Earthquakes, viruses, and human errors — they were captured in the best disaster movies. Some of them did so well that they have joined the ranks of the greatest movies (looking at you, Titanic). These movies keep us on the edge of our seats. Even when they portray real events, we wait for those final minutes when the built-up stress is gone and a new, real-life-related one sets in. When it comes to the best disaster movie label, two elements are always found — their reality and the story involved with them.
Unlike personal disasters, real-life disasters are devastating and society-ruining. For this reason, the best natural disaster movies can always invoke that dread inside us all. Movies about pandemics are the perfect example of it, especially in the past few years. They can instill a certain feeling of dread because viruses and germs are easily transferred. They can go from one person to another and impact us. However, plenty of brilliant disaster movies should also have a story. When there isn’t a story and characters at stake, the audience will forget it. Titanic (1997) has a romantic story that is just too good to look away from. Even on Valentine’s Day, this disaster movie can capture the hearts of millions of watchers.
From hurricanes to crashing into icebergs, the best disaster movies of all time vary in the events they portray and how they do that. To help you prepare for some of them, we have compiled a list of human and natural disaster movies that are terrifying. Want to make your friends a little bit scared? Share this list with them. Found the movie that caught your attention? Upvote it. If you have something to share about the movies, do so in the comments below.
#1 Contagion
2011 | 1h 46m | Directed by Steven Soderbergh | IMDB: 6.8/10 |
Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law
When the Covid pandemic hit the world, the people who watched this movie were already prepared morally. A highly contagious virus, spread from a bat to a pig and then a human, cripples the world, as CDC rushes to find a vaccine. This movie hits too close to reality since it is heavily scientifically based.
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#2 Don’t Look Up
2021 | 2h 18m | Directed by Adam McKay | IMDB: 7.2/10 |
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep
As the pandemic proved, some people, when faced with a disaster, instead decide to hide and ignore the issue. As the researchers try to warn humankind about the upcoming doom of civilization, not everyone is eager to look up at the comet above. This movie is an allegory to the global warming crisis that doesn’t really get the needed media coverage.
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#3 Airplane!
1980 | 1h 28m | Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker | IMDB: 7.7/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, and Leslie Nielsen
This movie did the impossible — it made a scary disaster in the air into a comedy that is just full of jokes. When the crew of a flying airplane gets sick, a PTSD-suffering war veteran, a flight attendant, a doctor, and some balloon autopilots have to land it safely. Starring Leslie Nielsen himself, this disaster movie is nothing more than legendary.
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#4 The Day After Tomorrow
2004 | 2h 04m | Directed by Roland Emmerich | IMDB: 6.5/10 |
Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Emmy Rossum
The ice ages did happen in the past, and if they were to happen today, well, it would be like in this movie — destructive. When the North Atlantic Ocean circulation system gets disturbed, a father, a paleoclimatologist, treks to New York through the icy East Coast of the United States. He does so to protect his son.
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#5 Deep Impact
1998 | 2h 00m | Directed by Mimi Leder | IMDB: 6.2/10 |
Starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, and Elijah Wood
Comets have stricken Earth before, so they make the perfect topic for a disaster movie. Trying to destroy the 7-mile (11 km) large comet before it strikes Earth, we see how governments prepare and try to destroy it. This movie shows Russia and the United States working on the Messiah, a solution to the problem.
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#6 Armageddon
1998 | 2h 31m | Directed by Michael Bay | IMDB: 6.7/10 |
Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Ben Affleck
Where Deep Impact focuses more on the anxiety that the comet brings to the people living on Earth, this one goes all out on the action. After all, when you have Bruce Willis and Michael Bay in the cast, action scenes are guaranteed. The plot focuses on a group of miners that are launched into space to stop a comet from hitting Earth.
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#7 2012
2009 | 2h 38m | Directed by Roland Emmerich | IMDB: 5.8/10 |
Starring John Cusack, Thandiwe Newton, and Chiwetel Ejiofor
People believed that the Mayans predicted the end of the world, so it was natural for Hollywood to capitalize on this prophecy. This disaster movie focuses on this idea and portrays multiple natural disasters hitting Earth. One of the people engulfed in this mess is the main character of the story — a father of two children.
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#8 Twister
1996 | 1h 53m | Directed by Jan de Bont | IMDB: 6.5/10 |
Starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Cary Elwes
Even a tornado, which can lift houses into the air, will not stop some people from discussing divorce papers. Bill and Jo Harding, two professional tornado chasers, try to deploy a research divide when a severe outbreak occurs. However, the movie also has other plot points, some of which are more twisted than the usual game of Twister.
