Rapture Movie Fest: 5 Post-Apocalyptic Movies to Watch Before the Apocalypse

According to the alarmist Family Radio group, the Rapture will hit us tomorrow. Some might choose to take their remaining time on Earth and spend it with their families, but here's a better idea: watch a marathon of movies set in post-apocalyptic worlds!

Here's a list of five to get you started.

1.) "Mad Max"

A true classic in the post-apocalypse genre, "Mad Max" set the tone for many other movies in the years that followed. That includes "Road Warrior" and "Beyond Thunderdome," which were also in the series and are definitely worth a watch as well.

The images of the punked-out vehicles and Mel Gibson in his leather getup are now iconic in the post-apocalyptic genre.  And say what you want about Mel Gibson (i.e. he's a racist, anti-semitic and mysogynistic douche), but he was pretty kick-ass in these movies...for some reason he seemed right at home as a maniac living in a lawless world. Go figure.

2.) "Neon Genesis Evangelion"

"Evangelion" is not a movie in the strict sense, as it was first an animé TV series. However, it has since been condensed into a movie-esque format and re-released a couple of times, the most recent version being the set starting with "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone."

"Evangelion" is especially fitting as it plays off of Bible imagery and has its own rapture of sorts: it's set in a futuristic Japan after a catastrophe in Antarctica floods the world. After that incident, a mostly abandoned Tokyo is repeatedly attacked by giant monsters called "Angels" that can only be fought off by a group of kids piloting giant weapons called Evas. It gets much more complicated than that...but you'll just have to watch. Once you get to "The End of Evangelion" (which actually was a movie), the Rapture is the main focus.

3.) "Last Night"

This one takes a more personal approach to the apocalypse, as it centers on a small group of people who each decide how best to deal with the impending end of the world (brought on by Y2K. Ha!). Thus, the focus of "Last Night" is less about what happens after the apocalypse, but what happens in the hours right before it.

The movie features a great cast, including Sarah Polley and Sandra Oh before she was Christina Yang on "Grey's Anatomy." It also stars Don McKellar (who also wrote and directed the film), who put in some great performances on "Slings and Arrows."

4.) "The Road"

This post-apocalyptic film, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is a tough one to stomach. There isn't much about "The Road" that feels uplifting, even though the main message is one of hope. It's just a bummer. But it's a nice-to-look-at bummer, featuring a well-crafted post-apocalyptic landscape and an excellent performance from Viggo Mortensen. This film engages you in a way that whenever anything good happens to the protagonists, you actually feel a rush of relief.

The manner in which the world ended in "The Road" isn't discussed much, but it's sort of assumed that it was a nuclear holocaust. The focus, really, is more on human nature and what things would truly look like if the world went to hell.

5.) "Children of Men"

There isn't really an apocalyptic event in "Children of Men," but rather a slow fade of the human race. In the story, humans have become infertile, putting an expiration date of sorts on humankind. As you can imagine, that causes people to freak out a bit.

Clive Owen and Michael Caine put in nice performances, and the concept is an engaging and original one. But really, you have to see it for the long, single-shot sequences in which entire scenes (including one in the middle of a battle that runs seven and a half minutes) are done in a single take.

Once you get through these five, this whole thing should be over, and you'll either be ascending to heaven or you'll be left here. But the latter isn't such a bad deal: you'll get to watch these five great movie all over again, and there will be all the Twinkies you can eat.