| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1445288914000116400 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disaster_movies_collage.png]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:349:Choose your [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom doom]].[[note]]Clockwise from top left: ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', ''Film/DeepImpact'', ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'', ''Film/IntoTheStorm2014''[[/note]]]] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | %% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1445288914000116400 |
| 8 | %% |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->'''Peter:''' [T]his city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.\ |
| 11 | '''Mayor:''' What do you mean "biblical"?\ |
| 12 | '''Ray:''' What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath-of-God-type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!\ |
| 13 | '''Egon:''' Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!\ |
| 14 | '''Winston:''' The dead rising from the grave!\ |
| 15 | '''Peter:''' Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! |
| 16 | -->-- ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Films whose plots revolve around something huge, horrible, and natural heading towards the protagonists, and their reactions to it. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | About half have the main characters trying to stop the disaster somehow, while the other half have them simply [[FightToSurvive trying to survive]]. In both varieties, viewers are introduced to large casts that exist solely to be killed off in various ways by the disaster and its side effects. Meteors, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and catastrophic climate change are among the popular subjects. People who watch these movies are typically JustHereForGodzilla. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The genre became incredibly popular in TheSeventies, with Creator/IrwinAllen becoming (in)famous for making a number of these movies. Eventually, like all trends in Hollywood, it burned itself out, finally being killed when ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' tore into the genre. Modern special effects helped revive the disaster movie in TheNineties, until certain events made scenes of cataclysmic destruction rather insensitive. This aversion swiftly passed, therefore making this trope a textbook case of CyclicNationalFascination. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | AlienInvasion and especially {{kaiju}} movies tend to be very similar in tone to disaster movies, with their focus on destruction. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Not to be confused with the Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg [[Film/DisasterMovie movie of the same name]]. |
| 27 | ---- |
| 28 | !!Common tropes used in the genre: |
| 29 | |
| 30 | * AllStarCast: For some reason, disaster movies are like magnets for A- and B-list actors. |
| 31 | * AnyoneCanDie: For audiences back then it was genuinely surprising to see big name actors that one assumed were safe die '''horrific''' deaths onscreen, as opposed to just the extras. |
| 32 | * ApocalypseWow: These movies are big on special effects by necessity to wow the audience. |
| 33 | * BasedOnATrueStory: Real-life disasters make great inspiration for movies. See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Disaster_films_based_on_actual_events here]] for many examples. |
| 34 | * BigDamPlot: Dams appearing on a disaster movie ''will'' be severely damaged and/or break, just like the ChekhovsVolcano will ''always'' erupt. |
| 35 | * CassandraTruth: Often times one or more of the protagonists know about the impending catastrophe, even know how to prevent it, but they are often either a) laughed at/ignored, or b) silenced with threats. |
| 36 | * ChekhovsVolcano: If the movie features a volcano, it ''will'' erupt. |
| 37 | * DeadlineNews: The poor newscaster assigned to cover this story is in for it. |
| 38 | * DeathOfAChild: For some reason, a lot of these movies show a child getting killed, just in case we've ceased to care by this point. |
| 39 | * DesignatedVillain: Sometimes, the character that is intended to be the {{Jerkass}} and HateSink will be a completely rational and pragmatic character who simply makes [[ShootTheDog reasonable but tough decisions]] that the other characters don't like. See ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'''s Carl Anheuser for what is perhaps the prime example. |
| 40 | * DevelopingDoomedCharacters: Half of the movie will usually be spent on setting up the characters before the disaster takes out a large chunk of them. |
| 41 | * DoomedContrarian: Many characters (but most probably the HateSink) will continue to go against the heroes regardless of how sensible the heroes' decisions are ([[DeathByPragmatism or out of a sense of extremely cold pragmatism]]) up until the disaster kills them off. |
| 42 | * EnsembleCast: These movies tend to feature a large number of minor characters. |
| 43 | * ExtremelyShortTimespan: Particularly in the case of localized disasters (earthquakes, fires, crashes, etc.) the action tends to unfold over the course of one or two days at most. |
| 44 | * FightToSurvive: Most disaster movies will at some point have the characters that are left struggling to stay alive. |
| 45 | * HarsherInHindsight: Applies to some examples in the aftermath of subsequent RealLife disasters. May tread on DistancedFromCurrentEvents if the timing is poor. |
