Your favourite post apocalyptic or dystopian films/series

[CFriis87]

Besides the ones already mentioned here, I'd say Waterworld is pretty damned good for a box office failure.
If you don't mind watching really horrible movies (so horrible that it's the main entertainment value) and you can find it somewhere, there's also America 3000.

 

[cgentero]

Here are a few I recommend; The Road Warrior, Blade Runner, Escape From New York, A Clockwork Orange.

 

[Chelsizzle]

Soylent Green, of course.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

"Dies the Fire" series by S.M. Stirling.
Based in Oregon, it's about what happens after electronics go dead, gunpowder no longer works, and high-pressure steam is no longer possible. Basically going back to the 1100's.
Told mainly from the viewpoint of a group of Wiccans, it's a pretty realistic look at what would happen to us in that situation. Has a little bit of magic, but it's very subtle and a lot of it involves religion(Craft workings, being confronted by Gods, etc.)
It being based where I grew up makes it that much more interesting.
Plus it has a sect devoted to "The Histories", aka, The Lord of the Rings. Pretty much a group of baddass female mercenaries calling themselves rangers that speak Elvish. Which is just awesome if you think about it.

 

[Doclector]

Daybreakers was brilliant. Before that, I don't think anyone covered the massive flaw in vampiric world domination plans that is "what the f*** happens when there's no humans, thus no blood, left?"

Left 4 dead series has a great knack for depicting the zombie apocalypse and the course of it without even truly having any cutscenes or long dialogue pieces.

Metro 2033 nails the "we are all so f***ed and it's all our fault" atmosphere of nuclear armageddon perfectly. Bleak, seemingly hopeless, and downright terrifying, it's enough to make even George bush sign up to the nearest anti nuke group.

World war z is a must read for apocalyptic fiction fans. It manages to cover the wider crisis' development whilst also drawing focus to smaller, personal stories in a masterful manner only reached before by George a Romero himself (whose "dead" films are extremely recommendable for this. Even the later ones, if you look for it, even the wrecked-by-studio-pressure mess that is land of the dead has some ingenious points to make about how humanity copes with disaster)