Disaster movies are a genre of movie that chronicles an ongoing or imminent catastrophe as the main subject of the plot. Such disasters could be natural disasters, global disasters, military/terrorist attacks or pandemics. A subgenre of action movies, often also related to the drama genre, disaster movies generally include a pre-disaster opening act, the catastrophe itself, and in some cases the aftermath, usually from the point of view of the main characters.
These movies often feature large star casts and focus on the characters’ efforts to prevent, cope with, and save themselves from catastrophe and its aftermath. The category enjoyed specific prominence throughout the 1970s with the release of such major movies as Airport (1970), followed in quick succession by The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974) .
As catastrophe begins in the movie, the characters are challenged by human weaknesses, falling in love and discovering a villain to blame. Disaster movies generally include a hero or heroine who leads the disaster resistance. In many cases, the “evil” or “self-centered” people are the first to succumb. Disaster movies got a makeover in the 1990s boosted by computer-generated imagery and big budget plans that allowed for a bigger phenomenon, culminating in the cinematic phenomenon that was James Cameron’s Titanic in 1997.
The themes of disaster movies they are as old as the movie medium itself. Among the first was Fire! (1901) made by James Williamson of England. The movie showed a burning house and firefighters arriving to put out the flames and save the occupants. The origins of disaster movies can also be found in In Nacht und Eis (1912), about the sinking of the Titanic; Atlantis (1913), also on the Titanic; the Danish The End of the World (1916), which tells of an asteroid; Noah’s Ark (1928), the biblical Genesis story about the flood; Deluge (1933), about the tides ravaging New York City; King Kong (1933), with the enormous gorilla rampaging through New York City; and The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), which recounts the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius.
Deluge (1933)
It’s a science fiction movie 1933 and disaster movie directed by Felix E. Feist and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The movie is loosely based on the 1928 book of the same name by S. Fowler Wright, with the setting transferred from the UK to the US. The story follows a small group of survivors after a series of unusual natural disasters emerge around the world and destroy human civilization, consisting of a huge tsunami that engulfs New York City. Deluge garnered mostly favorable reviews upon its release. It was a modest commercial success for production company RKO.
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
It is a movie by RKO Radio Pictures with Preston Foster and directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper, creators of the first King Kong. Influenced by Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s book of the same name, the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book. At the time of Jesus Christ, the blacksmith Marcus is satisfied with his life, his lovely wife Julia and his six-month-old baby Flavius. When Julia and their baby are run over by a cart on the streets of Pompeii, Marcus invests what little money he has in a doctor and drugs. Needing more money, in desperation, he ends up being a gladiator. He wins his battle, but his wife and son die anyway. Filled with guilt complexes, he ends up being an expert gladiator and gets richer with each triumph.
San Francisco (1936)
San Francisco is a 1936 disaster drama movie directed by WS Van Dyke, based on the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. The movie stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. MacDonald’s singing made this movie a significant success, starting on the heels of his other 1936 blockbuster, Rose Marie. On New Year’s Eve 1905, saloon manager “Blackie” Norton hires Mary Blake to sing at his bar, the Paradise Club on Pacific Street on San Francisco’s infamous Barbary Coast. Mary ends up being a star at the Paradise, especially for her song, “San Francisco”. Blackie’s friend Matt predicts that Mary won’t be staying long on the “Coast”.
The Hurricane( 1937)
The Hurricane is a 1937 disaster movie set in the South Seas, directed by John Ford and produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions, about a wrongfully imprisoned Polynesian. The climax includes a special effects cyclone. In the cast Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall, with Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, John Carradine and Jerome Cowan. James Norman Hall, Jon Hall’s uncle, co-wrote the book of the same name on which The Hurricane is based. The movie was applauded for the special effects and the final cyclone scenes. It has been called one of the best movies of the year.
In Old Chicago( 1937)
It is a musical movie 1938 American disaster Henry King. The screenplay for the movie by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the story by Niven Busch, “We the O’Learys”. The movie is a fictionalized account of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O’Leary, the owner of the cow that started the fire, and Tyrone Power and Don Ameche as her children. At the time of its release, it was among the most expensive movies ever made. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Alice Brady won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was also chosen in the categories of music, sound and original story.
