German filmmaker Fritz Lang can be considered the grandfather of cinematic dystopias. While not his first attempt, his 1927 film Metropolis set the standard for utopias-that-are-really-dystopias. While the film industry has always had an interest in exploring dystopias, the last decade has seen a boon in the genre.

As with the Books page, what follows is an incomplete but growing list of movies about dystopias. For the most part, we’ve left sequels and reboots off the list (if for no other reason than that the originals are usually the best (with the notable exception of Mad Max: Fury Road)). Here, perhaps even moreso than with the books, making the distinction between the dystopian and the merely post-apocalyptic can be a challenge. If you have a suggestion for the list, please leave a comment below.

An Incomplete List of Dystopian Films

1. Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, 1922
2. Metropolis, 1927
3. Things To Come, 1936
4. The Moon Is Down, 1943
5. The Time Machine, 1960
6. The Trial, 1962
7. The 10th Victim, 1965
8. Alphaville, 1965
9. Fahrenheit 451, 1966
10. Planet of the Apes, 1968
11. No Blade of Grass, 1970
12. A Clockwork Orange, 1971
13. Punishment Park, 1971
14. THX 1138, 1971
15. Silent Running, 1972
16. Z.P.G., 1972
17. Fantastic Planet, 1973
18. Soylent Green, 1973
19. World on a Wire, 1973
20. A Boy and His Dog, 1974
21. Zardoz, 1974
22. Death Race 2000, 1975
23. Rollerball, 1975
24. Logan’s Run, 1976
25. Mad Max, 1979
26. Brave New World, 1980
27. Escape from New York, 1981
28. Blade Runner, 1982
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1984
30. The Terminator, 1984
31. Brazil, 1985
32. Dead End Drive-In, 1986
33. Kin-dza-dza!, 1986
34. RoboCop, 1987
35. The Running Man, 1987
36. The Handmaid’s Tale, 1990
37. Total Recall, 1990
38. Freejack, 1992
39. City of Lost Children, 1995
40. Ghost in the Shell, 1995
41. Harrison Bergeron, 1995
42. Judge Dredd, 1995
43. Strange Days, 1995
44. Tank Girl, 1995
45. Gattaca, 1997
46. The Postman, 1997
47. Pleasantville, 1998
48. The Matrix, 1999
49. Battle Royale, 2000
50. Equilibrium, 2002
51. Minority Report, 2002
52. Code 46, 2003
53. Natural City, 2003
54. I, Robot, 2004
55. Æon Flux, 2005
56. The Island, 2005
57. Children of Men, 2006
58. Idiocracy, 2006
59. Land of the Blind, 2006
60. V for Vendetta, 2006
61. District 9, 2009
62. The Inhabited Island, 2009
63. Watchmen, 2009
64. Downstream, 2010
65. Never Let Me Go, 2010
66. Radio Free Albemuth, 2010
67. In Time, 2011
68. Antiviral, 2012
69. The Hunger Games, 2012
70. The Congress, 2013
71. Elysium, 2013
72. The Purge, 2013
73. Snowpiercer, 2013
74. Automata, 2014
75. Divergent, 2014
76. The Giver, 2014
77. The Lego Movie, 2014
78. The Maze Runner, 2014
79. The Lobster, 2015
80. Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015
81. The Thinning, 2016
82. What Happened to Monday, 2017
83. Ready Player One, 2018