11 Disaster Movies Ranked

Disaster is approaching and we are all eager to see what will happen next.

We are excited, scared, and not without a little morbid curiosity. But it is at the movies, of course, that these feelings are validated by the certainty that safety lies outside the doors of the theater or our living room.

Audiences have always been drawn to spectacle. That’s been the case since people first started going to the movies. And that appeal has only grown as screens and actors have gotten bigger and the stakes have gotten higher. Disaster movies, which are a subset of many other genres, including action/adventure, romance, thrillers, and military films, first emerged as a genre in their own right in the 1970s with Airport (1970), which not only launched sequels, but also led to other films with similar, though arguably more exciting, themes, such as Earthquake (1974), Russian mountains (1977), Meteor (1979) and many others, both celebrated and acclaimed. It has become common for these films to be led by a notable star whose name is immediately recognized, as well as a cast of talented supporting actors or old Hollywood icons. While disaster films fell out of favor in the 80s due to higher concept blockbusters from the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, which could incorporate disasters as entertainment into much larger adventures, they have come back into prominence in the 90s and are a hit or miss in the 21st century.

With the release of TornadoesLee Isaac Chung’s standalone sequel to the 1996 hit Tornadowhich helped revive the disaster movie in the 90s, The Hollywood Reporter makes a list of the best disaster movies of all time. For the sake of simplicity and to avoid the murky waters that come with mixing blockbuster movies with movies based on real-life tragedies, we’ve left out movies involving aliens, giant monsters, and movies centered on real events from this list. So sit back, feel the ground shake beneath your feet, and enjoy the ride.