Top 10 Disaster Films

As a teacher, Hollywood has many interesting theories – all futures are plausible, magical worlds are closer than we think and disasters equal big entertainment. Click on each to find out which are, in my opinion, the top ten disaster films. Disagree? Comment below and tell me what I’ve missed!

10. Armageddon (1998)

Admit it, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith is still one of your favorite shower tunes, right? The iconic song, however, is just one of the few reasons to like this film besides the Michael Bay-sized effects and scale effectively highlighting the impending disaster. Other than that, everything else is pure popcorn material – from the ludicrous premise, overboard-on-testosterone characters and – dialogue. Still, the film’s intention right off the bat is not about creating depth but rather entertainment, the one thing the cast does extremely well.

9. Independence Day (1996)

When practical effects are still the preferred order of the day, everything in here – flying cars, exploding buildings, the alien ships and the aliens themselves – feel so real and horrifying you roll along with the film’s predictable script and very heavy-handed patriotism. You can count on Roland Emmerich to make de-landscaping ridiculously entertaining, if only the cheese factor is kept in the low-medium range (but alas this happened otherwise in The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and White House Down).

8. Alive (1993)

I still remember watching the crash sequence on TV and realizing all the plane-going experience my parents have given to me become close to meaningless. I didn’t understand much of the film back then as I was still learning English, however I clearly remembered the horrors our characters must go through to survive the bitter cold of the Andes – including eating the dead. I know this disaster film is rated R, so don’t tell my parents, please.

7. The Perfect Storm (2000)

Despite this film's numerous problems  – weak characters, basic writing, continuous music (though this does not bug me as much) and source-material distancing – it is – you can’t deny director Wolfgang Petersen, cinematographer John Seale and the people at Industrial Light & Magic have brought a truly horrifying weather event to the big screen. While the stormy scenes are filmed in an indoor pool, a combo of movie magic and skilled direction effortlessly pull you into the heart of chaos… but unfortunately Petersen and crew can’t replicate this effect in Poseidon.

6. Apollo 13 (1995)

Like Deep Impact, the human element is the focus and the performances are captivating. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon and especially Ed Harris are the true stars of the film, giving much gravitas to the harrowing situation at hand. I had a difficult time choosing between this and Gravity but in the end Apollo 13 gets my vote – it is a showcase of top notch acting peppered with effects instead of the other way around.

5. Deep Impact (1998)

It was not the winner in the 1998 asteroid-impact box office race against Armageddon, but to me it should have been. The reason? Instead of machismo and explosions, in this film drama and humanity are explored as tragedy looms. Though the sense of urgency is lightly felt, I find what the characters do – either by will or by force – is believable should a situation like this happen. Deep Impact is a standout film because it has a brain and heart, two unusually seen elements in the disaster genre.

4. Sunshine (2007)                                                                                                                                                                                      

The sun is dying, but the situation on the ship tasked to reset it is even worse. It is unfortunate that Danny Boyle won’t go big-budget again due to exhaustion from Sunshine, otherwise he’d totally be my first choice to direct an entertaining, tragic, beautiful and tense sci-fi film. Although the film is more known for a divisive third act, also known as the reason behind the under-appreciation (or outright hate), everything else leading up to it is more or less a fine space disaster film.

3. Titanic (1997)

You can’t say disaster film without thinking about this ship. The story, dialogue and romance: either you can deal with them or not but, oh boy, it’s the sinking sequence that’s the draw here. To me James Cameron is like a more polished Michael Bay in which he takes things slow and smooth to jump cuts to highlight the on-screen destruction and horror. Sometimes, after seeing a film you question where most of the budget has gone, but I bet with Titanic it’s all there on screen – and the result is a truly epic disaster film.

2. Contagion (2011)

Director Steven Soderbergh is as ruthless as the transmitted-by-touch virus in the film, killing off performers that you love as if they’re nothing. But that’s why the film is on this list in the first place. The setup and the parties involved are so convincing and insane that it gets you profoundly thinking afterwards. While the calamity is nothing on the epic scale, the believability and intensity of the whole affair makes Contagion a disaster film well worth your attention.

1. 28 Days Later (2003)

Disaster films can be fairly obvious (i.e. asteroids equal tsunamis or fire waves, volcano means lava and smoke, outbreaks are connected to mass deaths etc.) and then… there’s the running zombies. Running. Zombies. Besides that, it’s rare seeing a popular city besides New York being deserted (very convincingly too) and a solid commentary on humanity from writer Alex Garland. 28 Days Later is everything a disaster film could want and so much more – tense, scary, beautiful in content and style, well-acted and special.