The 10 Best Disaster Movies of All Time

10. ‘The Hurricane’ (1937)

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One of John Ford’s lesser-known films, ‘The Hurricane’ trades out the American West that the director is synonymous with for the southern Pacific Ocean. With a white cast playing Polynesian characters, the actual plot — about an island native imprisoned for punching a racist white man — is well-intentioned but poorly aged. None of that matters, though, because the reason to see it is mostly confined to the film’s last act, when the hurricane the title promises blows into town and sets everyone in a life-and-death battle against the elements. For an early stab at the disaster genre, the hurricane of the film — created by special effects director James Basevi — has aged remarkably well as a chaotic and frightening event, and represents one of the first times film managed to capture nature’s wrath so well. While you’re at it, fire up the all-time-great score by Nino Rota for Jan Troell’s 1979 remake.
9. ‘Twister’ (1996)

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In the ’90s, ‘Twister’ was a solid but fairly unremarkable blockbuster; in 2024, when we’re starved for semi-original films about actual human beings instead of CGI screensavers, it feels borderline avant-garde. The secret to the sauce behind Jan de Bont’s 1996 blockbuster (or blockblower if you want to be cute) is that wrapped up in the carnage on screen and the showcase for (still impressive) practical storm effects is a classic rom-com of remarriage. The love story between Helen Hunt’s storm-chasing meteorologist and Bill Paxton’s TV weatherman wouldn’t feel out of place in something like ‘The Philadelphia Story,’ following these soon-to-be-divorcees as they bicker and squabble and consider whether they actually want to get divorced at all. Sure, it’s hard not to feel horrible for Paxton’s neglected fiancée (Jami Gertz) in all of this, but the emotional stakes provided by Hunt and Paxton’s wonderfully adult chemistry is something that few films of the genre have been able to capture. Plus, the scene where Hunt stares down a tornado like it’s the same one that killed her father decades ago is the type of half-stupid, half-brilliant emotional catharsis that disaster films were made for.
8. ‘The Burning Sea’ (2021)

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This list skews overwhelmingly American; it’s hard for smaller countries and smaller productions to really render a convincingly epic natural disaster. But one of the best recent disaster films on the record comes from Norway, in the form of John Andreas Andersen’s ‘The Burning Sea.’ The formula is pretty standard; an oil rig off the coast of the ocean goes down, sending two researchers on a mission to investigate what happens and hopefully save one of their romantic partners from the disaster. Things get goofier but more entertaining when the oil rig collapse threatens to cause a historically terrible oil leak, resulting in the company that employs the heroes coming up with the unusual strategy of — you guessed it — setting fire to the sea and killing the spill before it starts. It’s ridiculous, but ‘The Burning Sea’ pairs it with great scope and excellent effects that make the trio’s struggle to survive a consistently nerve-wracking viewing experience.
7. ‘The Impossible’ (2012)

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Inspired by the true story of María Belón and her family’s experience in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, J. A. Bayona’s starts as an idyllic fantasy, with the clan experiencing a gorgeous Thailand holiday. When the tsunami hits and sweeps the crew away with a titanic force, it hits as a genuinely horrifying nightmare, with Bayona ably capturing the sheer power and size of the wave and the destruction it leaves in its wake. The rest of the film — about the family’s recovery in the aftermath — isn’t quite as strong as the central scene of terror. But it’s still compelling enough thanks to Naomi Watts’ determined, moving performance as Belón fighting to survive the injuries she’s sustained.
6. ‘On the Beach’ (1959)

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A bleak, meditative take on the apocalypse genre, Stanley Kramer’s adaptation of Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel ‘On the Beach’ is set in a world where nuclear warfare has rendered all but southeastern Australia inhabitable. In this already dire landscape, wind currents carrying radiation threaten to fully bring humanity to its end. The film follows American military officers (played brilliantly by Gregory Peck and Anthony Perkins) as they make one final last-ditch effort to save the world by chasing a mysterious signal that arrives from San Diego. Of all the films to consider the disaster nuclear warfare could bring, ‘On the Beach’ — with its focus on the very final outcome it could bring and its refusal to pull its punches towards the most likely fate — most expertly inspires fear in its consequences.
5. ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ (1972)

