Highest-Rated Movies about 'Nuclear War'

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), War and Peace (2002), Fail-Safe (1964), The Terminator (1984), X: First Class (2011), Watchmen (2009) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Nuclear War movies.

#16. Miracle Mile (1988)

Storyline: A young man meets and falls in love with a young woman at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. This area is known as Miracle Mile, and the whole movie takes place there. They make a date, which he misses, and while he is searching for her, he accidentally finds out that we (the United States) are about to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. He frantically searches for her so that they can escape Los Angeles.—Mark Logan <marklo@west.sun.com>

Plot Keywords: suspense, 1980s, night, nuclear war, cross dresser, van, cell phone ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#17. You Only Live Twice (1967)

Storyline: When an American space capsule is swallowed up by what they believe to be a Russian spaceship, World War III nearly breaks out. The British Government, however, suspect that other powers are at work as the space craft went down near Japan. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is the force behind the theft, as James Bond discovers, but its motives are far from clear, and he must first find out where the captured space capsule is held before America and Russia initiate another world war.

Plot Keywords: cleavage, faked death, chinawoman, premarital sex, bangs, poison, secret headquarters ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#18. Diplomatic Courier (1952)

Storyline: Department of State courier Mike Kells ends up in postwar hotbed Trieste after failing to collect a package from a colleague. The Military Police are happy for him to get more involved, but things get a bit tough. After all, he is just a postman.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: based on novel, jeep, tunnel, murder, post world war two, watch, surveillance ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#19. Panic in Year Zero (1962)

Storyline: While on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland) and his family hear an immense explosion and realise the awful truth; Los Angeles has been leveled by a nuclear attack. Mayhem and madness are everywhere. Escaping to the hills with his family, he sets about the business of surviving in a world where, he knows, the old ideals of humanity will be its first casualties. Not one to give up, Harry doors things to make sure his family has a chance at surviving.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: post apocalypse, bridge, survival, emergency, hoodlum, mushroom cloud, nuclear weapon ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#20. Terminator Salvation (2009)

Storyline: In 2003, in the Longview State Correctional Facility, the criminal Marcus Wright is on death row, and is convinced by the cancerous Dr. Serena Kogan to donate his body to her research and he accepts. In 2018, after an unsuccessful attack to a Skynet facility, only John Connor survives, but he discovers that Skynet is developing the powerful new model T-800. Out of the blue, Marcus appears naked and with amnesia in the location. Marcus befriends the teenager Kyle Reese and the girl Star who help him to survive the lethal machines and they travel together in a Jeep. Meanwhile the resistance discovers a signal that might turn-off the machines and John offers to test it. When Kyle is captured by a machine and brought to the Skynet headquarters, Marcus decides to help the youngster and heads to Skynet; on the way, he saves Blair Williams who suggests to him that he should meet John Connor first. But Marcus steps on a mine and is submitted to surgery, when a secret about his origins is ...

Plot Keywords: machine, future, rescue, held at gunpoint, head ripped off, head butt, grenade launcher ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#21. The Omega Man (1971)

Storyline: Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. The plague caused by the war has killed everyone else except for a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people calling themselves "The Family". The plague has caused them to become sensitive to light, as well as homicidally psychotic. They believe science and technology to be the cause of the war and their punishment, and Neville, as the last symbol of science, the old world, and a "user of the wheel", must die. Neville, using electricity, machinery, and science attempts to hold them at bay.

Plot Keywords: plague, based on novel, survival, mutant, dystopia, post apocalypse, albino ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#22. How I Live Now (2013)

Storyline: American teenager Elizabeth "Daisy" is sent by her estranged father away from New York to the countryside of England to stay with her Aunt Penn. Her distant cousin Isaac welcomes her at the airport and drives her home. She is introduced to her cousins, seventeen year-old Eddie and young Piper and to their friend Joe. However Daisy is a resentful, needy of love and aloof girl who believes that she is cursed and that bad things happen wherever she goes since her mother died in her delivery. Aunt Penn is a busy woman who is studying the war scenario in England, which is on alert due to an imminent terrorist attack, and needs to fly to Geneva. However, the next morning, a nuclear bomb explodes in London and the authorities of the United Kingdom declare a state of siege. Meanwhile Daisy and Eddie fall in love with each other, but they are separated by the military, which sends girls to one camp and men to another. Daisy and Eddie promise to meet each other again. In a country at war, Daisy...

Plot Keywords: survival, cousin cousin relationship, incest, nuclear explosion, terrorist attack, england, gang rape ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#23. The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Storyline: When the President of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. This change in political leaders sparks paranoia amongst American C.I.A. officials, so C.I.A. Director Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits young analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.

