Genre: Disaster
Disaster stories drop ordinary people into catastrophe — the quake, the storm, the wave — and find their drama in survival and what it costs.
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Volcano (1997)
Mick Jackson's 1997 Los Angeles volcano. Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche. Released alongside Dante's Peak in volcano cinema year. -
Dante’s Peak (1997)
Roger Donaldson's 1997 volcano disaster. Pierce Brosnan as volcanologist. Linda Hamilton. The other 1997 volcano film. -
Deep Impact (1998)
Mimi Leder's 1998 comet impact drama. Released alongside Armageddon. The serious one. Tea Leoni, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman. -
Airport (1970)
George Seaton's 1970 airline disaster film. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Helen Hayes Oscar. Launched the 1970s disaster cycle. -
The China Syndrome (1979)
James Bridges' 1979 nuclear plant near-meltdown. Lemmon, Fonda, Douglas. Released twelve days before Three Mile Island. Predictive. -
Twister (1996)
Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado-chase. Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt. Cow scene. Foundation for every storm-chasing production since. -
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Ronald Neame's 1972 capsized ocean liner. Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters. Defining 1970s disaster film. Original. -
The Swarm (1978)
1978 Irwin Allen disaster film with Michael Caine versus African killer bees. Star-studded train wreck. -
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
2016 Peter Berg disaster film with Mark Wahlberg recreating the 2010 BP oil rig explosion. Eleven dead, worst spill in U.S. history. -
Geostorm (2017)
2017 Dean Devlin disaster film with Gerard Butler battling weather-controlling satellites that go rogue. Plot from a fortune cookie.