| 46 | * HateSink: The main antagonist is the disaster itself, but since one cannot hate a force of nature, a {{Jerkass}} character will often be added to serve as an outlet for the bad-guy-hating. |
| 47 | * HeroicDog: If there is a medium or large sized dog in the film, it will rescue someone. (typically a child) If it appears to die offscreen during the effort, after twenty seconds of children shedding tears to depressing music, it will be revealed to have survived -- happily panting, barking, and wagging its tail and without any apparent injuries. |
| 48 | * HollywoodScience: After all, you can't let little things like the laws of physics get in the way of some awesome destruction. |
| 49 | * IgnoredExpert: Most films of this genre (except those that focus entirely on civilian survivors), will have a scientist warning authorities of the potential for disaster in the early scenes and not being taken seriously. |
| 50 | * JustHereForGodzilla: Large parts of the audience watch it solely for the disasters themselves, rather than the character subplots around it. |
| 51 | * MadeForTVMovie: Since the advent of video tape, TV production has often been cheaper than film. This allows more money for an AllStarCast and StuffBlowingUp. (Sometimes called the Movie of the Week or Million Dollar Movie.) Even in the 1970s there were about as many made-for-TV disaster movies as theatrical ones, another reason the genre initially burnt out at the turn of the 1980s. |
| 52 | * MonumentalDamage: Because TheWhiteHouse getting blown up is a lot more awesome than your neighbor's house getting blown up. Unless you really hate your neighbor... |
| 53 | * NaturalDisasterCascade: Why have just one disaster in the same movie when you can have multiple. |
| 54 | * NightmareFuel: One wonders why none of these movies ever get mentioned when anyone makes a list of the scariest movies of all time, considering how much they work off of [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes common fears like acrophobia]] and {{claustrophobia}}. |
| 55 | * NoAntagonist: The main {{conflict}} in these films is caused by a natural disaster, so unless the film adds additional human adversaries to overcome (who often fall in the DesignatedVillain category), there are effectively no antagonists. |
| 56 | * OneWordTitle: It seems to be popular for the title to be just the name of whatever's trying to kill the heroes i.e. ''Earthquake'', ''Avalanche'', ''Volcano'', ''Twister'', ''Meteor'', etc. |
| 57 | * OutrunTheFireball: Often many times in a single movie. Substitute "tidal wave", "fault line", "lava flow", WaveMotionGun, etc. for fireball as necessary. |
| 58 | * PopularityPolynomial: Disaster movies went out of fashion ''twice'' -- the first time being after the genre burned itself out in the late '70s, and the second being the result of September 11th attacks. The 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina didn't help either. |
| 59 | * PrimalFear: If you're {{claustrophobi|a}}c, [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou acrophobic]], [[IncendiaryExponent pyrophobic]], or any number of other phobias, you will not have a good time. |
| 60 | * RedShirt |
| 61 | * RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: What better way to integrate the obligatory romantic subplot into a story about a disaster? |
| 62 | * RippedFromTheHeadlines: Releases of these films tend to coincide with real life disasters (give or take six months depending on severity of destruction or death tolls) |
| 63 | * RuleOfCool: See HollywoodScience. |
| 64 | * SceneryGorn |
| 65 | * ShockingMoments: The disaster sequences will most definitely do their damnedest to shock the audience. |
| 66 | * SpreadingDisasterMapGraphic |
| 67 | * StuffBlowingUp: First rule of Hollywood: "''Anything'' can explode". |
| 68 | * SuitWithVestedInterests: They're willing to ignore an imminent disaster to protect their investment. |
| 69 | * SummerBlockbuster: With the budgets that most disaster movies have, it's only natural that they're released in the summer. |
| 70 | * TokenRomance: Most common with films released in TheNineties and onward, and very often involves the protagonist's prior unspecified divorce or an [[ToiletSeatDivorce upcoming unspecified divorce]]. It is assumed that their issues get resolved [[SexChangesEverything shortly after the film ends]]. |
| 71 | * UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The films shot in TheSeventies are replete with groovy fashions and set designs. Films from TheNineties are also heading into this. |
| 72 | * VillainyFreeVillain: The real {{conflict}} is the disaster, but writers don't seem to want this film to go without an outright bastard in the cast who antagonizes the heroes (without doing much besides being a {{Jerkass}}) and will often receive a KarmicDeath. |
| 73 | * SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome (or SpecialEffectFailure if done wrong) |
| 74 | |
| 75 | ---- |
| 76 | !!Examples of disaster movies: |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[AC:Sorted]] |
| 79 | [[index]] |
| 80 | * ''Film/TheJohnstownFlood'': The UrExample. A fictionalized account of the RealLife Johnstown Flood aka Great Flood of 1889, in which a dam outside Johnstown, PA failed, killing 2200 people. |
| 81 | * ''Film/{{Deluge}}'' (1933): An early example. Most of the film was thought to be [[MissingEpisode lost]], save for a scene of [[BigApplesauce New York]] getting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFyDMKZie7M destroyed by earthquakes and tidal waves]]. In the late 1980s, however, a complete print dubbed in Italian was discovered in a film archive. One scene, showing the Statue of Liberty getting hit by a tidal wave, would be copied over seventy years later by ''Film/DeepImpact'' and ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow''. |
