The Greatest Disaster Movies of All Time

11. 2012 (2009)

For a profoundly silly moment in modern history, there was panic over the calendar year 2012. This resulted from a misunderstanding of Mayan culture and history that surmised the world would end because the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ended in 2012. Plenty of books, documentaries and movies capitalized on this engagement in the years leading up to the date, but the biggest was Roland Emmerich’s 2012. The film follows a struggling science fiction writer, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), who finds himself and his family caught in a global disaster that no power of Earth can withstand. Alongside the president’s (Danny Glover) science adviser, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and a conspiracy theorist, Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), they try to survive. The plot and characters are just dressing for the spectacle, which packs nearly every type of disaster you can think of into its running time. Earthquakes, megatsunamis, volcanos, city-swallowing floods, buildings and monuments being toppled are all delivered with incredible effects work. I can’t vouch for it in the character department, but in terms of sheer spectacle, it certainly delivers on disaster and managed to become the fifth-highest-grossing movie of the year, which seems impossible by today’s standards.

10. Daylight (1996)

One of Sylvester Stallone’s lesser-known films, Rob Cohen’s Daylight, didn’t fare well with critics or the lead actor. Yet Daylight remains a compelling disaster movie on a smaller scale that focuses on the situational concerns of the survivors, rather than the scope of the incident. When trucks carrying toxic waste under the Hudson River tunnel are crashed into by a gang of thieves, the trucks explode — not only causing most of the inhabitants to be killed by a massive fireball, but also making the tunnel collapse with the handful of survivors trapped inside. One of these survivors is Kit Latura (Stallone), a former EMS chief who works on finding a way out. But celebrity athlete, Roy Nord (Viggo Mortensen) is convinced he can get people out through a service corridor, creating a battle of egos while the lives of innocents hang in the balance. When a secondary explosion causes water to start flooding the tunnel, the stakes amp up, and survival seems increasingly unlikely. Daylight is a fun, kinda corny disaster movie from writer Leslie Bohem, who’d go on to write Dante’s Peak. The clichés and one-liners are all accounted for, but for fans of disaster movies and peak-career Stallone, it’s a good time that manages to create some real tension.

9. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Roland Emmerich certainly has a knack for disaster. It’s sadly ironic that 20 years ago, a movie about rapid climate change sparked new interest in the subject, created political controversy and made over half a billion dollars, considering where we are in terms of climate change talks today. Nevertheless, Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow made an impact as it ushered in a new ice age at the turn of the century. A father, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), and his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), separated by states, must contend with the dangers of this superstorm that threatens to destroy all they know and love. Based on the theoretical, nonfiction book, The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film takes a spectacle-driven, heartstring-tugging and scientifically inaccurate approach, as you’d expect from Emmerich. But that doesn’t dampen the thrill of the movie as flood waters, hurricane winds and the shifting of glacial plates create a doomsday scenario across the world, while a cast of familiar faces — including Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward, Dash Mihok, Kenneth Welsh and Ian Holm — provide all the exposition and emotional connections needed for a disaster movie to thrive.

8. The Wave (2015)

Roar Uthaug’s Norwegian film is based on a hypothetical scenario of the Akerneset crevice collapsing in More og Romsdal, creating an avalanche that unleashes a tsunami over the city of Stavanger. Geologist Kristian Eikjord (Kristoffer Joner) becomes concerned by nearby activity in the crevice that has severed the sensor wires, suggesting a shift in the rocks. Fearing impending disaster, he urges his former boss to sound the evacuation alarms. His boss declines because of the loss of tourist revenue that would result from such a situation but agrees to check on the crevice. Kristian’s worst fears are realized as an avalanche does occur and creates a giant wave. Separated from his wife, Indun (Ane Dahl Torp), and children, Kristian must wade through the flood waters to reunite with his family. While the majority of the films on here have a certain blockbuster appeal, The Wave is a completely sobering story that examines realistic consequences and the measures taken to both save others and survive. Although a father facing disaster to find his family is not a novel narrative, strong performances and a horrific sense of building disaster make The Wave a nail-biting thriller.