The Stars Look Down (1940)
It is a 1940 British disaster movie, based on the 1935 AJ Cronin book of the same name, on the oppressions in a mining town in north east England. The movie, co-written by Cronin and directed by Carol Reed, stars Michael Redgrave as Davey Fenwick and Margaret Lockwood as Jenny Sunley. The movie is listed among the best 1,000 movies ever made. The coal miners, led by Robert “Bob” Fenwick, go on strike, refusing to work in a specific area of the mine due to the threat of flooding, whether or not their union supports the owner of Neptune Colliery, Richard Barras. Tensions rise as the strikers go hungry. Some of them break into a butcher’s shop and loot it. Bob Fenwick attempts to stop them, but ends up getting arrested himself. The miners give up and go back to work.
Titanic (1943)
It is a disaster and propaganda movie made during WWII in Berlin by Tobis Productions for UFA, depicting the devastating sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Despite the fact that there was already a German silent movie produced in 1912 just four weeks after the sinking and a British company had launched a German-language movie about the 1929 catastrophe, the movie was commissioned by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels with the intention of revealing not only the supremacy of German cinema, but also as a propaganda tool illustrating the American and British industrialism as responsible for the catastrophe. The addition of a completely fictional brave German officer to the ship’s crew was planned to show the exceptional bravery and selflessness of the Germans compared to the British officers.
The film’s director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German military and the war in the east. The movie had a brief theatrical release in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not distributed in Germany on the orders of Goebbels, who feared it would damage the regime’s image to the German citizenry rather than improve it.
Goebbels later forbade the movie from being reproduced entirely and was not given a second viewing. The movie was the first on the Titanic subject, and the first to integrate several fictional characters and subplots with the true events of the sinking; both conventions ended up being a staple of the Titanic movies.
The High and the Mighty (1954)
It is a 1954 disaster movie, directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote the 1953 book on which the screenplay of his movie was based. Recorded in WarnerColor and CinemaScope, the cast of the movie starred John Wayne, who was also the co-producer of the work. Wayne plays an airline’s first officer, Dan Roman, whose airliner suffers a disastrous engine failure while crossing the Pacific Ocean. The film’s supporting cast consists of Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris and Robert Newton. Author Dimitri Tiomkin won an Academy Award for his music. The movie garnered favorable reviews and earned $8.5 million upon its theatrical release.
Zero Hour! (1957)
It’s a 1957 drama movie directed by Hall Bartlett from a screenplay by Bartlett, Arthur Hailey and John Champion. It stars Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell and Sterling Hayden and stars Peggy King, Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Geoffrey Toone and Jerry Paris in supporting roles. The movie is a remake of the Canadian television comedy Flight into Danger, and was in turn used as the basis for the parody movie Airplane!
During the final days of World War II, 6 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force fighter squadron led by pilot Ted Stryker are eliminated due to his choice of command. Years later, in civilian life in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a guilt-ridden Stryker faces his marital relationship remains in trouble. Stryker discovers a note in the house: his wife Ellen has taken their baby Joey and is leaving him, flying to Vancouver. He hurries to the Winnipeg airport to board the same flight, Cross-Canada Air Lines Flight 714.
A Night to Remember (1953)
It’s a movie documentary based on Walter Lord’s 1955 book of the same name. The movie and movie chronicle the last night of the Titanic, which on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and later sank in the morning hours of Monday April 15, 1912. Edited by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Ward Baker, the movie stars Kenneth More as the ship’s second mate Charles Lightoller and stars Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum and Tucker McGuire. It was filmed in the UK and tells the story of the sinking, portraying the main events and characters in a documentary style with considerable attention to information.
The production team, overseen by producer William MacQuitty used the ship’s blueprints to develop original sets, while fourth mate Joseph Boxhall and ex-Cunard commodore Harry Grattidge served as technical advisers on the movie. His spending plan of a whopping ₤600,000 made it the most expensive film ever made in Britain up to that point. Among the many movies about the Titanic, the film is highly regarded by historians and Titanic survivors for its accuracy, despite its modest production values, compared to the Academy Award-winning film Titanic (1997).
Jet Storm (1959)
It is a thriller movie of 1959 directed by Richard Attenborough stars with Stanley Baker, Hermione Baddeley and Diane Cilento. The movie is a forerunner of the later category of air travel catastrophe movies such as Airport (1970). Ernest Tilley (Richard Attenborough), a former research scientist who lost his son 2 years earlier in an accident, locates James Brock (George Rose), the man he thinks is responsible for the crash, and boards the same airliner on a transatlantic flight, flying from London to New York. Tilley has hidden a bomb on board and threatens to detonate it in an act of revenge, not only taking out Brock but all guests and crew as well.
