Movies Warhammer 40k Fans Should Watch

Key Takeaways

• Warhammer 40k has influenced various films.
• Films like Mad Max: Fury Road and The Devils capture the grim nature and themes of the 40k universe.
• Event Horizon directly explores the perils of the Warp, a central aspect of the Warhammer 40k setting.

Starting in the late 1980s, the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40k and its grimdark setting have become one of the most beloved hobbies in the world. With Games Workshop expanding its IP into novels, video games, and animations, 40k is now a major sci-fi setting that is moving into the mainstream of popular culture.

While there has yet to be a major movie release based on the Warhammer 40k setting, fans of the hobby have no shortage of films to scratch that grimdark itch. 40k is a vast galaxy-spanning setting with a rich and detailed history, numerous factions, and multiple themes running through its narratives. While many of these films could be placed directly into the timeline, others represent a common theme featured in the Warhammer 40k universe.

1 Pitch Black

Swarms Of Hungry Monsters

• Directed: David Twohy
• Release Date: 2000
• Runtime: 1h 49m

Pitch Black and its sequels, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and Riddick (2013) were famously influenced by Vin Diesel’s love of Dungeons and Dragons and wargaming. Pitch Black, in particular, is a great sci-fi horror movie that offers a lot for fans of 40k. The film revolves around a group of colonists who become stranded on a distant planet, where the local life forms are ravenous lizard-like creatures.

The monsters in Pitch Black resemble Tyranids closely, where they swarm in great numbers and consume all life on the now barren rocky planet. Warhammer 40k fans will love the grim nature of the film, with Diesel playing his most famous anti-hero.

2 Deathwatch

The Horrors Of War Come To Life

• Directed: M. J Bassett
• Release Date: 2002
• Runtime: 1h 34m

While this gritty British horror film may not be as highly rated as other films on this list, its grim depiction of war, mixed with supernatural elements, fits perfectly with the 40k theme. Deathwatch revolves around a squad of British soldiers fighting in the trenches of WW1. After finding what they believe is an enemy trench, the soldiers start to experience strange and deadly events.

From living barbed wire attacking characters to pits of corpses and mysterious unearthly sounds, the film could be set in a Warhammer 40k warzone. 40k is a satire on the extremes of war and society, where humanity must fight literal demons. Deathwatch is a solid horror experience that fans of the grimdark will enjoy.

3 Enemy At The Gates

The Bleak Nature Of Total War

• Directed: Jean-Jacques Annaud
• Release Date: 2001
• Runtime: 2h 11m

Highly underrated, Enemy at the Gates is a fantastic yet bleak depiction of a notable and bloody battle. The film is set in the war-torn city of Stalingrad during WW2, where two exceptionally skilled snipers hunt each other while their respective countries watch on. The film has an apocalyptic feeling as the characters navigate the ruined city and the Soviet political officers that send them running into battle.

Enemy at the Gates is a perfect parallel to Warhammer 40k, where the armies of the Astra Militarum are sent into the meat grinder of war. In the setting, the Militarum are the everyday soldiers of the Imperium. They are expected to give their lives for humanity or face the wrath of the Commissars pushing them forward. Enemy at the Gates depicts how, in times of war, human life is a disposable asset; a theme common in the Warhammer 40k setting.

4 Mad Max: Fury Road

Battles In A Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

• Directed: George Miller
• Release Date: 2015
• Runtime: 2h

George Miller’s classic post-apocalyptic series Mad Max hit an all-time high mark with Mad Max: Fury Road. This adrenaline-fuelled action masterpiece re-energized the franchise for a new generation. The film follows Charlize Theron’s Furiosa as she attempts to flee from the local warlord Immortan Joe.

Within the Warhammer 40k timeline, Earth, or Terra as it’s known, was once a Mad Max-style wasteland before the Emperor united the planet. The original Mad Max films were also a big influence on the classic games Necromunda and the largely forgotten Gorkamorka. Some of the characters in Fury Road also give very Warhammer 40k Ork energy, with their love of going fast and fighting. Fans of 40k will love the chaos and constant action of Fury Road, making it a must-watch movie.

5 The Devils

Religious Extremism And Oppression

• Directed: Ken Russell
• Release Date: 1971
• Runtime: 1h 51m

Warhammer 40k is set in a galaxy in a state of constant war. However, the true horror of the setting is often not the xenos, but humanity’s actions against itself. The Imperium, over time, has devolved into religious extremism. Sects of the Ecclesiarchy, the ruling religious order, actively hunt and murder heretics of their faith, led by the powerful agents of the Imperial Inquisition.

