12 Best Movies Like This Is The End

By 2013, writing duo and lifelong friends Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg already had a handful of hits on their hands — including their semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie "Superbad" — and that year, they released their take on an apocalypse comedy, titled "This Is the End." Based on a short film they made in 2007 called "Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse," "This Is the End" features that film's stars Rogen and Jay Baruchel as, you guessed it, two guys named Seth and Jay again; in fact, the two actually play fictionalized versions of themselves, as do all of the major cast members.

During a loud house party at James Franco's house, Seth and Jay leave to go to a convenience store when everything changes very quickly. People are raptured, a huge earthquake hits Los Angeles, and an enormous sinkhole opens up near Franco's house, killing a ton of celebrities who are also playing themselves (Michael Cera, portraying a totally imaginary version of him who parties a little too hard and offends Rihanna, is a clear standout). Franco, Rogen, and Baruchel are joined by other survivors Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson hole up in the house and try to survive but are confronted with increasingly outlandish scenarios they have to survive, including a home invasion by "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson and a demon that possesses Hill (far and away the movie's funniest part, in this writer's opinion).

"This Is the End" is solidly funny, but what should you watch when it's over? From other apocalypse comedies to movies featuring the same gang, here's what you should check out if you like "This Is the End."

"The World's End" is sort of a British version of "This Is the End" — and it did also come out in 2013 — but fans of frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost know it's actually part of an underappreciated trilogy called the "Cornetto trilogy." (The previous two films are "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," both of which arguably made a bigger cultural impact.) In the third and final movie in the aforementioned Cornetto trilogy, Gary King (Pegg), who's not living his best life at 40, reassembles his friends Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), and Andy Knightley (Frost) to try and relaunch their traditional pub crawl, but since the rest of the guys are much more grown up, they're not particularly interested. When an unexpected alien invasion interferes with the pub crawl, things go awry — to say the least.

If you're already a fan of Pegg and Frost, you'll definitely love "The World's End," and if you haven't seen any of their movies, you certainly don't have to watch the Cornetto trilogy in order. So with that in mind, if you're looking for a perfect match for "This Is the End," try "The World's End."

If you're someone who's always just a little nervous and overprepared, Ruben Fleischer's 2009 apocalypse comedy "Zombieland" will prove to you that you can easily survive a zombie invasion. When we first meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) — all the main characters use codenames, specifically choosing U.S. cities — he's successfully evading zombie hordes by always "double tapping" (making sure they're dead), being particularly prepared in bathrooms in case of an attack, and always wearing a seatbelt during big chases, compiling a list of personal rules for survival. After he comes across the trigger-happy cowboy Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the two polar opposites start traveling together ... and when they meet swindling sisters Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and Wichita (Emma Stone), they try to take on the zombie apocalypse as a foursome.

"Zombieland" is a delight from beginning to end, utilizing four unbelievably talented actors and their chemistry perfectly (plus, there's a really bonkers cameo from Bill Murray partway through the film, and Amber Heard pops up in a wild turn as Columbus' gorgeous neighbor who turned into a zombie) and balancing comedy with great action setpieces. If you want to laugh about the end of the world, try "Zombieland."

A year after "This Is the End," Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg put out yet another film that pairs Rogen with James Franco ... but this effort proved to be quite a bit more controversial than "This Is the End" ever was. In 2014's "The Interview," Rogen and Franco play producer Aaron Rapaport and TV personality Dave Skylark, respectively, who work on the fictional program "Skylark Tonight" — and when Aaron and Dave learn that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (played by Randall Park) is a huge fan of the show, they set out to interview him. This all gets quite a bit more complicated when an agent of the United States government named Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) confronts the two and tasks them with a mission: she wants them to poison Kim so that he doesn't launch nuclear weapons at America.

You can probably see precisely how this all goes wrong, and you can also probably guess as to why this movie became a huge issue. Hackers threatened to attack the New York City premiere of the movie, and even though there was apparently a lot of demand for bootlegs of the film in North Korea, it more or less became a legitimate international incident. "The Interview" may have created a real-life disaster instead of depicting a fictional one, but it's still a good follow-up to "This Is the End."

