]
www.imdb.com...
[Cell is a 2016 American science fiction horror film based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film is directed by Tod Williams with a screenplay by King and Adam Alleca. The film stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman. The film was released on June 10, 2016 to video on demand, prior to a limited release scheduled for July 8, 2016.

When an electronic signal is broadcast across mobile networks worldwide, cell phone users are instantly and dangerously re-programmed into rabid killers. Heading north through New England to find his estranged wife and son, Clay Riddell is joined by a group of survivors to battle the horde of murderous “phoners” as their world descends into apocalyptic madness.]
en.wikipedia.org...(film)

And on that note we find ourselves in:

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986)

[A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal. ]
www.imdb.com...
[Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American action-horror film written and directed by Stephen King.[4] The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and a young Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in King's first collection of short stories, Night Shift.

Maximum Overdrive is King's only directorial effort, though dozens of films have been based on King's novels. The film contained black humor elements and a generally campy tone, which contrasts with King's sombre subject matter in books.]
en.wikipedia.org...

THE COLONY (2013)

[Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature.]
www.imdb.com...
[By 2045, humans have built weather machines to control the warming climate due to climate change and global warming. The machines break down when one day it begins to snow and doesn't stop. Whatever humans remain live in underground bunkers to escape the extreme cold. Their challenges are controlling disease and producing sufficient food. Two soldiers, Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) and Mason (Bill Paxton) are the leaders of one such bunker, Colony 7. Briggs, Sam (Kevin Zegers) and Graydon (Atticus Dean Mitchell) travel to nearby Colony 5 after receiving a distress signal. Briggs leaves Sam's lover Kai (Charlotte Sullivan) in charge of the colony while he's gone, much to Mason's chagrin.

Upon arrival, they find Colony 5 covered in blood. They eventually.....]
en.wikipedia.org...(2013_film)

I liked this show. Not completely annoying with the 'annoying drama stuff'. For survivalists: they build some pretty cool 'Mad Max' stuff in each season.

THE COLONY (2009) [reality TV series]


[A group of strangers gathered for three months to test out the concept of rebuilding civilization.]
www.imdb.com...
[The Colony is a reality television series that is produced by the Discovery Channel. The program follows a group of people who must survive in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment.]
en.wikipedia.org...(U.S._TV_series)
[To help simulate the stress of the experience, the participants start off by being sleep-deprived for 30 hours. Then cabin fever—plus deprivation from coffee, cigarettes, booze and other comforts—kicks in. Many reality shows—say, Big Brother—give participants alcohol and other indulgences to get them to act out. The Colony tries to accomplish this by taking things away.]
entertainment.time.com...

Next up: South Korean Cinema!

If anybody knows what a dystopia looks like, it's Korean's. First up though is this new apocalyptic zombie flick that comes with high praise:

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016):

[While a zombie-virus breaks out in South Korea, a couple of passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.] www.imdb.com...
[Train to Busan (Hangul: 부산행; RR: Busanhaeng) is a 2016 South Korean zombie apocalypse horror thriller film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok. The film had its premiere in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on 13 May.

On 7 August, the film set a record as the first Korean film of 2016 to break the audience record with over 10 million theatergoers.

An animated prequel, Seoul Station, was released less than a month later. The film serves as a reunion for Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, who both starred in the 2011 film The Crucible.] en.wikipedia.org...


SEOUL STATION (2016)

[Seoul Station (Korean: 서울역) is a South Korean animated zombie film directed by Yeon Sang-ho. Released on August 18, 2016, the film stars Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Joon in the lead roles. The film was shown at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival.

The film serves as the prequel to the live-action film Train to Busan by the same director.] en.wikipedia.org...(film)

J.S.A.: JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000) aka Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA:

[In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 remaining bullets in the assassin's magazine clip, amount to 16 bullets for a gun that should normally hold 15 bullets. The investigating Swiss/Swedish team from the neutral countries overseeing the DMZ suspects that another, unknown party was involved - all of which points to some sort of cover up. The truth is much simpler and much more tragic.]
www.imdb.com...
[Joint Security Area (Korean: 공동경비구역 JSA) is a 2000 South Korean mystery thriller film starring Lee Young-ae, Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho. It was directed by Park Chan-wook and is based on the novel DMZ by Park Sang-yeon. The film, which was shot on location in South Korea, concerns an investigation into the circumstances surrounding a fatal shooting incident within the DMZ, the heavily fortified border that separates North and South Korea.

It was the highest-grossing film in Korean film history at the time and won Best Film at the 2000 Blue Dragon Film Awards and the 2001 Grand Bell Awards.]
en.wikipedia.org...(film)

NATIONAL SECURITY (2012) aka Namyeong-dong


[September 4, 1985. Kim Jong-tae (Park Won-sang), 37, a prominent activist against the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan and onetime commissioner of the Youth Federation for Democracy, is arrested and taken to a special interrogation facility in Namyeong-dong, a district in the center of Seoul synonymous with political torture in the 1970s and 80s because it was the location of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).[10] During the first three days he is allowed no food or sleep and told to write an exhaustive essay on his life to date. On the fourth day, in order to find out why he resigned from the YFD, head interrogator Park Nam-eun (Myung Gye-nam) starts water torture, and on the next day waterboarding. On the sixth day, torture specialist Lee Du-han, known as "The Undertaker" (Lee Geung-young), starts a deadlier form of water torture, trying to get Jong-tae to admit he is a communist in league with North Korea. By the 11th day Jong-tae writes whatever they want him to, but Lee says it's full of inconsistencies and unusable in a court of law. The next day, after finding Jong-tae tried to smuggle out a note to his wife (Woo Hee-jin), Lee resumes a more painful version of water torture, as well as electric shocks.]
en.wikipedia.org...(2012_film)
[“National Security” is a unique entry in the field, because apart from the thriller element, it could only be described as sociopolitical exploitation, since for the most part it consists of scenes of a man being tortured.