| 82 | * ''Film/{{San Francisco|1936}}'' (1936): Another early example, decipting the historical 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Stars Creator/ClarkGable, Creator/JeanetteMacDonald, and Creator/SpencerTracy. |
| 83 | * ''Film/TheHurricane'' (1937): Mostly a drama of interracial romance and unjust imprisonment on a Polynesian island, but climaxes with the eponymous storm. Directed by Creator/JohnFord and unsuccessfully remade in 1979. |
| 84 | * ''Film/FiveCameBack'' (1939): About a plane with eleven people aboard that crashes into the Amazon jungle, is another early example. |
| 85 | * ''Film/TheRainsCame'' (1939): Starring Creator/MyrnaLoy, George Brent and Creator/TyronePower, this [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox Studios]] motion picture was the first to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. A rich socialite meets a NewOldFlame while setting her eyes on a handsome young Indian doctor right in time for the monsoons. |
| 86 | * ''Film/TheKillerThatStalkedNewYork'' (1950): {{Very Loosely Based|OnATrueStory}} on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_New_York_City_smallpox_outbreak 1947 New York City smallpox outbreak]]. The film focuses heavily on the public health response with the authorities trying to contain the outbreak, though there is also a subplot about PatientZero Sheila Bennet's personal life which is more like a typical FilmNoir. |
| 87 | [[/index]] |
| 88 | * ''Film/MorningDeparture'' (1950): A submarine on routine patrol is sunk by an old SeaMine. The survivors are trapped on the sea floor, awaiting an uncertain rescue. |
| 89 | * ''Film/WhenWorldsCollide'' (1951): A star called Bellus is expected to collide with Earth. A group of astronomers are tasked with constructing a ship that could save whatever remains of the human species. |
| 90 | * ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds1953'' (1953): The first film adaptation based on the famous novel by Creator/HGWells, Martians conduct a worldwide invasion against the Earth using heat rays and manta ray-shaped fighting machines. |
| 91 | * ''The High and the Mighty'' (1954): An UnbuiltTrope example of the genre. Starred Creator/JohnWayne, who was also co-producer. Its plot, about a plane that suffers engine failure on a flight from [[UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} Honolulu]] to UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, would later be copied by ''Airport''. |
| 92 | [[index]] |
| 93 | * ''Film/EarthVsTheFlyingSaucers'' (1956): Aliens lay waste to Washington D.C. during a worldwide alien invasion. Features special effects by Creator/RayHarryhausen. |
| 94 | * ''Film/ZeroHour1957'' (1957): Most famous today for serving as the primary model for ''Film/{{Airplane}}''. |
| 95 | * ''Film/ANightToRemember'' (1958): An accurate portrayal of the doomed RMS Titanic; perhaps the TropeCodifier and served as the inspiration for James Cameron's ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}''. |
| 96 | * ''Film/TheLastVoyage'' (1960): An ocean liner sinks in the Pacific following an explosion in its boiler room. Notable for being filmed aboard an actual decommissioned liner (the ''Ile de France'') which was due for scrapping. |
| 97 | * ''Film/TheDayTheEarthCaughtFire'' (1961): London journalists gradually discover that simultaneous A-bomb tests on opposite ends of the globe have knocked Earth off its axis and sent it hurtling toward the Sun. |
| 98 | * ''Film/{{Gorath}}'' (1962): A rogue planet of gargantuan size is hurtling towards the solar system, threatening to destroy Earth with its sheer gravitational pull. From [[Creator/{{Toho}} the people]] behind the Franchise/{{Godzilla}} movies, featuring many of the same production crew members. |
| 99 | * ''Film/{{Airport}}'' (1970): The TropeCodifier. Started the first boom of disaster films in the '70s. Stars Creator/BurtLancaster, Music/DeanMartin, Creator/GeorgeKennedy and Creator/JacquelineBisset. Had three sequels, [[{{Sequelitis}} each one progressively worse]] (but still successful... at least, until the fourth one [[FranchiseKiller finally killed the series]]). |
| 100 | * ''Film/NoBladeOfGrass'' (1970): When a new strain of blight destroys all members of the grass family, society descends into chaos as hundreds of millions starve. |
| 101 | * ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' (1971): After a deadly extraterrestrial micro-organism is brought to Earth on a crashed military satellite in the Southwestern U.S., a team of scientists assembles in an underground facility to investigate the organism and contain its spread. |
| 102 | * ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'' (1972): An ocean liner is capsized by a giant wave and left floating upside down. The first of Creator/IrwinAllen's disaster movies stars Creator/GeneHackman, Creator/ErnestBorgnine, Shelley Winters, and Creator/LeslieNielsen in [[LeslieNielsenSyndrome a non-comedic role]]. Had a sequel in 1979 (''Beyond the Poseidon Adventure'', which doesn't fall under this trope), a 2005 MadeForTVMovie remake, ''and'' a big-screen [[TheRemake remake]] in 2006 as ''Film/{{Poseidon}}''. |
| 103 | [[/index]] |
| 104 | * ''Short Walk to Daylight'' (1972): A TV movie, where an earthquake strikes New York and a group of passengers in a subway, led by a cop played by James Brolin, must try to find their way back to the streets above after realizing nobody will be looking for them. Quite well liked despite being rather obscure, with a low budget, and notable for taking place entirely underground. |
