Science is a very humbling subject in society. It’s something that a majority of people around the world love to study, and yet there are a lot of parts of it that have to do with us understanding our own mortality. Add that to science fiction films, where, yes, the word fiction is a part of it, but there is a lot drawn from reality implemented into the story. If the genre does anything well, besides maybe giant monsters at times, it makes us question our existence and the dreadful end to all of whatever this is.
Now, some of these films are not necessarily deeply rooted in that type of material. But they do touch on it at times. And one way of doing that is to literally have the entire cast, or at least the ones you were rooting for, get killed off. Here are 10 science fiction films that do just that.
Seeking A Friend For the End of the World (2012)
Let’s start with some comedy, if that’s what you want to call it. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a rom-com about two neighbors (Keira Knightley and Steve Carell) who help each other fulfill their final wishes as an asteroid heads straight for Earth to destroy it. You get very invested in the performances of the two leads; it’s comical and heartfelt. But just as you are wrapped around their fingers, you remember one thing: the world is coming to an end, and they’re going to die. And that is exactly what happens; there is nothing done by the government to stop the asteroid. This is not a Michael Bay film; the world indeed comes to an end.
High Life (2018)
Right at the beginning of the sonic explosion of Robert Pattison’s post-Twilight acting career was this indie called High Life. A24 released a science fiction film about a man named Monte and his baby daughter, who are the lone survivors of a mission gone wrong out in the farthest reaches of the solar system. The rest of the crew of this mission dies one by one, and by the end, we are left with Monte and his baby entering a black hole with their fates remaining uncertain. High Life co-stars the new scream queen on the block, Mia Goth and is directed by Claire Danes, who fills the film with so much dread under her direction.
Pod (2015)
Ready to feel tense? Then Mickey Keating’s indie sci-fi horror film Pod will do just that for you. The plot centers around two siblings who make a trip up to their brother’s cabin in the woods for a family intervention. They end up finding him in the middle of a mental breakdown, and to make matters worse, he says he has a creature locked up in his basement. Pod uses its budgetary constraints quite well; the creature effects are scary, and it makes this list because eventually, that said creature gets its hands on the film’s characters and kills all of them.
Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes is the sequel to the classic film, Planet of the Apes. The film is about an astronaut played by James Franciscus who is in search of Taylor, Charlton Heston’s character from the previous film. On this mission, he uncovers an underground world of humans living a very grotesque life on a planet governed by apes. The group of telepathic humans worship a nuclear bomb, and as the apes slowly start to invade their habitat, well, you can probably figure out what comes next.
Sunshine (2007)
A compelling and thought-provoking film that has an A-list cast to it. Bet you’ve never heard of it, though. 2007’s Sunshine stars the likes of Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, and Rose Byrne. It’s about the earth’s sun and how it’s dying, and how a team of eight men and women is sent out into space to try and revive the dying star. The ending is bleak for those who don’t make it and yet hopeful for those who survive. The crew accomplishes their mission as they save the earth from the destruction of its dying son, but in return, they lose their lives on the mission. Sunshine is one of the most underrated films in the genre of the last twenty years.
Knowing (2009)
Summit Entertainment / Contender Entertainment
Knowing is a prime example of having a bleak topic like the world coming to an end, and yet it fails in its execution. That’s the late 2000s for you, everything had to be a blockbuster that made a last-ditch effort in its film’s final moments to be artsy as well. Knowing is about an MIT professor (Nicolas Cage) who gains knowledge of a sequence of events throughout time that are supposed to trigger the end of the world. The fact that this film was marketed to be such a blockbuster in early 2009 makes for the ending to be a huge shock. Audiences got bummed out by this because, in fact, the world does come to an end in the movie.
Radius (2017)
Radius is a science fiction thriller-mystery about an amnesiac man who wakes up and comes to learn that anyone who comes within a certain distance of him suddenly dies. With that plot alone, of course, you can imagine that most of these characters aren’t going to make it. The Canadian-produced indie focuses around Liam (Diego Klattenhoff), whose aura can level anyone within fifty feet of him. However, he has a co-pilot, Jane Doe (Charlotte Sullivan), who awoke from the car crash Liam woke up from. She is the only one not affected by Liam’s curse.
Of course, we end up learning more about Jane and Liam’s dynamic as her name is revealed to be Rose, and Liam is a serial killer who abducted Jane’s twin sister. In the film’s final moments, Jane suffers a bullet wound, and it is unclear if she is going to make it. As for Liam and everyone else, they’re goners due to a climactic confrontation.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
By the time the trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped, fans were jumping for joy all the way till it was released in theaters, and then the realization hit: all the characters you are rooting for in the film end up sacrificing themselves in order for the rebel alliance to gain an upper hand. Rogue One is a prequel to 1977’s original Star Wars film. As it is about the discovery of the Death Star’s plan. The rebel alliance holds blueprints of the empire’s plan and knows what they’ll do next. Led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a band of rebels raids a data bank on the planet Scarif and transfers the information over to the fleet. They complete their mission and, in doing so, sacrifice themselves as the Death Star destroys the planet they are on.
Cloverfield (2008)
The JJ Abrams-produced found footage film Cloverfield is about an unidentified giant alien creature that levels New York City. The marketing push for this film felt like Blair Witch, but with a bigger budget. Audiences would see the teaser trailer and think it seemed too real. All the characters who were enduring this chaotic real-life creature feature met their demise by the end of the film.
Even in the film’s final moments, its two love interests find themselves huddled together in Central Park, with the alien doing destruction close by. We hear them saying “I love you” to one another, then the camera seems to break and the film ends.
Melancholia (2011)
Lars von Trier is indeed a controversial and polarizing filmmaker, but we can all agree that Melancholia may be his most beautiful film, and yet it is about the world ending. Kirsten Dunst delivers what some feel is her best performance as a woman who just recently had a lavish, upscale wedding, and then she and the rest of the world learn of an impending planetary collision as a rogue planet will collide into Earth, destroying all life.
What separates this film from most of the others on this list is how abstract it is with its commentary on depression and acceptance of one’s mortality in the face of the end of your life. Von Trier challenges his audiences and does so by following through with the earth being destroyed by the other planet. It’s a tragic yet beautiful film that’s jarring, visceral, and unforgettable.
