Disaster Movie - Television Tropes & Idioms

Films whose plots revolve around something huge, horrible, and natural heading towards the protagonists, and their reactions to it.

About half have the main characters trying to stop the disaster somehow, while the other half have them simply 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 Just Here for Godzilla.

The genre became incredibly popular in The Seventies, with Irwin Allen became (in)famous for making a number of these movies. Eventually, like all trends in Hollywood, it burned itself out, finally being killed when Airplane! tore into the genre. Modern special effects helped revive the disaster movie in The Nineties, until certain events made scenes of cataclysmic destruction rather insensitive. This aversion swiftly passed.

Alien Invasion and especially kaiju movies tend to be very similar in tone to disaster movies, with their focus on destruction.

Not to be confused with the Seltzer and Friedberg movie of the same name, although that was technically a disaster movie, being that is was the only film they made that bombed in theaters.

Common tropes found in this genre include:

All Star Cast: For some reason, disaster movies are like magnets for A and B-list actors.
- 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(see the trope below).
Anyone Can Die
Apocalypse Wow
Big Dam Plot
Cassandra Truth often times one or more of the protagonists know about the impending catastrophe, sometimes even know how to prevent it, but are often either a)laughed at/ignored or b)silenced with threats, see Designated Antagonist below
Designated Antagonist: The real conflict is the disaster, but writers don't seem to want this film without an outright bastard, who will often receive a Karmic Death.
Developing Doomed Characters
- Eight Deadly Words: If the characters in question are especially dull or annoying, the audience may decide that "I don't care what happens to these people."
Doomed Contrarian: See above.
Harsher in Hindsight: Applies to some examples in the aftermath of subsequent Real Life disasters. May tread on Too Soon if the timing is poor.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: 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 common fears like acrophobia and claustrophobia.
Hollywood Science: After all, you can't let little things like the laws of physics get in the way of some awesome destruction.
HSQ
Infant Immortality: For some reason, a lot of these movies show a baby getting killed, just in case we've ceased to give a fuck by this point.
Just Here for Godzilla
Made-for-TV Movie: Since the advent of video tape, TV production has often been cheaper than film. This allows more budget for the All Star Cast and Stuff Blowing Up. Sometimes called the Movie of the Week or Million Dollar Movie.
Monumental Damage: Because the White House getting blown up is a lot more awesome than your neighbor's house getting blown up.
- Unless you really hate your neighbour...
Outrun the Fireball: Often many times in a single movie. Substitute "tidal wave", "fault line", "lava flow", Wave Motion Gun, etc. for fireball as necessary.
Popularity Polynomial: Disaster movies went through Deader than Disco status twice — the first time being after the genre burned itself out in the late '70s, and the second being the result of 9/11. The 2004 tsunami didn't help either.
Red Shirt
- Red Shirt Reporter
Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: What better way to integrate the obligatory romantic subplot into a story about a disaster?
Rule Of Cool: See Hollywood Science.
Scenery Gorn
Stuff Blowing Up: The whole point.
Summer Blockbuster: With the budgets that most disaster movies have, it's only natural that they're released in the summer.
Unintentional Period Piece: The films shot in The Seventies are replete with groovy fashions and set designs.
Visual Effects of Awesome (or Special Effect Failure if done wrong)

Examples:

