The end of the world doesn’t need to be a sad occasion, folks. Find hope. While, sure, the genre of “post-apocalypse” tends to lean on the side of everything-is-awful, this particular film decided it was going to take a more colorful approach to things. Instead, it filled its desolate wastelands with enormous creatures along with a sprinkle of love and joy.
Love and Monsters is now streaming on Paramount+ after joining the service on September 1. Directed by Michael Matthews (Five Fingers for Marseilles), the 2020 adventure offered a lighter alternative to many post-apocalyptic movies. After all, who doesn’t like their “end of the world but it’s happy” cake?
After monsters take over the world, Joel (Dylan O’Brien) and the rest of humanity are forced to live underground. Believing he’s lost everyone he has ever loved, Joel finds his high school sweetheart Aimee (Jessica Henwick) living just 80 miles away. Facing unknown dangers that stand in his way, Joel must discover his inner hero as he makes the impossible journey across a monster-infested land to be with the girl of his dreams. How cute and heartwarming.
The cast is led by O’Brien (The Maze Runner) and Henwick (The Matrix Resurrections), with Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy) as Clyde, Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie) as Minnow, Dan Ewing (Occupation) as Cap, Ellen Hollman (Spartacus) as Dana, Tre Hale (Platonic) as Rocko, and Senie Priti (The Wilds) as Karen.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Was ‘Love and Monsters’ a Success?
Love and Monsters was a major critical success and currently holds an impressive 94% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside an 89% audience score. Critics particularly praised O’Brien’s performance and the movie’s ability to combine its monster-filled adventure with comedy and genuine emotion.
The movie also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, an impressive achievement for a relatively small-scale genre movie released during the pandemic. Its effects helped bring the movie’s collection of mutated creatures to life while giving each monster a distinctive personality and design. Despite that reception and continued interest in another adventure, a sequel has never materialized. That has left Love and Monsters as a standalone story, although its strong reviews and audience response have helped the movie build a following in the years since its release.