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#9 Volcano
1997 | 1h 44m | Directed by Mick Jackson | IMDB: 5.5/10 |
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, and Gaby Hoffmann
When you have the name of the disaster in your title, you give away the main story. As a volcano erupts in the busy downtown of Los Angeles, a seismologist and a city politician try their best to save the people and the town. Sacrifices and plans are made so that Earth can be saved.
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#10 Gravity
2013 | 1h 31m | Directed by Alfonso Cuarón | IMDB: 7.7/10 |
Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, and Ed Harris
Space — it’s not as empty as it seems. The crew of the Explorer and their spacecraft get hit by several space debris (likely old destroyed satellites), and only two members survive. As a last-ditch effort of hope, the two members fly through space to reach the ISS and Tiangong.
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#11 Outbreak
IMDB: 6.6/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 59%
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#12 The Poseidon Adventure
1972 | 1h 57m | Directed by Ronald Neame | IMDB: 7.1/10 |
Starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelley Winters
Even the largest of cruise ships can’t rival the destructive power of mother nature in the form of a seaquake and a tsunami that follows it. Taking place in the fictional SS Poseidon, a group of travelers get their lives turned upside down (literally) when the ship gets flipped. With an A-list cast, the movie is full of twists and struggles.
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#13 Dante’s Peak
1997 | 1h 48m | Directed by Roger Donaldson | IMDB: 6/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, and Jamie Renée Smith
When you name a dormant volcano Dante’s Peak, it’s only a question of time when it will erupt again. When a volcanologist discovers that Dante’s Peak will soon erupt again, he has to do his best to prepare the small town nestled near the volcano for the inevitable. As the movie progresses, we get to see how one volcano can cause a lot of bad things.
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#14 The Perfect Storm
2000 | 2h 10m | Directed by Wolfgang Petersen | IMDB: 6.5/10 |
Starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and John C. Reilly
Tropical storms are not as nice as the first part of the name implies, and they can sometimes change directions. This was the case for the swordfish fishers, as their boat got engulfed by the winds and waves of the 1991 No-Name Storm. Captained by George Clooney’s character, the ship takes a stormy journey.
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#15 The Core
2003 | 2h 15m | Directed by Jon Amiel | IMDB: 5.5/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, and Delroy Lindo
The Earth spins, and if it were to stop, we would have a world-ending disaster on our hands. Luckily, a group of scientists in this movie have a brilliant idea of how to restart this spin — detonate a nuclear device at the very center of Earth. Throughout the story, we find out how hard it is to reach the core of Earth.
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#16 The Wave
2015 | 1h 45m | Directed by Roar Uthaug | IMDB: 6.6/10 |
Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, and Jonas Hoff Oftebro
The perfect example of a butterfly effect — as a scenic route collapses and causes a rockslide, an 85-meter tsunami hits a town, putting a family at risk. The family in question is a Swedish one living in Geiranger. The most shocking moment of the movie might be the ending, which predicts that this event might happen in the future.
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#17 Titanic
1997 | 3h 14m | Directed by James Cameron | IMDB: 7.9/10 |
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, and Billy Zane
Only James Cameron, the mind behind Avatar, could make a tragic ship disaster movie into a wonderfully romantic one. This movie focuses on the real-life disaster of the Titanic, a British passenger liner. The movie portrays the crash and sinking of the ship while mixing in some romantic elements.
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#18 The Towering Inferno
1974 | 2h 45m | Directed by John Guillermin | IMDB: 7/10 |
Starring Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and William Holden
Fire and high buildings — when you mix these two elements, you get quite a horrible disaster. With Newman, McQueen, and Holden taking the lead, this movie focuses on the fire that blazes through the Glass Tower. Released in 1974, this movie got eight Oscar nominations and was universally liked.
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#19 The Impossible
2012 | 1h 54m | Directed by J.A. Bayona | IMDB: 7.5/10 |
Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Holland
This film is based on Mara Belón and her family’s experiences during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The Bennet family is on their Christmas vacation in Thailand when all hell breaks loose as a tsunami devastates the area. Throughout the movie, we see the struggle the family encounters as they try to find some form of safety.
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#20 A Night To Remember
1958 | 2h 03m | Directed by Roy Ward Baker | IMDB: 7.9/10 |
Starring Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, and Robert Ayres
While James Cameron’s take on the Titanic is the most popular, this movie is one of the most correct versions of the disaster. Throughout the movie, we see how the relaxed life on the Titanic soon turned into a messy disaster. This dramatized take on the sinking is seen as one of the most factually correct by survivors and historians.
