As society crumbles around him, he reluctantly takes up the mantle of vigilante, and eventually, hero: helping to stem the tide of marauding bandits threatening to destroy the last remnants of civilisation. The film’s protagonist, Max Rockatansky, is a former police officer, driven to a life of isolation after the murder of his family. Studded leather, muscle cars and Mel Gibson: either I’m watching a celebrity edition of World’s Wildest Police Chases, or it’s time to talk about the legendary Mad Max. Beautiful and bleak in equal measure, The Road manages to live up to the excellence of its source material. Winning the accolade of most depressing film in a list of post-apocalyptic movies is no mean feat, but The Road manages to paint the most desolate picture of the apocalypse I’ve ever seen.īased on Cormac McCarthy’s incredible novel of the same name (and #39 in our list of the 50 best post apocalyptic books), The Road stars Vigo Mortensen as ‘the Man’: a nameless wanderer, shepherding his only son through a dangerous and disturbing world. Though not without a few artistic liberties (biological warfare is responsible for the end of days, and not a mysterious bacterial plague), the over-arching message of the 1971 adaptation stays much closer to the spirit of the book – creating a story vastly more profound and thought-provoking than the 2007 adaptation. Speak of the devil: if you’re interested in watching a counterpoint to Will Smith’s glossy, overly-polished adaptation of Matheson’s novel, Omega Man takes the same source material and runs in a completely different direction. If you’re after a more true-to-the-book interpretation, check out 1971’s Omega Man.

This particular adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel ( #13 in our round-up of the 50 best post-apocalyptic books) took a lot of heat for it’s non-canon ending: taking a decidedly ‘Hollywood’ approach to the film’s conclusion, and arguably, changing the entire film’s message. With the city dominated by terrifying, vampiric creatures, Neville (and eventually, his trusty canine companion) spends his days foraging for supplies, and his nights holed-up in his safehouse – until one day, he lefts his guard down. I Am Legend tells the story of Robert Neville: the apparent sole survivor of a disease that has decimated humanity, and left him eking out a meagre and lonely existence in the heart of New York City.

Postal 2007 movie