Top 10 Prepper Movies You Need to Watch While Under Quarantine

Making the Most of the Quarantine with Prepper Movies

At this point, many of you may be struggling to find productive and enjoyable ways to pass the time under quarantine. You may have pulled out board games and decks of cards that had been collecting dust. You may have started cooking more or picked an old hobby back up. While I admit that sitting in front of the TV may not be the best use of time, I’ve watched ten amazing prepper movies while under quarantine. I’ve learned a lot about prepper survival skills and financial preparedness during the hours spent sitting on my couch. Better yet, I enjoyed each of them beginning to end. Here are the top 10 prepper movies you need to watch while under quarantine.

Best Movies to Learn Prepper Survival Skills From

1. Light of My Life

“Light of My Life” is the story of a father and daughter doing everything they can to survive a world in which women have died from a plague targeting the fairer sex. Rag, a young girl with shortly cropped hair in attempt to pass for a boy, is one of the very few remaining women on the post-apocalyptic planet. Rag is instructed by her father how to escape scenarios in which men discover her for who she is and pursue her for it. These lessons include the importance of packing a bug out bag, developing escape plans, and finding ways to blend in to the crowd. Stellar acting performances complement the pearls of knowledge threaded throughout the movie. “Light of My Life” is one of the best recently released prepper movies out there. I highly recommend it.

2. Leave No Trace

Another father-daughter drama, “Leave No Trace” offers a very different take on survival. Will and his daughter, Tom, live off-grid in the Oregon forests. Will taught his daughter how to set up camp, forage for mushrooms, and live in self-sufficient lifestyle in the wilderness. As the movie progresses, we learn that Will is a war veteran whose psychological wounds haven’t fully healed. He’s forced to come to terms with the fact that a life off-grid may not be the best choice for his daughter. “Leave No Trace” isn’t just among the better prepper movies for the many survival skills it showcases. It also demonstrates the complex relationship that can develop between war veterans and their aging children as the role of caretaker passes from father to daughter.

3. A Quiet Place

John Krasinki’s “A Quiet Place” isn’t your typical horror movie. Yes, it has monsters, but the monsters aren’t just attracted to humans. They’re attracted to sound. Krasinski and his family therefore have learned to live a very quiet existence. Short of learning how to kill the monsters, silence is the only key to survival. “A Quiet Place” is a clever horror movie that showcases how important it is to find ways to adapt to a new, albeit chilling reality. If you’re not a fan of horror movies, I’d consider making an exception for this one. You’ll be glad you did.

4. I Am Legend

If you live in New York City, or any city for that matter, you’ll love “I Am Legend.” The movie centers on Will Smith alone with his German Shepard in Manhattan. A virus turned the rest of the island’s inhabitants into zombies on the hunt for blood. This survival movie tracks its protagonist’s search for other survivors, along with a vaccine. He mustn’t just escape from the predators lurking in the night, but also his own isolation from other human life. “I Am Legend” shows why Will Smith was the highest paid actor at his peak. It also offers us a lesson in how to survive if SHTF in your city.

5. The Road

Some prepper movies are darker than others. “The Road” is definitely one of the more harrowing prepper movies you may see. This post-apocalyptic world is full of cannibalistic survivalists, a lack of infrastructure, and even a shortage of guns and ammunition. Viggo Mortensen and his young son must navigate the world without rule of law. Their few possessions are pushed around in a shopping cart. Viggo Mortensen’s unnamed character flashes back to days before the apocalypse, which, while sunnier, are still full of regret. “The Road” is as heady as it is bleak. It’s a must-watch for any prepper curious about what a worst-case scenario may look like.

Best Movies to Learn Financial Preparedness From

1. The Big Short

“The Big Short” is a film adapted from Michael Lewis’s book of the same name. It offers one of the best explanations about the cause of the Great Recession. The best way to learn financial preparedness is to learn from mistakes made throughout history. “The Big Short” explores those mistakes at length and has cast A-List actors to serve as our guides. Few movies are as good as the books they were adapted from. “The Big Short” is one of them. I highly recommend watching it.

2. Boiler Room

“Boiler Room” is different than your typical movie about slick, hard-charging stock brokers like “Wall Street” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” This journey into the underworld of finance instead has a moral conscience. The main character, Seth Davis, recognizes the Long Island brokerage he’s working for is running “pump and dump” schemes responsible for the destruction of investors’ life savings. I recommend “Boiler Room” because it will help to ensure you have your eyes wide open when speaking to salesmen asking for an investment. Financial preparedness requires some skepticism and “Boiler Room” will teach you to develop it.

3. Pursuit of Happyness

“Pursuit of Happyness” is the true story of Chris Gardner, a man struggling to pick himself up by his bootstraps during tough economic times. Gardner, played by Will Smith, uses his wits and charisma avoid a life of poverty. Having hit rock bottom, Gardner has nowhere to go but up. The story of his ascent is inspiring and offers a lesson in hard work and unrelenting determination. While this isn’t one of your typical prepper movies, I recommend it nonetheless.

4. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” is a documentary film about the biggest corporate scandal to have taken place in modern American history. The documentary exposes the con that Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Enron’s top executives, pulled off to enrich themselves at the expense of their employees’ retirement fund. “Enron” underscores the importance of diversifying your income streams and building your own rainy day fund to insulate yourself from financial hardship that follows losing your primary source of income and employer sponsored savings.

5. Margin Call

Released after the Great Financial Crisis, “Margin Call” profiles characters at the pinnacle of high finance. After surviving a round of layoffs, a recent college graduate views the contents of a USB drive he was handed by an outgoing risk analyst. What he finds disturbs him. The economy is on the brink of collapse. He shares the news with his top executives, who realize that they need to ruthlessly sell worthless securities in order to survive the impending crisis. “Margin Call” examines the Darwinian nature of Wall Street without portraying a single character as likable. Like the four above listed prepper movies, “Margin Call” makes it clear just how important financial preparedness is.

Do you know any prepper movies we should be watching under quarantine? Leave a comment below or contact me directly.