Any media set in a Post-Plague Apocalypse?

[Cikomyr2]

So, for some reason, I got thinking some more about plague-related apocalypse in fiction, and I was wondering if someone knows of a story with an apocalyptic plague that wiped civilization.

Not zombies please. An actual plague.

[comicshorse]

Going waaaaaaaay back to my childhood the BBC did 'Survivors'

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072572/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

I think they also did a modern remake of it

[Cikomyr2]

Going waaaaaaaay back to my childhood the BBC did 'Survivors'

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072572/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

I think they also did a modern remake of it

Looks spooky as ****. Love it.

[hamishspence]

There's The Tribe as well


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tr...999_TV_series)

[TaRix]

I only know what I've read on TvTropes (a plague in itself), but the comic book series "Y: The Last Man" has shades of this.

But there's a more realistic take on civilization's decline in the YA book trilogy "Partials," set post-collapse but only by twenty years or so.
Also, by the same author, is a farcical horror "Extreme Makeover" where an extremely aggressive cosmetic and marketing campaign destroy humanity.

[J-H]

The Stand, by Steven King
I feel like I have 1 or 2 others on my TEOTWAWKI bookshelf, but not sure. A lot of the older novels focused around nukes and economic collapse.

Of course, plague brings economic collapse....

[comicshorse]

I remember 'Carriers' as being good but very dark. A snapshot of a small group of people trying to survive in a plague destroyed world

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806203...nm_flmg_act_39

[2D8HP]

The 1949 science-fiction novel Earth Abides by George R. Stewart was well known by "Boomer" sci-fi fans, I last read it as a teenager in the '80's.

[J-H]

Ah, I recall Earth Abides. May have a copy of it somewhere.

[Kid Jake]

I Am Legend had vampires as the primary threat to the main character; but if I recall right most of the world died from the plague that preceded them.

Jeremiah was about a world where everyone over the age of like 16 died from a pandemic twenty years ago and they've had to relearn even basic skills since nobody was around to teach them.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

No mention of Stand Still, Stay Silent yet?

Then it pleases me to be the first.

Prologue is just as the plague is starting, the main story is some time afterwards.

[HandofShadows]

A movie from 2008 called Doomsday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_(2008_film) Takes place in Scotland after the a plague ravages the place and its quarantined. But years later the plague is starting to spread and the only cure might be in Scotland.

[LibraryOgre]

I Am Legend had vampires as the primary threat to the main character; but if I recall right most of the world died from the plague that preceded them.

Jeremiah was about a world where everyone over the age of like 16 died from a pandemic twenty years ago and they've had to relearn even basic skills since nobody was around to teach them.

There's also "Last Man on Earth", the TV series, but, yeah, "I Am Legend"/"The Omega Man" qualify.

Another example.

[Rodin]

No mention of Stand Still, Stay Silent yet?

Then it pleases me to be the first.

Prologue is just as the plague is starting, the main story is some time afterwards.

I was going to mention it, but I wasn't sure if it qualifies as zombies or not. Does the population of the world turning into eldritch abominations count, or not?

Still, it is a bit different in that it is a plague that does the work. We also don't see the fall of society, we start from established enclaves well after the fact.

Edit: Also recommending Doomsday. It's pure schlock, but it's awesome schlock. Think Mad Max Scotland.

[Bohandas]

Children of Men was a plague apocalypse. And the weird thing was that the apocalypse was on a slow burn, because the plague didn't kill most people it just made over 99.9% of the population infertile so the population was very slowly crashing as people died from old age and society started to run out of people to fill vital infrastructure jobs.

[Jeivar]

So, for some reason, I got thinking some more about plague-related apocalypse in fiction

"For some reason"

Yeah.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Station Eleven is a recent favorite of mine that falls into this genre - though it jumps around in time and between characters quite a lot, so portions of it are also set before and during the apocalypse as well as afterwards. Worth a read if you like deep character studies and (optionally) lots of faux-religious symbolism.

[Xyril]

It's navy recruitment porn on the level of Top Gun, and probably about the same in terms of sophistication, but The Last Ship TV series was pretty enjoyable and sort of covers the topic. It's only tangentially related to its source material, a book about a nuclear apocalypse, and not a global pandemic. It's also substantially more optimistic in many respects.