The Devil at 4 O’clock (1961)
It’s a 1961 American movie directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. Based on a 1958 novel of the same title by British author Max Catto, the movie was a precursor to Krakatoa, East of Java and 1970s disaster movies such as The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake and The Towering Inferno.
The movie deals with numerous themes of prejudice involving age, alcohol addiction, vision loss and disease. He similarly recounts ethical issues, such as a priest who drinks to excess and crooks who engage in acts of self-sacrifice. A small plane approaches the fictional Pacific island of Talua in French Polynesia, 500 miles from Tahiti, where the plane is located. The plane and its cargo of 3 handcuffed convicts and a priest make an overnight stop on the island, preparing to continue their flight the next day.
On the island, Father Doonan was relieved of his duties by Father Perreau. Doonan, an alcoholic who has fallen out of favor with the island’s citizens since he stumbled upon the island’s problem: leprosy among children. Doonan had actually built a medical facility for the children near the island’s volcano and often goes to homes to get funds or products for lepers. The occupiers have grown tired of Doonan’s contribution needs and see him as a nuisance.
Jet Over the Atlantic (1969)
Is a 1959 drama movie directed by Byron Haskin and starring Guy Madison, Virginia Mayo, George Raft and Ilona Massey. George Raft biographer Everett Aaker called Jet Over the Atlantic “a forerunner of the disaster movie category.” Wanted on murder charges, Brett Matton, a US Air Force veteran of the Korean War, left the country to go to Spain, where he has lived for two years and is engaged to Jean Gurney, a former showgirl. FBI Agent Stafford arrives in Spain to arrest Brett and extradite him to the United States. On their flight to New York, the travelers consist of Jean, who bought a last-minute ticket, and Lord Leverett, a boy distraught over the death of his son. Leverett carries a chemical toxin hidden in his bag on board.
The Crowded Sky (1960)
It is a 1960 Technicolor drama movie released by Warner Bros., produced by Michael Garrison, directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The movie is based on the 1960 book of the same name by Hank Searls.
The story follows the crew and passengers of a US Navy jet and airliner carrying a cargo of travelers during a time of severe weather conditions. Other problems, such as a malfunctioning radio, make interacting with air traffic control difficult. A US Navy Lockheed TV-2 jet piloted by Commander Dale Heath, encounters problems soon after takeoff. Heath’s radio and navigation system go haywire, leaving him unable to correctly identify the jet’s altitude. Barnett and Heath have their own individual crises: Heath is stuck in an unfulfilled marital relationship with a drifter, and Barnett had had a veteran conflict with Mike Rule, his co-pilot.
The Doomsday Flight (1966)
It is a 1966 television thriller movie composed by Rod Serling and directed by William Graham. The cast consists of Jack Lord, Edmond O’Brien, Van Johnson, Katherine Crawford, John Saxon, Richard Carlson and Ed Asner.
The movie is about a bomb placed on an airliner and the efforts to find it before it takes off. The terrorist who planted the bomb needs cash in exchange for essential information. The movie influenced imitative real-life events, including bomb hazards. At Los Angeles International Airport, a Douglas DC-8 airliner departs for New York. Soon after departure, the airline learns of a bomb on board. A stranger (Edmond O’Brien) on the phone demands $100,000 in small denominations. He likewise says that the bomb is hidden in the cabin. The stranger is in fact a former engineer who worked in the air travel market.
Chief business pilot Bob Shea (Richard Carlson) chooses to warn the flight crew. He convinces pilot Captain Anderson (Van Johnson), to circle Las Vegas. Likewise he asks the flight team to search for the bomb on board. The bomb was found to have an altitude sensitive switch and will detonate if the plane lands.
Krakatoa, East of Java (1968)
It is a 1968 American disaster movie starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 volcano eruption on the island of Krakatoa, with the characters having taken part in healing a shipment of pearls from a shipwreck perilously close to the volcano. The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects.
