Entertainment
The 95+ Greatest Dystopian Action Movies
Some of the best films depict a bleak future. Lucky for movie-goers, this type of dystopian despair has led to some of the best action movies of all time. The top dystopian action movies feature characters not only fighting for themselves, but also fighting for the future of mankind. This is a list of dystopian action films featuring everything from The Hunger Games to The Running Man to Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
What movies will you find on this list of the best post-apocalyptic action films? Maybe you'll vote The Matrix has to the top. This modern classic by the Wachowskis makes audiences rethink their very existence while watching Neo learn the truth, fight the machines, and discover that he is “The One.” Mad Max: Fury Road is another exciting dystopian action movie. Hope is all but lost when a pregnant woman joins a group of rebel refugees to save her unborn child and the species at large in Children of Men. Other good post-apocalyptic action movies include District 9, Demolition Man, and Snowpiercer.
Which thriller dystopian movie is your favorite? Give the best films a thumbs up and please add any good movies that are missing.
Ranked by
- 1Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishbourne, Carrie Moss
- Released: 1999 - 2021
- Directed by: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
The Matrix is a science fiction action media franchise created by The Wachowskis and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The series began with the feature film The Matrix (1999), and continued with ...more - 2Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong
- Released: 1991
- Directed by: James Cameron
In this sequel set eleven years after "The Terminator," young John Connor (Edward Furlong), the key to civilization's victory over a future robot uprising, is the target of the shape-shifting T-1000 ...more - 3Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: Ridley Scott
In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The ...more - 4Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn
- Released: 1984
- Directed by: James Cameron
Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Michael ...more - 5Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
- Released: 1982
- Directed by: Ridley Scott
Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced by the police Boss (M. Emmet Walsh) to continue his old job as Replicant Hunter. His assignment: eliminate four escaped Replicants from the colonies who have ...more - 6Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn
- Released: 1986
- Directed by: James Cameron
After floating in space for 57 years, Lt. Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) shuttle is found by a deep space salvage team. Upon arriving at LV-426, the marines find only one survivor, a nine year old girl ...more - 7Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: George Miller
In a not-too-distant dystopian future, when man's most precious resource -- oil -- has been depleted and the world plunged into war, famine and financial chaos, the last vestiges of the law in ...more - 8Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: Luc Besson
In the 23rd century, a New York City cabbie, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), finds the fate of the world in his hands when Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls into his cab. As the embodiment of the fifth ...more - 9Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Traveling back in time isn't simple, as James Cole (Bruce Willis) learns the hard way. Imprisoned in the 2030s, James is recruited for a mission that will send him back to the 1990s. Once there, he's ...more - 10Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone
- Released: 1990
- Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a bored construction worker in the year 2084 who dreams of visiting the colonized Mars. He visits "Rekall," a company that plants false memories into people's ...more - 11Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox
- Released: 1987
- Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the ...more - 12Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
- Released: 2015
- Directed by: George Miller
Years after the collapse of civilization, the tyrannical Immortan Joe enslaves apocalypse survivors inside the desert fortress the Citadel. When the warrior Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) leads ...more - 13Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea
- Released: 2006
- Directed by: James McTeigue
Following world war, London is a police state occupied by a fascist government, and a vigilante known only as V (Hugo Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressors of the world in which he ...more - 14Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Emil Minty
- Released: 1981
- Directed by: George Miller
After avenging the death of his wife and young son at the hands of a vicious gang leader, Max (Mel Gibson) drives the post-apocalyptic highways of the Australian outback, fending off attacks from ...more - 15Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau
- Released: 1981
- Directed by: John Carpenter
In 1997, a major war between the United States and the Soviet Union is concluding, and the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a giant maximum security prison. When Air Force One is ...more - 16Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Doug Liman
When Earth falls under attack from invincible aliens, no military unit in the world is able to beat them. Maj. William Cage (Tom Cruise), an officer who has never seen combat, is assigned to a ...more - 17Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk
- Released: 2005
- Directed by: Joss Whedon
In this continuation of the television series "Firefly," a group of rebels travels the outskirts of space aboard their ship, Serenity, outside the reach of the Alliance, a sinister regime that ...more - 18Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Based on a story by famed science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, "Minority Report" is an action-detective thriller set in Washington D.C. in 2054, where police utilize a psychic technology to arrest ...more - 19Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. But there was a time ...more - 20Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Alex Proyas
John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. The problem is that he can't remember whether he committed the murders or not. ...more - 21Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has always fantasized about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior "in-valid." He decides to fight his fate by purchasing ...more - 22Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen
- Released: 2017
- Directed by: James Mangold
In the near future, a weary Logan (Hugh Jackman) cares for an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) at a remote outpost on the Mexican border. His plan to hide from the outside world gets upended when ...more - 23Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James
- Released: 2009
- Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth -- not to conquer or give aid, but -- to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are ...more - 24Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey
- Released: 2012
- Directed by: Pete Travis
Mega City One is a vast, violent metropolis where felons rule the streets. The only law lies with cops called "judges," who act as judge, jury and executioner, and Dredd (Karl Urban) is one of the ...more - 25Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok
- Released: 2007
- Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Robert Neville (Will Smith), a brilliant scientist, is a survivor of a man-made plague that transforms humans into bloodthirsty mutants. He wanders alone through New York City, calling out for other ...more