The script is based on the memoir by Kim Geun-tae, a democracy activist who was kidnapped and tortured by national police for 22 days, and who later on became a minister of the government. It describes the facts before, but mainly during these 22 days when he was tortured in the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, initially by “police officers” and later by a head interrogator nicknamed “The Undertaker”.

Chung Ji-young directs a cruel film, which takes place almost exclusively in a claustrophobic environment that consists of a cell and a torture room. He pulls no punches in the depiction of the various tortures, thus resulting in a truly grotesque spectacle. Furthermore, he focuses on the psychosynthesis of the torturers, in a rare tactic for characters like that.] www.tasteofcinema.com...
www.imdb.com...

The English remake starring Josh Brolin was good. Haven't see n the original:

OLDBOY (2003) aka Oldeuboi

[An average man is kidnapped and imprisoned in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. He then is released, equipped with money, a cellphone and expensive clothes. As he strives to explain his imprisonment and get his revenge, Oh Dae-Su soon finds out that his kidnapper has a greater plan for him and is set onto a path of pain and suffering in an attempt to uncover the motive of his mysterious tormentor.]
www.imdb.com...
[Oldboy (Hangul: 올드보이; RR: Oldeuboi; MR: Oldŭboi) is a 2003 South Korean mystery thriller neo-noir film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

The film follows the story of Oh Dae-su, who is imprisoned in a cell which resembles a hotel room for 15 years without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls in love with an attractive young female sushi chef.

The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. Critically, the film has been well received in the United States, with an 80% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Film critic Roger Ebert stated that Oldboy is a "powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare".[3] In 2008 voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.]
en.wikipedia.org...(2003_film)

NATURAL CITY (2003) aka Naechureol siti 내츄럴 시티


[In the year 2080, the world is connected by a massive computer network. Combiners have developed a process that allows them to merge the souls of human and machine/cyborg, wreaking havoc in a deeply divided society. This movie shares traits with other films like Blade Runner and Ghost in the shell. A visually impressive piece, with a strong emphasis on relationships.]
www.imdb.com...
[Two cops, R and Noma, hunt down renegade cyborgs. The cyborgs serve a number of duties, ranging from military commandos to "dolls", engineered for companionship. They have a limited 3-year lifespan, although black market technology has been developed to transfer a cyborg's artificial intelligence into the brain of a human host.

This breakthrough compels R into finding Cyon, an orphaned prostitute, who may serve as the host for the mind of his doll Ria. He has fallen deeply in love with his doll and she has only a few days left to live.

Eventually, R must make a decision between leaving the colony with Ria to spend her last days with him on a paradise-like planet or save his friends when a renegade combat cyborg takes over the police headquarters.]
en.wikipedia.org...

Imagine living in such a dystopia, where this very list was censored. Well in North Korea they're doing it:

Drones Are Dropping Dystopian Films Like 'Mad Max: Fury Road' Into North Korea
Since 2011, an escapee from North Korea's prison camps named Kwan Jung-il has been working through his organization No Chain to bring provocative Western entertainment to the culturally isolated people of his hellish former home. They've been delivering media with balloons, but that's about to change.

Now, No Chain is using the increasingly ubiquitous technology of helicopter drones to drop cinematic tales of the oppressed and mistreated into the communist state.

“Dystopian films are very popular among North Koreans, films like The Hunger Games and Mad Max. James Bond films are also popular."

Drones drop films, information into N. Korea, activists say
tealthy helicopter drones have been delivering SD cards and flash drives to North Korean residents hungry for entertainment and information from the outside, a North Korean defector and activist said Wednesday.
Jung Gwang-il, founder of the group No Chain, said the drones have been delivering the contraband since early 2015.

The SD cards and USB flash drives contain Western and South Korean films, TV shows, music and internet-free access to Wikipedia -- media that will help get outside information to North Koreans, who are kept behind an invisible wall that cuts them off from outside influence.

Using such drones has long been discussed among North Korean activists, but it's the first time a group acknowledged that it had been secretly using them to make deliveries to North Korea.

"I put great hope in these sticks," said Jung, holding up a USB flash drive as he spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum on Wednesday. "I believe this has power to bring freedom to my country."

Everyone feel at liberty to post trailers and such in here. For now I'm mostly scouring out the really rare, foreign, obscure pieces mostly not on the OP lists that I didn't even know about yet. There's tons of more well known good stuff I'm in no hurry to get to, so by all means whatever are all of your favorites. Just keep one video embed to each post 'box', otherwise the pages will be too slow to open for a lot of people. I've been trying not to stray from one video per box, and if I do break the mold then I try to post a box without a video embed. Let's make this thread truly the definitive Dystopian / PA source in all this Dystopian Earth!

I haven't finished my scouring of South Korean Cinema yet, but this one I just happened upon this PC dystopia short that just had to go inhere:

MODERN EDUCAYSHUN (2015)

[The follow up to #Equality, Modern Educayshun delves into the potential dangers of a hypersensitive culture bred by social media and political correctness.
Written and Directed by Neel Kolhatkar]

It looks like they have a whole channel of shorts like this!

CHECK IT OUT! I dug up by chance the original Fifth Element, starring Sean Connery?!!?!?



NOPE!

It's just some vintage fan work. Considering all of this "FAKE NEWS" obsessionism that is all the rage by our dystopian government & MSM right now, and this isn't REAL, I suppose this might go on to face the 'cutting room floor' of AI automated censorship they're slaving over enacting right now??

Movies from an Alternate Universe – 15 movie posters transported to another time