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#21 Unstoppable
IMDB: 6.8/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
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#22 Deepwater Horizon
2016 | 1h 47m | Directed by Peter Berg | IMDB: 7.1/10 |
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, and Douglas M. Griffin
Oil spills are one of the most devastating ecological disasters, and one of the most famous was the Deepwater Horizon accident. A dramatized take on the disaster, the movie focuses on the people who work on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The movie is scary in the way that it portrays the whole disaster and the immediate aftermath of it.
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#23 Greenland
2020 | 1h 59m | Directed by Ric Roman Waugh | IMDB: 6.4/10 |
Starring Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, and Roger Dale Floyd
Who could have known that Greenland, a place full of ice and snow, would become a saving point for the people? When a planet-destroying level comet flies toward Earth, a family must fight for their lives to survive the upcoming disaster. One of the ways they do so is by going to Greenland and reaching the bunkers there.
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#24 The Burning Sea
2021 | 1h 44m | Directed by John Andreas Andersen | IMDB: 6.3/10 |
Starring Kristine Kujath Thorp, Henrik Bjelland, and Rolf Kristian Larsen
Oil spills are one thing, but when it bursts into fire — it is both an economical and a severe ecological disaster. This disaster movie is placed off the coast of Norway, where an oil platform falls and causes a domino effect. As the oil spills onto the water, fires erupt, and researchers look for a way to stop it.
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#25 Meteor
1979 | 1h 48m | Directed by Ronald Neame | IMDB: 5/10 |
Starring Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, and Karl Malden
When a disaster unites the USA and the USSR, two rivals during the Cold War era, you have quite a problem heading your way. When a large meteor approaches Earth, these two superpowers must work together to stop it from hitting the planet. They use world-ending devices to save Earth from a humanity-destroying disaster.
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#26 Earthquake
1974 | 2h 02m | Directed by Mark Robson | IMDB: 5.9/10 |
Starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and George Kennedy
Earthquakes are one of the most devastating disasters, not only for the immediate effect but also for the things that come after it. This movie plot focuses on an earthquake that hits Los Angeles and the struggles that come from surviving the aftereffects. Looting, flooding, and grief— all of these aspects are showcased terrifyingly.
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#27 Into The Storm
2014 | 1h 29m | Directed by Steven Quale | IMDB: 5.8/10
Starring Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, and Matt Walsh
Humans are interesting — when we see a disaster happening in front of us, we usually ignore the warning and record it. This was the case with a group of townspeople, storm trackers of this movie. When multiple tornadoes hit Silverton, people try to document it while seeking a way to survive.
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#28 Geostorm
2017 | 1h 49m | Directed by Dean Devlin | IMDB: 5.3/10 |
Starring Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, and Abbie Cornish
Machines have evil intentions too, especially the man-made satellites flying around Earth, pretending to help us. When a series of climate-controlling satellites malfunction, they cause severe storms on Earth. Disasters happen on Earth and in space above, as people rush to end these disasters.
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#29 Only The Brave
IMDB: 7.6/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
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#30 Airport
1970 | 2h 17m | Directed by George Seaton and Henry Hathaway |
IMDB: 6.6/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Starring Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, and George Kennedy
Disasters can also happen in airplanes and airlines, especially when you throw a crazy person into a bowl of anxious passengers and a snowstorm. The plot of the movie shifts between an airline that is open during a snowstorm, and a plane with a bomber. The action takes place over one evening and night.
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#31 The 33
2015 | 2h 07m | Directed by Patricia Riggen | IMDB: 6.9/10 |
Starring Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, and Juliette Binoche
Mining accidents are some of the most horrible ones due to people getting stuck underground with little chance of rescue. This movie portrays the event where 33 miners got trapped in a mine for 69 days. We see the action above and below the ground as people try to survive and rescue the trapped people.
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#32 Moonfall
2022 | 2h 10m | Directed by Roland Emmerich | IMDB: 5.1/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 35%
Starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley
The moon was created from the debris of Earth, but now it seems like these pieces are returning to Earth. When a force knocks our natural satellite toward Earth, this fact is discovered by two astronauts and a conspiracy theorist. This phenomenon causes problems even before the collision happens.
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#33 Zero Hour!
1957 | 1h 21m | Directed by Hall Bartlett | IMDB: 6.6/10 |
Starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Sterling Hayden
This movie is the serious version of the same disaster as Airplane! A remake of a Canadian television play, this movie’s story focuses on a WW2 veteran who, after the plane crew gets sick, has to land a plane during a heavy fog. With some passengers on the brink of passing away, the veteran has to make some serious, anxious decisions.