Krakatoa is actually west of Java, however the film’s producers believed “East” sounded more exotic. In 1883, the volcano on the island of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies begins to emerge, terrorizing school children in Palembang in neighboring Sumatra. Through the Sunda Strait in the port of Anjer on the west coast of Java, the ship Batavia Queen, under the command of Captain Chris Hanson, embarks travelers and cargo, consisting of a diving bell and a balloon. Among the travelers who come aboard are Douglas Rigby, the designer, owner and operator of the diving bell; Giovanni Borghese and his boyfriend Leoncavallo, who handle the ball; Harry Connerly, a diver; Connerly’s girlfriend Charley Adams who is an accomplished soprano; 4 Japanese pearl divers led by Toshi; and Laura Travis, a wife who had an extramarital affair with Hanson in Batavia.
Airport (1970)
It is a 1970 American disaster movie, a drama movie written and directed by George Seaton and starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. Based on Arthur Hailey’s 1968 book of the same name, it is the first of 4 movies in the Airport movie series. Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned over $128 million.
The movie deals with an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plans to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in mid-air. It occurs at the fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago. The film was among Universal Pictures’ major commercial successes. The film earned Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a stowaway and was nominated for 9 other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design for designer Edith Head.
With a focus on information about the daily operations of the airport and the airline, the storyline is about reacting to a snowstorm, environmental concerns about noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner. The movie is identified by individual stories that connect with each other as choices are made minute by minute by airport and airline personnel, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews and Federal Aviation air traffic controllers Administration. Ernest Laszlo photographed the film in 70mm.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
It is a 1972 American disaster movie directed by Ronald Neame, produced by Irwin Allen and based on the 1969 book of the same name by Paul Gallico . It has an ensemble cast of 5 Academy Award winners: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters and the Red Buttons. The plot centers on the fictional Poseidon, an old luxury ship on its last voyage from New York City to Athens before being abandoned. On New Year’s Day, a tsunami arrives and capsizes the ship. The travelers and team get stuck inside, and a preacher tries to get a small group of survivors to safety.
The movie remains in the vein of other stellar disaster movies of the early to mid-1970s, such as Airport (1970), Earthquake (1974), and The Towering Inferno (1974). It was released in December 1972 and was the highest-grossing film of 1973, grossing over $125 million worldwide. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, making it among the most chosen movies ever, and won 2 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, a British Academy Film Award and a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award. A sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, also based on an original by Gallico, was released in 1979.
Earthquake (1974)
It is a 1974 American disaster drama movie directed and produced by Mark Robson and starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. The plot chronicles the battle for survival after a disastrous earthquake ruins most of the city of Los Angeles, California.
Directed by Robson with a screenplay by George Fox and Mario Puzo, the movie stars a large cast of popular stars, including Heston, Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal and Walter Matthau. It is significant for using an ingenious sound technique called Sensurround, which gives the sensation of actually experiencing an earthquake in theatres.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
It is a 1974 American disaster movie directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, which includes an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the books The Tower (1973) by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno (1974) by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. The movie had an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and was the highest-grossing movie of 1974. The movie was nominated for 8 Academy Awards in all, winning 3. In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast consists of William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, OJ Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and Jennifer Jones in his last feature.
Airport 1975 (1974)
It is a 1974 American aircraft disaster movie and the first sequel to the 1970 movie of the same name Airport. It was directed by Jack Smight, produced by William Frye, produced by Jennings Lang and written by Don Ingalls. The movie stars Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy and Gloria Swanson – who plays a fictionalized version of herself – in her final movie appearance.
The plot concerns the events aboard a Boeing 747 in flight when a small airplane crashes into the cockpit, resulting in the fatalities of the crew and the blinding of the pilot, leaving no one on board capable of taking the controls. Airport 1975 was the seventh highest-grossing movie of 1974 at the US and Canadian box office.
The Hindenburg (1975)
It is a 1975 American Technicolor disaster movie based on the Hindenburg catastrophe. The movie stars George C. Scott. It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was composed by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney.
The book and movie illustrate a conspiracy involving sabotage, resulting in damage to the German airship Hindenburg. In reality, while Zeppelins were certainly used as propaganda signals by Nazi Germany, and anti-Nazi forces may have been encouraged to undermine them, the possibility of such an act was examined at the time; in the end, no firm evidence was discovered to confirm the theory. Shot primarily in color (with a mock newsreel provided in black and white at the beginning of the movie), a portion of the movie is black and white, edited between portions of historic Hindenburg newsreel video shot May 6, 1937.