| 105 | * ''Nihon Chinbotsu'' (''Japan Sinks'') (1973): Arguably the most successful Japanese disaster film ever, it was followed up by a highly subpar remake in 2006. Subjected to a particularly bad ImportationExpansion when it was released in the US. Based on a book by the great sci-fi novelist Sakyo Komatsu, who is mostly known in the Anglosphere for the numerous {{Shout Out}}s he gets in work by Creator/OsamuTezuka. See below for its plot. |
| 106 | [[index]] |
| 107 | * ''Film/{{Westworld}}'' (1973): Humanoid robots go murderously haywire at a futuristic amusement resort visited by Creator/RichardBenjamin and Creator/JamesBrolin. |
| 108 | * ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' (1974): The world's tallest skyscraper is built in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, but on the day of its dedication, it catches fire and traps partygoers on the top floors. The second of Creator/IrwinAllen's disaster movies, and often considered to be one of the best. Stars Creator/PaulNewman, [[Creator/SteveMcQueenActor Steve McQueen]], Creator/FayeDunaway, Creator/WilliamHolden, and Creator/FredAstaire among others. |
| 109 | * ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' (1974): An earthquake destroys UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. Creator/CharltonHeston, Creator/AvaGardner, and Creator/LorneGreene try to survive. This was the first of a handful of '70s films to use Sensurround, a special surround sound system with a powerful bass line. When the city started to rumble, crumble, and tumble, the bass kicked in to literally shake up audiences. |
| 110 | * ''Film/PropheciesOfNostradamus'' (1974): Japanese movie. Earth goes through a disaster gauntlet, ranging from [[NuclearMutant mutant slugs]] to city-engulfing fire-storms, to [[Creator/GeorgeCarlin the sky filling with green shit]]. |
| 111 | * ''Film/{{The Hindenburg|1975}}'' (1975): Why did this RealLife disaster happen? The fictional story chronicles the possibility that it was sabotage. A rare case of a Disaster Movie that holds off on the actual disaster until the finale. Notable for the sets being ''extremely'' loyal to the real ''[[UsefulNotes/TheHindenburg Hindenburg]]'', to the extent that the spectacular, dreamlike airship steals the show. Creator/GeorgeCScott heads the cast. |
| 112 | * ''Film/TheBigBus'' (1976): Genre parody. On the maiden voyage of a luxury transcontinental coach (nuclear-powered, double-decker, equipped with a bowling alley, cocktail lounge, swimming pool, and dining room) the crew must deal with a series of disasters and sabotages. |
| 113 | * ''Film/TheCassandraCrossing'' (1976): A terrorist infected with plague is on a train, so authorities send it in the direction of a bridge too weak to support it. Can the passengers who don't succumb to the illness save themselves? |
| 114 | * ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'' (1977): Three years before they did ''Airplane!'', the ZAZ team included a shorter-form parody of the disaster genre in this movie with the segment "That's Armageddon!" (Featuring Creator/DonaldSutherland as the clumsy waiter!) |
| 115 | * ''Film/GrayLadyDown'' (1978): A nuclear U.S. Navy sub sinks after colliding with a Norwegian freighter, trapping its crew and necessitating a dangerous rescue effort. |
| 116 | * ''Film/TheSwarm1978'' (1978): In another Irwin Allen effort, killer bees attack [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]]. Yeah. The genre began dying out with this movie's failure. |
| 117 | * ''Film/{{Avalanche}}'' (1978): ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. |
| 118 | * ''Film/Cyclone1978'': A cyclone devastates the coast of Mexico, bringing down a plane, leaving a glass bottom tour boat adrift, and forcing a group of fishermen to AbandonShip. The survivors of all three groups are left trapped at sea with little food and water to go around, especially once they come into contact with each other and have to share. |
| 119 | * ''Film/TheChinaSyndrome'' (1979): An odd variant, since it's about the narrow ''aversion'' of a disaster (a meltdown at a nuclear plant) and the attempts to cover up what nearly led to it. |
| 120 | * ''Film/CityOnFire'' (1979): An unnamed Midwestern city suffers a massive fire when an oil refinery worker loses it and sabotages the place. |
| 121 | * ''Film/TheHamburgSyndrome'' (1979): About the sudden outbreak of a deadly disease in UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}} and the UsefulNotes/{{West German|y}} government's attempts to quarantine the city and stop its spread. |
| 122 | * ''Film/{{Meteor}}'' (1979): A bunch of nukes built by Creator/SeanConnery and Brian Keith versus a giant asteroid. Not as cool as it sounds, sadly. |
| 123 | * ''Film/WhenTimeRanOut'' (1980): A volcano in the South Pacific threatens a resort, an oil rig, and a volcano observatory. The final nail in the coffin for the first cycle of disaster films, and Creator/IrwinAllen's final theatrically-released film. Even the cast (which included Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, and William Holden) hated it. |
| 124 | * ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' (1980): TheParody of the disaster genre. So effective, it made it [[GenreKiller nearly impossible for disaster movies to be taken seriously]] for another thirteen years. |
| 125 | * ''Film/TheChainReaction'' (1980): A young couple in rural Australia must inform the public of a radiation leak following an earthquake before the {{corrupt corporate executive}}s responsible can intercept and silence them. |