Also, Battlestar Galactica, if you count man's hubris as a plague--because watching or rewatching BSG is always a good use of some down time.

[Arutema]

It's quite spoilery, but I'll add the Nier series.

Spoiler

Show

Humanity turned themselves into 'gestalts' (shades) to survive a plague, leaving the Earth populated with artificial 'replicant' humans and androids. But then the gestalts and replicants started fighting each other.

[Cikomyr2]

Oh wait. Wasn't The Division also about a plague and shooting minorities?

[gomipile]

You might like the novel Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. The bulk of the story is set in the titular Chasm City on a planet that used to be the jewel of an interstellar post-scarcity transhuman society. A plague that affected both people and nanotech-based machines has rendered a lot of the transhuman technology very dangerous to use, and ruined a lot more. The plague also precipitated a lot of space disasters which ruined much of the orbital infrastructure.

And, since travel and communication is limited by the speed of light in this society, lots of people kept arriving after the plague did its worst.

The current society is still capable of interstellar flight, but there are big gaps in their capabilities. The incomplete recovery makes for a run-down post-cyberpunk atmosphere.

All of that is part of the backdrop for a sort of noir mystery story.

Anyway, I found it interesting. And I'm still thinking about the story over a decade after reading it.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Cikomyr2
…I was wondering if someone knows of a story with an apocalyptic plague that wiped civilization.

Light of My Life is a recent movie about a plague which targeted women, and follows a father and his young daughter as they survive on their own.

Fair warning--while I like the concept, I confess I quit watching after less than an hour. It’s the most tedious post-apocalyptic movie I’ve ever tried to watch, except possibly I Think We’re Alone Now, which I also quit after less than an hour. I don’t usually do that, but these two just failed to grab me.

Originally Posted by Xyril
It's navy recruitment porn on the level of Top Gun, and probably about the same in terms of sophistication, but The Last Ship TV series was pretty enjoyable and sort of covers the topic.

I was about to mention this, if not necessarily recommend it. They needed the Navy to film on Navy ships, so it’s as rah-rah as you can get. Brain-free dumb fun is about the best you can hope for. Characters make forehead-smackingly stupid decisions on a near-constant basis, and the captain tends to solve issues by being macho and American at things.

Also, ensigns freely give their opinions to the captain on his bridge in crisis situations, which Does Not Happen in the real Navy.

Originally Posted by Xyril
It's only tangentially related to its source material, a book about a nuclear apocalypse, and not a global pandemic.

I read the original novel in the early 90s and loved it. It is just as bleak as the subject matter demands, and a tremendously good read.

Presumably the producers of the TV show thought that a pandemic was more “relevant” than a full nuclear exchange. The pandemic certainly offered more opportunities for land-based storylines, including the slow rebuilding of national governments, but I would have preferred to see a creative adaptation of the original novel.

Originally Posted by Xyril
Also, Battlestar Galactica, if you count man's hubris as a plague--because watching or rewatching BSG is always a good use of some down time.

So true.

Also, there was one episode which did involve a plague, I think in the third season. Not one of their best, but it fits the bill.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Some of the Muirwood books (Jeff Wheeler) - I want to say the Cipher trilogy - take place after the aftermath of a major plague/war mess. It might be a little too post- post-apocalypse though, as by the time the trilogy starts civilization has picked itself back up again.

Most of the other plague-centric books I'm aware of take place during the start of the outbreak and focus on the protagonists trying to stop it. But for completeness' sake I'll mention them anyway: Moreta (Dragonriders of Pern series) and Empire of Ivory (Temeraire series book 4).

Subnautica might fit OP's criteria, although it's mostly an exploration game and not terribly plot-heavy.

I was going to mention it, but I wasn't sure if it qualifies as zombies or not. Does the population of the world turning into eldritch abominations count, or not?

Fair enough, I mostly looked at it as an in-universe excuse for swords and sorcery in what would otherwise be a copy of the 'real' world.