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One of the most memorable and popular disaster films of the ’70s, ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ remains thrilling decades later. Ronald Neame’s film focuses on a luxury liner on a voyage from New York City to Athens (amusingly, like a cop in a crime drama, it’s her final job before getting retired) that gets overturned by a tsunami. Leading the charge to save the passengers and crew is a preacher, played by a terrific Gene Hackman, who leads a stacked ensemble cast (he was one of five Oscar winners on deck: the others were Ernest Borgnine, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters, and Red Buttons). The tension is constantly high because of the stellar cast; they make you care about every person in this predicament, and every complication hits like a tidal wave when its happens.
4. ‘Contagion’ (2011)

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When people talk about disaster films, they generally discuss physical disasters — tornados, shipwrecks, plane crashes, tsunamis, the works. Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Contagion’ offers something different, in the form of a disaster film about an illness. Inspired by actual real-life epidemics like the 2004 SARS outbreak and the 2009 flu pandemic, the film tracks the chaos and confusion as a highly contagious virus spreads across the globe, taking on the disaster from several vantage points, from ordinary citizens to researchers to public health officials, with a strong cast (including Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Elliott Gould, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, Sanaa Lathan, and Gwyneth Paltrow) playing various figures in the hyperlink ensemble. Soderbergh consulted with the World Health Organization to make an accurate portrayal of his imagined event, and the results are riveting, absorbing stuff. The film experienced something of a second life in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, proving how potent and realistic Soderbergh’s portrait of a spreading virus truly is.
3. ‘The Towering Inferno’ (1974)

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One of the biggest disaster films of the ’70s — the decade most synonymous with the genre — ‘The Towering Inferno’ grossed over $200 million, making it the most successful film of its year. A few decades later, it remains a lot of great fun, if overlong. John Guillermin’s film makes great use of its setting, a state-of-the-art high-rise set to open in San Francisco, to tell the story of a massive fire that breaks out during its opening ceremony, forcing the architect (Paul Newman) and a local fire chief (Steve McQueen) to team up and save the inhabitants. Guillermin’s direction is top-notch, and the film is uplifted by a terrific ensemble, especially in the two bonafide movie stars leading it.
2. ‘Airplane!’ (1980)

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No disrespect to the ‘Airport’ series of films (or 1957’s ‘Zero Hour!’) that the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams spend the entirety of their masterful parody ‘Airplane!’ ripping to shreds. But let’s be real; ‘Airplane’ remains the most well-remembered movie about a plane in crisis. It’s simply one of the funniest comedies ever made, lovingly lampooning the ridiculousness and melodramatics of ’70s disaster cinema with an off-the-wall bonkers plot of a commercial jet thrown into disarray by a bout of food poisoning and the alcoholic ex-fighter pilot who’s the only hope of the vehicle landing safely. What makes all the sight gags and zingers land is how fiercely the cast commits; from Robert Hays as the pilot to Julie Hagerty as the flight attendant ex-girlfriend to Leslie Nielsen in a scene-stealing role as a dry doctor onboard, the whole cast captures the fear of the situation, even if its surrounded by plenty of tomfoolery. Sure, ‘Airplane!’ doesn’t exactly thrill you, but you’ll still breathe a sigh of relief when the plane hits the ground, in between your giggles.
1. ‘Titanic’ (1997)

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Calling ‘Titanic’ a disaster movie feels like an undersell of James Cameron’s once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon. It is technically true, but ‘Titanic’ is such a mammoth epic of a film that reducing it to a single genre label doesn’t do justice to how big of a titan in film history it is. But a disaster movie it is, and it fictionalizes one of the single most notorious disasters in human history in its story of lovers doomed by the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Cameron takes his time to set the scene — it is well over halfway through the film before the boat finally hits the iceberg — but when he does, the scale of the collapse is a sight to behold. What really makes ‘Titanic’ the greatest disaster film of all-time, though, is how it renders its calamity as an obstacle in an epic love between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s central star-crossed couple. When the boat sinks, it’s heartbreaking because of the sheer human toil, and because of how invested we are in these two film stars’ radiant connection. No other disaster movie has made its disaster so deeply heartbreaking.

The 10 Best Disaster Movies of All Time, from the Original ‘Twister’ to ‘Airplane’

Wilson Chapman

10. ‘The Hurricane’ (1937)

9. ‘Twister’ (1996)

8. ‘The Burning Sea’ (2021)

7. ‘The Impossible’ (2012)

6. ‘On the Beach’ (1959)

5. ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ (1972)

4. ‘Contagion’ (2011)

3. ‘The Towering Inferno’ (1974)

2. ‘Airplane!’ (1980)

1. ‘Titanic’ (1997)

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