| 126 | * ''Film/{{Virus|1980}}'' (1980): also based on a novel by Sakyo Komatsu, a [[ThePlague man-made virus]] wipes out the human race, save for a group of Antarctic researchers who must take on the task of preserving some sense of civilization. At the time it was the highest budgeted Japanese film, with an AllStarCast including Masao Kusakari, Creator/SonnyChiba, and Creator/OliviaHussey. |
| 127 | * ''Film/GoliathAwaits'' (1981): A cruise ship sunk in World War II has managed to conserve enough air to keep the survivors alive for decades afterwards, with there being mixed reactions when a rescue party (originally meant as a salvage party) finally arrives, and some of the survivors can't conceive of leaving. |
| 128 | * ''Film/TheDayAfter'' (1983): A very different sort of disaster movie, which is the reason it was able to escape ''Airplane!'''s shadow. It was a [[MadeForTVMovie TV movie]] made for [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] about [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]] between the USA and the USSR. It doesn’t go well, to put it lightly. It, along with [[Film/{{Threads}} its British equivalent]], was effective enough at showing [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the result of a nuclear war]] that it is widely credited (by, among other people, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan) for inspiring the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987. |
| 129 | * ''Film/{{Testament}}'' (1983): Another made-for-TV film, this time for Creator/{{PBS}}, similar to ''The Day After''. The key difference is that rather than focusing on the direct effects of a nuclear exchange like its network counterpart (in fact, outside of a bright flash, said exchange is never shown onscreen), it focuses on a small California town that manages to initially escape being destroyed by the bombs, only to soon deal with the collapse of the outside world, and eventually radioactive fallout. Much less intense and well-known than ''The Day After'', but nonetheless heartbreaking and just as, if not moreso critically acclaimed, to the point of actually getting a theatrical release. |
| 130 | * ''Film/{{Threads}}'' (1984): The TransAtlanticEquivalent of ''The Day After'', with the added horror (thanks to advances in understanding the effects of nuclear war between 1983 and 1984) of showing the long-term effects of worldwide nuclear war (short version: those who die in the blasts are the lucky ones). |
| 131 | * ''Film/{{Challenger}}'' (1990): A dramatization of the events leading up to the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster, with particular emphasis on the personal lives of the astronauts and the safety issues regarding the shuttle's booster rockets that failed so catastrophically during its launch on January 28, 1986. |
| 132 | * ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' (1995): The true story of the manned space mission that never made it to the Moon. |
| 133 | * ''Film/{{Outbreak}}'' (1995): An extremely virulent Ebola-like virus is brought to the U.S. by an infected capuchin monkey sold as a pet and threatens to decimate a small town in California. |
| 134 | * ''Film/{{Twister}}'' (1996): Tornadoes in Oklahoma. Helped to revive interest in disaster films, with help from... |
| 135 | ** Now has a standalone sequel, ''Film/{{Twisters}}'' (2024). |
| 136 | * ''Film/IndependenceDay'' (1996): Aliens blow up the White House, among other world landmarks, and humanity has to figure out how to stop them from doing even more damage. This film turned Creator/WillSmith into a superstar and remains one of the few A-level disaster films to have a sequel (''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'', released and set 20 years later after both sides of the conflict have rebuilt). |
| 137 | * ''Film/{{Daylight}}'' (1996): The Holland Tunnel floods following an explosion, and Creator/SylvesterStallone goes in to save the people trapped. |
| 138 | * ''Film/MarsAttacks'' (1996): A parody of '50s AlienInvasion films, which overlapped into the disaster genre. Directed by Creator/TimBurton, and starred Creator/JackNicholson, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, and Creator/SarahJessicaParker, with early roles by Jack Black and Natalie Portman. Had the misfortune of arriving a few months after ''Film/IndependenceDay'', and barely made back its budget. |
| 139 | * ''Film/DantesPeak'' (1997): A volcano erupts in [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest the Pacific Northwest]]. Surprisingly for a disaster flick, it's notable for its [[ShownTheirWork relative scientific accuracy]]. Starred Creator/PierceBrosnan and Creator/LindaHamilton. [[DuelingMovies Dueled]] with... |
| 140 | * ''Film/{{Volcano}}'' (1997): A volcano erupts in Los Angeles. Not so notable for scientific accuracy. Starred Creator/TommyLeeJones. |
| 141 | * ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' (1997): What happens when you combine a disaster movie with a ChickFlick. The latest in a long line of films about the ''Titanic'' disaster, and by far the most famous and popular. |
| 142 | * ''Film/Armageddon1998'': An asteroid the size of Texas is headed for Earth, and our only hope is Creator/BruceWillis and his team of deep core oil drillers. Makes ''Volcano'' look like a scientific documentary. Directed by Creator/MichaelBay. [[DuelingMovies Dueled]] with... |
| 143 | * ''Film/DeepImpact'' (1998), the [[ShownTheirWork comparative]] ''Dante's Peak'' of this particular duel. |
