The 16 best apocalypse movies streaming on Netflix

From natural disasters to man-made horrors, the streaming giant has fan-favorites like "Bird Box," "Don’t Look Up," and more.

By Sara Netzley

and Ilana Gordon

Ilana Gordon is an entertainment, culture, and comedy writer originally from Connecticut. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

EW's editorial guidelines

on July 21, 2025 06:41AM EDT

Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy in 'Don't Look Up'; Kuranosuke Sasaki as Seiji Akitsu in ‘Godzilla Minus One’; Kirsten Dunst as Justine in 'Melancholia'. Credit:

Feeling less “Netflix and chill” and more “Netflix and chill your blood imagining all the ways the world could end” these days? If so, the streaming giant’s got you covered.

Whether you prefer it when humanity ends with a bang (*Melancholia*) or with a whimper (*Don’t Look Up*), read on for **’s list of the 16 best apocalypse movies streaming on Netflix right now.

Bird Box (2018)

Sandra Bullock as Malorie Hayes in 'Bird Box'. Merrick Morton/Netflix

This deeply unsettling Sandra Bullock film finds humanity blindly stumbling to survive after an unseen force drives the bulk of the population to suicide. “It's a thriller about motherhood,” director Susanne Bier tells EW. “[Bullock’s character is] very forceful, very uncompromising. She's a very contemporary female hero.”

EW’s critic calls *Bird Box* “taut and defiantly in the moment.” Watch it, and you’ll never take the luxury of driving without a blindfold for granted again. *—Sara Netzley*

Where to watch *Bird Box*: Netflix

**EW grade:** B (read the review)

**Director: **Susanne Bier

**Cast: **Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle Macdonald, Rosa Salazar, Sarah Paulson

The Birds (1963)

Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner, Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, and Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in 'The Birds'. FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty

A terrifying thriller that presents the natural world in a most unnatural state, Alfred Hitchock's *The Birds* received mixed reviews upon its release, but has since been recognized as a pioneering force within the horror genre. Filled with the director's signature flourishes and paced in his usual slow burn fashion, *The Birds* follows a socialite (Tippi Hedren) to a California village as she attempts to deliver a pair of lovebirds to a man (Rod Taylor) she met in a pet shop — only to watch as the town and its occupants are repeatedly attacked by birds.

Inspired by a short story written by Daphne du Maurier and adapted into a taut script by author Evan Hunter, *The Birds* remains one of the most effective and impactful projects in Hitchcock's filmography. Proof positive that horror films don’t need conventional weapons or gratuitous violence to build tension, *The Birds* flies from flirtatious to frightening with the mere flap of a wing. *—Ilana Gordon*

Where to watch *The Birds*: Netflix through July 31

**Director: **Alfred Hitchcock

**Cast: **Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy

Don’t Look Up (2021)

Jonah Hill as Jason Orlean, Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, Meryl Streep as President Orlean, and Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky in 'Don't Look Up'.

The mega-comet is real, but it’s a fame and fake news apocalypse that ultimately dooms the Earth in *Don’t Look Up*. EW’s critic calls the Adam McKay film a “winking indictment of climate-change deniers and alternative-fact peddlers” who are happy to ignore global existential threats as they chase a little more clout. As McKay tells EW, “This movie came from my terror about the climate crisis and the fact that we live in a society that tends to place it as the fourth or fifth news story, or even deny that it's happening, and how horrifying that is, but at the same time [how] preposterously funny.”

*Don’t Look Up* stars Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, and, conservatively, a billion other famous faces. (As tempting a target as Earth is for killer comets, McKay’s gravitational pull on actors is even stronger.) *—S.N.*

Where to watch *Don’t Look Up*: Netflix

**EW grade:** B (read the review)

**Director: **Adam McKay

**Cast: **Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Kuranosuke Susaki as Seiji Akitsu and Godzilla in 'Godzilla Minus One'.

Toho International/Courtesy Everett Collection

*Godzilla Minus One* won the 2024 Oscar for Best Visual Effects, but the film is so much more than a monster movie with incredible CGI. Set in Japan, a country ravaged by the after-effects of World War II, the film follows a failed kamikaze pilot as he is haunted both by his performance during the war and a gargantuan monster with a heat ray capable of razing Tokyo.

A love story disguised as a horror movie, *Godzilla Minus One* offers stunning performances, a fascinating historical perspective, and — of course — the kind of city-trampling mayhem one would expect when selecting a *Godzilla *movie. You know they did a good job when the filmmaker has you sympathizing with both the monster and the citizens rallying to defeat it. *—I.G.*

Where to watch *Godzilla Minus One*: Netflix

**Director: **Takashi Yamazaki

**Cast: **Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)

Godzilla in 'Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters'.

It’s a Gojira-pocalpyse in *Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters*, the first in Polygon Pictures’ anime trilogy that follows a group of refugees returning to a ravaged Earth 20,000 years after the cranky lizard drove out all the humans.

