With the release of the 2010 film, “Book of Eli,” people are talking about the post-apocalyptic genre. It begs a nod to some of the cult-classics and popular films from that genre over the decades. One common trend in many “end of the world” movie plots about a futuristic or dystopian Earth is a lack of water, or in the case of “Waterworld,” an over-abundance of it. Here is Strange Wetlands’ take on the top ten post-apocalyptic movies that make you thirsty.
#10 Solar Babies (1986) Teen-agers must endure life on a futuristic Earth, where most of the water has disappeared. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091981/plotsummary
#9 The Road (2009) A father and son make a dark trek across a post-apocalyptic burned America and fight to keep their humanity in a world without plants, an obscured sun, and harsh climate. http://www.imdb.com/
title/tt0898367/plotsummary
#8 Mad Max (1979) Who can resist this action-packed adventure classic with Mel Gibson as the ex-cop turned-hero set in the wastelands of Australia?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/
#7 Dune (1984) A young man uses sand dune ecology to his advantage in a far-futuristic desert world. This is a cult-classic.
http://book-of-eli-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/
#6 Book of Eli (2010) Denzel Washington plays a man on a mission to guard a sacred book. Along the way, water is a coveted resource and dangerous to acquire. http://book-of-eli-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/
#5 Tank Girl (1995) A cool Australian flick based on the British comic strip about a group of rebels who fight the corporate Water and Power that controls all of a dystopian Earth’s water. This is my favorite on this list. Lots of girl power! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114614/
#4 The Age of Stupid (2009) This is a documentary-drama-animation hybrid that asks the question, “why didn’t they stop climate change?” on a futuristic Earth.http://www.imdb.com/title/
tt1300563/
#3 Idiocracy (2006) It’s 500 years into the future, and the world is run by morons who think water is only for toilets and that crops should grow on Gatorade. Many Saturday Night Live comedians star in this cringe-inducing comedy. It gets you thinking…http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
#2 The Day After Tomorrow (2004) A climatologist discovers that a huge ice sheet has been sheared off in Antarctica. New York City is overwhelmed by the chills of a new Ice Age. Sea level rise is also a theme.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/ As with many science fiction movies, there is some good science and a whole lot of bad science in this film:http://geolor.com/The_Day_After_Tomorrow_Movie.htm
#1 Planet of the Apes (1968) One of the most-loved sci-fi post-apocalyptic stories turns the plot upside down by pitting man against beast on a planet…that turns out to be Earth all along. In the beginning, the astronauts must travel across a desert without water until they are captured by the intelligent Apes. At the end, Heston rides across a beach searching for his destiny and finds the Statue of Liberty.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31QUOUxqz2Mhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Honorable Mention: Waterworld (1995) The polar ice caps have melted and the Earth is covered (mostly) by water. They search for a mythical place called “Dryland.” This is a sea level rise model gone into hyper drive.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/
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