Natural Disaster is a significant movie genre, which mainly originates from science fiction films. These films aim to visualise the consequences of various natural calamities including floods, tidal surges, and earthquakes. Along with great visual effects, the screenplay of the cinemas conveys the message of ways to deal with disasters. Due to the apocalyptic plot, these dystopian films cause a great spark of excitement. Today's article enlists some of those world-famous natural disaster movies of all time.
Top 10 natural disaster movies ever made
The Impossible (2012)
Tsunami Movie / 7.5 (Imdb)
It is a Spanish movie based on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victim Maria Belon and her family. They were hit by the tsunami while visiting the Beach Resort in Khao Lak, Thailand, and were cut off from each other. Sergio G. Sanchez made Jonas Runge's story into the movie screenplay.
Directed by J. A. Bayona, the drama film stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. The film marks the debut of Spiderman star Tom Holland in feature films. Watts, the Lead actress, won several awards, including an Academy Award nomination.
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2012 (2009)
Global Catastrophes / 5.8 (Imdb)
This apocalyptic masterpiece film is directed and written by Roland Emmerich. Harald Kloser co-wrote the movie with Emmerich. Novelist Jackson Curtis and geologist Adrian Helmsley felt the sequence of horrific catastrophes around the world in their research. This prediction was supposed to be fulfilled in 2012. Mark Gordon and Larry J. Franco, along with Kloser, co-produced the movie based on this research result.
The film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Thandiwe Newton, and Danny Glover.
Dante's Peak (1997)
Volcano Eruption / 6 (Imdb)
Dante's Peak is a fictional city where a dormant volcano awaits the deadly lava eruptions. Leslie Bohem wrote the movie under the direction of Roger Donaldson. The American film tells the story of the survival of the inhabitants of Dante's Peak after a long-dormant volcano wakes up suddenly.
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The film stars James Bond-famous Pierce Brosnan and Terminator star Linda Hamilton in the lead roles. The film, distributed by Universal Pictures, also stars Charles Hallahan, Grant Heslov, Elizabeth Hoffman, Jamie Renee Smith, and Tzi Ma.
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Apocalyptic Comedy / 7.2 (Imdb)
The comedy film serves as a warning to two astronomers about a comet that could destroy the earth. This movie, presented by Netflix, is produced, directed, and written by Adam McKay. The cinema also satirises the indifference of government, politics, celebrities, and the media towards the climate crisis.
The allegorical film brings together famous celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Rob Morgan, Jennifer Lawrence, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett, Ariana Grande, and Scott Mescudi.
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San Andreas (2015)
Massive Earthquake / 6 (Imdb)
Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock’s San Andreas could easily take its place among the world's best disaster movies. Carlton Cuse's screenplay brings to life the horrors of the earthquake caused by the San Andreas Fault in America. Criticism behind the movie faded away due to its eye-catching visual effects.
Brad Peyton directed the movie based on the story of Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore. Apart from The Rock, the film, distributed by Warner Bros., stars Alexandra Daddario, Will Yun Lee, Carla Gugino, Paul Giamatti, Ioan Gruffudd, and Archie Panjabi.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Superstorm / 6.4 (Imdb)
Roland Emmerich adapts the story from Art Bell and Whitley Strieber's 1999 book The Coming Global Superstorm. He then created the screenplay with Jeffrey Nachmanoff and directed this cautionary movie. The film shows that the catastrophic climate is pushing the whole world towards a new ice age due to the disruption of navigation in the North Atlantic Ocean.
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The cinema cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Sela Ward, Ian Holm, and Emmy Rossum. Director Emmerich is also involved with the production team of the film, which is distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Armageddon (1998)
Asteroid-Earth Collision / 6.7 (Imdb)
This 1996 blockbuster is one of the best-directed films by Michael Bay. NASA sends some deep core oil drillers into space to deal with a giant asteroid colliding with Earth. This is exactly the story of the screenplay written by Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams.
Tony Gilroy and Shane Salerno took the original story from Hensleigh and Robert Roy Pool. The film stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, and Keith David.
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The Perfect Storm (2000)
Deadly Hurricane / 6.4 (Imdb)
To write the screenplay for this movie, William D. Wittliff took the story from Sebastian Junger's non-fiction book of the same name, published in 1997. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the biography film tells the story of a fishing vessel named Andrea Gail. The ship was lost in the Atlantic Ocean in a 1991 storm.
The film stars George Clooney, Diane Lane, Mark Wahlberg, Karen Allen, William Fichtner, Bob Gunton, John C. Reilly, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Petersen himself was on the production team for this movie, which was distributed by Warner Bros.
Twister (1996)
Extreme Tornadoes / 6.4 (Imdb)
Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin wrote the screenplay for this epic disaster film under the direction of Jan de Bont. The film shows a group of amateur storm runners risking their lives trying to build a device to control a tornado. Apart from Crichton, the film's production team includes Ian Bryce and Kathleen Kennedy.
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Helen Hunt, Jami Gertz, Bill Paxton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Cary Elwes are the main actors in the film. The film was nominated for the Oscar awards for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.
Only The Brave (2017)
Wild Fire / 7.6 (Imdb)
In June 2013, 19 out of 20 firefighters were killed in a devastating fire at Yarnell Hill. Featuring the news, GQ Magazine published an article by Sean Flynn entitled "No Exit". This article was later scripted by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer to make a full-length movie.
Dedicated to members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots fire rescue team and their families, the movie is directed by Joseph Kosinski. The film cast includes James Badge Dale, Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Kitsch, Miles Teller, and many more.
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Summing up
These top-rated natural disaster films highlight the lives of the people around the disaster. The dramatic nature of the cinemas has given priority over how scientifically sound they are. However, the horrors of the incident make the cinemas more engaging to the cinemaholics by increasing the tension. Most importantly, these movies point to the need for the world to be aware of the natural balance.