7. Don’t Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay’s star-studded disaster black comedy is a far cry from anything else on this list. Disaster movies are often known for having multiple big-name actors, but McKay takes it to another level with the talents of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Jonah Hill, Kid Cudi and Ariana Grande, to name a few. You wouldn’t be incorrect to suggest Don’t Look Up is more of a satire of disaster movies and our current political landscape than a true, spectacle-driven disaster movie. But within the disaster movie canon, Don’t Look Up earns its place. We’ve certainly seen our share of giant-asteroid-headed-directly-toward-Earth movies (which we’ll get further into shortly), but in those movies, we’re reminded of the great global unity of people from all walks of life coming together and making the necessary sacrifices to save the world. Don’t Look Up posits: What if we didn’t? And it feels starkly close to reality. The world turns away from impending disaster until it’s too late and instead focuses on memes, celebrity culture, followers and subscribers, and their basest instincts while the government seeks to mine the asteroid for rare and valuable minerals. Not all of McKay’s film quite comes together tonally, but it has become increasingly prescient, even over the past three years, as we continue to see environmental protections, civil rights, health care and aid stripped away by a government too consumed by greed and people too disaffected to pay attention to what’s happening around them. It’s not collapsing buildings and tidal waves that are the disaster, but mankind and our distracted nature. And in the end, we’re left with a sobering sentiment, a final call to attention from DiCaprio’s Dr. Randall Mindy, “We really did have everything, didn’t we? I mean, when you think about it.”

6. Deep Impact (1998)

Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact too often gets diminished as an also-ran film (which we’ll get to later). But taken outside of the immediate comparison to the summer of ‘98’s other giant asteroid disaster film, Leder’s film stands well on its own. Teenager Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) and his girlfriend, Sarah Hotchner (Leelee Sobieski) discover an anomaly in the sky while attending astrology club and report their findings. A year later, journalist Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni) uncovers what she believes to be a political sex scandal, only for President Beck (Morgan Freeman) to give her the exclusive on a giant asteroid heading toward the Earth. To save humanity, a team of astronauts, led by veteran Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall) must land on the asteroid and plant nuclear bombs on it. Leder paints an emotional, tragic and ultimately empathetic look at humanity facing its demise, along with a believable reaction from a government playing catch-up. It’s not quite a cheer-worthy summer blockbuster, but it does highlight the importance of human connection, forgiveness and love, as toppling skyscrapers and waves hundreds of feet high put all of what we’ve built into perspective.

5. Armageddon (1998)

The summer of asteroids began with Deep Impact and ended with Armageddon. Although both films were two of the highest-grossing films of the year, Michael Bay’s won out with audiences overall because he arguably has a better hold on the pulse of those who do want to see those cheer-worthy moments, resulting in Armageddon feeling like a flag-waving triumph and an ode to blue-collar heroes. With a simple plot of NASA hiring deep core drillers to destroy an asteroid the size of Texas while smaller asteroids rain down, destroying cities, and familial tension between the crew’s leader Stamper (Bruce Willis), his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) and her boyfriend A.J. (Ben Affleck), you have an everyman story that just happens to be attached to a genre flick. Take those ingredients, along with superstars and beloved character actors (also including Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clark Duncan, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Keith David and Peter Stormare), and you have one of the greatest casts ever assembled for a disaster movie, one that hearkens back to the star-studded films like Airport (1970) and The Towering Inferno (1974) that launched the genre. Plus, Aerosmith’s power-ballad “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” seals the deal on Armageddon retaining its status as a classic summer blockbuster experience.

4. Twisters (2024)

Lee Isaac Chung takes an alternate route from the expected legacy sequel path and kicks up a hell of a storm in doing so. The stand-alone sequel centers on Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a retired tornado chaser whose dreams of chemically disrupting tornadoes to save lives ends in tragedy. Five years later, a former member of her crew, Javi (Anthony Ramos), asks her to help him test a new tornado-mapping system developed by the military that can calculate the expected damage. When she runs across Tyler Owens and his seemingly thrill-seeking and publicity-motivated team of “Tornado Wranglers,” she feels herself being pulled back into the path of the storm to face her fears, eventually to chase what she’s always wanted: to help people. This is a classic summer blockbuster with compelling leads, and a great supporting cast who capture the energy and that thrill of original films. No superheroes. No aliens. No dinosaurs. Just normal folks facing down the deadly threats of natural disasters with pseudo-science and charming personalities. No, Twisters doesn’t break the rule book on summer blockbusters, but it feels like a breath of fresh air, and it comes without the usual fandom discourse that typifies summer movies (except for that missing kiss!) and hopefully, given the film’s success and sequel prospects, we’ll see a new era of disaster movies arrive. So if you feel compelled to see it, chase it!

