Comingsoon.net is begging you to take cover as we compile the best disaster movies in recent memory. Check out our picks in the gallery below!
For whatever reason, disaster movies continue to be endlessly entertaining. Despite their incredibly morbid subject matters, they prove to bring in audiences again and again without fail. Maybe audiences feel some sort of catharsis when these massive tragedies unfold on-screen. Maybe, in many instances, they serve as a reminder to be more environmentally conscious. Regardless of the answer as to why, audiences just can’t get enough of these things.
Roland Emmerich has essentially crowned himself the king of disaster movies, but other directors have done a much better job than he has throughout the years. Spanning between 1996 and 2011 (strangely sticking between those fifteen years), these are the best disaster movies we’ve seen so far.
disaster movies
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Contagion (2011)
Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion imagines a disaster of a different breed: a deadly virus that slowly but surely takes hold across the planet. It’s enough to make a germaphobe out of even the strongest viewers.
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Independence Day (1996)
One of two Roland Emmerich films contained here, Independence Day is the least plausible of these five disaster movies but probably the most entertaining. It’s an action movie through and through, with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum fighting off aliens determined to blow up all kinds of iconic monuments.
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The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The other Roland Emmerich film in this slideshow, The Day After Tomorrow sees climatologist Jack Hall (played by Dennis Quaid) try his best to warn the globe about an enormous superstorm in development with the potential to trigger natural disasters across the planet. Of course, no one listens and catastrophe sets in. Emmerich might not be worth the time of day these days, but the actual disaster sequences are undoubtedly worth checking out.
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Titanic (1997)
Avengers: Endgame might’ve dethroned it, but James Cameron’s Titanic still proves to be one of the most impressively-made disaster movies to date. The complete and total destruction of the titular ship plays out so realistically, it’s impossible to not be caught up in it all (no matter how you feel about the story pre-iceberg).
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Twister (1996)
Jan de Bont’s Twister follows a group of storm chasers dead-set on utilizing a new sensor device in the middle of a dangerous tornado outbreak. The movie received mixed reviews, but the disaster sequences remain so impressive even after all these years.
