Many post-apocalyptic movies can be bleak. They capture a vision of what the end of the world could be like, as well as how people struggle to survive. Many of these movies can be complete downers with their tone and stories, and they are often coupled with many character deaths. These tragic movies are often praised by fans, but some are criticized for the lack of hopeful spots when there is potential for some to happen.
However, some post-apocalyptic movies actually end on a hopeful note. From the Earth gaining the potential to be renewed in Wall-E to escaping an oppressive train in Snowpiercer, viewers who desire some hope at the end of the bleak movies' roads will enjoy watching these movies.
10 9's Series Of Tragedies Ends With Potential For Earth To Be Renewed
In the 2009 film entitled 9, the world is powered by an invention known as the Great Machine. Unfortunately for humanity, the world’s mechanisms wiped out the human population. As a last-ditch effort to save civilization, a scientist split his soul and placed the pieces into small, doll-like creations, each of them named with numbers.
At the end of the movie, the characters 9, 7, 3, and 4 free the souls of 5, 1, 6, 2, and 8 and they fly up into the sky, causing it to rain. The final image in the movie shows that the raindrops actually contain flecks of glowing bacteria, which brings life back into the world.
9 Wall-E Ends With Humans Returning To A Slowly-Restoring Earth
In Wall-E, humanity escaped to space after the Earth became overpolluted. However, the end of the movie involves humans returning after Wall-E and EVE bring a plant to the spaceship to show them that Earth is actually renewing itself with life after years of staying polluted.
This means that humans have a chance to recolonize Earth. This was a relieving end for many fans of the film, who were sad to see how humanity had regressed while stuck in space for generations since first leaving Earth, and their return to Earth could mean that the humans will be revitalized as well.
8 Warm Bodies Ends With Zombies & Humans Co-Existing Peacefully
Warm Bodies is a zombie post-apocalypse movie that takes place eight years after the apocalypse occurred and follows R, a zombie, and Julia, a human, who fall in love with each other. It's slowly revealed throughout the movie that zombies are capable of regaining their humanity through bonding with others emotionally.
After the movie's events of R and Julie bonding and falling in love, including taking down Boneys (zombies who completely lost their humanity and are too far gone to save, unlike zombies such as R) in the process together, the zombies assimilate with human society and slowly regain their own humanity, signifying the end of the apocalypse. Many fans loved this film because of these hopeful notes, on top of the slow-burn romance.
7 World War Z Ends With Vaccines Found To Bypass Zombies
World War Z takes place in a world filled with zombies, while humans try to survive their seemingly neverending onslaught. By the end of the movie, however, there is hope for the humans to fully fight back; the protagonist discovers pathogens that are developed into a vaccine, making it easier for humans to bypass any zombies they encounter.
This also means that they can start developing weapons to take down zombies as well rather than cowering in fear, much to the fans' enjoyment.
6 The Day After Tomorrow Has Everyone Taking Refuge In Mexico
The Day After Tomorrow follows the end of the world occurring as a new Ice Age. However, the surviving characters manage to escape to Mexico despite the United States being frosted over, as Mexico is too warm to freeze from the new climate changes.
Fans were scared for the fates of the characters in the movie due to the increasing cold, they were relieved to see that everyone that escaped to Mexico would survive. It's a bittersweet ending, however, considering that part of the Earth is now permanently inhabitable.
5 A Quiet Place Ends With The Survivors Finding Ways To Beat The Monsters Tracking Them
A Quiet Place follows a family who must keep as silent as possible at all times, or else monsters will detect their noises and ultimately kill them. Although the father of the family dies by the end, the mother, her deaf daughter, son, and newborn baby find a solution to defeat the aliens; the deaf daughter, Regan, who realizes that the sounds made by her implant distress the creatures.
With this in mind, she switches the device back on and places it on a nearby microphone to amplify the feedback and distract it. Since this results in the creature exposing the flesh beneath its armored head, it leaves them vulnerable to shotguns and anything else that can damage their heads. The film was such a hit with fans that it eventually got a sequel, A Quiet Place Part II.
4 Zombieland Ends With The Protagonists Becoming Each Other's Family
Even though Zombieland has some tragic deaths at the hands of zombies, the main characters bonded with each other and ultimately survived the events of the movie together. Each of the characters started fairly alone in the beginning, only to join forces and band together over time despite getting attached being considered unadvisable (since anyone could die at any moment).
However, Columbus and the other protagonists realize that without each others' strong, shared bonds, they might as well be zombies themselves.
3 The Road Ends With The Protagonist's Son Finding A New Family
The Road is a fairly bleak post-apocalypse movie, considering that one of the two protagonists, the father, dies by the end. However, his son has a hopeful ending; he's quickly found by a family of four. The family explains that they were trying to track down the father and son duo out of concern for them and persuade the son to join them so they can protect him.
Even though the son lost his own family, at least he gained a new one. Fans were relieved by this outcome, especially considering all the treacherous events the son and his father went through earlier in the movie.
2 Mad Max: Fury Road Ends With Wiping Out A Dictator
The premise of Mad Max: Fury Road is tragic at the beginning; the antagonist, Joe, is a dictator who leads an army and tries to control anything and everything possible, including going after his wives when Furiosa initially escapes with them.
Max, the protagonist, joins forces with Furiosa and the wives to try to find the "Green Place." In the process, they also end up defeating Joe and his army, destroying Joe for good and freeing those trapped under Joe's rule.
1 Snowpiercer Ends With People Finding Life Outside An Oppressive Train
Snowpiercer follows characters who were segregated by class after they started using a train as a way to live, due to the rest of the world being ravaged. The front cars of the train belong to the wealthy while the tail cars are populated by the poor. However, after the people in the tail cars stage a rebellion, two of the characters escape the train entirely in the end and discover that there is new life happening outside of the train.
Fans who feared and raged against the oppressive nature of the train's lifestyle were relieved to see that there was life outside of the train and the surviving characters could just live elsewhere, far away from their dictators' clutches.