The Post-Apocalyptic Western and the Dystopian Western share a similar theme in that they both depict bleak futures for civilization. Post-Apocalyptic Westerns occur after a cataclysmic event that leaves the remnants of civilization scattered. This subgenre uses this to revert the world back to a harsh, inhospitable, lawless wasteland that is akin to the Old West. Dystopian Westerns take place in a future society that can be devolved in any number of ways (tyrannical rule, drastic environmental changes, economic collapse, etc.). Dystopian Westerns may incorporate an urban setting and cross into becoming an Urban Western, as well.
George Miller's Mad Max film series takes a considerable amount of inspiration from the Western genre. The series follows a lone wanderer who roams the lawless wasteland of a post-apocalyptic Australia. His travels lead him to settlements fraught with troubles and he, reluctantly, offers them the salvation they're looking for. Although he prefers his trusty "Pursuit Special," Max is adept with almost every form of travel in the wasteland. Throughout the series, he is painted as a cross between Schaefer's Shane and Eastwood's character in Leone's Dollars Trilogy. Miller himself has likened the series, its' setting, and protagonist to the Old American West and classic Western narratives.
The video game Fallout: New Vegas is released as a spin-off to the post-apocalyptic Fallout series. It was released to mostly positive reviews and is considered a high point in the series. The game's narrative takes places in the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas of a post-nuclear war America. The many different characters and factions in the game reflect stock characters of Westerns. Natives and foreign settlers fight and quarrel over land. Those living in the wasteland are being forced into a new way of life considered to be "modern" compared to their "antiquated" way of living.
Escape From New York
In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a prison which houses the world's most brutal inmates. And when the President of the United States crash lands inside, only one man can bring him back: Snake Plissken, a notorious outlaw and former Special Forces war hero who, in exchange for a full pardon, descends into the decayed city and wages a blistering war against the captors.
The Road Warrior
Story is set in the post-nuclear outback of Australia where a battle is raged by a tiny band of civilized survivors and a group of barbarians over a precious cache of gasoline.
Cherry 2000
In the future, a man travels to the ends of the earth to find that the perfect woman is always under his nose. When successful businessman Sam Treadwell finds that his android Wife, Cherry model 2000 has blown a fuse, he hires sexy renegade tracker E. Johnson to find her exact duplicate.
Robocop
Robocop is created to stop a crimewave which is spreading all across America. All goes well at first and Robocop stops every sleaze ball he encounters, but there are forces which will stop at nothing to see him eliminated.
Waterworld
In the future. When the polar ice caps melt, the Earth becomes engulfed by water. Drifters sail across the waters of the world on their man-made ships, trading for supplies and salvaging what is left of civilization. Communities of survivors lives in towns called 'Atolls.' Evil pirates known as 'The Smokers' travel across Waterworld in search of a mythical island called 'Dryland.' The Mariner is a mysterious drifter who arrives at an Atoll. He is sentenced to death when the community discover he is a mutant. Led by their evil leader, Deacon, The Smokers attack an Atoll. A woman named Helen and her adopted daughter Enola bribes The Mariner to take them to Dryland. The Mariner, Helen and Enola are pursued by Deacon and the Smokers, when The Mariner learns the tattoo on Enola's back is in reality a map that will lead them to Dryland.
The Road
A father and his son are two of the last remaining people on earth after an unexplained tragedy has destroyed most of life. As the two head south, they are faced with many trials and tribulations along the way. An intense bond between the father and son is formed as together they strive to not only survive, but to retain humanity as they help the people they encounter along the way.
The Book of Eli
Eli walks alone in post-apocalyptic America. He heads west along the Highway of Death on a mission he doesn't fully understand but knows he must complete. In his backpack is the last copy of a book that could become the wellspring of a revived society. Or in the wrong hands, the hammer of a despot. Eli keeps his blade sharp and his survival instincts sharper as his quest thrusts him into a savage wasteland.
The Rover
In a world ten years following the collapse of society, the rule of the law has disintegrated and life is cheap. Hardened loner Eric travels the desolate towns and roads of the outback. When a gang of thieves steals his car they leave behind a wounded Rey in their wake. Forcing Rey to help track the gang, Eric will go to any lengths to take back the one possession that still matters to him.
Mad Max: Fury Road
A return to the world of the Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky. Haunted by his turbulent past, he believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord with his gangs, pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.
Logan
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.
War for the Planet of the Apes
Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
Burst Angel: The Complete Series
A new law's been passed in Tokyo. Ordinary folks are now allowed to freely carry firearms; shoot, they're even legally allowed to use'em. You might think that crime would increase, and you'd be right... but an angel's just come to Earth. She's an enigma, but with her partners Sei, Amy, and Meg, she's the best chance this town's got. Her name's Jo. And there's a new sheriff in town.
