The 5 Best & 5 Worst Alternate Histories Shown In Movies

Historical dramas have become some of the most popular and award-winning films over the years, as they tackle heavy subject matter or tragic events in the history of the world and showcase the highs and lows of civilizations past on the big screen.

However, sometimes stories give fans and filmmakers the opportunity to explore history in a different way that ultimately changes key moments in our past, creating bold new worlds or dark parallel realities that give filmgoers another way to enjoy history or see what might have been with these alternate history movies.

10 Best: Red Dawn

Fans have now seen two versions of Red Dawn which take an alternative look at history as the United States is invaded and taken over by a foreign power, with nothing but small guerilla groups of teenage fighters left to protect their homeland during a fictional World War III.

1984’s Red Dawn saw a group of survivors fighting against the invasion of Soviets, while the 2012 remake featured a combined invasion of North Korean troops and Russian forces that forced the young Wolverines into action.

9 Worst: Watchmen

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the iconic comic Watchmen takes place in a world that was forever altered by the appearance of costumed crime-fighters that led to the birth of Doctor Manhattan, the world’s first superhuman who became a tool of the U.S. government.

Doctor Manhattan changed the course of the Vietnam War, which later led to the outlaw of other costumed heroes and the rise of a tarnished American Dream that almost brought the world to the brink of war until Ozymandias was able to unite the various countries against a superhuman threat.

8 Best: Forrest Gump

While Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Forrest Gump doesn’t actually alter events in order to change history, there are a number of historical moments that were slightly modified to include the titular character as his life moved through pivotal moments in American history.

Whether it’s Forrest Gump’s appearances on TV with various presidents or alongside legends like John Lennon or his accidental exposure of the controversial Watergate Scandal, Gump proved to be more important to U.S. history than anyone could have known.

7 Worst: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

While Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was an enjoyable take on the iconic President’s life before he took office and made the Emancipation Proclamation that set the country on the path to ending slavery, the film also introduced a dark, previously unknown chapter in his life.

Not only was Lincoln a statesman and politician, but he was also a trained vampire hunter who succeeded in taking out the leader and driving the vampires out of the country after he took office as the President of the United States of America.

6 Best: The Interview

Seth Rogen wrote and starred in 2014’s controversial The Interview alongside frequent collaborator James Franco, and the film placed Franco’s reporter in North Korea in order to get an interview with dictator Kim Jong-Un.

However, the C.I.A. attempts to turn the interview into an assassination mission, and, while they go through the internet without completing the attempted hit, the climax of the film does feature the death of Kim and the political democratization of North Korea, which, of course, has not occurred in reality.

5 Worst: Bright

Netflix and director David Ayer introduced viewers to the magical world of Bright, which imagined an ancient world of elves, orcs, and magic had continued to develop into the modern age, creating a divided society of humans and magical creatures that live together.

The film follows human and orc police partners as they hunt down a powerful magical weapon that could lead to the prophesied return of the magical Dark One, though the film proved that even fantasy creatures have to deal with police corruption.

4 Best: Once Upon A Time

Quentin Tarantino has dabbled with alternate histories for years in films like Inglourious Basterds which featured a gruesome but satisfying alternate ending to the second World War after Hitler and his generals were killed in Shoshanna’s French theater.

His latest film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, delved into another pivotal historical moment by exploring the events surrounding the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family, though it’s the Manson Family who is killed instead by Rick Dalton and his stunt double, Cliff Booth.

3 Worst: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow

2004’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was one of the first movies to use digital backgrounds in order to create the “dieselpunk” world as it existed in the fictionalized 1939 New York City of the film.

The film imagines a world where the Hindenburg didn’t die a fiery death and flight technology moved forward in new directions, leading to new types of aircraft, aerial armadas, and a new highly-advanced aerial robotic threat that only Jude Law’s Sky Captain could possibly defeat.

2 Best: Demolition Man

1993’s Demolition Man, much like 1981’s Escape From New York, imagined a new form of prisons to deal with the ever-growing crime problem, though, instead of turning Manhattan into an island prison, Demolition Man introduces cryogenic suspension and mental reprogramming as the new standard for rehabilitation in 1996.

However, when former cop Sylvester Stallone is imprisoned and frozen until 2032, the world has advanced towards peace by burying and ignoring the same problems of earlier generations—but at least they still have Taco Bell.

1 Worst: Iron Sky

2012’s Iron Sky followed the world’s established history to a point, though also followed the premise that high-ranking Nazi officers were able to escape to the moon after the fall of the Third Reich in WWII where they created a high-tech base and a huge space battleship.

Unfortunately, the finale of Iron Sky saw Earth made unhabitable by nuclear weapons during the war with the Fourth Reich, and the survivors were forced to live on the Moonbase with the former Nazis, though they would eventually return to Hollow Earth in the conspiracy theory-inspired sequel.

About The Author

Scoot Allan
(193 Articles Published)

Entertainment reporter, writer, and all-around geek, Scoot Allan has written for print and online media sources like Geek Magazine, GeekExchange, GrizzlyBomb, WhatCulture, RoguePlanet.tv and the Urban 30 before joining CBR, ScreenRant, GameRant and The Gamer as a staff writer. He enjoys salad but prefers french fries.

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