Mother/Android was released on Hulu in December, and it has proven to be quite popular with audiences despite the mixed reviews it has received from critics. Set in a world where artificial intelligence-enabled devices slowly, but surely turn against humanity, it makes for an engaging post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, where viewers can't help but root for the young mother-to-be in a desperate race towards safety.
The unique, deeply emotional story touches upon many of the sci-fi and post-apocalyptic tropes that were tackled by many movies before it. Viewers who loved Mother/Android and are left wanting a similar experience will be overjoyed to know that there is a whole world of post-apocalyptic science fiction films they can turn to.
9 Children Of Men
Much like Mother/Android, Children of Men is also a story centered around a pregnant women's search for a safe haven. In this 2006 post-apocalyptic movie starring Clive Owen, however, the end of the world was also in its early stages, albeit for a radically different reason: in a dystopian future where all women have mysteriously gone infertile, the last generation of humans tries to carry on with their daily lives while slowly coming to terms with the inevitable apocalypse.
Theo (Clive Owen) and Kee (Claire Hope-Ashitey) make their way through the United Kingdom torn apart by a refugee crisis, in order to get her and her unborn child on board a ship-turned-laboratory meant to be humanity's last hope of curing infertility. Children of Men strikes a fine balance between action-packed sequences and dark philosophical musings about living in a world with no future.
8 Bird Box
This film is set in a much more supernatural, lonelier version of the apocalypse. Earth was overrun by entities driving people to suicide upon merely looking at them. The remaining humans are forced to live without their sense of vision when traveling from one place to another.
Malorie (Sandra Bullock) attempts to escort her children to a safe haven, free of the murderous entities. It is one of those horror movies set in the future that keep viewers on the edge of their seat without resorting to cheap jump scares, as the sheer tension of watching the characters scramble to safety without the ability to see the danger in front of them is enough to unsettle audiences.
7 Finch
Finch is one of the very few uplifting post-apocalyptic movies. It approaches the theme of artificial intelligence and its relationship with humanity from a somewhat feel-good angle. In this version of the end of the world, our planet is dying not because of malevolent robots, but due to a solar flare that has made the Earth uninhabitable.
Tom Hanks plays Finch, a man who is dying of a mysterious illness and builds a robot designed to take care of his dog once he passes away. Throughout the course of the film, the humanoid named Jeff learns the fundamental human emotions from Finch, emotions that will eventually enable him to properly take care of Goodyear (the dog). Finch is a movie for viewers who enjoy seeing humor and positivity even in the direst of circumstances.
6 The Darkest Hour
Not to be confused with Darkest Hour (the Winston Churchill biopic), The Darkest Hour revolves around a group of young adults caught in the middle of an alien invasion while promoting their business in Moscow. The group eventually finds themselves at the center of a plot to repel the invasion.
Although it doesn't ask to unpack major philosophical questions and is based on a rather simple premise, The Darkest Hour is a fun movie to unwind to. The plot does a good job of avoiding major alien invasion film clichés, all the while retaining blockbuster action sequences and drama people love these kinds of movies for.
5 A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place is built around a premise somewhat similar to that of Bird Box, with one key alteration: instead of killing people who merely look at them, the creatures responsible for the apocalypse in A Quiet Place have an over-developed sense of hearing, forcing survivors to stay really, really quiet at all times.
The movie follows a family coping with the death of one of the children all the while trying to stay alive in a world that prohibits them from using one of the key human senses. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt do a great job of conveying emotions without using any words, and with the film's unique, yet simple formula, the eerie silence turns A Quiet Place into a nail-biter of a movie where nearly every sound is a sign of imminent danger.
4 The Terminator
Just like in Mother/Android, one of The Terminator's main characters is a mother-to-be. The key difference lies in the fact that Sarah Connor doesn't even know she is destined to bear the child that will one day lead humanity's resistance forces against all-powerful artificial intelligence that turned the Earth into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
As a cult-classic cornerstone of science fiction cinema, The Terminator really needs no introduction. Although it is much more action-focused than Mother/Android, it probably makes an even more powerful statement about the dangers of AI and unchecked technological progress.
3 Snowpiercer
In many ways, the plot and setting of Snowpiercer is essentially a thought experiment centered around class conflict with the human population reduced to the passengers of a single train, indefinitely riding across the frozen remains of our once-great civilization.
Despite being stuck on a single train, the haves and have-nots are separated: the rich enjoy a life of luxury in the safe and comfortable front cars, while the poor are stuffed into the back of the over-crowded back of the train, without access to basic amenities and under constant surveillance. What makes Snowpiercer a truly great film is the way it manages to be a commentary on the state of our contemporary society all the while fitting into the popular science fiction/action blockbuster tropes.
2 Ex Machina
As far as the perils of artificial intelligence are concerned, no movie approaches them in a more unique and relatable way than Ex Machina. It is one of the very few movies that explore AI's potential for human emotion and deception in excruciating detail.
This film doesn't only revolve around computers' emotional capabilities, but it also dives deep into our own emotional naivety and tendencies, as it follows the story of a young programmer hopelessly falling in love with a humanoid.
1 The Road
Despite a rather disappointing box office performance, The Road remains one of the most powerful and emotionally gutting science fiction films ever made. Although it is set in a post-apocalyptic reality, major sci-fi tropes take a backseat here as the film focuses on a single man's relationship with his son and the challenge of raising a child in a world that seems to have lost all hopes for a brighter future.
The characters' anonymity (they're simply named Man and Boy) and the lack of explanation regarding the cataclysm that brought upon the apocalypse encourage viewers to consider their own personalities and relationships, and how they would be impacted by an event that turns people's lives into a daily struggle for survival.