Based on one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time, HBO series The Last of Us is the latest take on the end of the world. Starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, the story follows their journey across the country in an effort to stop a parasitic brain fungus — while monsters, bloodthirsty survivors, and a host of other threats stand in their way. Brought to the screen by the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, The Last of Us is one of the most anticipated new series on the streaming horizon.

With the upcoming Walking Dead spin-offs too far away to help, fans of seeing survivors battle the creatures, villains, and turmoil of a society plunged into cataclysm will have to get their fix somewhere else until The Last of Us premieres on HBO in January 2023. If you’re craving some end-of-the-world action, here are 7 apocalypse movies every fan should see.

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The Road Warrior (1981)

     Kennedy Miller Entertainment

Many fans consider this sequel to George Miller’s Mad Max to be one of the greatest-ever depictions of a devastated world. After avenging his wife and child who were murdered by an evil biker gang in the first film, The Road Warrior finds Max navigating alone through a gas-starved wasteland amid roaming clans of leather-clad thugs. When Max agrees to help an encampment of survivors sitting on a huge payload of gasoline escape the sadistic warlord Humongous and his minions, a deadly demolition derby ensues.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Featuring gritty production design, innovative cinematography and under-cranking camera techniques to capture all the high-speed car-on-car violence, The Road Warrior boasts a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The only film of Miller’s Mad Max series to earn better has been the 2015 Oscar-winning reboot Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. With Fury Road prequels and sequels already in pre-production, fans certainly haven’t seen the last of Max and his V8 interceptor.

I Am Legend (2007)

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on a 1954 novel of the same name, I Am Legend stars WIll Smith as the lone human in a Manhattan overrun with nocturnal mutants. As he performs experiments to find a cure to the infection that has destroyed society, he must also avoid the creatures and stay sane. The production design and setting of an abandoned, decaying New York City is exceptional in this movie, and Smith does a great job in the role of Dr. Neville, carrying a movie where he’s the only actor on screen in most scenes.

The movie ends with Smith sacrificing himself so that other survivors can escape and deliver the cure to humans outside the city, but an alternate ending to the film (via Screen Rant) calls into question who the real monsters are — the mutants or Dr. Neville.

The Omega Man (1971)

     Warner Bros.

Though The Omega Man is based on the same book as I Am Legend, it was actually the second movie based on Richard Matheson’s novel. The first was 1964’s The Last Man On Earth and starred Vincent Price as the lone scientist battling ghoulish mutations. Set in Los Angeles, The Omega Man’s version of the mutants are a menacing, chanting, robe-clad cult — which ups the creep factor considerably when they try to sacrifice Neville in an abandoned Dodger Stadium.

The style and aesthetic of this movie is pure 1970s, and Vietnam-era social commentary is found in every frame. For fans of dystopian 1970s science fiction, this apocalyptic classic is a must-see.

The Book of Eli (2010)

     Alcon Entertainment

Starring Denzel Washington as the machete-wielding hero, The Book of Eli is an apocalyptic-quest story cut from the same cloth as The Last of Us and many others. Directed by the Hughes brothers and shot in a distinctly sepia-saturated color palette, the movie follows Eli as he journeys to deliver the last remaining copy of the Bible to a sanctuary located on Alcatraz Island, so it can be preserved along with other literature and music from the world before nuclear collapse.

Pursued by the evil town boss Carnegie (Gary Oldman) and his thugs, Eli artfully slices his way through cannibals and worse to complete his mission. And though he loses the book to Carnegie, he achieves his goal, and the movie delivers a twist ending that ranks among the best of the movies on this list.

28 Days Later (2002)

Is 28 Days Later a zombie movie or not? Writer Alex Garland says yes, but the debate on its undead street-cred remains alive. That argument aside, the thick atmosphere of tension, abandonment and horror director Danny Boyle infused in this movie make it a pitch-perfect apocalypse thriller. Set in an England overrun by the highly-contagious “Rage” virus, Jim (Cillian Murphy) is part of a group of people trying to find their way to safety while evading the infected monsters and escaping groups of men with the worst intentions.

28 Days Later and its sequel both remain popular fan favorites, with Boyle and Murphy both more than open to creating a third installment, according to British GQ. In the article, Murphy goes so far as to say, “I love the idea, and it’s very appealing to me.”

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

     Focus Features

Though the apocalypse hasn’t happened yet in this Steve Carrell/Keira Knightly movie, the end of the world is front and center throughout. Through a series of encounters and realizations, these two unlikely travel companions become the loves of each other’s lives — even though the world only has a few days left. At times funny, touching, dramatic and tense, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World uses the approach of a world-killing asteroid as an unlikely backdrop for a story that might otherwise be pure road movie rom-com.

It’s the performances of Carrell and Knightley that carry the movie, as both a comfort in their roles and one another creates some very likable, real chemistry throughout. And while it doesn’t offer the chills, thrills, or stark warnings some of the other movies in this article might, it’s well worth watching for a different, more charming, and ironic perspective on two people finding love just before the earth’s demise.

WALL-E (2008)

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Endearing, funny, and significant, Pixar’s WALL-E delivers a bleak vision of earth as a garbage dump, a robotic love story, and a heroic quest to save humanity all in one movie. WALL-E is the last functioning robot of the many that were tasked with cleaning up the earth. Roughly 700 years after humanity has evacuated the planet, WALL-E continues to spend his days compacting trash and collecting interesting things he finds among the trash.

Charming, cute and completely alone, WALL-E’s isolation is interrupted by the arrival of EVE, a robot programmed to search the universe for vegetation. When WALL-E shows her a seedling he has found, the movie takes a turn and becomes a race against bad guys to use the tiny plant in an effort to restore earth and save humanity. Instantly well received by fans and critics, WALL-E remains a classic—as well as a post-apocalypse movie people of any age can enjoy.