By Moe Long
The disaster film genre can itself be pretty disastrous. Plagued with ridiculous, over-the-top plots and cheesy dialogue, disaster movies are a bit hit-and-miss. Nevertheless, there’s something enthralling about watching catastrophe unfold on celluloid.
There are some seriously good genre entries ranging from thought-provoking cinema to mindless, fun popcorn flicks. Check out my picks for best disaster movies of all time!
Journalist Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) begins investigating the Secretary of the Treasury for a connection to a mysterious “Ellie,” which Lerner assumes to be a mistress. However, “Ellie” is actually “E.L.E,” or “extinction-level-event” in the form of a 7-mile-wide comet hurtling towards Earth. Boasting a star-studded cast including Morgan Freeman as President of the United States Tom Beck, Robert Duvall as Captain Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner, and a pre-Frodo Baggins Elijah Wood as teenage astronomer Leo Biederman who discovers the comet, the Mimi Leder-directed “Deep Impact” is a tour-de-force disaster flick. Throw in an epic, timpani-filled James Horner score, compelling acting performances, and you’ve got a thrilling sci-fi adventure.
2020 sci-fi thriller “Underwater” finds a mining rig 7 miles below the ocean surface destroyed leaving mechanical engineer Noah Price (Kristen Stewart) to escape. Buoyed upon Stewart’s phenomenal performance, “Underwater” proves exciting, mincing none of its 90-minute run time. With confined set pieces, “Underwater” doesn’t necessarily innovate on the genre, yet it’s a fun, tense B-movie with a neat Lovecraftian subplot, great effects, and an excellent score.
With fantastical plots, it’s important for disaster movies to anchor themselves in reality. And that’s where the 2020 Rich Roman Waugh-directed “Greenland” succeeds. The film chronicles the Garrity family, John (Gerard Butler), Allison (Morena Baccarin), and Nathan (Roger Gale Floyd) as they attempt to travel to Greenland to seek refuge from a planet killer comet named Clarke which is on a collision course for Earth. In an unconventional twist, “Greenland” focuses mostly on the Garrity family, putting the comet itself second. Gerard Butler gives a powerhouse performance as an ordinary person thrust into an emergency situation and motivated by saving his family.
Scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) awakens to find himself seemingly the last person on Earth. “The Quiet Earth” takes a pensive, toned down approach to analyzing a post-apocalyptic world. The film probes Hobson’s emotional evolution as he copes with his newfound solitude. With its small cast of characters, stunning cinematography, and riveting special effects, “The Quiet Earth” is a disaster movie unlike any other.
Ripe with all of the hallmarks of disaster flicks including an over-the-top plot, all-star cast, and an impending global catastrophe, “The Day After Tomorrow” serves as a climate change warning. Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) stresses the urgency of combating climate change, and like any good disaster movie, the scientists get ignored until it’s too late.
And it’s an influential film, spawning a series of like-minded arctic disaster thrillers. While “The Day After Tomorrow” might not be the most realistic portrayal of climate change, it’s nevertheless a decent PSA. Moreover, it’s a fun romp which features a subplot where Hall tries to save not only the world but also his estranged son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal).
A lethal virus outbreak threatens humanity with a global pandemic. Director Steven Sorderbergh teams up with Scott Z. Burns after their 2009 gem “The Informant!” for a decidedly different film. Featuring an ensemble cast including Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Bryan Cranston, “Contagion” is a gripping thrill-ride that’s even scarier in the post-COVID era.
Whereas most disaster movies focus on global catastrophes, Alfonso Cuarón-directed “Gravity” takes a different approach. Instead, the film concentrates on a pair of astronauts, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Lieutenant Matt Kowalski (George Clooney). When high-speed debris rips Stone away from the shuttle, she’s left floating through space. “Gravity” then becomes effectively a one-woman show with Bullock competently at the helm. It’s got a sparse cast, breath-taking cinematography, and some of the best 3D effects in any film to date.
While “Cloverfield” might not be the first found footage movie, it’s certainly one of the genre’s finest examples, and one of the top found footage flicks since “The Blair Witch Project.”
A farewell party for Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) is interrupted by the appearance of a massive monster. There’s a neat group dynamic as friends Rob, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), Lily (Jessica Lucas), and Hud (T.J. Miller) set out to rescue Rob’s girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman). By avoiding an explanation of the monster’s origins, “Cloverfield” maintains an air of mystery.
The Peter Berg-directed 2016 film “Deepwater Horizon” chronicles the events of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Mark Whalberg portrays rig worker Mike Williams who is thrust right into the middle of the action. The Oscar-nominated “Deepwater Horizon” is a disaster movie grounded in reality that forgoes the fantastical plot elements of other genre entries and tells an important story that emphasizes the importance of environmental conservation.
Los Angeles Office of Emergency Management director Michael Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) teams up with geologist Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) when a volcano pops up in the middle of LA. There’s an ensemble cast consisting of Jones, Heche, Don Cheadle, Keith David, John Carrol Lynch, and a handful of others. But it’s not just lava that Roark has to battle. There’s a lot of red tape to cut through which lends a bit of realism to an otherwise over-the-top movie. Add Roark trying to save his daughter into the mix, the “Volcano” is a fun popcorn thriller.
Moe Long is a writer, editor, and cinephile with a passion for cult classics, arthouse cinema, and everything in between. When he’s not hammering away at the keyboard, he enjoys reading, guzzling far too much coffee, and playing with his beloved dorkie Sebastian.
You can find Moe writing about film and TV at Cup of Moe, peruse his articles on consumer tech at Tech Up Your Life, and listen to him talk cinema on the Celluloid Fiends Podcast. Follow Moe on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