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#34 In Old Chicago
1938 | 1h 35m | Directed by Henry King | IMDB: 6.7/10 |
Starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, and Don Ameche
After a destructive fire raged through the city of Chicago in 1871, Hollywood decided to base a 1938 movie on it. This movie is a fictionalized recounting of the Great Chicago Fire and how it started, focusing mainly on the O’Leary family. Also, this movie shows how even a cow can practically burn down a whole city.
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#35 Black Sea
2014 | 1h 54m | Directed by Kevin Macdonald | IMDB: 6.4/10 |
Starring Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, and Ben Mendelsohn
Combine the deep sea, a submarine, and a disaster on it, and you will have a claustrophobic person’s nightmare. A submarine crew descends into the deep waters of the black sea to look for sunken gold on the coast of Georgia. The movie portrays how a fire and an explosion can soon become a disaster.
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#36 San Andreas
2015 | 1h 54m | Directed by Brad Peyton | IMDB: 6.1/10 |
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, and Alexandra Daddario
Earthquakes and faults are city and nation-destroying disasters that happen in our world, especially in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Their destructive power was perfectly portrayed in this movie, as it causes a devastating blow to the West Coast of the United States. We look at this event through the eyes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and other characters.
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#37 The High And The Mighty
1954 | 2h 27m | Directed by William A. Wellman | IMDB: 6.7/10 |
Starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Laraine Day
An airplane malfunctioning over the Pacific Ocean is already scary, but insert a nervous pilot too, and you will get a total flying disaster. Luckily for this movie’s characters, there is another veteran pilot, with some PTSD, on board. With anxiety and affairs on board, this plane ride is an exciting watch.
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#38 Pompeii
2014 | 1h 45m | Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson | IMDB: 5.5/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 27%
Starring Kit Harington, Emily Browning, and Kiefer Sutherland
Volcanoes — when they erupt, the skies darken, and people who live near them can only hope that they will survive. Pompeii might be the most famous site of a volcano’s victims, and this movie is a dramatized take on how it got destroyed. A gladiator must fight through volcanic destruction to save his love.
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#39 Hard Rain
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#40 Crawl
IMDB: 6.1/10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
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#41 Crack In The World
1965 | 1h 36m | Directed by Andrew Marton | IMDB: 5.9/10
Starring Dana Andrews, Janette Scott, and Kieron Moore
Earth is hiding quite a lot beneath the surface, so it was only a matter of time before someone decided to crack it open. When a group of scientists decides to crack into the magma layer below by using nuclear weapons, a disaster happens above. This disaster takes the form of a threat that will split Earth into two.
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#42 Hurricane
1979 | 2h 00m | Directed by Jan Troell | IMDB: 4.7/10 |
Starring Jason Robards, Mia Farrow, and Max von Sydow
A love affair is horrible already, but what if it was intensified by a devastating hurricane hitting an island? An American painter, against the orders of her father, falls in love with a person on a lonely island. The tension on the island rises even more when a hurricane hits it and intensifies the conflicts between the characters.
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#43 The Day The Earth Caught Fire
1961 | 1h 39m | Directed by Val Guest | IMDB: 7.2/10 |
Starring Edward Judd, Janet Munro, and Leo McKern
Nuclear weapons are one of the biggest dormant disasters in the world, so what would happen if two of them were detonated simultaneously? Well, according to this movie, the axis of Earth would be changed in a bad way. When the Soviet Union and the United States use these weapons at the same time, strange events occur all over the world.
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#44 Sharknado
2013 | 1h 26m | Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante | IMDB: 3.3/10 |
Starring Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, and John Heard
Sharks are not known to have the ability to fly, but when they are caught by a tornado, then you have a disaster on your hands — a sharknado. A group of semi-normal survivors has to fight through Los Angeles and fight sharks on land. While the movie might have failed in the eyes of the critics, it sure got some people to giggle while watching it.
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#45 The Hurricane Heist
2018 | 1h 43m | Directed by Rob Cohen | IMDB: 5.1/10 |
Starring Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace, and Ryan Kwanten
Hurricanes — they create chaos in their paths, thus giving a chance for any ambitious criminal to go on a robbing streak. As a category 5 (highest level) hurricane approaches the United States, a group of thieves decides to steal from the big boys — the US Treasury. The hurricane plays an important role as a distraction but also as a destructive force.
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