| 144 | * ''Earthquake In New York'' (1998): A two-part TV movie about a major quake in a place no one expects! |
| 145 | * ''Film/{{Firestorm|1998}}'' (1998): When a convoluted prison escape scheme causes a massive forest fire, it's up to a smokejumper and a plucky ornithologist to save the day. |
| 146 | * ''Film/HardRain'' (1998): Concerning an armored-car robbery that takes place during a cataclysmic Midwestern flood. |
| 147 | * ''Film/AtomicTrain'' (1999): A train carrying explosive chemicals and a nuclear bomb becomes a runaway, and it's up to an NTSB agent and a train operator to prevent the train from crashing and the bomb exploding in Denver. |
| 148 | * ''Film/ThePerfectStorm'' (2000): Dramatization of the hurricane that hit the Atlantic coast of North America in October 1991, and the sinking of the commercial fishing boat ''Andrea Gail''. |
| 149 | * ''Film/Smallpox2002'': Aired on The BBC in 2002, but didn't air in America till 2005, about a (fictional) smallpox pandemic spread by a bioterrorist. |
| 150 | * ''Film/NineEleven'' (2002): RealLife documentary that it's actually not that far off - a film crew embedded with the fire department responding to a minor call just happens to capture an incredibly destructive terrorist act and follows the firefighters into harms way, recording the whole time. In the end, despite thousands dying, the entire main cast survives. If you wrote a movie with that plot you'd have fanboys telling you it's [[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]]. |
| 151 | * ''Film/TheCore'' (2003): [[ArtisticLicense Earth's core stops rotating thanks to a top-secret military project]] GoneHorriblyWrong, eliminating Earth's magnetic field and causing it to get hit by solar storms. Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank go down into Earth's interior to restart the core with nuclear bombs. Makes ''Armageddon'' look like ''Volcano''. [[LostAesop Or something]]. |
| 152 | * ''[[Film/DC911TimeOfCrisis D.C. 9/11: Time of Crisis]]'': Dramatization of how the U.S. government responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. |
| 153 | [[/index]] |
| 154 | * ''10.5'' (2004): An Creator/{{NBC}} MiniSeries about massive earthquakes destroying the West Coast. Its 2006 sequel, ''10.5 Apocalypse'', had a massive fault line opening up in the Midwest and splitting North America in half. |
| 155 | [[index]] |
| 156 | * ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' (2004): GlobalWarming destroys the world. Starred Creator/DennisQuaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. |
| 157 | [[/index]] |
| 158 | * ''Category 6: Day of Destruction'' (2004): Another MiniSeries, this one from Creator/{{CBS}} and starring Creator/RandyQuaid and Brian Dennehy. A massive storm (which is, for some reason, [[ArtisticLicense referred to as a hurricane]]) develops over Chicago and destroys it. Its release [[FollowTheLeader just six months after]] ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' [[BlatantLies must be a coincidence]]. |
| 159 | [[index]] |
| 160 | * ''Film/{{Supervolcano}}'' (2005): A docudrama aired on the Discovery Channel about the Yellowstone Supervolcano unexpectedly erupting. |
| 161 | [[/index]] |
| 162 | * ''Category 7: The End of the World'' (2005): The sequel to the above. The storm from the original moves east and destroys New York and Washington, while similar storms destroy Paris and Egypt. Meanwhile, a televangelist and his wife exploit the storms to gain new converts. Starred Creator/GinaGershon as the [[QuestionableCasting head of FEMA]], as well as Creator/ShannenDoherty, James Brolin, and a returning Randy Quaid. |
| 163 | [[index]] |
| 164 | * ''Film/EndDay'' (2005): An hour-long docudrama offering four (or five, depending on the cut) ways that natural disasters could cause the end of the world (or even just massive loss of life and property): megatsunami, meteor strike, pandemic, supervolcano eruption, and formation of a killer strangelet in the Large Hadron Collider. |
| 165 | [[/index]] |
| 166 | * ''Nihon Chinbotsu'' (''Japan Sinks'') (2006): ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. A remake of the highest grossing disaster film Japan ever produced, it flopped compared to the 1973 original. Earthquakes and volcanoes destroy Japan and cause it to sink into the ocean. A Japanese production, it was notable for actually exploring the consequences of such a disaster with more than just passing reference. |
| 167 | [[index]] |
| 168 | * ''Film/{{Poseidon}}'' (2006): A remake of ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'', directed by Creator/WolfgangPetersen and starring Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/JoshLucas and Creator/RichardDreyfuss. |
| 169 | * ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'' (2006): An AffectionateParody of ''Airport'' and its ilk. Was subject to MemeticMutation even before its release, thanks to the fact that it starred Creator/SamuelLJackson. |
| 170 | * ''Film/{{Flood}}'' (2007): A British film based on a 2002 novel by Creator/RichardDoyle, it followed a the events of a flood caused by storm surge from the North Sea that overwhelms the Thames Barrier, flooding London. |
| 171 | * ''Film/SuperCometAfterTheImpact'': A SpeculativeDocumentary produced by [[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations ZDF]] and the Creator/DiscoveryChannel about what would happen if a comet hit Earth in the same place the asteroid that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs did. |
| 172 | [[/index]] |
