The Last of Us Part 2 is perhaps the most hotly anticipated video game release of the year, if not the past decade. It is very nearly here, but unfortunately, there is still some waiting to do. With the Uncharted franchise, the developers, Naughty Dog, blended cinematic storytelling with a top of the range gaming experience.

It was a commercial and critical success and they elevated this game design to new heights with their post-apocalyptic epic The Last of Us. While we all wait, let's look at ten great films, some that inspired the game directly and some which fill that Last of Us-sized hole that has been steadily growing in the seven-year wait for the sequel.

10 The Road (2009)


As apocalypse movies go, it is hard to get more bleak and harrowing than The Road. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee star as the anonymous Man and Boy who travel across a wasteland America. No explanation is offered for the world's end, and no sign of hope or relief is given.

There are some scenes where the father and son must hide from other survivors, which are very reminiscent of TLOU. Even some of the plot points unfold like the game; seemingly safe but with building dread until some unspeakable horror is revealed.

9 28 Days Later (2002)


Now considered a classic, this is one of the first scripts from writer Alex Garland and a terrifying installment in the zombie genre. A man wakes up from a coma to find the world in turmoil.

While the film is known for implementing running zombies as opposed to the archetypal slow-moving creatures of the past, it is its shots of a near-empty London that remains truly iconic. It's a device now used by many to show, that in a world gone to hell, the most terrifying and unexpected thing to find is silence.

8 Girl With All The Gifts (2016)


Here's an underrated gemthat shares more than a little DNA with TLOU. Beginning in an underground bunker, somewhere in the UK, the focus is on a group of children who are kept under restraint while they're taught school lessons.

While, like TLOU, it swaps the apocalypse from a viral to a fungal infection, the film keeps enough originality and mystery to completely flip the genre on its head and offer a story that hasn't been seen before.

7 Escape From New York (1981)


Offered here as a small break from the highly bleak titles on the list, Escape From New York is a classic example of old-school movie fun. It doesn't feature zombies, but it is set in a world where the entire city of New York has been turned into a prison.

The streets become a warzone of crime and looting, and some of the tensest sequences in the game come from scenes like that. And while its a cliché, it is often true that humans are far more terrifying than any monster.