[tomandtish]

It's navy recruitment porn on the level of Top Gun, and probably about the same in terms of sophistication, but The Last Ship TV series was pretty enjoyable and sort of covers the topic. It's only tangentially related to its source material, a book about a nuclear apocalypse, and not a global pandemic. It's also substantially more optimistic in many respects.

Also, Battlestar Galactica, if you count man's hubris as a plague--because watching or rewatching Seasons 1, 2, and first 4 episodes of 3 of BSG is always a good use of some down time.

Fixed that for you...

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Kareeah_Indaga
Moreta (Dragonriders of Pern series)….

As I recall, Moreta was able to help stop the sickness, so not really a plague-related apocalypse as the OP requested. Most of the weyrs were dark for four hundred years, but that was related to Thread rather than the disease.

Originally Posted by tomandtish
Fixed that for you...

Hey, I liked Season 4.

Mid-Season 3 definitely sags, to the point that I usually skip several episodes, but end of Season 3 into Season 4 works for me. I love how they slip Orion into the starfield once we get close to journey’s end.

[Kitten Champion]

There was a somewhat brief-lived post-apocalyptic television series starring Luke Perry and produced by J. Michael Straczynski called Jeremiah.

Set in 2021, where bio-warfare led to a virus that killed anyone past the age of 13, leaving children orphaned as civilization collapsed around them. Luke Perry (the titular Jeremiah) and his friend wind up working for a secret group run out of NORAD which are aiming to bring back civilization from warlords and generalized chaos.

I honestly didn't have much expectations when the DVDs suddenly showed up in our movie collection - they were pretty heavily on sale - but I quite enjoyed it all-told. It's not Babylon 5-levels of greatness or anything, but it doesn't feel as canned as a lot of cheaper Canadian-American television can get -- more ambitious and unpredictable. Also Luke Perry wasn't a bad actor, despite my initial soured outlook on him. I'd rate it as my favourite as far as the genre goes on television, until The Last of Us shows up on HBO.

[brionl]

The 1949 science-fiction novel Earth Abides by George R. Stewart was well known by "Boomer" sci-fi fans, I last read it as a teenager in the '80's.

Argh, you beat me to it. I'll have to fall back on The Day of the Triffids, which was also a movie.

[Bohandas]

In The Mouth of Madness has an outbreak of literature-induced mass psychosis that plays a role in the end of the world.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

As I recall, Moreta was able to help stop the sickness, so not really a plague-related apocalypse as the OP requested.

I did specifically call that out when I mentioned the book.

[Eldan]

You might like the novel Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. The bulk of the story is set in the titular Chasm City on a planet that used to be the jewel of an interstellar post-scarcity transhuman society. A plague that affected both people and nanotech-based machines has rendered a lot of the transhuman technology very dangerous to use, and ruined a lot more. The plague also precipitated a lot of space disasters which ruined much of the orbital infrastructure.

And, since travel and communication is limited by the speed of light in this society, lots of people kept arriving after the plague did its worst.

The current society is still capable of interstellar flight, but there are big gaps in their capabilities. The incomplete recovery makes for a run-down post-cyberpunk atmosphere.

All of that is part of the backdrop for a sort of noir mystery story.

Anyway, I found it interesting. And I'm still thinking about the story over a decade after reading it.

Chasm City is very recommended.

More tangentially, since you reminded me of nanobot plagues, there's The Quantum Thief and especially its sequel The Fractal Prince. They aren't really post-apocalyptic as such, since there's several very transhuman civilizations still hanging around the solar system, but Earth is basically considered an uninhabitable quarantine zone by them, since it's full of disembodied rogue AI and deserts of grey goo that eats any transhuman tech that gets closer to Earth than a high orbit.

There is an interesting post-apocalyptic civilization on Earth, that is heavily based on a Thousand and One Nights aesthetic, a civilization that says they came from a City made of Glass in the sky that was thrown to the ground and shattered (an orbital habitat), once connected to the planet only by an infinite rope (a space elevator) and they have special castes of people who talk to the whispering desert sands (interface with nanobot servitors), talk to the Djinns that lie buried under the sand (old AIs) and access the hidden paradise dimensions that the ancients buried under the sand (hermetically sealed servers running backup copies of old minds of the megarich in VR).