3. Twister (1996)

Of course, no list built in anticipation of Twisters would be complete without the OG, Twister. Director Jan de Bont, hot off of the success of Speed (1994), delivered another high-adrenaline blockbuster that thrived not only on its spectacle but the chemistry between its actors. Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Dr. Joe Harding (Helen Hunt) are brought together by fate, or call it strange weather, to test an advanced tornado alert system, Dorothy, amidst a raging storm of tornados sweeping across Oklahoma. Bolstered by a cast that included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Alan Ruck and Jami Gertz, Twister feels, in many ways, like an ode to filmmaking. There’s a crew, united by a shared vision, willing to sacrifice life and limb to create something meaningful, while the competition seeks to rush out a product for money. Rather than getting caught up in the exposition of storm chasing or weather, the film, written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin, puts the characters and their relationships first. The tornados are simply the unifying force, and the devastation they create and threat they pose become all the more impactful because we’re watching characters we care about and can root for.

2. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

“Hell, Upside Down,” proclaims the poster for Ronald Neame’s The Poseidon Adventure. And, unlike so many taglines, that’s the perfect way to describe what’s in store. When a cruise ship capsizes, a group of passengers, led by an unconventional preacher, Reverand Scott (Gene Hackman), try to make their way out. It’s a strong setup. But what keeps The Poseidon Adventure afloat are the themes it reckons with, such as divine intervention versus self-motivation, the belief in humanity as a way to contest the wrath of God, and what strength means beyond physical limitations. As Scott pushes the small group of survivors up through the ship, past flood water, raging fires and the expertly crafted disorientation of an upside-down ocean liner, it becomes a battle against God, both in the Christian sense and the mythological sense, with Poseidon serving as more than simply the name of the ship. Scott’s leadership is challenged by an ex-cop, Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine), who doubts the reverend at every step of the way, eventually emerging as the ship’s devilish force as he hurls insults and blame at Scott amid a flaming backdrop in the aftermath of a tragedy. With a supporting cast that includes Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens and Red Buttons, The Poseidon Adventure offers more than a cadre of perspectives on survival, but true tests of faith.

1. The Towering Inferno (1974)

An undertaking so big, it required two studios to make it. Before the days of dueling releases based on the same concept — à la Deep Impact and Armageddon, or Dante’s Peak (1997) and Volcano (1997) — Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox were able to cast aside the idea of two competing movies to put all of their resources and talent into one. Moving past their bidding war and duel over two novels — The Tower by Richard Martin Stern, and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson — WB and Fox execs agreed to make The Towering Inferno with John Guillermin at the helm. The film sees luxury skyscraper The Glass Tower, the tallest building in the world, catch fire during its dedication ceremony due to faulty wiring and shortcuts taken in the development process. Uniting some of Hollywood’s biggest stars — Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Fred Astaire — The Towering Inferno ascribes to the heights all disaster movies should aim for.

While the film is almost three hours long and the fire doesn’t fully begin until an hour in, this pacing serves a purpose in terms of both introducing the audience to its many characters and giving us a sense of direction within the building. It’s something that James Cameron would later implement in Titanic (1997), both in terms of establishing the characters, and always making sure the audience was grounded in the environment and knew where the characters were. There’s even a version of Billy Zane’s Cal Hockley here, in the form of Simmons (Richard Chamberlain), son-in-law of the developer, Jim Duncan (William Holden), who is responsible for the faulty electrical wiring, and who tries to escape before the women and children. As architect, Doug Roberts (Newman), and fireman, Chief O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen), try to combat the fire and save as many as possible, the casualties increase, and so do the set pieces. What’s accomplished here in terms of actual fire and practical effects remains astounding, and there’s an outside elevator scene that’s as gripping as anything you’d see in the movies today. While The Towering Inferno is one of the earliest disaster films that helped the genre gain popularity, it remains one of the best, casting a long shadow to which the films that came in its aftermath owe no small debt.