Plot Keywords: nuclear explosion, washington d.c., throat slitting, atomic bomb, helicopter, terrorist plot, secret agent ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#24. Spies Like Us (1985)

Storyline: Two low-level government employees, Emmitt Fitz-Hume (played by Chevy Chase) and Austin Milbarge (Dan Aykroyd), are chosen for a top-secret CIA mission. They are unsuitable as CIA agents but are deliberately chosen for this reason, as their mission is a decoy one and they are expendable. After being fast-tracked through training they are parachuted into Pakistan where all manner of adventures await them.

Plot Keywords: deception, 1980s, product placement, chase, horse, camel, desert ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#25. Salt (2010)

Storyline: Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent and highly respected by all, including her boss, Ted Winter. Out of the blue, a Russian spy walks into their offices and offers a vital piece of information: the President of Russia will be assassinated during his forthcoming visit to New York City to attend the funeral of the recently deceased U.S. Vice President. The name of the assassin: Evelyn Salt. Concerned about the safety of her husband, who she cannot contact, she goes on the run. Winter refuses to accept that she is a mole or a double agent but her actions begin to raise doubts. Just who is Evelyn Salt and what is she planning?

Plot Keywords: feminine hair, tattooed trash, strong female lead, woman dressed as man, manhattan new york city, one woman army, espionage ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#26. Deterrence (1999)

Storyline: After the death of the President, his successor is on the campaign trail to be re-elected. On a stop in Colorado, he is suddenly snowed in and he and his entourage are forced to take shelter in a small diner. Of course, the group completely take over from the diner's owner and his French-Canadian waitress. Also in the diner is a local redneck and a married couple. Suddenly, the movie moves into a suspense film as the President learns that Iraq has invaded Kuwait and slaughtered hundreds of American soldiers. Setting up temporary communications, the President announces that he will launch a nuclear attack on Iraq immediately if the country does not withdraw. Iraq reacts that they have 23 nuclear missiles trained on the US that they are ready to launch. Tensions mount with the involved civilians offering a different viewpoint to the President from the normal opinions of his advisers.—John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

Plot Keywords: independent film, low budget film, newsreel footage, reference to franklin d. roosevelt, reference to bill clinton, near future, korea ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#27. Paycheck (2003)

Storyline: Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer and what he does is technical jobs for certain companies and as soon as he is done, his memory of the work he has done is wiped out. Now the longest he has been contracted is 2 months. But now billionaire, James Rethrick offers him a job that would last 2 years, maybe 3, and he promises that he will probably earn 8 figures. Michael agrees. Before beginning he turns in all of his personal effects. And when the job is done, his memory is erased and he learns he made over 90 million dollars over the three years. When he goes to claim it and his personal effects, he discovers that prior to the erasure of his memory he waived his rights to the money he earned and that the items that were given to him were not the ones he gave when he began. Later he is arrested by the FBI who say that he committed some act of treason and murder. It's while he is in custody that he escapes using some the items that he was given. He later meets with a friend who gives ...

Plot Keywords: time, anti hero, evil corporation, seeing the future, babe scientist, swat team, hand to hand combat ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#28. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Storyline: Following the events in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", Cornelius and Zira flee back through time to 20th Century Los Angeles, where they face fear and persecution similar to what Taylor and Brent suffered in the future, and discover the origins of the stream of events that will shape their world.

Plot Keywords: ape, outer space, year 1973, chimpanzee, spacecraft, spaceship, fear ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#29. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Storyline: More than 10 years after 'Terminator 2', John Connor now exists only as a drifter - living 'off the grid', so no more Terminators from the future can hunt him down. Unfortunately, SkyNet does send another one back - and this one is called the T-X, even more powerful & advanced than the dreaded T-1000. However, another CSM-101 Terminator is also sent back to protect John against the T-X. Now, Skynet is patiently assuming control of civilian computer systems, under the guise of a computer virus. John has also met his future wife, Kate Brewster, whose father - a U.S. Air Force General - is in charge of the military computer systems & is leery of up linking SkyNet. However, when the SkyNet virus infects the U.S military computers & leaves the country open to attack, the machines begin their horrific takeover. Soon a nuclear war will result - and the war against the machines will begin. Can the outdated CSM-101 Terminator eliminate the highly advanced T-X - or will a darker future await ...

Plot Keywords: female rear nudity, female nudity, cyborg, sequel, artificial intelligence, time travel, third part ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#30. A Gathering of Eagles (1963)

Storyline: Rock Hudson plays an Air Force Colonel who has just been re-assigned as a cold war B-52 commander who must shape up his men to pass a grueling inspection that the previous commander had failed, and had been fired for. He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.—Roger Dearnaley <roger@paperart.com>

Plot Keywords: man wrapped in a towel, steam bath, nuclear missile, pilot, alcoholism, military life, accident ...

Movie Details Click Here!