List of nuclear holocaust fiction

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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

This list of nuclear holocaust fiction lists the many works of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction that attempt to describe a world during or after a massive nuclear war, nuclear holocaust, or crash of civilization due to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse.

Films

class="wikitable sortable"
TitleYearclass="unsortable" | Author and notes
Five

|1951

|

Invasion U.S.A.

|1952

|

Captive Women

|1952

|

Day the World Ended

|1955

|

Teenage Caveman

|1958

|

On the Beach

|1959

|Nevil Shute (novel); John Paxton (screenplay)

The World, the Flesh and the Devil

|1959

|

The Time Machine

|1960

|H. G. Wells (novel); David Duncan (screenplay)

The Last War

|1961

|

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

|1961

|

The Creation of the Humanoids

|1962

|

La jetée

|1962

|

Panic in Year Zero!

|1962

|

This is Not a Test

|1962

|

Ladybug Ladybug

|1963

|

Fail-Safe

|1964

|Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler (novel); Walter Bernstein (screenplay)

Dr. Strangelove{{cite web |url=https://brians.wsu.edu/page/9/?s=RV |title=Terminator vs. Terminator - Nuclear Holocaust as a Video Game |last=Brians |first=Paul |date=1993 |publisher=Washington State University |access-date=3 April 2023}}

|1964

|Peter George (novel); Peter George, Stanley Kubrick, and Terry Southern (screenplay)

The War Game

|1965

|

Late August at the Hotel Ozone

|1966

|Written by Pavel Juráček

In the Year 2889

|1967

|

Planet of the Apes{{cite web |url=http://sequart.org/magazine/67818/fear-on-the-planet-of-the-apes/ |title=Fear on The Planet of the Apes |last=Ronai |first=Steven |date=15 December 2017 |website=Sequart Organization |access-date=30 March 2023 |quote=While society’s dread of a nuclear holocaust remained a central theme, Planet of the Apes movies successfully mined other anxieties prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s.}}

|1968

|Pierre Boulle (novel); Michael Wilson and Rod Serling (screenplay)

The Bed Sitting Room

|1969

|

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

|1970

|

Colossus: The Forbin Project

|1970

|

Glen and Randa

|1971

|

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

|1973

|

Zardoz

|1974

|

A Boy and His Dog

|1975

|Harlan Ellison (short story); L.Q. Jones, Alvy Moore and Wayne Cruseturner (screenplay)

Barefoot Gen

|1976

|Tengo Yamada (screenplay), Keiji Nakazawa (manga) The story of Gen Nakaoka and his family, who lived in Hiroshima at the time it was atom-bombed, and their struggles and trials amidst the nuclear holocaust.

Damnation Alley

|1977

|Roger Zelazny (novel)

Wizards

|1977

Virus

|1980

|

Malevil

|1981

|

Mad Max 2

|1981

|Also known as The Road Warrior.

The New Barbarians

|1982

|

Future War 198X

|1982

|Anime movie produced by Toei Animation about World War III breaking out in the 1980s that triggers a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

2019, After the Fall of New York

|1983

|

Special Bulletin

|1983

|

Testament{{cite book |last=Hurley |first=Jessica |editor1-last=Blouin |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Shipley |editor2-first=Morgan |editor3-last=Taylor |editor3-first=Jack |date=2014 |title=The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |page=192 |chapter=War as Peace: Afterlives of Nuclear War in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest |isbn=978-1-4438-4479-6}}

|1983

|

The Day After

|1983

|

WarGames

|1983

|

The Terminator franchise

|1984, 1991, 2003, 2009, 2015, 2019

|Based on characters created by James Cameron (with acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison)

Countdown to Looking Glass

|1984

|

Threads

|1984

|

One Night Stand

|1984

|

Def-Con 4

|1985

|

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

|1985

|

O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization

|1985

|

Radioactive Dreams

|1985

|

Dead Man's Letters

|1986

|

The Sacrifice

|1986

|

When the Wind Blows

|1986

|Based on the 1982 graphic novel

Whoops Apocalypse

|1986

|Based on the ITV series

Akira

|1988

|

Miracle Mile

|1988

|

By Dawn's Early Light

|1990

|

Hardware

|1990

|

Judge Dredd

|1995

|

Star Trek: First Contact

|1996

| Most of the film takes place in the mid-21st century as civilization rebuilds after nuclear war. Continuation of Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series.

The Postman

|1997

|

style="white-space:nowrap;"|Der 3. Weltkrieg, a.k.a. World War III

|1998

|

Six-String Samurai

|1998

|

Deterrence

|1999

|

The Matrix (franchise)

|1999, 2003, 2021

|

On the Beach

|2000

|

Equilibrium

|2002

|

The Dark Hour

|2007

|

City of Ember

|2009

|

The Book of Eli{{cite web |url=http://shouldiseeit.net/?p=730 |title=Book of Eli, The (2010) |first=Mel |last=Valentin |date=15 January 2010 |publisher=Should I See It|access-date=10 March 2011}}

|2010

|

The Divide

|2012

|

Cloud Atlas

|2012

|

Dredd

|2012

|

Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl

|2014

|

Mad Max: Fury Road

|2015

|

Z for Zachariah

|2015

|

Friend of the World

|2020

|Brian Patrick Butler (screenplay); takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Based on Dr. Strangelove and La Jetée.

