A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. The films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families. With that being said I'm going to bring you my top 10 disaster films of all-time. So without further ado...
10. Titanic
I know this film is real girly, but I honestly don't care what people think because it is simply one of the most beautifully shot films in film history one of the greatest films of all-time. American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (played by Bill Paxton) is retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (played by Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent. Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects while winning 11 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. The Perfect Storm
This film is just spectacular and has a really talented cast. Billy Tyne (played by George Clooney), captain of the Andrea Gail, hasn't had much luck finding catch on his most recent trips to sea, and with money short, he and his crew -- Bob Shatford (played by Mark Wahlberg), Dale Murphy (played by John C. Reilly), and David Sullivan (played by William Fichtner) set out again when they hear that the fish are running. Billy's hunch proves correct, but when the ship's refrigeration system goes haywire, they have to return to shore as quickly as possible before the fish spoil, sending them into the middle of the worst storm in history. The Perfect Storm has a rating of 47% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. United 93
This film is emotionally powerful and it gives us an insight to some of the bravest people in American history. The film tells the story of the takeoff and hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 by terrorists, the discovery by passengers with cell phones that other hijacked planes had been steered into the World Trade Center towers, and the realization that their plane was being steered toward Washington D.C. United 93 was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Film Editing and it has a rating of 91% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Godzilla (2014)
This film was just awesome and it was a great reboot to bring the most iconic movie monster back to the big screen. Fifteen years after the unearthing of two chrysalises in a mine in the Philippines come two pods which hold giant radiation-eating creatures, known as "MUTOs", which cause great damage in Japan, Hawaii and the western United States. Their awakening also stirs a much larger, destructive, ancient alpha predator known as "Godzilla", whose existence has been kept secret by the U.S. government since 1954. Godzilla (2014) has a rating of 73% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Apollo 13
I really like films that are based on true events and this film is one of the best based on true events and it has a great ensemble cast as well. Astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) leads command module pilot Jack Swigert (played by Kevin Bacon) and lunar module driver Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) on what is slated as NASA's third lunar landing mission. All goes smoothly until the craft is halfway through its mission, when an exploding oxygen tank threatens the crew's oxygen and power supplies. As the courageous astronauts face the dilemma of either suffocating or freezing to death, Mattingly and Mission Control leader Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris) struggle to find a way to bring the crew back home, all the while knowing that the spacemen face probable death once the battered ship reenters the Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 13 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Visual Effects and Best adapted Screenplay while winning 2 (Best Film Editing and Best Sound) and it has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Airport (1970)
This film is just awesome and like most disaster films it has a great ensemble cast. Mel Bakersfeld (played by Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (played by Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (played by Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (played by Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (played by Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (played by Van Heflin) carrying a bomb. Airport (1970) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing and Best adapted Screenplay while winning the award for for Best Supporting Actress and it has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. The Towering Inferno
This film has a great ensemble cast of a-listers form the 1970's and it's just absolutely thrilling. On the day of its grand opening, the world's tallest building becomes victim to an electrical mishap and a subsequent huge fire on its upper floors, causing all of the city's rescue teams to converge upon the scene and attempt to fight against what is a raging monster. The Towering Inferno was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Picture while winning 3 (Best Original Song, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing) and it has a rating of 74% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. Independence Day
I absolutely love this film and really just brings out the American in me. The story begins with the approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life. Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities. Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (played by Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot jet pilot (played by Will Smith), and the President of the United States (played by Bill Pullman). Independence Day was nominated for 2 Academy Awards includign Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects while winning the award for Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 60% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Armageddon
This film is my ultimate guilty pleasure film and I just absolutely love it. After a routine space shuttle mission goes disastrously wrong, it's discovered that an asteroid "the size of Texas" en route. A plan is devised by NASA to send oil drillers to land on the asteroid and drop a nuclear device down a 1000-foot shaft, a scheme calculated to crack the asteroid into two halves, saving Earth. NASA begins a crash program to train beer-besotted oil roughnecks for the mission. Armageddon was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song and Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 39% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Twister
I honestly think that I've never had more fun during a disaster film than I had with this film. Jo Harding (played by Helen Hunt) became a storm chaser (a meteorologist who photographs and scientifically studies tornadoes in the field) after a large twister sucked her hapless daddy into oblivion when she was a girl. Bill (played by Bill Paxton) was a storm chaser too, but left to become a successful weatherman. His change of profession ruined his marriage to Jo. Before separating, the Hardings invented DOROTHY, a gizmo designed to release thousands of tiny sensors when a tornado passes over it. The Hardings hope the information transmitted by the sensors will provide insight into the nature of the whirling windstorms. Backed by a large corporation, the villainous Dr. Jonas Miller (played by Carey Elwes) has created a similar machine. Neither gadget has been field tested and both groups of storm chasers are anxious to find tornadoes. At the peak of the worst twister season in decades, Bill shows up at Jo's truck with his prissy fiancee Melissa (played by Jami Gertz) so Jo can sign divorce papers. Suddenly a twister is spotted. With little hesitation, Bill rejoins the mad rush to reach it in time to activate DOROTHY. Jonas and his team are right behind them. Throughout the day the storms become worse and the rivalrous race becomes more intense. As they continue facing incredible dangers together Jo and Bill find renewed love while poor Melissa finds only an intense desire to get away from these storm-obsessed lunatics. Twister was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Visual Effects and Best Sound and it has a rating of 58% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite disaster films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10. Titanic
