Disasters, when viewed from afar, are thrilling and intense, but when we experience them firsthand, they turn into dangerous life-and-death situations. Films that recreate disasters work as portals, transporting the viewer right into the thick of things. While people who have faced disasters in their lives would attest to the fact that nothing about a disaster is thrilling, it’s the dramatic recreation of chaos and mayhem that viewers find entertaining. These natural disaster films time and again throw light on the fact that despite man’s evolutionary superiority, we are no match for nature’s innate ferocity. Here are some of the most intense natural disaster movies, ranked.
10Contagion (2011)
Contagionwas released in 2011, but rapidly shot to fame during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film eerily portrays the actual chaos and mayhem that ensues when a lethal, airborne virus slowly spreads throughout the globe. As paranoid citizens quarantine themselves in an attempt to dodge the virus, the medical community runs helter-skelter for answers.
Related:Best Movies About Pandemics and Viruses, Ranked
9The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Directed by disaster expert Rolland Emmerich,The Day After Tomorrowfollows Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist (Dennis Quaid) as he journeys into the heart of an ice storm to save his son from disaster. The film accurately depicts the onslaught ofwhat an Ice Age would look like, and is all the more relevant in the current context of global warming.
8Dante’s Peak (1997)
Dante’s Peakis a cult classic that stars Pierce Brosnan as Harry Dalton, a volcanologist who tries to evacuate a town, before a dormant volcano erupts. Dalton, along with the mayor, Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), race against time to evacuate the skeptical townsfolk before the fiery volcano engulfs them in lava and ash.
7The Birds (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock is a master of suspense and horror andThe Birdsis one of his crown jewels. The film functions on a bizarre premise where birds randomly start snooping down and attacking humans in swarms. Shocked and scared, socialite Melanie Daniels and her acquaintance Mitch Brenner and his family have no choice but to take refuge in Mitch’s home. Things take a turn for the worse when the birds penetrate Mitch’s fortified home, causing panic and mayhem.
Related:Best Alfred Hitchcock Films, Ranked
6Don’t Look Up (2021)
Playing on the tropes of the end of the world phenomenon,Don’t Look Uprevolves around two low-level astronomers, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two astronomers are convinced that there is acomet approaching earth, capable of destroying the planet and humanity with it. As these two, fairly unknown people begin a campaign to warn humanity, things start getting political and gimmicky.
5The Wave (2015)
When a scenic mountain pass collapses, it brings with it an 85-meter tidal wave, running through everything in its path. Caught right in the middle of the wave is a geologist, who witnesses this deeply dangerous yet beautiful onslaught firsthand.
4The Rescue (2021)
The Rescueis a documentarymovie that depicts the 2018 rescueof 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach as they’re trapped deep inside a flooded cave. The film chronicles the strength and selflessness shown by the rescue team, putting their own lives on the line in order to retrieve the kids from within the caves.The Rescueis an intense and claustrophobic film to watch. The documentary features footage of the global response and cooperation Thailand received, making it endearing as well as entertaining.
32012 (2009)
Very few films come close to the absolute anarchic mayhem that’s depicted in Roland Emmerich’s 2009 film2012.Part disaster movie, part sociopolitical commentary,2012portrays billionaires and millionaires battling it out in exchange for a get-off-of-Earth ticket, as the entire planet is rocked with a plethora of natural calamities.
2The Impossible (2012)
The Impossibleis a film that’s based on theexperience of María Belón and her family, during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. María, her husband Henry, and their three sons take a vacation in Thailand that comes to a disastrous halt when a roaring tsunami swells up, threatening to engulf everything in its path. Just as Maria and her family are at their darkest moments, unexpected acts of kindness power them through, in this heart-wrenching film.
Related:10 Saddest Movies Based on True Stories
1Titanic (1997)
Titanicis arguably one of the most heartbreaking films on the list. When viewed from a surface level, the film’s story works as a romance between twopeople belonging to different social classes, but when looked at closely, the film also serves as an intense story of disaster. Though it’s debated whetherthe sinking of the Titanicis a man-made disaster or natural disaster, the consensus is often a combination of the two.
Throughout the climax of the movie, man’s exuberance is brutally crushed by nature’s might, forcing people to abandon reason and fight for survival. It’s right in this chaos and mayhem that the two lovers, Jack and Rose, decide to be united in life and united in death, which adds a seemingly more poetic appeal to the film.
