49 articles
10.5 (miniseries)
10.5 is a 2004 NBC four-hour disaster miniseries written and directed by John Lafia, starring Kim Delaney, Fred Ward, and Beau Bridges, about West Coast earthquakes culminating in a physically impossible magnitude 10.5 quake; Part 1 drew about 20.4 million viewers despite poor reviews, and a sequel, 10.5: Apocalypse, followed in 2006.
2012 (film)
2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich, in which a Maya-calendar cataclysm destroys world cities while John Cusack's character carries his family to safety aboard arks.
96 Minutes (分钟) (2025 film)
96 Minutes (分钟) is a 2025 Taiwanese disaster thriller directed by Hung Tzu-hsuan, starring Austin Lin, about a retired bomb disposal officer defusing a train bomb wired to its speed.
Aftershock (唐山大地震) (2010 film)
Aftershock (唐山大地震) is Feng Xiaogang's 2010 disaster drama adapted from Zhang Ling's novella 余震, about a mother's 1976 Tangshan earthquake choice between her twins; China's first IMAX film and then the biggest-grossing domestic Chinese film.
Cesium Fallout (焚城)
Cesium Fallout (焚城) is a 2024 Hong Kong disaster film directed by Anthony Pun, starring Andy Lau as an expert racing to contain radioactive cesium-137 released by a recycling-plant fire.
Contagion (2011 film)
Contagion (2011) is a Steven Soderbergh medical thriller, written by Scott Z. Burns, about the fictional MEV-1 bat-pig virus causing a global pandemic; praised for scientific accuracy under advisor Ian Lipkin, it trended again during COVID-19.
Dante's Peak
Dante's Peak is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Roger Donaldson, in which volcanologist Harry Dalton, played by Pierce Brosnan, warns a Washington town of an eruption.
Daylight (1996 film)
Daylight (1996) is a Universal disaster film directed by Rob Cohen, written by Leslie Bohem, starring Sylvester Stallone as ex-EMS chief Kit Latura rescuing survivors trapped in a collapsed Hudson River tunnel after a toxic-waste explosion; released December 6, 1996, shot at Cinecittà with ILM effects.
Deepwater Horizon (film)
Deepwater Horizon is Peter Berg's 2016 Lionsgate disaster film starring Mark Wahlberg as rig technician Mike Williams, dramatizing the April 20, 2010 Gulf of Mexico blowout that killed 11; praised for rig realism, criticized for simplifying blame.
Der Untergang der Pamir
Der Untergang der Pamir is a 2005/2006 German two-part TV drama by Kaspar Heidelbach dramatizing the 1957 sinking of the training barque Pamir in hurricane Carrie near the Azores, in which 80 of 86 aboard died and six survived.
Earthquake (1974 film)
Earthquake (1974) is a Universal disaster film directed by Mark Robson, starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, depicting Los Angeles destroyed by a massive quake; first film in Sensurround, grossing over $167 million and winning the Best Sound Oscar.
Everest (2015 film)
Everest (2015) is a Baltasar Kormákur survival drama starring Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Josh Brolin about the May 10, 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a storm killed eight climbers on two commercial expeditions.
Flu (film)
Flu (감기) is a 2013 South Korean disaster film directed by Kim Sung-soo, starring Jang Hyuk and Soo Ae, about a 100%-fatal airborne avian flu outbreak in Bundang near Seoul, mass quarantine, over 3 million admissions, and later COVID-19 reappraisal.
Greenland (film)
Greenland (2020) is a Ric Roman Waugh disaster thriller starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin as a family fleeing comet Clarke to Greenland bunkers; released on VOD December 18, 2020, grossing $52.3 million, with sequel Greenland: Migration (2026).
Greenland 2: Migration
Greenland 2: Migration, also called Greenland 2, is a 2026 American post-apocalyptic disaster thriller directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring Gerard Butler, the sequel to Greenland.
Haeundae
Haeundae (해운대), released abroad as Tidal Wave, is Yoon Je-kyoon's 2009 Korean tsunami disaster film starring Sul Kyung-gu and Ha Ji-won; it sold over 11 million admissions, becoming the fifth Korean film to pass ten million.
Hard Rain (film)
Hard Rain is a 1998 action thriller set in flooded Huntingburg, Indiana. It stars Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman as an armored car driver and a thief.
Into the Storm (2014 film)
Into the Storm (2014) is an American disaster film directed by Steven Quale, written by John Swetnam, starring Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, and Matt Walsh. Released August 8, 2014 by Warner Bros., it uses a found-footage style to depict tornadoes striking the town of Silverton; it grossed $47.6 million in the US.
Kursk (film)
Kursk is a 2018 Thomas Vinterberg drama starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Lea Seydoux, and Colin Firth about the 2000 K-141 Kursk submarine disaster, adapted from Robert Moore's book A Time to Die, premiered at TIFF 2018.
Ladder 49
Ladder 49 is a 2004 American drama directed by Jay Russell, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a Baltimore firefighter trapped in a warehouse fire while John Travolta coordinates his rescue.
Life on the Line (film)
Life on the Line (2015, released 2016) is a David Hackl workplace drama-thriller starring John Travolta, Kate Bosworth, and Devon Sawa as Texas linemen battling a deadly storm; Metascore 24, $39,027 gross.
Outbreak (1995 film)
Outbreak (1995) is Wolfgang Petersen's Warner Bros. medical thriller, loosely based on Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, starring Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo fighting a fictional Ebola-like Motaba virus in Cedar Creek, California; it grossed about $190 million worldwide.
Pompeii (film)
Pompeii is a 2014 disaster film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, starring Kit Harington as a gladiator during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
Poseidon (film)
Poseidon is a 2006 American disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, in which a rogue wave capsizes a luxury ocean liner and survivors climb through the upside-down ship to escape.
Project Silence
Project Silence (탈출: 프로젝트 사일런스, Escape: Project Silence) is a 2024 South Korean disaster thriller by Kim Tae-gon, starring Lee Sun-kyun, Ju Ji-hoon, and Kim Hee-won, about military experiment dogs loose on a foggy collapsing airport bridge; premiered at Cannes 2023, released July 12, 2024.
Raise the Titanic (film)
Raise the Titanic is Jerry Jameson's 1980 ITC film adaptation of Clive Cussler's 1976 novel, starring Jason Robards and Richard Jordan; a $40 million Cold War salvage adventure that earned about $7 million and flopped.
San Andreas (film)
San Andreas (2015) is a Brad Peyton disaster film starring Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, and Alexandra Daddario, released May 29, 2015 by Warner Bros., grossing $473 million worldwide; seismologists criticized its magnitude 9.6 quake and tsunami as impossible for the strike-slip San Andreas fault.
The Bravest (烈火英雄)
The Bravest (烈火英雄) is a 2019 Chinese disaster film directed by Chen Guohui, adapted from Bao'erji Yuanye's reportage and based on the 2010 Dalian 7·16 oil fire; it earned 1.689 billion yuan and faced a 2019 plagiarism suit.
The Cassandra Crossing
The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 disaster thriller, also released 1977, directed by George Pan Cosmatos and produced by Carlo Ponti, starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Burt Lancaster, and Ava Gardner as plague-exposed train passengers rerouted over a collapsing bridge.
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome is a 1979 James Bridges thriller starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and Michael Douglas about a nuclear plant accident and cover-up; released twelve days before Three Mile Island, it earned four Oscar nominations.