8 Dystopian Movies to Watch if You’re Just Sitting Around Waiting for WWIII to Start
“What kind of American are you?”
The nightly news has always been a fertile source of inspiration for horror movies. For every terrifying scenario the news imagines, there is already a horror movie that explores what that hypothetical reality would be like. With Israel and Iran bombing each other and rising economic uncertainty it might be comforting to watch a dystopian movie about characters who are much worse off.
Soylent Green (1973)
A dystopian thriller set in 2022 where, as a result of climate change and overpopulation, there are global shortages of food, water and housing. The wealthy elite can afford to meet their basic needs and live sheltered in highly secure buildings while everyone else lives in squalor and eats processed wafers called Soylent. A new variety of wafer called Soylent Green is more flavorful and nutritious than the other varieties. When a board member of the Soylent corporation is murdered, a detective (Charlton Heston) comes to believe that the motive for murder was to keep a bombshell secret about Soylent Green from the public.
The Stand (1994)
A post-apocalyptic television miniseries that is an adaptation of Stephen King’s massive novel of the same name. After a a weaponized strain of the flu leaks out of a government lab, 99.4% of the world’s population is wiped out. The immune survivors are led by visions to build a community in Boulder with Mother Abigail or live as savages with the demonic Randall Flagg in Las Vegas. Eventually a small group from Colorado travels by foot to Nevada to have a final confrontation with Flagg.
World War Z (2013)
An action horror movie depicting a zombie apocalypse from the perspective of a retired U.N. investigator, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who is rescued with his family and brought to a Navy ship in the Atlantic Ocean. With other military officials from around the world, Gerry seeks to discover enough about the virus to help create a vaccine. This allows the audience to see how different world governments respond to the crisis.
Snowpiercer (2013)
A post-apocalyptic sci-fi action movie co-written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. In 2031, years after a failed attempt to reverse climate change resulted in an ice age, human survivors live on a constantly looping train, Snowpiercer. Wealthy survivors live most comfortably in first class and poor survivors live crowded in squalor and policed by armed guards. The film follows the poor, led by Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), as they revolt by trying to take over the engine room in order to improve their living conditions. The movie and the French comic it is based on were made into a television series in 2020.
‘The Purge’ franchise (2013-2021)
In the dystopian near-future America of The Purge films, almost all crime (including murder) is legal during an annual 12-hour period known as The Purge. Through a series of anthology films (and two seasons of a television show), The Purge digs deeper than typical survival movies by slowly revealing layers of malfeasance, showing that what looks like disorganized chaos is actually a well-orchestrated plot to keep a political party (the New Founding Fathers) in power and execute poor people. In the latest installment, The Forever Purge (2021), the New Founding Fathers’ plan works too well and a group of their followers refuse to stop murdering after the Purge ends.
Silent Night (2021)
A British black comedy that is nevertheless unsettling in its depiction of a near-future where the government has issued everyone suicide pills in advance of an impending doomsday scenario. A group of friends gather for an elegant Christmas dinner party at a country estate. As it is their last evening of life, the children are allowed to swear and secrets are discussed openly at the table. As the night goes on, some of the group debate whether they want to take the suicide pill or take their chances with the unknown.
Civil War (2024)
Written and directed by Alex Garland, Civil War is a 2024 epic war movie released by A24. The film portrays a near future in which the United States is a year-and-a-half into its second civil war. A group of journalists travel to Washington, D.C. in the hopes of getting the last interview with the current president as the capital falls. Along the way, they encounter American refugee camps, sadistic extremists, and soldiers fighting for all sides.
Humane (2024)
This horror thriller is set a few months after a global economic collapse caused by climate change. Nations around the world to pledge to reduce their populations by 20%. As the U.S. debates “conscription” to solve this problem, one wealthy family gathers for dinner, where an important decision will be made.