I know this film is real girly, but I honestly don't care what people think because it is simply one of the most beautifully shot films in film history one of the greatest films of all-time. American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (played by Bill Paxton) is retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (played by Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent. Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects while winning 11 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. The Perfect Storm
This film is just spectacular and has a really talented cast. Billy Tyne (played by George Clooney), captain of the Andrea Gail, hasn't had much luck finding catch on his most recent trips to sea, and with money short, he and his crew -- Bob Shatford (played by Mark Wahlberg), Dale Murphy (played by John C. Reilly), and David Sullivan (played by William Fichtner) set out again when they hear that the fish are running. Billy's hunch proves correct, but when the ship's refrigeration system goes haywire, they have to return to shore as quickly as possible before the fish spoil, sending them into the middle of the worst storm in history. The Perfect Storm has a rating of 47% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. United 93
This film is emotionally powerful and it gives us an insight to some of the bravest people in American history. The film tells the story of the takeoff and hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 by terrorists, the discovery by passengers with cell phones that other hijacked planes had been steered into the World Trade Center towers, and the realization that their plane was being steered toward Washington D.C. United 93 was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Film Editing and it has a rating of 91% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Godzilla (2014)
This film was just awesome and it was a great reboot to bring the most iconic movie monster back to the big screen. Fifteen years after the unearthing of two chrysalises in a mine in the Philippines come two pods which hold giant radiation-eating creatures, known as "MUTOs", which cause great damage in Japan, Hawaii and the western United States. Their awakening also stirs a much larger, destructive, ancient alpha predator known as "Godzilla", whose existence has been kept secret by the U.S. government since 1954. Godzilla (2014) has a rating of 73% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Apollo 13
I really like films that are based on true events and this film is one of the best based on true events and it has a great ensemble cast as well. Astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) leads command module pilot Jack Swigert (played by Kevin Bacon) and lunar module driver Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) on what is slated as NASA's third lunar landing mission. All goes smoothly until the craft is halfway through its mission, when an exploding oxygen tank threatens the crew's oxygen and power supplies. As the courageous astronauts face the dilemma of either suffocating or freezing to death, Mattingly and Mission Control leader Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris) struggle to find a way to bring the crew back home, all the while knowing that the spacemen face probable death once the battered ship reenters the Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 13 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Visual Effects and Best adapted Screenplay while winning 2 (Best Film Editing and Best Sound) and it has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Airport (1970)
This film is just awesome and like most disaster films it has a great ensemble cast. Mel Bakersfeld (played by Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (played by Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (played by Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (played by Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (played by Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (played by Van Heflin) carrying a bomb. Airport (1970) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing and Best adapted Screenplay while winning the award for for Best Supporting Actress and it has a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. The Towering Inferno
This film has a great ensemble cast of a-listers form the 1970's and it's just absolutely thrilling. On the day of its grand opening, the world's tallest building becomes victim to an electrical mishap and a subsequent huge fire on its upper floors, causing all of the city's rescue teams to converge upon the scene and attempt to fight against what is a raging monster. The Towering Inferno was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Picture while winning 3 (Best Original Song, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing) and it has a rating of 74% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. Independence Day
I absolutely love this film and really just brings out the American in me. The story begins with the approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life. Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities. Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (played by Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot jet pilot (played by Will Smith), and the President of the United States (played by Bill Pullman). Independence Day was nominated for 2 Academy Awards includign Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects while winning the award for Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 60% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Armageddon
This film is my ultimate guilty pleasure film and I just absolutely love it. After a routine space shuttle mission goes disastrously wrong, it's discovered that an asteroid "the size of Texas" en route. A plan is devised by NASA to send oil drillers to land on the asteroid and drop a nuclear device down a 1000-foot shaft, a scheme calculated to crack the asteroid into two halves, saving Earth. NASA begins a crash program to train beer-besotted oil roughnecks for the mission. Armageddon was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song and Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 39% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Twister
I honestly think that I've never had more fun during a disaster film than I had with this film. Jo Harding (played by Helen Hunt) became a storm chaser (a meteorologist who photographs and scientifically studies tornadoes in the field) after a large twister sucked her hapless daddy into oblivion when she was a girl. Bill (played by Bill Paxton) was a storm chaser too, but left to become a successful weatherman. His change of profession ruined his marriage to Jo. Before separating, the Hardings invented DOROTHY, a gizmo designed to release thousands of tiny sensors when a tornado passes over it. The Hardings hope the information transmitted by the sensors will provide insight into the nature of the whirling windstorms. Backed by a large corporation, the villainous Dr. Jonas Miller (played by Carey Elwes) has created a similar machine. Neither gadget has been field tested and both groups of storm chasers are anxious to find tornadoes. At the peak of the worst twister season in decades, Bill shows up at Jo's truck with his prissy fiancee Melissa (played by Jami Gertz) so Jo can sign divorce papers. Suddenly a twister is spotted. With little hesitation, Bill rejoins the mad rush to reach it in time to activate DOROTHY. Jonas and his team are right behind them. Throughout the day the storms become worse and the rivalrous race becomes more intense. As they continue facing incredible dangers together Jo and Bill find renewed love while poor Melissa finds only an intense desire to get away from these storm-obsessed lunatics. Twister was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Visual Effects and Best Sound and it has a rating of 58% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite disaster films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
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