The Walking Dead
Waking up in an empty hospital after weeks in a coma, County Sheriff, Rick Grimes, finds himself utterly alone. The world as he knows it is gone, ravaged by an epidemic. In the weeks and months that follow the apocalypse, Grimes will lead a group of survivors in a world overrun with zombies.
Westworld
The one-hour drama series is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, not matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged. No rules, no laws, no judgment. Live without limits.
The Postman by
He was a survivor--a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war. Fate touches him one chill winter's day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it he begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery. This is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth. A timeless novel as urgently compelling as War Day or Alas, Babylon, David Brin's The Postman is the dramatically moving saga of a man who rekindled the spirit of America through the power of a dream, from a modern master of science fiction.
Ride On by
In the near post-apocalyptic future, the skies are always gray and people are constantly searching for the sun. For teenage outlaw Seph, it's the only world he's ever known. With his horse, his favorite pistol, and his knowledge for survival passed down from his dead father, Seph knows it's safer to be alone. But after a run-in with a local gang that call themselves the Lawmen, and having been wrongly accused of murder, Seph teams up with Avery--a determined girl whose twin brother has been taken by the same gang. After living in a small, rundown town her whole life, Avery knows nothing of the Wild--the lands controlled by nobody where travel is risky. With Seph's help, they track down her brother but quickly find the tables have turned and they are now the ones being hunted. With rumors of mysterious dangers to the south and a safe sanctuary to the west, they've only got one option, but getting there won't be easy with the Lawmen on their trail. The only thing that matters in the Wild is how fast your trigger hand is, but Seph doesn't know if his will be fast enough to save them all.
The Road by
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other. The Roadis the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
Upright Women Wanted by
Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her--a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.
The Water Knife by
Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times-Bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist, dives once again onto our uncertain future with his first thriller for adults since his multi-award winning debut phenomenon The Windup Girl. In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents. With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other's hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.
When the Night Bells Ring by
Don't awaken what sleeps in the dark. In a future ravaged by fire and drought, two climate refugees ride their motorcycles across the wasteland of the western US, and stumble upon an old silver mine. Descending into the cool darkness of the caved-in tunnels in desperate search of water, the two women find Lavinia Cain's diary, a settler in search of prosperity who brought her family to Nevada in the late 1860s. But Lavinia and the settlers of the Western town discovered something monstrous that dwells in the depths of the mine, something that does not want greedy prospectors disturbing the earth. Whispers of curses and phantom figures haunt the diary, and now, over 150 years later, trapped and injured in the abandoned mine, the women discover they're not alone . . . with no easy way out. The monsters are still here--and they're thirsty.
Your Brother's Blood by
This imaginative and unconventional debut novel is set centuries in the future. An unnamed event has wiped out most of humanity, scattering its remnants across vast and now barren lands reminiscent of the 19th century western frontier of America. Small clusters of humans still cling to existence in a post-apocalyptic world that is increasingly overrun by those who have risen from the dead--or, as the living call them, the Walkin'. Thomas, a thirty-two year old conscripted soldier, homeward bound to the small frontier town of Barkley after fighting in a devastating civil war, is filled with hope at the thought of being reunited with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Mary, both named after characters in the Good Book. As it turns out, he also happens to be among the Walkin'. Devoid of a pulse or sense of pain, but with his memories and hopes intact, Thomas soon realizes that the living, who are increasingly drawn to the followers of the Good Book, are not kindly disposed to the likes of him. And when he learns what the good people of Barkley intend to do to him, and to his family, he realizes he may just have to kidnap his daughter to save her from a fate worse than becoming a member of the undead. When the people of Barkley send out a posse in pursuit of father and daughter, the race for survival truly begins...
East of West by
This is the world. It is not the one we wanted, but it is the one we deserved. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse roam the Earth, signaling the End Times for humanity, and our best hope for life, lies in DEATH!
Just a Pilgrim by
It's eight years after the Burn - when the Sun began to die and boiled theEarth's oceans dry. The Earth is now a desolate wasteland, ruled by pirates whoterrorize and murder the remaining pockets of humanity. Out of this desolationcome a vicious but mysterious killer called "ThePilgrim".
Wasteland by
A hundred years after the Big Wet, Earth has been left a broken, infertileworld of rock and sand. The town of Providens is like many others on thepost-Big Wet planet -- small, mostly illiterate and struggling forsurvival. But while most communities are like Providens, not all the cities thatsurvived the Big Wet are. Some are like Newbegin, burgeoning metropolises thatcombine pieces of past societies with the new status quo. When Providenswelcomes a stranger named Michael into its midst, will the quiet man lead themto the better world of Newbegin or shatter what little order stillexists?