Television programs

=Television episodes=

Novels

Short stories

Short story collections

Comics

Animation shorts

  • The Big Snit (National Film Board of Canada, Richard Condie; 1985)
  • The Hole, 1962, featuring the voice of Dizzy Gillespie
  • A Short Vision, 1956
  • Good Will to Men, 1955 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
  • Picadon (1978){{cite web|url=http://airshipdaily.com/pikadon/|title=Flash Boom: Experiencing the Atomic Bombing of Japan Through the Film "Pikadon"|website=The Airship|language=en-US}}

Games

class="wikitable sortable"
NameYearNotes
2300 A.D.

|1986

| Role-playing game

Aftermath!

|1981

|Role-playing game

Ashes 2063

|2018

|A post-apocalypse themed total conversion for the GZDoom engine

Ashes Afterglow

|2021

|The sequel to Ashes 2063

Balance of Power

|1985

|A computer strategy game of geopolitics during the Cold War

Blast Corps

|1997

|Nintendo 64 video game

Burntime

|1993

|A role-playing video game for DOS and Amiga

DEFCON

|2007

|A real-time strategy game for Windows, Mac and Linux

Fallout series

|1997 (1st)

2018 (latest)

|A post-apocalyptic role-playing video game for several platforms; early games were top down 2D while the last four are 3D; spiritual successor to Wasteland

Far Cry 5

|2018

|An action-adventure first-person shooter game set in the fictional Hope County, Montana that has been taken over by a cult who believe the end of the world is about to occur. Towards the end of the game, radio broadcasts begin hinting that the world outside is in chaos and a nuclear war is imminent. If the resist ending is chosen, nuclear explosions appear around the player suggesting a nuclear holocaust has occurred.

Far Cry New Dawn

|2019

|An action-adventure first-person shooter game standalone sequel of Far Cry 5, set 17 years after the events of Far Cry 5, where the nuclear exchange known as "the Collapse" devastated the world, survivors attempt to rebuild the community in Hope County. Their efforts are however threatened by the Highwaymen, a roving band of organized bandits led by twin sisters Mickey and Lou.

Gamma World

|1978

|A post-apocalyptic role-playing game

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

|2015

|A top-down shooter game which is a sequel to Hotline Miami; features a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States at the end of the game

M.A.D. Global Thermonuclear Warfare

|2001

|PC Strategic simulation game released by Small Rockets

Metro 2033

|2010

|A survival horror first-person shooter set in post-apocalyptic Moscow

Metro Last Light

|2013

| A survival horror first-person shooter which is a sequel to Metro 2033

Missile Command

|1980

|An action video game which was wildly popular in the 1980s, widely recognized in popular culture

The Morrow Project

|1980

|Role-playing game

Neocron

|2002

|A post-apocalyptic cyberpunk MMORPG for Windows

Norad

|1981

|An action strategy game for the Apple II, where the player defends the United States against a nuclear attack.{{cite web | last=Edwards | first=Benj | title=7 Forgotten Apple II Gaming Classics | website=PCMAG | date=2016-09-22 | url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/7-forgotten-apple-ii-gaming-classics | access-date=2020-03-16}}{{cite book | title=InfoWorld | date=1991-05-27 | publisher=InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ZFAEAAAAMBAJ | access-date=2020-03-16 | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ZFAEAAAAMBAJ/page/n63 64]}}

Nuclear Throne

|2015

|A twin-stick shooter roguelike following a group of mutants in a nuclear wasteland

Nuclear War

|1989

|A turn-based strategy game for Amiga and DOS

NukeWar

|1980

|A turn-based strategy game for Apple II, Commodore 64, and other early home computer systems

Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet

|2004

|A post-apocalyptic visual novel

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

|2009

|An action role-playing video game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Superpower 2

|2004

| A real-time strategy wargame

Supremacy: The Game of the Superpowers

|1984

|A board wargame

Theatre Europe

|1985

| A turn-based strategy video game about a fictional war in Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, in which both sides use nuclear and chemical weapons against each other

Trinity

|1986

| An interactive fiction game examining the futile nature of nuclear war

Trojan

|1986

| Arcade game and platformer set shortly after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, which is now overrun by occultists who are bent on terrorizing the surviving population with psychological and biochemical warfare

Twilight: 2000

|1984

|A role-playing game

WarGames

|1984

|A video game based on the game in the hit movie

Warzone 2100

|1999

|An open-source real-time strategy and real-time tactics hybrid computer game

Wasteland

|1988

|A post-apocalyptic role-playing video game

Wasteland 2

|2014

|A post-apocalyptic role-playing game; a sequel to Wasteland

60 Seconds!

|2015

|A game where the player helps a family of 4 to survive inside a nuclear bunker

See also

Further reading

References

{{Reflist}}