If coronavirus outbreak feels like the end of the world, these five films make the apocalypse look fun

With cinemas still closed and people in lockdown feeling restless, there’s more time than ever to check out one of these apocalyptic movies – and to take notes on how to go out with a bang.

1. Last Night (1998)

Writer-director-star Don McKellar’s wonderful debut was commissioned as part of an international series of films about the turn of the millennium. Set in Toronto in Canada on December 31, six hours before an undisclosed disaster is set to destroy Earth at midnight, it follows a group of loosely interconnected characters, each coping with their imminent obliteration in different ways.

Widower Patrick (McKellar) desperately wants to be alone, but can’t stop himself helping a stranded stranger Sandra (Sandra Oh), who needs to get home to her husband Duncan (horror director David Cronenberg).

Duncan is making it his mission to ring up and thank every single one of his company’s customers and Patrick’s friend Craig (Callum Keith Rennie), meanwhile, is trying to have as much sex as possible.

Others put on classical music concerts, go on crime sprees, and generally party like it’s 1999. With a wry knowledge of human frailty, the film pits optimism against cynicism, somehow fashioning a happy ending from the chaos.

2. Wild Zero (1999)

Leather-clad, perma-shaded Japanese band Guitar Wolf make short, sharp, slightly tongue-in-cheek rock songs that you’ll either love or hate. Wild Zero, their film debut, has a similar quality, featuring lots of bizarre, high-energy action, exploding heads, thunderous musical sections and many YouTube compilations’ worth of frontman Seiji (aka Guitar Wolf) shouting: “Rock’n’roll!” whether the occasion demands it or not.

When a flotilla of (incredibly cheap-looking) flying saucers invade Earth, creating an army of (incredibly cheap-looking) zombies, only Guitar Wolf and their new buddy Ace (Masashi Endo) can save the day.

How? Your guess is as good as anyone’s, but highlights include a bunch of zombies being destroyed with electrified guitar picks; Seiji getting blown off the top of a tall building by evil club owner Captain (Makoto Inamiya), then striking a power chord on the way to the ground; and Seiji taking on a flying saucer with the samurai sword hidden inside his guitar. “Rock’n’roll!” indeed.

3. Sunshine (2007)

Although it centres on a suicide mission in space, Danny Boyle’s one and only foray into sci-fi is so gorgeous that the overriding response it inspires is pure, unadulterated joy.

Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying and the Earth faces a deadly new ice age. The crew of the international spaceship Icarus (including Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne) are humanity’s last hope, tasked with delivering a nuclear bomb to restart the sun.

Yes, the science may be iffy, but the pleasures are numerous. The Icarus has a metal shield that looks like a huge golden parasol shimmering in the blackness; the score by composer John Murphy and electronic band Underworld soars and stirs; and Alex Garland’s script brings a religious aspect to the battle between (sun)light and darkness.

When asked if he’s afraid, Capa (Murphy) says no, this is “the big bang on a small scale, a new star born out of a dying one. I think it will be beautiful”. And how.

4. Zombieland (2009)

Inspired by Shaun of the Dead (2004), Ruben Fleisher’s horror comedy is an often-hilarious slice of nerd wish fulfilment.

Anxious student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) – each character is named after a place – is almost glad that the zombies have taken over. Not only has he been preparing for disaster all his life, hence his rules for survival (e.g. beware of bathrooms), but it also gives him a chance for romance.

On a trip across America, he and the pugnacious, Twinkie-crazed Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) join up with cool chick Wichita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who are heading to a fondly remembered amusement park in LA. On the way, they stop off at Bill Murray’s house, where they get to hang out with the Groundhog Day star, watch Ghostbusters and generally shoot the breeze.

“So do you have any regrets?” asks Little Rock. Murray’s answer? “Garfield maybe.” Unfortunately, the breeze isn’t the only thing that gets shot.

5. The World’s End (2013)

This riotous sci-fi comedy is the final entry in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s brilliant Cornetto Trilogy, after Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). It follows a gang of old mates/frenemies lead by Gary King (Pegg) and Andy Knightley (Nick Frost) who head home to the small town of Newton Haven for a reunion. Their mission? To complete the pub crawl they abandoned as teenagers, and which has come to define Gary’s life.

Besides their internal squabbles, they soon realise there’s a bigger problem: the townspeople have been replaced with androids by the Network, an intergalactic franchise of aliens only too happy to push the big red button if humanity doesn’t obey.

Cue much drunken mayhem, entertaining cameos and one of cinema’s greatest C-bombs. Gary may be a fool, but the gang are great fun to hang out with, the soundtrack’s banging, and the result is a night to truly remember, even if nobody else does.

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