Do you want a movie that involves a bizarre supernatural twist that's still funny? How about one with a particularly good ensemble cast? That could describe "This Is the End," but it could also describe the 2010 comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine." Directed by Steven Pink and written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, and John Morris, the movie catches up with longtime friends Adam Yates (John Cusack), Nick Webber-Agnew (Craig Robinson), and Lou Dorchen (Rob Corddry), none of whom are doing too well as they enter middle age. To cheer up Lou, who's arguably the worst off of all of them, they decide to spend time at a ski resort where they all hung out as kids, bringing Adam's awkward nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) along with them. Not only is the ski resort totally run down, but the only activity available to them is a hot tub on site.

That's where things get interesting. The four guys get into the hot tub and spill something on the control panel, ruining it, only to discover that it's a time machine (you probably saw that one coming). Specifically, they wake up in 1986 and try not to screw up anything thanks to the butterfly effect, trying to recreate everything they did that year; chaos ensues. "This Is the End" takes a wild situation and makes the "best" of it, and so does "Hot Tub Time Machine."

The end of the world probably won't be particularly organized; for lack of a better term, all hell will likely break loose if and when that comes to pass. We see that in "This Is the End," but we also see it in "The Cabin in the Woods," the 2011 horror comedy directed by Drew Goddard and written by Joss Whedon. Here's the gist: five teenagers go to (you guessed it) a cabin in the woods for a weekend away, each fulfilling a different horror archetype — including Curt as the "athlete" (Chris Hemsworth), Holden as "the scholar" (Jesse Williams), Marty as "the fool" (Fran Kanz), Jules as "the whore" (Anna Hutchison), and Dana as "the virgin" (Kristin Connolly). What they don't know is that this particular cabin is controlled by a Facility — specifically, scientists Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford), who can bend the cabin's environment to their will.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is chuck-full of horrors, but there's a healthy amount of camp and self-awareness involved, just like there is in "This Is the End." It's quite a bit scarier than the latter, but the former's definitely worth seeking out.

Seth Rogen was really on a roll in the mid-2010s; in 2014, he also starred in the comedy "Neighbors" alongside Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, and Dave Franco. When Mac and Kelly Radner (Rogen and Byrne) move into their dream home with their baby daughter, they're startled to learn that the house next door is a rowdy fraternity house called Delta Psi Beta, and their parties are loud. After trying to befriend the frat guys, led by Teddy Sanders (Efron) and his right-hand man Pete Regazolli (Franco), that tactic doesn't work, so Kelly and Mac declare an all-out war on the frat house, at which point thing escalate wildly (which is an understatement).

"Neighbors" isn't about the end of the world, but it's about the end of Mac and Kelly's peaceful world — and they're willing to fight for it, just like the guys in "This Is the End." Plus, you've got Rogen — and a different Franco to boot — and plenty of absolutely insane, heightened hijinks, and Rogen finds a phenomenal comedic partner in Byrne, whose Kelly is just as desperate and depraved as her husband when it matters.

If you want to fully appreciate "This Is the End," you should probably go back to where it all began for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and watch "Superbad." The landmark comedy directed by Greg Mottola came out in 2007 and set a new standard for coming-of-age stories thanks to the duo's script, which they started when they were actual teenagers; the lead characters are even named Evan and Seth, but they're played by Michael Cera and Jonah Hill instead of the writers themselves. (Rogen appears, pretty extensively, as a cop who's maybe a little too casual about his line of work.) Determined to have one last great night before they graduate from high school and go to different colleges, Seth and Evan conspire with their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to buy alcohol for a party being thrown by one of the popular girls; things go downhill when Fogell reveals that his fake ID simply says "McLovin," and they don't really improve from there.

Still, Seth and Evan's fumbles and foibles are as funny as they are relatable, and plus, this is the movie that introduced Emma Stone to the world. "Superbad" doesn't have much in common with "This Is the End" on the surface, but it shows just how great Goldberg and Rogen are as a screenwriting team.

In 2018, John Francis Daley — former star of "Bones" and "Freaks and Geeks" — worked with his frequent collaborator Jonathan Goldstein on the ensemble comedy "Game Night," and to be honest, it's one of the best big-budget studio comedies made since it came out. When we meet the super-competitive couple Max and Annie Davis (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams), they're in the habit of hosting game nights with their group of friends, including Kevin and Michelle Stirling (Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury) and their perpetually single friend Ryan (Billy Magnussen), who arrives at this fateful one with his new girlfriend Sarah (Sharon Horgan). As they try and hide their regular gathering from their odd neighbor Gary Kingsbury (a brilliant Jesse Plemons), Max's successful brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) shows up and promises to make it their best one yet ... and when Brooks is kidnapped, the whole evening spirals fully out of control.