| 173 | * ''[[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg Disaster Movie]]'' (2008): A ShallowParody of...erm, movies with cool-looking trailers? Despite its name, it had [[InNameOnly almost nothing]] to do with disaster films. Then again, what more would you expect from Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg? |
| 174 | [[index]] |
| 175 | * ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' (2009): The [[MayanDoomsday Mayan prophecies]] of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt start coming true. Lots of stuff blows up. An aircraft carrier crushes the White House and St. Peter's dome imitates a bowling ball. |
| 176 | * ''Anime/TokyoMagnitude8'' (2009): A disaster ''{{Anime}}''. Pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a story about an 8.0 earthquake in Tokyo, though with a surprising focus on human drama and emergency procedures rather than spectacle. HarsherInHindsight after 2011. |
| 177 | * ''Film/QuantumApocalypse'' (2010): A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelet strangelet]], which the movie portrays as a [[GravitySucks gravity vortex pulling in only one direction]], moves towards Earth. Russia tries to solve the problem by [[NukeEm nuking the Poles]], which only causes more destruction. |
| 178 | * ''Metal Tornado'' (2011): An energy company called Helios World tests its new power generation technology, harnessing energy from a solar flare. An accident involving a power overload causes a magnetic vortex to pinch off, and spiral out of control into something like a tornado headed straight for Philadelphia. |
| 179 | * ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' (2012): WordOfGod maintains that mixes this in with a {{Superhero}} film due to the sheer scope of Bane's plot to destroy Gotham. |
| 180 | * ''Film/{{Aftershock}}'' (2012): A group of people surviving the aftermath of an earthquake in Chile. |
| 181 | * ''Film/TheImpossible'' (2012): Based on a real-life disaster (the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami) but instead of spectacle, the film is driven by the film's performances and the story of a family fighting to see each other again (which was based on a true story, by the way). |
| 182 | * ''Film/{{Gravity}}'' (2012): The destruction of a satellite leads to DisasterDominoes as each piece of debris impacts other satellites and space stations, with a MinimalistCast of two astronauts trying to survive it. |
| 183 | * ''Film/ItsADisaster'' (2012): In this BlackComedy, four brunching couples wait for the end after learning that the U.S. has been attacked by poison bombs. |
| 184 | * ''Film/{{Sharknado}}'' (2013) and its sequels have been hugely successful due to the entirely ridiculous and over the top premise of combining two entirely unrelated and incompatible disasters together. Has pretty much become an AffectionateParody. |
| 185 | * ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'' (2013): A disaster comedy parody film that focuses on a house party filled with celebrities trying to survive the end of days. |
| 186 | * ''Film/{{Into the Storm|2014}}'' (2014): A {{Found Footage Film|s}} following a number of people trying to survive a barrage of super-tornadoes. Much StuffBlowingUp ensues, like the ''tornadoes razing a fully loaded airport'', and even one making a gas main explode, [[InfernalRetaliation turning into a massive firenado]]. |
| 187 | * ''Film/{{Noah}}'' (2014) - all the usual disaster movie tropes, set in Biblical Times. |
| 188 | * ''10.0 Earthquake'': A new fracking project sets off tremors all over the Los Angeles basin area, ultimately threatening to destroy the entire city. |
| 189 | * ''Film/FireTwister'' (2015): A group of ecologists are prompted to stop a firenado destroying multiple cities in California after witnessing its spawn. It notably stands out from other disaster movies in that the disaster in question, rather than occurring naturally or out of nowhere, was actually man-made and planned, courtesy of a CIA bomb exploding at a storage tank. |
| 190 | * ''Film/{{The Wave|2015}}'' (2015): An unstable mountainside collapses into the Geiranger fjord, sending [[GiantWallOfWateryDoom a 300 ft wave]] towards Geiranger, Norway. Based on [[TruthInTelevision plausible future events]]. |
| 191 | ** Now has a sequel, ''Film/TheQuake'' (2018), which centers around a major earthquake striking Oslo, the capital of Norway. |
| 192 | * ''Film/SanAndreas'' (2015): The Big One finally hits California. |
| 193 | * ''Film/FlightCrew'': A mid air rescue between two planes fleeing a volcanic eruption. |
| 194 | * ''Film/{{Tunnel}}'' (2016): On a routine trip home from work, Lee Jung-soo is trapped by a collapsing tunnel. With only two bottles of water, a birthday cake, and his phone on 78% battery, he must survive long enough to be rescued by emergency services. |
| 195 | * ''Film/{{Geostorm}}'' (2017): Centers, as the name implies, on a series of global meteorological disasters caused by weather-controlling satellites. It's the sort of premise one might expect from a director who's worked extensively with Creator/RolandEmmerich in the past. |
| 196 | * ''Film/TheHurricaneHeist'' (2018): A group of rogue treasury agents plan a heist in the midst of a hurricane. |
| 197 | * ''Film/AfterDarkness'' (2019): A rich family hunkers down and tries to survive the aftermath of the sun going out. |
| 198 | * ''Film/{{Ashfall}}'' (2019): About a volcano whose eruptions have devastating consequences for the Korean peninsula. |
| 199 | * ''Film/{{Crawl}}'' (2019): A young woman and her father battle a hurricane and alligators. |
| 200 | * ''Film/Exit2019'' (2019): A terrorist releases a slowly rising toxic gas throughout downtown Seoul, which forces the citizens to head to the roofs. A rare comedic example. |