Deluge (1933): One of the Ur Examples, making this trope Older than They Think. Most of the film was thought to be lost, save for a scene of New York getting 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 Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow.
San Francisco (1936): Another early example, decipting the historical 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy.
The High and the Mighty (1954): An Unbuilt Trope example of the genre. Starred John Wayne, who was also co-producer. Its plot, about a plane that suffers engine failure on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, would later be copied by Airport.
A Night to Remember (1958): An accurate portrayal of the doomed RMS Titanic; arguably the Trope Codifier and served as the inspiration for James Cameron's Titanic.
The Last Voyage (1960)
Airport (1970): The Trope Codifier. Started the first boom of disaster films in the '70s. Starred Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy and Jacqueline Bisset. Had three sequels, each one progressively worse (but still successful... at least, until the fourth one finally killed the series).
The Poseidon Adventure (1972): An ocean liner is capsized by a giant wave. The first of Irwin Allen's disaster movies. Starred Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, and Leslie Nielsen in an early*
not that early — Nielsen starred in Forbidden Planet way back in 1956
role. Had a bad sequel in 1979, and was remade in 2006.
Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan Sinks) (1973): Arguably the most successful Japanese disaster film ever, it was followed up by a highly subpar remake in 2006. See below for its plot.
The Towering Inferno (1974): The world's tallest skyscraper is built in San Francisco, but on the day of its dedication, it catches fire, trapping partygoers on the top floors. The second of Irwin Allen's disaster movies, and often considered to be one of the best. Starred Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Faye Dunaway.
Earthquake (1974): An earthquake destroys Los Angeles. Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and Lorne Greene 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.
The Last Days Of Planet Earth (1974): Japanese movie. Earth goes through a disaster gauntlet, ranging from mutant slugs to city-engulfing fire-storms, to the sky filling with green shit. Notable for depicting Nostradamus as Japanese. Not kidding.
The Hindenburg (1975): A story inspired by the Real Life disaster posits that it was the result of sabotage.
The Cassandra Crossing (1976): Plague outbreak on a train — authorities decide to seal it up (so the poor passengers can't flee), then send it over a bridge too weak to support it...
The Swarm (1978): Killer bees attack Texas. Yeah. It was around this point when the genre started to wear itself out.
Avalanche (1978): Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Meteor (1979): A bunch of nukes built by Sean Connery and Brian Keith versus a giant asteroid. Not as cool as it sounds, sadly.
Hurricane (1979): A remake of a 1937 John Ford film tells a tropical tale of young lovers whose romance is threatened first by the girl's father, then by the titular storm.
When Time Ran Out (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 Irwin Allen's final theatrically-released film. Even the cast (which included Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, and William Holden) hated it.
Airplane! (1980): The Parody of the disaster genre. So effective, it made it nearly impossible for disaster movies to be taken seriously for another thirteen years.
The Day After (1983): A very different sort of disaster movie, which is the reason it was able to escape Airplane!'s shadow. It was a TV movie about nuclear war between the USA and the USSR. It, along with its British equivalent, was effective enough at showing the result of a nuclear war that it is widely credited (by, among other people, Ronald Reagan) for inspiring the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.
Threads
Twister (1996): Tornadoes in Oklahoma. Helped to revive interest in disaster films, with help from...
Independence Day (1996): Aliens blow up the White House. This film turned Will Smith into a superstar.
Mars Attacks!! (1996): A parody of '50s Alien Invasion films, which overlapped into the disaster genre. Directed by Tim Burton, and starred Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, and Sarah Jessica Parker, with early roles by Jack Black and Natalie Portman. Had the misfortune of having to compete with Independence Day, and barely made back its budget.
Dante's Peak (1997): A volcano erupts in the Pacific Northwest. Surprisingly for a disaster flick, it was notable for its relative scientific accuracy. Starred Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. Dueled with...
Volcano (1997): A volcano erupts in Los Angeles. Not so notable for scientific accuracy. Starred Tommy Lee Jones.
Daylight (1997): The Holland Tunnel floods following an explosion, and Sylvester Stallone goes in to save the people trapped.
Titanic (1997): What happens when you combine a disaster movie with a Chick Flick. The latest in a long line of films about the Titanic disaster.
Armageddon (1998): An asteroid the size of Texas is headed for Earth, and our only hope is Bruce Willis and his team of deep core oil drillers. Makes Volcano look like a scientific documentary. Directed by Michael Bay. Dueled with...
Deep Impact (1998), the comparative Dante's Peak of this particular duel.
Earthquake In New York (1998): A two part TV movie about a major quake in a place no one expects.
The Core (2003): Earth's core stops rotating thanks to a top-secret military project Gone Horribly Wrong, 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. Or something.
10.5 (2004): An NBC Mini Series 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.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004): Global Warming destroys the world. Starred Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Category 6: Day of Destruction (2004): Another Mini Series, this one from CBS and starring Randy Quaid and Brian Dennehy. A massive storm (which is, for some reason, referred to as a hurricane) develops over Chicago and destroys it. Its release just six months after The Day After Tomorrow must be a coincidence.
- 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 Gina Gershon as the head of FEMA, as well as Shannen Doherty, James Brolin, and a returning Randy Quaid.
Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan Sinks) (2006): Exactly What It Says on the Tin. 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.
Snakes on a Plane (2006): An Affectionate Parody of Airport and its ilk. Was subject to Memetic Mutation even before its release, thanks to the fact that it starred Samuel L. Jackson.
Disaster Movie (2008): A Shallow Parody of ~~disaster flicks~~ ~~big-budget action movies~~...erm, movies with cool-looking trailers? Despite its name, it had almost nothing to do with disaster films. Then again, what more would you expect from Seltzer and Friedberg?
2012 (2009): The Mayan prophecies of The End of the World as We Know It start coming true. Lots of stuff blows up. An aircraft carrier crushes the White House and St. Peter's dome imitates a bowling ball.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (2009): A disaster Anime. Pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a story about an 8.0 earthquake in Tokyo, though with a surprising focus on human drama and emergency procedures rather than spectacle. Harsher in Hindsight after 2011.
Many Sci Fi Channel 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.
- The major networks often did this in the 70's and 80's as well, but with better budgets and stars. Mystery Science Theater 3000 did a few of these in their time as a local access show, including SST: Death Flight and Superdome.