“Ours is indeed an age of extremity. For we live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed, destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror.” So begins lauded cultural critic Susan Sontag’s excellent 1965 essay “The Imagination of Disaster,” which looks at the disaster film before and after the advent of nuclear warfare. With climate change and global pandemics, both terrifying humanity and sending people into bored isolation, it’s wise to look at Sontag’s essay and the first decade of this increasingly disastrous millennium, the 2000s.
Updated July 29, 2025: If you’re a passionate fan of disaster films, you’ll be happy to know that this article has been updated byGaurav Krishnanwith additional titles.
Sontag defines disaster cinema as “concerned with the aesthetics of destruction, with the peculiar beauties to be found in wreaking havoc, making a mess.” There is an important distinction to be made here between ‘disaster’ and ‘apocalypse,’ (along with the extensivegenre of zombie cinema). Apocalyptic cinema deals with a certain irrevocable extinction due to the hubris of science and society or the invasion of other intelligent species—these are geared toward dramatic despair. The cinema of disaster, however, is invested in mindless natural disasters totally indifferent toward the human race, some destructive spectacle which can be stopped but will surely kill many in the process—these tend toward action-packed responses. The disaster film generally ends with disaster; the apocalyptic film simply begins with it.
The 2000s were a terrifying time, and the movies mirrored the decade. The Cold War may have ended, but the threat ofnuclear destructionremained prevalent;climate scientistsbegan to strongly suggest that the world would fall apart if something wasn’t environmentally adjusted;9/11 and the Iraq Warinitiated a seemingly endless, bloody conflict regarding ‘global terrorism.’ Interestingly enough, there was a massive uptick in disaster films after the unexpectedly enthusiastic success of Al Gore’s climate change documentaryAn Inconvenient Truth, itself a kind of disaster film. With so much of the future unknown and disaster becoming socially ubiquitous, the following list of the best disaster movies of the 2000s may provide needed comfort for troubling times or at least prepare people for what’s even worse. (Excerpts from Sontag’s article will be seen throughout.)
15The Happening (2008)
M. Night Shyamalan’s much-maligned disaster film has received a critical reevaluation in recent years and is now considered to be a subversive B-movie classic by many. The plot of the film, both bonkers and brilliant, concerns possible chemicals released by plants and vegetation which drives people toward suicide, like some kind of environmental revenge from the victimized planet. The ecological allegory is certainly prescient, and the scenes of mass suicide are definitely disturbing, but what most audiences missed is just how much of adeadpan parodyof B-movie disaster filmsThe Happeningreally was.
14The Core (2003)
Directed by Jon Amiel,The Coreis a disaster film that would go on to receive considerable criticism and berated by critics across the spectrum, with some targeting the screenplay while others, Amiel’s direction. The film’s concept explores how a geophysicist named Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) discovers that the Earth’s core has stopped spinning and that the planet’s electromagnetic field is deteriorating, which has some catastrophic ramifications for the human race.
Related:10 Best Apocalyptic Movies, Ranked
The only way to save the world is for a team to travel to the Earth’s core and detonate a device so that it starts spinning again. The film tanked at the box office grossing $74 million worldwide against a budget of $85 million. However, it’s a disaster film that’s worth a watch, with Hilary Swank, in particular, putting in a memorable performance.
13Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesis the only entry in theTerminatorfranchise that can be constituted a disaster movie. Terminator is a survival film, whileTerminator 2: Judgement Day,Terminator: Genysis, andTerminator: Dark Fateare about preventing an apocalypse, andTerminator: Salvationfalls into the post-apocalyptic genre,Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesis about the world ending.
Despite the best efforts of John Conner, Catherine Brewster, and T-100, Skynet still launches and takes control of the planet. It is a bleak ending for an action movie, but one that delivers on its title. The machines rise up and begin attacking humanity, becoming a global disaster.
12Tidal Wave (2009)
A South Korean film,Tidal WaveorHaeundae,directed by Yoon Je-kyoon, was billed as South Korea’s first disaster film. The story follows several main characters and their intertwining journeys as Geologist Kim Hwi discovers unusual activity in the ocean and that a tsunami is brewing in the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea. However, the Disaster Prevention Agency ignores Hwi’s observations and assures him that South Korea is not at risk.
In the end, a megatsunami hits, and the film follows the death and devastation it causes and how the survivors manage to escape. Considering it’s a film made in South Korea on a budget that pales in comparison to major Hollywood productions,Tidal Waveis an admirable effort and a film that was heralded as one of Asia’s most epic productions at the time.