| 201 | * ''Film/{{Songbird}}'' (2020): By the year 2024, [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] has mutated into an even deadlier form known as COVID-23, claiming more than 110 million lives worldwide and forcing those infected to be placed in quarantine zones where they are left to die. |
| 202 | * ''Film/{{Greenland}}'' (2020): A structural engineer (Gerard Butler) and his family seek shelter against an oncoming planet killer of a meteor. |
| 203 | * ''Film/DontLookUp'' (2021): A GenreDeconstruction [[BlackComedy dark]] [[DeconstructiveParody parody]] of how a planet-killing meteor scenario would likely play out in real life with a modern-day political and social landscape, with their answer being that government corruption, greed, and a dash of willful ignorance would ultimately screw everyone over. |
| 204 | * ''[[Film/ThirteenMinutes2021 13 Minutes]]'' (2021): Four families deal with their own personal issues (a married TV meteorologist and emergency management official raising their deaf daughter, a young adult daughter of a teen mom dealing with whether to keep her unplanned pregnancy, a closeted gay teen struggling to come out to his socially conservative parents, and a hotel employee trying to start a new life with her undocumented immigrant fiancée) as a monster tornado descends upon their small Oklahoma town. An independent film featuring Creator/AmySmart, Creator/AnneHeche, Creator/PeterFacinelli, Creator/PazVega and Music/TraceAdkins. |
| 205 | * ''Film/{{Silent Night|2021}}'' (2021): A group of Britons try to enjoy a farewell Christmas dinner party before a climate-change induced toxic storm arrives to kill them all. |
| 206 | * ''Film/{{Moonfall}}'' (2022): A mysterious force knocks UsefulNotes/{{the Moon}} from its orbit and sends it hurtling on a collision course with Earth. Makes ''2012'' look like a scientific documentary. |
| 207 | [[/index]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[AC:Unsorted]] |
| 210 | * Many Creator/{{Syfy}} [[Film/SyFyChannelOriginalMovie Original Movies]] tend to be disaster flicks. Why they go for the genre with such a meager special effects budget is unknown, but it may have to do with Canadian and German tax credits. |
| 211 | ** The major networks often did this in the 1970s and '80s, but with better budgets and stars. ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' did a few of these in their time as a local access show, including ''Film/SSTDeathFlight'' and ''Film/{{Superdome}}''. |
| 212 | * ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' is a mini-series that focuses on the [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} eponymous nuclear plant accident]] and its aftermath and crosses the line with HistoricalFiction due to both being based off real events and eschewing the disaster genre's clichés (it could well be classified as {{Horror}} as well). |
| 213 | * ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' and ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' are disaster movies in a sense. Unlike most {{Kaiju}} movies, they focus more on the horrors of encountering a gigantic rampaging monster, thus giving them many disaster movie aspects. Helps that Godzilla was supposed to be a walking representation of the atomic bombs while "Clover"'s attack had many aspects of [=9/11=] in it. |
| 214 | ** ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' also has disaster movie aspects akin to its 1954 predecessor, taking cues from (and a few potshots at) the Japanese government's response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. |
| 215 | * ''Series/TheDayOfTheRoses'': An Australian two-part miniseries about the real-life Granville Rail Disaster and the subsequent investigation, with viewpoints shared between recollections of the disaster and its aftermath and the investigators dealing with the political implications of their findings. |
| 216 | * ''Series/KyukyuSentaiGoGoV'' was sort of this, since the heroes were all civil servants who rescued people from disasters, complete with lots of exploding buildings, erupting volcanoes, etc. (the explosions help to strengthen the comparisons to the Creator/GerryAnderson shows they were homaging). Only thing was, most of these disasters weren't just happenstance -- the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Saima Clan]] intentionally causes a lot of the disasters in their attempts to bring back [[BigBAd their mother Grandiene]] or [[ForTheEvulz just because]]. This carried over into ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'' to an extent, albeit [[LighterAndSofter toned-down in comparison]]. |
| 217 | * ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' (and various adaptations) is partially this, since it's about a family who operate the giant Thunderbird craft to rescue people from awful situations (sometimes caused by error, other times it's really [[BigBad The Hood]] in his attempts to steal International Rescue's technology). Lots of StuffBlowingUp is a frequent sight. |
| 218 | * ''VideoGame/ZettaiZetsumeiToshi'', known in English as ''VideoGame/DisasterReport'', is a series of disaster ''video games'': ostensibly, they are SurvivalHorror games, except with earthquakes taking the place of monsters and zombies. |
| 219 | * ''VideoGame/EscapeTheMuseum'' 1 and 2 take place in the immediate wake of a devastating earthquake, with the main characters crossing all manner of hazards to reunite as a family. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / DisasterMovie
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