Directors Hiroyuki Seshita and Kôbun Shizuno created a visual feast in this fresh, sci-fi-infused take on the monster mythos, continuing in *Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle *and* Godzilla: The Planet Eater*, which are also available on Netflix. *—S.N.*

Where to watch *Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters*: Netflix

**Directors: **Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita

**Cast: **Mamoru Miyano, Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Yūki Kaji

I Am Mother (2019)

Clara Rugaard as Daughter in 'I Am Mother'. Ian Routledge/Sundance Institute

If you like a little sci-fi with your apocalypse, you should meet this *Mother*. After humanity’s extinction, a strange woman (Hilary Swank) upends the life of a teenager raised in an austere postapocalyptic bunker under the care of a maternal robot voiced by Rose Byrne.

Australian filmmaker Grant Sputore’s debut outing offers a heady mix of rich characters, shifting loyalties, and thought-provoking ideas, along with a fierce performance from Danish actress Clara Rugaard as a young woman grappling with the threat to the only life she’s ever known. *—S.N.*

Where to watch *I Am Mother*: Netflix

**Director: **Grant Sputore

**Cast:** Clara Rugaard, Rose Byrne, Hilary Swank

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Mahershala Ali as G.H. Scott, Myha'la as Ruth Scott, Julia Roberts as Amanda Sandford, and Ethan Hawke as Clay Sandford in 'Leave the World Behind'.

JoJo Whilden/Netflix

Based on a book by Rumaan Alam, this star-studded film follows two families who are thrown together when a cyberterror attack knocks society offline. Director Sam Esmail told EW he wanted to “get inside your mind and unlock the fears that you might really have about our world” in *Leave the World Behind, *which was produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company. You can’t argue about the film’s pedigree — or the terror of a world without technology. *—S.N.*

Where to watch *Leave the World Behind*: Netflix

**Director: **Sam Esmail

**Cast: **Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Nicholas Hoult as Nux, Courtney Eaton as Cheedo the Fragile, Riley Keough as Capable, Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, and Abbey Lee as the Dag in 'Mad Max: Fury Road'.

Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

It took 30 years for George Miller to make a follow-up to his original *Mad Max* trilogy, the last of which — *Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome* — premiered in 1985. But the three decades in between iterations of the franchise were not wasted, and *Mad Max: Fury Road* hits the gas immediately, sprinting off into a dystopian desert wasteland for a high-speed pursuit that wastes no time on exposition.

We pick up with Mad Max (Tom Hardy, assuming the mantle of his predecessor, Mel Gibson), who has been taken prisoner by an evil warlord. Unbeknownst to the warlord, his lieutenant — Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) — is about to break his wives out of the Citadel. The results play out in violent fashion, capturing, as EW’s critic writes, “the same Molotov-cocktail craziness of Miller’s masterpiece, 1981’s *The Road Warrior.*” *—I.G.*

Where to watch *Mad Max: Fury Road*: Netflix

**EW grade: **B (read the review)

**Director: **George Miller

**Cast: **Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Courtney Eaton, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee

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Melancholia (2011)

Kirsten Dunst as Justine in 'Melancholia'.

Magnolia Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

Considered one of the best movies ever made about mental health and depression, EW’s review describes Lars von Trier’s 2011 science fiction drama *Melancholia* as a “giant achievement.” Kirsten Dunst took home the Best Actress trophy at the Cannes Film Festival that year for her portrayal of Justine, a bride whose descent into a mental health crisis coincides with the arrival of a rogue planet called Melancholia, which threatens to collide with Earth.

The movie was a hit among the critical community when it was released, with most noting how *Melancholia* departed from some of von Trier’s earlier, more provocative work. EW’s critic writes that he creates, “striking visual tableaux that, in their majestic simplicity, convey a profound emotional depth that transcends word.”* —I.G.*

Where to watch *Melancholia*: Netflix

**EW grade:** A

**Director: **Lars von Trier

**Cast: **Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt

The Midnight Sky (2020)

Felicity Jones as Sully in 'The Midnight Sky'. Netflix

George Clooney directed, co-produced, and starred in *The Midnight Sky*, which finds his lushly bearded Arctic scientist attempting to prevent a crew of astronauts, including Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, from returning to Earth where a global catastrophe awaits them.

Filming took place in Iceland, and the weather proved to be its own mini-catastrophe for Clooney. “It was like 40 below, 60-70-mile-an-hour winds, and it's tricky because you could get lost 15 feet away from the camera," he told EW. “I lost like 25 pounds [for the part], so I was pretty weak in general and I'm also directing a big film and you need energy. I was pretty beat up." *—S.N.*

Where to watch *The Midnight Sky*: Netflix

**EW grade:** B (read the review)

**Director: **George Clooney

**Cast: **George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir

Oxygen (2021)

Mélanie Laurent as Elizabeth 'Liz' Hansen in 'Oxygen'.

A nightmare comes to life for claustrophobics everywhere, *Oxygen *is a French-language sci-fi film that thinks outside the box in terms of action. At the genesis, an unidentified woman (Mélanie Laurent) awakens in an airtight medical unit, unsure of who or where she is. Interactions with the system's AI — dubbed M.I.L.O. (Medical Interface Liaison Officer) — provide some clarity as to her identity, but no matter what she tries, she cannot escape her prison.