11The Perfect Storm (2000)
Wolfgang Peterson’s 2000 disaster drama filmThe Perfect Stormcomprises a star-studded cast of the likes of George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reily, William Fichtner, and Diane Lane, among others. The film was adapted from a 1997 non-fiction book of the same name by Sebastian Junger, and the plot follows the journey of the Andrea Gail, a fishing vessel that is caught in the midst of what was dubbed as The Perfect Storm of 1991.
The film was a huge success at the box office, grossing $328 million worldwide. However, critics reserved mixed reviews for the film citing great use of special effects and lauding its compelling visual sequences but suggesting that it lacked effective drama and characterization. Nevertheless, the film would pave the way for several at-sea disaster films in the years after its release becoming one of the best movies in its niche genre.
10The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
One would imagine that a film with Keanu Reeves as an alien named Klaatu, a laser-eyed robot named Gort, and Kathy Bates as the Secretary of Defense would be silly entertainment, but it’s decidedly grim here in Scott Derrickson’s bizarre update of the 1951 classicThe Day the Earth Stood Still.Like all great disaster films, it taps into contemporary anxieties like war and climate change; the film serves the same function as its invading aliens, warning humanity that disaster and possible extinction is highly likely if the species continues on its current trajectory. “Pursue your present course and face obliteration,” the film admonishes.
Recent science fiction films have a decided grimness, bolstered by their much greater degree of visual credibility, which contrasts strongly with the older films. Modern historical reality has greatly enlarged the imagination of disaster, and the protagonists—perhaps by the very nature of what is visited upon them—no longer seem wholly innocent.
9Doomsday (2008)
Neil Marshall’s follow-up to his acclaimed filmsDog SoldiersandThe Descentwas apparently a huge let-down to many but deserves a strong reappraisal, especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic.Doomsdayfollows a kind of resistance movement decades after a life-threatening pandemic as they infiltrate London for an antidote to the virus and is relentless in its brilliantly directed set-pieces. Action-packed and with one of the fiercest females since Sigourney Weaver fought Xenomorphs, Marshall takes a somewhat familiar premise in disaster cinema and douses it in blood and gasoline, creating gory fireworks in the process.
8War Of The Worlds (2005)
Tom Cruise stars in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi disaster epicWar Of The Worldsand puts in a stirring performance to match. The movie is based on H.G. Wells’ revolutionary 1898 novelThe War Of The Worlds,which Spielberg retells in explosive and invigorating fashion. The story follows the protagonist Ray Ferrier(Tom Cruise), who must save his family and reunite his children with their estranged mother as an extraterrestrial invasion threatens to wipe out the human race.
Related:17 Old Disaster Movies That Now Seem More Plausible in Our Climate Crisis
The film was a massive box office success grossing $603 million worldwide while critics in general gave the movie positive reviews for adapting the critical elements of Wells’ book into a modernized depiction with extravagant special effects and sequences made for audiences of the 21st century. It culminates in a gripping retelling of a novel conceived in the late 19th century, but that has been recreated and retold by the genius of Spielberg in the 2000s.
7The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Roland Emmerich is the modern maestro of blockbuster disaster. Film after film, the technically skilled (if extremely blunt) director has staged scene after scene of impeccable destruction, andThe Day After Tomorrowhas some of his best set-pieces; between the tornadoes, flash-freezing, ice storms, and tidal waves, Emmerich’s disaster is gleefully fun. His special effects obviously have improved with each film as the technology gets more and more terrifyingly accurate. The climatological catastrophe in this film may seem silly, but it’s prescient, reflecting the real-world ramifications growing more dire day by day.
And it is in the imagery of destruction that the core of a good science fiction film lies […] One can participate in the fantasy of living through one’s own death and more, the death of cities, the destruction of humanity itself.
6The Mist (2007)
The Mistis routinely consideredone of the bleakestandmost depressing filmsever made, which only makes its central disaster (and subsequent exploration of human awfulness) that much more harrowing. A group of people are trapped in a small-town grocery store as an impenetrable mist approaches in this misanthropic adaptation of Stephen King’s story. While the unnamed, multi-tentacled threat lurking in the mist (a consequence of a disastrous military experiment) is certainly frightening, it’s really the human reactions to disaster which become the most terrifying component.
