List of nuclear holocaust fiction

This list of nuclear holocaust fiction lists the many works of speculative fiction that attempt to describe a world during or after a massive nuclear war, or nuclear holocaust.

Films

• Five (1951)
• Unknown World (1951)
• Invasion U.S.A. (1952)
• Captive Women (1952)
• Day the World Ended (1955)
• On the Beach (1959)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
• The Time Machine (1960)
• 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)
• Fail-Safe (1964)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• In the Year 2889 (1967)
• Planet of the Apes (1968) and its four sequels
• The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
• Glen and Randa (1971)
• Zardoz (1974)
• A Boy and His Dog (1975)
• Damnation Alley (1977)
• The New Barbarians (1982)
• 2019, After the Fall of New York (1983)
• Testament (1983)
• The Terminator franchise, (1984, 1991, 2003, 2007, 2009)
• One Night Stand (1984 film)
• Def-Con 4 (1985)
• Radioactive Dreams (1985)
• Dead Man's Letters (1986)
• The Sacrifice, (1986)
• When the Wind Blows (1986), based on the 1982 graphic novel
• Akira (1988)
• Miracle Mile (1988)
• Dreams ("Mount Fuji in Red") (1990), although the film does not actually depict a nuclear war, but rather a nuclear reactor accident.
• By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
• Hardware (1990)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Six-String Samurai (1998)
• Deterrence (1999)
• Equilibrium (2002)
• The Dark Hour (2007)

Television programs

• A Day Called 'X' (CBS, 1957)
• Several episodes of The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959-1964)
• The War Game (BBC, 1965)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (NBC, 1979)
• World War III miniseries (1982)
• Whoops Apocalypse (ITV, 1982)
• A Guide to Armageddon (BBC, 1982)
• Special Bulletin (NBC, 1983)
• Testament (PBS, 1983)
• The Day After (ABC, 1983)
• Countdown to Looking Glass (HBO, 1984)
• Threads (BBC, 1984)
• Whoops Apocalypse (1986)
• By Dawn's Early Light (HBO, 1990)
• Woops! (FOX, 1992)
• Fail Safe (CBS, 2000)
• On the Beach (Showtime, 2000)
• Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 2003, 2004–2009)
• Jericho (CBS, 2006–2008)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox, 2008–2009)
• Babylon 5 mentions the earth survived "World War III" and occasionally uses "World War IV" or "The Biggest Thing Since World War III" as a marketing term.
• A few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise depict that both humans and vulcans were close to extermination caused by a nuclear war.

Novels

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)
• A Small Armageddon by Mordecai Roshwald
• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
• Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem (regarding Hatfork)
• Arc Light by Eric Harry
• Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells
• Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• Commander-1 by Peter George
• Dark December by Alfred Coppel
• Dark Mirrors by Arno Schmidt
• The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles by Robert Moore Williams
• Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick
• Domain by James Herbert
• Doomday Wing by George H. Smith
• Doomsday Plus Twelve by James D. Forman
• Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham
• Earthwreck! by Thomas N. Scortia
• Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis
• Eon by Greg Bear
• End of the World by Dean Owen (novelization of the film Panic in Year Zero!)
• Endworld series by David Robbins
• The Erthing Cycle by Wayland Drew
• Fire Brats by Scott Siegel and Barbara Siegel
• Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
• Armageddon's Children By Terry Brooks (2006) (Genesis of Shannara Trilogy book 1)
• The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Last Children of Schewenborn by Gudrun Pausewang
• The Last Ship by William Brinkley
• Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald
• Long Voyage Back by George Cockcroft, under the pen name Luke Rhinehart, 1983
• Malevil by Robert Merle
• On the Beach by Nevil Shute
• The Outward Urge, by John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes
• The Postman, a 1985 post-apocalyptic novel by David Brin
• Prayers for the Assassin, by Robert Ferrigno
• Red Alert, by Peter George
• Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois
• Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
• Prime Directive, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (A Star Trek novel where an alien civilization is apparently destroyed by a sudden, unexpected nuclear war among its own people.)
• Pulling Through, by Dean Ing (first half of the book is a novel on a family surviving a nuclear blast, the second half was a non-fiction survival guide)
• Star Mans Son by Andre Norton (1952) a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place about two centuries after the Great-Blowup. This story is also entitled Daybreak - 2250 AD in reprint editions.
• Swan Song by Robert McCammon
• Single Combat by Dean Ing (Second in the Ted Quantril [trilogy)
• Systemic Shock by Dean Ing (First in the Ted Quantril trilogy)
• The Pelbar Cycle, Book One (Beyond Armageddon) by Paul O. Williams
• Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The School for Atheists by Arno Schmidt
• The Seventh Day by Hans Hellmut Kirst (original title Keiner Kommt Davon)
• The Survivalist by Jerry Ahern
• This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow
• This Time Tomorrow by Lauran Paine
• Tomorrow! by Phillip Wylie
• Trinity's Child by William Prochnau (1983)
• Triumph by Philip Wylie
• Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka
• When the Wind Blows, by Raymond Briggs
• Wild Country by Dean Ing (Third in the Ted Quantril Trilogy
• The Ashes Series by William W. Johnstone
• The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The World Set Free by H. G. Wells
• The World Next Door by Brad Ferguson
• Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove (alternate history: World War II turns nuclear in 1943, another nuclear war in the 1960s)
• Vaneglory by George Turner
• Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
• The Zone series by James Rouch

