Because I'm building a definitive collection, I'd be interested to hear what you lot think are the best examples of End of the World/collapse of civilization films and books.

Even obvious choices are welcome, as I often hear someone mention a film and end up slapping my forehead and thinking "Bugger! Why didn't I think of that?"

Appreciate the help.

The Flemster.

Mad Max.

The Postman.

I kind of liked the cheesy "Colussus the Forbin Project". "V for Vendetta" is a good recent one. T3 of course signalled nuclear war between an AI and humanity.

There are the asteroid crashing into earth ones like "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon". There are a couple made for TV ones, u might want to google those.

Then there's Earth freezing over ones like "Day After Tomorrow"...this one was kinda half hearted, but the disaster effects were fun.

How about alien invasions? The "V" series was good in it's day, "Independence Day" good for a laugh, "Earth Final Conflict" was an excellent series...strictly speaking the world didn't end, but "EFC" did threaten to collapse civilization as we know it often enough :)

War Games... Classic

The Day of the Triffids.

A great book is Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. It's about an asteroid impact.

Nick Sagan's Idlewild.

Earth Abides
The Stand

"Armageddon"
this was, in my opinion, the suckiest movie ever made.
i don't know which was worse, "dune" or the above.

the miniseries made by scifi was awesome, Dune that is... But I couldnt watch the original movie adaptation after seeing the new one... The old one sucked in comparison!

best in what way?

"On the beach" by Nevil shute still makes me very worried just thinking about it.

The Forge of God, Greg Bear.

The only "real" end of the world mentioned so far.

'real' meaning what exactly?, in your definition.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Great book, and every version of earth in every alternative universe was destroyed.

A great book is Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. It's about an asteroid impact.

One of my favourite-ever books. Actually, this book got me onto the subject!

The Forge of God, Greg Bear.

The only "real" end of the world mentioned so far.

Another favourite book!

Have you read Exit Earth by Martin Caidin?
Quite similar whilst being vastly different.

12 Monkeys.
or
Akira

Theres more if i think harder.

'Aeon Flux' wasn't bad, some folks won't enjoy it because of its cartoon origin.
In browsing thru amazon's DVDs after my first post in this thread, I came across another short lived possibility "Earth 2". Was quite a decent series, pity it was cancelled.

lol, Leo, I would have to agree that 'Armageddon' wasn't all that, but I can think of worse movies...like 'Ultraviolet' aka 'What if Aeon Flux sucked?'.

A great book is Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. It's about an asteroid impact.
My personal fav of the genre.

this was, in my opinion, the suckiest movie ever made.
i don't know which was worse, "dune" or the above.
Hey, I thought the original dune was really good... for a movie. The book of course was monumentally better. One of my favorites.

the miniseries made by scifi was awesome, Dune that is... But I couldnt watch the original movie adaptation after seeing the new one... The old one sucked in comparison!
I thought the new ones were too digitally contaminated--they didn't look as real as the original movie. But they did stick to the story better, if i remember correctly. Eh, its give and take. I'd rather read the book.

12 Monkeys.
great movie.

There's also The Stand by Stephen King. The whole book does a great job of sucking you into an unbelievable post-civ era by slowly acclimating you to strange and frightening coincidences. But he kinda takes it too far in the end.

Le Dernier Combat (The Last Battle), directed by Luc Besson.

This End of The World Hallucination was written by me:

Well... an alien has discovered a planet and decides to conquerr it by laying out a strategy that will result in self destruction which is a method of non-violence maintaining supreme personality. So the Alien picks the most dominant creature and nominates him as the planets representative amongst a diversity of similiar creatures. The others oppose and say they should be the representatives of the planet and declare themselves to be that. This wish is granted by the almighty representative with a plan. A plan that will one day be recognized as plan "As It Is," - K2 vs. A51. Its purpose was to temporarily please the opposition while contending for integrity as the rightful ruler. And, Without the Drama, the end occurs when the chinese fly superatomic airplanes over the americas and blow up half the planet. The "Majic" of life will contain the bombardment transferring the remainng life while recreating the symbiotic conscienceness to alter the Milky Way into a more living galaxy.


Zardozi

Heres a picture from a book:
http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/24.html

Lucifer's Hammer seems to be awfully popular.
Hot fudge sundae anyone?

Excellent suggestions so far.
I've just bought La Dernier Combat and watched it. Damn cool film!
The Stand is also a pretty good example of what I'm after but, as with all Stephen King, he cannot end a story well.

Anyone seen the clips for 28 Weeks Later?
They're on imdb and they look pretty good.

Keep 'em coming: my list grows larger every day (oo-er).

The Flemster.

For political/social/contemporary try"

War Day (book)
Fail Safe (read the book then watch the movie)
On the Beach (again, read the book then watch the movie)

From a Science Fiction point of view:

12 Monkeys (movie)
Day of the Triffids (movie)

On the Beach is good stuff. I came across a 1st edition at a jumble sale and bought it for 10p!!!
I have both film versions (the 2000 version isn't at all bad).
Fail Safe is a great book and an even better film. The recent Clooney live version is good but, I dunno, doesn't seem to quite pull it off, you know?
Monkeys and Triffids both nestle proudly in my collection (not literally, obviously).

War Day is a new title to me, so thanks for that one!

My taste is more on the 'end of civilisation/dystopian future' so my faves in this genre, in no particular order;

Mad Max
Equilibrium
Escape from New York
Brazil
The Time Machine
Gattaca
Robocop
Blade Runner
Terminator
1984
V for Vendetta
Hardware
Metropolis
The Running Man
The Matrix
Battle Royale
Demolition Man
Logan's Run
Death Race 2000
Rollerball
Strange Days
Planet of the Apes
Clockwork Orange
Judge Dredd
Cube
Nirvana

Think that's it, will add more if they pop into my head.

Cool list. Got some of those already. A couple there that didn't occur to me but will have to be purchased for completion's sake!

... Hitchickers guide to the galaxy
children of men
isn't battlestar galactica also on the subject I'm not sure
the day afther tomorrow
most zombie movies, etc

I consider BSG to be on-topic and have bought the boxsets.
Hitchhickers! Forgot all about that one! Cheers!
Children Of Men was one of the best films (that I expected to suck) I've seen in years.
The Day After Tomorrow I thought was ace. Most people I know hate it but...!
Zombie movies have to fit a strict criteria for me. They have to depict a collapse of civilisation, not just a few zombies lumbering around some 3-horse town in New Mexico.
Got quite a few tho!
Ta for the suggestions.

The Flemster.

Best "End Of The World" book: "Bloom" Wil McCarthy. Look it up. PHENOMINAL!

~String

Gonna look now. Cheers fella!

Yep. Looks pretty alright to me!

http://www.wilmccarthy.com/bloom.htm