"Game Night" keeps getting more and more wild and over-the-top as things progress, much like "This Is the End" — and frankly, the ensemble in this movie gives the guys in "This Is the End" a run for their money. You absolutely can't lose by watching "Game Night."

In "This Is the End," a group of bumbling, inept guys try to avoid the apocalypse; in "Horrible Bosses," three bumbling, inept guys try to escape their awful work situations and blow up their lives in the process. In Seth Gordon's 2011 comedy — which was written by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein — Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Dale Arbus (Charlie Day), and Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) all hate their jobs for a variety of pretty legitimate reasons. Nick is constantly being forced to perform increasingly absurd tasks for his boss Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), with the promise of a promotion he'll never get, Dale is sexually harassed on a daily basis by his boss Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), and Kurt's new boss Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) is an unreliable jerk who has absolutely no idea what he's doing. When the three friends meet a guy whose name we can't print here played by Jamie Foxx who offers to solve their problems — specifically, kill their bosses — they end up in way over their heads.

There's no literal apocalypse in "Horrible Bosses," but again, you can literally see Nick, Dale, and Kurt's worlds crash around them as they try and take down their superiors. Plus, if you loved the ensemble in "This Is the End," you'll love Day, Sudeikis, and Bateman in "Horrible Bosses." 

"Step Brothers" is one of the most insane, unhinged movies ever made — in a good way. The movie, penned and directed by Adam McKay and co-written by Will Ferrell, introduces us to petulant man-children Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, played by Ferrell and John C. Reilly, whose worlds are turned upside down when their parents Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen) and Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) meet and fall in love; even though both Brennan and Dale are well into their 40s, they both act exactly like a child would when confronted with a brand new step-sibling.

You might be wondering why "Step Brothers" is on this list, since it doesn't share any principal cast members with "This Is the End" and it's not about the apocalypse. It's on this list because everything in this movie is absolutely bonkers. Brennan and Dale go to a job interview in matching tuxedos and almost beat one another to death on the front lawn; after they crash Robert's boat and break up their parents, Brennan saves the day by — wait for it — singing "Por Ti Volaré" by Andrea Bocelli at an event famously known as the Catalina Wine Mixer. "Step Brothers" is every bit as over-the-top as "This Is the End," and that's why it belongs here.

Jonah Hill appears in both "This Is the End" and "21 Jump Street" — as well as its extremely worthy sequel "22 Jump Street" — and even though he plays drastically different parts in these movies, fans of the first will love the second too. A reboot of the 1980s series "21 Jump Street" probably seemed like a terrible idea at first, but thanks to directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and writer Michael Bacall, this 2012 movie is actually incredible ... and like "This Is the End," you have to accept the absurdity and go along for the ride.

The movie casts Hill and Channing Tatum as Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko, two polar opposites who become friends while they're training in the police academy (Schmidt is smart but dorky, and Jenko is athletic but not particularly bright). Just like in the TV show, they're sent back to high school — by their irascible boss Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) — to go undercover and figure out who's supplying dangerous illegal drugs to students. The idea that either Tatum or Hill could possibly pass for a high-schooler is, frankly, part of the fun here, and the two have a phenomenal time playing around and accidentally charming high schoolers like Eric Molson (Dave Franco) and Molly Tracey (Brie Larson). The sequel might actually be even better, but start with "21 Jump Street" if you loved "This Is the End."

Released in 2008, "Pineapple Express" is yet another project penned by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that features Rogen, James Franco, and Danny McBride — though, unlike "This Is the End," Rogen and Goldberg didn't direct, but passed that responsibility to David Gordon Green. Once again, this movie is delightfully bizarre and goes places you'll never imagine when you first meet Dale Denton (Rogen), a process server who loves smoking weed with his friend and dealer Saul Silver (Franco). When the two witness a crime, Dale throws the end of his joint at the scene as they flee, and the murderers are able to track the guys down using the specific strain; McBride comes into play as Red, Saul's unhinged supplier who just wants to celebrate his cat's birthday in peace.

"Pineapple Express" just keeps building and building to increasingly insane new heights, kind of like "This Is the End," and again, if you really want to appreciate the apocalypse movie, you really should do your homework when it comes to Rogen and Goldberg's previous work. "Pineapple Express" is an absolutely wild ride, so hang on for dear life if you watch it after "This Is the End."