2023 is winding down, but Netflix is closing out the year with a post-apocalyptic drama called Leave the World Behind. And if it’s not the end of the world, then it sure feels like it. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke star as Amanda and Clay Sandford, a couple who took their kids out on a vacation at a remote cabin. Unfortunately, the good times are short-lived when the cabin’s owner, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), and his daughter, Ruth (Myha’la), show up unannounced. From there, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong…but what?
Once you’ve finished watching Leave the World Behind, you can revisit the post-apocalypse in some similarly themed films. We’ve narrowed the selections down to three movies like Leave the World Behind, all of which made their debut within the last five years.
A Quiet Place (2018)
John Krasinski firmly established himself as a director and a writer in A Quiet Place, a film that he also co-starred in alongside his real-life wife, Emily Blunt. In this vision of the apocalypse, sightless aliens have wiped out most of humanity. Thankfully, the Abbott family, including parents Lee (Krasinski) and Evelyn (Blunt), and their kids, Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe), have found a way to survive by being very quiet at all times.
With Evelyn on the verge of giving birth to another child, the chances of the family remaining undetected drops considerably. The Abbotts are also not over the loss of their youngest child, Beau (Cade Woodward), but they need to come to terms with that tragedy and each other if they hope to survive when the aliens catch up with them.
Watch A Quiet Place on Paramount+.
How It Ends (2018)
When the apocalypse comes, it hits suddenly in How It Ends. Will Younger (The White Lotus‘ Theo James) picked a bad time to fly from Seattle to Chicago, since he left his pregnant girlfriend, Samantha “Sam” Sutherland (Kat Graham), behind to get her parents’ blessing to marry her. Before Will can go home empty handed, disaster strikes and all flights are grounded. The only thing that Sam’s father, Tom Sutherland (Forest Whitaker), has in common with Will is that they both love Sam. So they agree to team up and drive cross-country to get Sam to safety.
Unfortunately for this unlikely duo, society is breaking down even faster than they expected, and there are already dangerous people on the road who are willing to rob them just so they can survive a little bit longer. There are a lot easier ways for a potential father-in-law and son-in-law to bond. But during the end of the world, you have to take what you can get.
Watch How It Ends on Netflix.
Knock At the Cabin (2023)
Nobody wants their vacation interrupted by some Drax the Destroyer and Ron Weasley lookalikes. But director M. Night Shyamalan cast the eclectic pair of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista and Harry Potter‘s Rupert Grint as part of an enigmatic group of strangers. Married dads Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), as well as their daughter, Wen (Kristen Cui), are understandably alarmed when Leonard Brocht (Bautista), Redmond (Grint), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and Adriane (Abby Quinn) barge into their cabin and take them hostage.
The quartet claims that they aren’t there to harm the family, but Eric and Andrew have to decide which of them will have to die to prevent the apocalypse. The strangers are so committed to this idea that they’re willing to lay down their lives as well. And their wild story may just be true after all.
Watch Knock At the Cabin on Prime Video.