The Devils, by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed, is a controversial movie that depicts the fall of Father Urbain Grandier, who is accused of witchcraft by the sexually repressed nuns under his care. The film is violent and explicit and was even banned in the UK for many years. However, it is also a cult classic that won Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival. The film’s essence fits perfectly with the 40k setting, where corruption and religious extremism run rampant.

6 1984

The Most Oppressive Regime Imaginable

• Directed: Michael Radford
• Release Date: 1984
• Runtime: 1h 53m

The Warhammer 40k setting is described as the most brutal and oppressive regime imaginable, where billions of humans slave away for the might of the Imperium. In literature and cinema, nothing comes close to depicting this kind of totalitarian control like George Orwell’s 1984.

1984 revolves around a party member, played by John Hurt, who secretly rebels against the regime in small ways while constantly being watched by Big Brother. In the film, the past and present are strictly controlled and changed to suit the party’s needs. The State is absolute and wages an endless war against the other authoritarian states. 1984 is an excellent adaptation of an important novel that everyone should read at least once. Its bleak depiction of society laid the framework for Warhammer 40k’s oppressive grimdark setting.

7 Starship Troopers

An Interstellar War Against The Bugs

• Directed: Paul Verhoeven
• Release Date: 1997
• Runtime: 2h 9m

Starship Troopers is a fun sci-fi war film that has become a cult classic. Revolving around the interstellar war between humanity and the arachnids, the film follows Rico and his friends, who, after high school, sign up for the war. They soon discover their romanticized vision of the conflict is far from the truth.

Starship Troopers and Warhammer 40k have several parallels. They are both satires that depict authoritarian regimes with strict societal hierarchies. In both settings, humanity wars against giant hungry bugs: the Arachnids in Starship Troopers and the Tyranids in 40k. In addition, Starship Troopers was a primary influence on the successful video game Helldivers 2. The film is a sci-fi classic and a must-watch for fans of the grimdark setting.

8 From Beyond

Unleashing Monsters From Another Reality

• Directed: Stuart Gordon
• Release Date: 1986
• Runtime: 1h 25m

Cult body horror classic From Beyond is another movie that could be placed directly into the Warhammer 40k timeline. This gory film follows a group of scientists who develop a machine that can access another reality. Unfortunately for them, this reality comes with strange malevolent entities that corrupt and mutate the scientists.

For Warhammer 40k fans, this perfectly describes The Warp and the Chaos Daemons that call it home. 40k is filled with stories of humans who are corrupted, possessed, or mutated by The Warp. While the film is not for the squeamish, it is a classic 80s body horror film that most 40k fans will appreciate.

9 Aliens

A Major Inspiration For The Setting

• Directed: James Cameron
• Release Date: 1986
• Runtime: 2h 17m

The sequel to the sci-fi horror classic Alien (1979) took the series into heart-pumping action territory and would greatly influence the Warhammer 40k setting. The film follows Ellen Ripley as she returns to the planet LV-426 with a platoon of Marines after its colony goes quiet. The film is an action classic that built on the original and expanded the lore and setting. Its success cemented the series as a major sci-fi franchise, which is still going strong today.

The film was a major influence on Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40k set and board game Space Hulk, with the Aliens from the movie being the clear inspiration for the Genestealers. These classic 40k monsters would be expanded to become the Tyranids, one of the major enemies of humanity in Warhammer 40k.

10 Event Horizon

Depicting The Perils Of The Warp

• Directed: Paul W. S Anderson
• Release Date: 1997
• Runtime: 1h 36 min

Event Horizon has become a cult horror classic and maybe the film most directly inspired by Warhammer 40k. In fact, there are numerous fan theories online that claim the film is directly set within the 40k timeline, taking place just before humanity’s expansion into the galaxy.

The film revolves around a team sent to investigate the mysterious spaceship, the Event Horizon, when it reappears after years of being lost. The ship is the first of its kind, using wormholes to travel great distances through space. 40k fans will know this as the Warp, the hellish dimension humanity navigates to travel to the galaxy. However, in the 40k setting, to safely traverse the Warp, a ship must use a Gellar Field or be attacked by daemonic entities. In the movie, the ship does not have this and returns to real space infected with strange energies that corrupt and influence the crew sent to investigate. Event Horizon is a must-watch horror movie that will be enjoyed all the more by fans of 40k.