Short stories

• "The Blast" by Stuart Cloete (1947), published in 6 Great Short Novels of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin, 1954
• "By the Waters of Babylon" (1937) by Stephen Vincent Benet (written prior to the development of nuclear weaponry, it is noted among the genre for its prescience)
• "A Clean Escape" by John Kessel (1985)
• "The Edge of the Knife" by H. Beam Piper
• "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) by Ward Moore (inspiration for the film Panic in Year Zero!)
• "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury (1951)
• "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke a short story featuring a boy living in a colony on the moon, left isolated by the destruction of the Earth.
• "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison (1969)

Comics

• 2000AD/Judge Dredd, set in a post war Earth where the majority of the United States is called the "Cursed Earth".
• Akira features Tokyo after a nuclear conflict.
• Barefoot Gen, Japanese manga about life after the Hiroshima bombing
• Fist of the North Star, a Japanese comic franchise set in a post-nuclear Earth.
• The Punisher - The End, a one shot issue of Marvel Comic's Punisher by Garth Ennis and Richard Corben.
• V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd is set in an England which has survived through a nuclear war which devastated the majority of the rest of the world.

Television episodes

• Twilight Zone: "Time Enough at Last" (1959)
• Playhouse 90: "Alas, Babylon", episode 131 (S4.E14) (1960)
• Twilight Zone: "The Old Man in the Cave" (1963)
• Twilight Zone: "A Little Peace and Quiet" (1985)
• Twilight Zone: "Shelter Skelter" (1985)

Animation shorts

• The Big Snit (National Film Board of Canada, Richard Condie; 1985)

Music

• "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" by Jimi Hendrix
• "99 Luftballons" by Nena
• "2 Minutes to Midnight" by Iron Maiden, on the subject of the Cold War
• "As It Was, As It Soon Shall Be" by Exodus, on the album The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A
• "Blackened" by Metallica, the first track off their fourth album, ...And Justice for All and "Fight Fire With Fire", the first track off their second album, Ride The Lightning.
• "Boom!" by System of a Down on the album Steal This Album!
• "Breathing" by Kate Bush, the final track off her third album, Never For Ever
• "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" by Iron Maiden, from their newest album A Matter of Life and Death
• "Christmas at Ground Zero" by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" by Ultravox
• "Dead Flag Blues" by Godspeed You Black Emperor!, first track from their album F♯A♯∞
• "Distant Early Warning" by Rush
• "De Bom" by Doe Maar
• "Domino" by Genesis, from Invisible Touch, subject of the effect of dropping the bomb
• "The Earth Dies Screaming" by UB40
• "Electric Funeral" by Black Sabbath. 1970 from the Paranoid LP.
• "Fight Fire with Fire" by Metallica, the first song off their second album, Ride the Lightning
• "The House at Pooneil Corners" by Jefferson Airplane, from their album Crown of Creation
• "It's a Mistake" by Men at Work from the album Cargo
• "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Nik Kershaw
• "King of the World" by Steely Dan, from the album Countdown to Ecstasy
• "London Calling" by The Clash
• "Man at C&A" by The Specials, from the album More Specials
• "Manhattan Project" by Rush, third track from their album Power Windows
• "Nuclear Holocaust" by Holocaust 427
• "Nuclear War" by Sun Ra
• "Nuclear Winter" by Sodom
• "Or Shall We Die?" by Michael Berkeley
• "Pink World" by Planet P Project
• "Party at Ground Zero" by Fishbone
• "Reclamation" by Lamb of God
• "Rumours of War" by Billy Bragg
• "Rust in Peace...Polaris" by Megadeth, from the Rust in Peace album
• "Set the World Afire" by Megadeth, from the So Far, So Good... So What! album
• "Stop the World" by The Clash
• "The Sun Is Burning" by Ian Campbell, performed by Simon and Garfunkel and The Dubliners
• "Two Suns in the Sunset" by Pink Floyd from the album The Final Cut
• "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• The music video for "Untitled 1" by Sigur Ros features a world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust as its setting.
• "We're So Small" by The Epoxies
• "We Will All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer
• "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service
• "Wooden Ships", recorded by both Crosby Stills & Nash and Jefferson Airplane
• "Your Eyes Were Open" by UB40, from the album Geffrey Morgan
• "1999" by Prince, from the album 1999

Games

• 2300 A.D.
• Aftermath!
• Balance of Power
• Blast Corps
• Burntime
• DEFCON
• Fallout series
• Gamma World
• Nuclear War
• Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, although the game does not actually depict a nuclear war.
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope
• Supremacy: The Game of the Superpowers
• Trinity
• Twilight: 2000
• WarGames
• Warzone 2100
• Wasteland

See also

• Nuclear holocaust
• Nuclear weapons in popular culture
• World War III in popular culture
• List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• List of books about nuclear issues
• List of films about nuclear issues

External links

• Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, By Paul Brians, Professor of English, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
• Annotated bibliography of nuclear literature from the Alsos Digital Library