7 best survival movies to watch if you like The Last of Us

HBO’s The Last of Us became an instant phenomenon by mastering key emotional moments: the tension of an abandoned subway, the pain of losing a companion, and the fragile hope born from trust. Viewers felt the post-pandemic chill because the series hits two crucial elements of great sci-fi.

It depicts a realistic collapse of society with intimate human stakes stretched across the wreckage. For audiences hungry for more stories that balance heart-pounding danger with reluctant tenderness, cinema has quietly built a collection of similar gems.

These stories mirror The Last of Us by illustrating the fight to keep loved ones alive through another sunrise. The films below answer that question with the same mix of grit, sorrow, and stubborn optimism that made Joel and Ellie’s journey across America so memorable.

Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinion.

7 must-watch survival movies for fans of The Last of Us

1. Children of Men

A still from Children of Men (Image via Netflix)

Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film envisions a world two decades without births. England has become a fortress state where refugees are caged in concentration camps and suicide kits are advertised on billboards. Theo, a disillusioned bureaucrat turned reluctant protector, is pulled into a guerrilla operation.

His mission is to transport the first pregnant woman in 18 years to a shadowy scientific collective called the Human Project. Children of Men mirrors the roadway structure of The Last of Us; each stop represents a new micro-society with its own dangers, but it replaces infected hordes with human desperation.

Long-take action sequences immerse viewers in firefights so intense they feel like unscripted gameplay, while the emotional core lies in Theo’s gradual rebirth from numb survivor to sacrificial guardian. The result is a road movie where hope itself becomes the most dangerous and most vital contagion.

Where to watch: Netflix, Prime Video

2. 28 Days Later

A still from 28 Days Later (Image via Apple Tv+)

Bike courier Jim wakes up from a coma to find London’s streets eerily devoid of life, except for the sprinting, rage-driven victims of a lab-created virus released by activists. After teaming up with two other survivors, Jim learns that the infected are only part of the danger.

Military remnants guarding a mansion checkpoint have their own dystopian ideas about rebuilding society. Director Danny Boyle’s decision to shoot on grainy digital video gives the empty cityscapes an unsettling found-footage look that still feels raw two decades later.

Like The Last of Us, the story shifts from intense terror to ethical disillusionment, suggesting that pandemics simply reveal the darker sides already present in human institutions. Like Joel and Ellie, Jim and Selena in 28 Days Later grow from distrust to a fierce determination to protect each other.

Where to watch: Apple Tv+

3. The Road

A still from The Road (Image via Netflix)

John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning novel strips the apocalypse down to its simplest elements: gray skies, ash-covered forests, and a father determined to guide his son toward an uncertain coast. No explanation is given for the ecological collapse.

Viewers experience the catastrophe only through the duo’s scavenging eyes as they dodge cannibal clans and creeping despair. Sparse dialogue and lingering close-ups highlight the father-son bond, echoing Joel’s quiet paternal growth in The Last of Us.

Protecting innocence becomes the only mission worth dying for, and every act of kindness feels like contraband in a world that has forgotten morality. Though tough, it provides deep insight into the emotional weight of ‘carrying the fire’ in a world where reason is barely alive.

Where to watch: Netflix

4. A Quiet Place

A still from A Quiet Place (Image via Paramount+)

Earth has been overrun by blind aliens that hunt by sound, forcing the Abbott family to tiptoe barefoot across sand-lined paths and communicate only through sign language. The high-stakes pregnancy of Emily Blunt's character adds extra anxiety to a story where giving birth must happen in silence.

A nailed-in stair presents the same mortal stakes as a Clicker in a loading dock. Director John Krasinski of A Quiet Place employs sound design similar to Naughty Dog's use of silence in stealth scenes; every creak feels like it could lead to a game over.

Parental sacrifice drives the emotional core here, replacing Joel’s cross-country cargo run with Lee Abbott’s ultimate sacrifice to ensure his children's survival in The Last of Us. Nail-biting set pieces and a cathartic final showdown make this a rare creature feature that genuinely earns its sentiment rather than just attaching it.

Where to watch: Netflix

5. I Am Legend

A still from I Am Legend (Image via Netflix)

Richard Matheson’s novel has been adapted many times, but this 2007 version remains the most visually striking. Virologist Robert Neville searches an overgrown Manhattan with his German Shepherd, testing antidotes on infected mutants while broadcasting radio pleas to any immune survivors.

Grief for his dead wife and daughter brews beneath laboratory protocol, erupting when the last link to his past—his dog—falls victim to the virus. Although the ending opts for heroics over Matheson’s nihilistic twist, the first two acts feel like an open-world game with side quests involving mannequins and shredded patience.

Long stretches of empty streets and haunting wildlife imagery in I Am Legend predate The Last of Us Part II’s abandoned Seattle, teaching audiences to interpret stillness as foreshadowing.

Where to watch: Netflix

6. Train to Busan

A still from Train to Busan (Image via Netflix)

Fund manager Seok-woo boards a high-speed train with his young daughter, planning to get through parent-child awkwardness with an iPad and headphones. A convulsing stowaway turns the commuter train into a bloodbath, splitting survivors where class prejudice proves deadlier than the undead.

Train to Busan's most chilling moments happen when characters realize the train’s next station might already be lost. Director Yeon Sang-ho understands that cramped spaces amplify both fear and tenderness; every run down the aisle is a potential sacrifice, every clasp of hands a promise.

The father-daughter arc mirrors Joel and Ellie’s journey from transactional travel buddies to a found family willing to risk everything for each other. Add in sharp commentary on corporate greed, and you get a zombie movie that hits The Last of Us’s sweet spot: spectacle with social relevance, heartbreak with a body count.

Where to watch: Netflix, Prime Video

7. Bird Box

A still from Bird Box (Image via Netflix)

Five years after an unseen entity causes anyone who looks at it to commit violent suicide, Malorie Hayes tries to row two children down a fog-choked river to a rumored safe community.

Flashbacks reveal the chaos of day one, showing how strangers formed alliances in a shuttered house while outside horrors whispered their deepest regrets. The structure of Bird Box, where present danger overlaps with past trauma, mirrors The Last of Us’s use of playable flashbacks.

Instead of gunfire, tension here comes from blindfolded navigation, forcing characters to map the world by sound and touch, much like Joel listening for Clicker gurgles in abandoned hotels.

Where to watch: Netflix

Conclusion

From soot-covered highways to subway tunnels echoing with unseen growls, each entry above proves that great survival stories weaponize intimacy as effectively as they use fear.

Whether the threat is fungal, extraterrestrial, or human, these films echo The Last of Us by arguing that the end of the world is never really about the monster outside; it’s about how ordinary people decide which version of themselves will survive.

Watch them back-to-back for a masterclass in tension, or spread them out like precious rations whenever you want more after the latest season. The genre’s finest have blazed the trail; now all that’s left is to keep going, caring, and keeping the flashlight steady as shadows run.