If you’ve been following “The Last of Us” for the last nine weeks, the new series based on the hit video game has become a smash hit for HBO. The apocalyptic horror drama has filled the hole that “The Walking Dead” left behind as a taut, gripping, and excellent look at humanity at the end of the world. While we anxiously wait for season two of “The Last of Us” to arrive, here are five movies you can watch to keep you satisfied.
What was your favorite episode of “The Last of Us” season one?
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Streaming on Apple TV, Redbox, Amazon Prime Video
The sequel to Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later,” this is set six months after the epidemic. Now with Britain being occupied by American forces, the UK seeks to rebuild, but that’s hindered when the outbreak of the rage infection creates another breed of rage zombies. Now two military officers are tasked with shipping brother and sister Andy and Tammy to a safe haven, as Andy might hold the key to a potential cure to the Rage Virus. It’s vicious, it’s tense, it’s fun, and it features Idris Elba, Rose Byrne, and pre-Hawkeye Jeremy Renner.
Cargo (2017)
Streaming on Netflix
Based on the viral 2013 short film, “Cargo” stars Martin Freeman as a father who is infected with a zombie virus that slowly chips away at victims’ cognitive functions turning them rabid. When he’s infected, he travels across New Zealand with his baby daughter Rosie strapped on his back. As time runs out, he desperately looks for someone that can adopt Rosie before he inevitably turns on her. It’s a gut wrenching and beautiful movie, and Martin Freeman gives a very understated performance. I highly recommend the original short film, too.
Children of Men (2005)
Streaming on Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
In a near future when all the world’s women have lost the ability to birth children, society is in a near collapse. When the last young person is killed, a local bureaucrat learns of a refugee who has given birth to a child. He’s now tasked with protecting her and her child; he and a few allies travel across the country to get them to safety so they escape the tyrannical government and scientists that are looking for a cure to the mass infertility. Alfonso Cuaron’s film is a masterpiece filled with tension, incredible action sequences, and top notch performances from the entire cast.
The Road (2009)
Streaming on Tubi, Redbox, Vudu, Pluto TV
Based on the acclaimed novel from Cormac McCarthy, the film adaptation by John Hillcoat is a pitch black apocalyptic drama. It’s bleak. It’s relentlessly sad. And if you’re in to something uplifting about humanity, “The Road” will not provide. However it is a compelling and engrossing tale about a father looking for some kind of salvation for his son in a world that is gradually dying all around them. Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit McPhee are stellar, and Hillcoat’s direction really helps bring to life McCarthy’s hopeless vision of the end of the world.
Stakeland (2011)
Streaming on Peacock, Pluto TV, Tubi TV
Jim Mickle’s apocalyptic horror film centers on the end of the world at the hands of vampires. With a world overrun by vicious vampires, a savvy hunter travels the country looking for supplies and a safehaven with his young partner, who he saved from a vampire attack at a young age. Director Mickle’s apocalyptic thriller is a unique and original take on the end of the world depicting vampires as rabid beasts that consume mankind in the blink of an eye. The movie has aged like fine wine and it even produced a very good sequel.