As she seeks to understand who placed her in the box and why, truths about her personal life and the current state of the world come into focus — but her search for context is actually a race to outwit the slowly depleting oxygen levels. Laurent is excellent, and despite being forced to perform on her back, she manages to imbue the film with a strong sense of determination and humanity. *—I.G.*

Where to watch *Oxygen*: Netflix

**EW grade: **B (read the review)

**Director:** Alexandre Aja

**Cast: **Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi

Pacific Rim (2013)

Idris Elba as Marshal Stacker Pentecost and Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket in 'Pacific Rim'.

Kerry Hayes/Warner Bros.

Guillermo del Toro entranced audiences when he released his fantasy movie *Pan’s Labyrinth* in 2006. *Pacific Rim*, which premiered seven years later, is an entirely different film. A monster flick that allows del Toro to unleash his inner geek and creature feature fan, this apocalyptic film tells the story of an alien species called Kaiju that enters our universe through an ocean portal and attempts to defeat humanity. To defend itself, Earth relies on Jaegers, giant robots that can only be operated by pairs of humans working synchronistically to intuit each other’s next moves (also known as drifting).

"Del Toro has somehow persuaded Hollywood to bankroll his tribute to the giddy junk food he grew up on," EW's critic writes. "And that’s exactly what the film feels like: a 48-year-old kid playing with gigantic action figures in the world's most expensive sandbox." *—I.G.***

Where to watch *Pacific Rim*: Netflix

**EW grade: **N/A (read the review)

**Director: **Guillermo del Toro

**Cast: **Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Rob Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman

Starship Troopers (1997)

Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico in 'Starship Troopers'.

TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett

When Paul Verhoeven's *Starship Troopers* was released almost three decades ago, expectations reached higher than the stars. The Dutch filmmaker previously scored with action blockbusters like *RoboCop* and *Total Recall*, but his newest sci-fi satire didn’t land with audiences who failed to appreciate the filmmaker’s insights on fascism, military overreach, and the power of propaganda.

Unfortunately for humanity, time has proven *Starship Troopers *a much deeper and more prescient film than the one audiences thought they saw in 1997. EW's critic describes the movie, which positions humanity against violent and horrifying space bugs out for total domination, as “bloody, amoral, and — I won’t deny it — sensationally exciting.” Featuring a cast handpicked from the best of ‘90s teen television, *Starship Troopers *is the best sci-fi action film you’ll ever see about hot people killing bugs. *—I.G.***

Where to watch *Starship Troopers*: Netflix

**EW grade: **B+ (read the review)

**Director: **Paul Verhoeven

**Cast: **Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside

Train to Busan (2016)

Gong Yoo as Seok-woo in 'Train to Busan'. Everett Collection

The only thing faster than a bullet train is the zombie infection overtaking its passengers. In the South Korean action horror film *Train to Busan*, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is a work-obsessed hedge fund manager and absentee father who agrees to accompany his young daughter Soo-an (Kim Su-an) on a trip from Seoul to Busan so she can spend her birthday with her mother. As the train departs, a sick woman begins transitioning into a zombie — and infecting everyone around her.

Now barreling full-speed across the country, Seok-woo, Soo-an, and the other passengers must find a way to survive the apocalyptic journey in order to find refuge in Busan. These zombies seem to have studied at the *World War Z* School of Swarming; they move at the same frenetic speed, aiming to infect everyone in their path. *—I.G.*

Where to watch *Train to Busan*: Netflix

**EW grade:** B+

**Director: **Yeon Sang-ho

**Cast: **Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, Kim Eui-sung

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Noomi Rapace as one of the Settman siblings in 'What Happened to Monday'. Jonas Stolpe/Netflix

*Orphan Black *lovers will want to check out *What Happened to Monday*, a 2017 sci-fi action thriller directed by Tommy Wirkola. The film stars Noomi Rapace, giving seven unique performances as septuplet sisters, each named after a different day of the week. The siblings live in a fascist America where overpopulation has necessitated the creation of a Child Allocation Bureau (run by Glenn Close), which imposes a single-child policy on all families.

The septuplets live secretly with their grandfather (Willem Dafoe), share the name Karen Settman (a relic from their dead mother), and are only allowed to leave the house on the day of the week that corresponds with their name. But after Monday goes out and never comes home, it's up to her sisters to save her — at the risk of exposing themselves. *—I.G.*

Where to watch *What Happened to Monday*: Netflix

**EW grade: **N/A (read the review)

**Director: **Tommy Wirkola

**Cast: **Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe

The Worthy (2016)

Mahmoud Al Atrash as Eissa in 'The Worthy'.

This brutal Arabic thriller from the producers of* Insidious *and* The Conjuring *follows a band of survivors battling over scarce resources after a political faction poisons the global water supply. Emirati director Ali F. Mostafa worked on a shoestring budget to create this violent cat-and-mouse story, which reminds us that the apocalypse is sometimes just an excuse for very bad people to do very bad things. *—S.N.*

Where to watch *The Worthy*: Netflix

**Director: **Ali F. Mostafa

**Cast: **Mahmoud Al Atrash, Rakeen Saad, Samer Ismail, Maisa Abd Elhadi

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Movies”