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
It is a 1976 disaster thriller movie directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and OJ Simpson about a Swedish terrorist infected with a disease that infects train passengers as they make their way to a crumbling arched bridge. With the support of media mogul Sir Lew Grade and Italian movie producer Carlo Ponti, the stellar worldwide cast attracted large audiences, with rights offered before filming to American and British distributors. Ponti similarly saw the production as an opportunity for his partner, Sophia Loren.
Two-Minute Warning (1976)
It is a 1976 action thriller directed by Larry Peerce and starring Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands and David Janssen. It was based on the book of the same name composed by George LaFontaine. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing. An unidentified sniper (Warren Miller) positions himself at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before a football game called “Championship X” between Baltimore and Los Angeles, comparable to the Super Bowl. He is identified by a camera. The authorities are immediately called by arena director Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam). Captain of the authorities Peter Holly (Charlton Heston), dealing with Sergeant Chris Button (John Cassavetes), invents a strategy to identify the sniper before the conclusion of the game.
Black Sunday (1977)
It is a 1977 American action thriller movie directed by John Frankenheimer and based on the book of the same name by Thomas Harris. It was produced by Robert Evans and starred Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller. It was shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1978. The screenplay for the movie was written by Ernest Lehman, Kenneth Ross and Ivan Moffat. Ross had previously written the movie script for Day of the Jackal, a similar political thriller. The story’s inspiration originated from the Munich Massacre committed by the Black September Company against Israeli professional athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics, providing the title for the novel and the movie.
Rollercoaster (1977)
It’s a suspense movie 1977 American disaster directed by James Goldstone. It was among the few movies shown in Sensurround, which used extended-range bass frequencies to provide a sense of vibration to the audience during roller coaster rides. An unnamed man (Timothy Bottoms) sneaks into Ocean View Amusement Park and places a small radio-controlled bomb on the tracks of the park’s wooden roller coaster, The Rocket. The bomb explodes, triggering the blockage of the train, resulting in deaths and injuries. Safety Inspector Harry Calder (George Segal), investigates what happened. A park employee informs Calder that he saw what he believed was a park maintenance worker on the tracks the day before, but didn’t know if the man actually had a license to be there.
Avalanche (1978)
It is a 1978 American disaster movie directed by Corey Allen and starring Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster and Jeanette Nolan. David Shelby is the wealthy owner of a new ski resort nestled under a snowy mountain. He welcomes his ex-wife, Caroline Brace, who arrives at the resort for the grand opening, and starts a ski race and a figure skating competition. Among the many visitors are David’s vivacious mum Florence, Bruce Scott, a world famous skiing champion, and 2 competing ice skaters.
City on Fire (1979)
It is a 1979 disaster action movie directed by Alvin Rakoff, written by Jack Hill, Dave Lewis and Celine La Freniere, and starring Barry Newman, Susan Clark, Shelley Winters, Leslie Nielsen, James Franciscus, Ava Gardner and Henry Fonda. The plot of the movie centers on a disgruntled ex-employee who mines an oil refinery, starting a fire that engulfs an entire city. Individuals attempt to escape or fight the fire as it spreads throughout the city.
In an unnamed U.S. city, corrupt Mayor William Dudley has allowed an oil refinery to develop right in the middle of town, away from any rivers, reservoirs, or lakes. On a hot summer day Herman Stover, a refinery staff member, has been turned down for a promotion and also finds himself fired after turning down a departmental transfer. He then chooses to retaliate by opening the valves of the storage barrels and their interconnecting pipes, flooding the place and the sewage systems with gas and chemicals. The act of vandalism starts a fire, which sets off a domino effect by spreading a mushroom cloud of flames that quickly engulfs the entire metropolitan area.
The drama focuses on a newly built medical facility which, like the refinery and all public facilities during the mayor’s mindless administration, is inadequately equipped. There, Chief Physician Frank Whitman and his staff treat the countless fire victims while City Fire Chief Risley is in constant contact with firefighters fighting a battle against the wildfires, while Maggie Grayson, a alcoholic journalist, sees the catastrophe as an opportunity for a scoop.
Airport ’77 (1977)
It is a 1977 American disaster movie and the third part of the Airport movie series. The movie stars Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland and Brenda Vaccaro as well as the return of George Kennedy from the previous two Airport movies. It is directed by Jerry Jameson, produced by Jennings Lang executive producer William Frye with a screenplay by Michael Scheff and David Spector.
The plot concerns a personal Boeing 747 loaded with VIPs and precious works of art which is hijacked by pirates before crashing into the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle, leading the survivors into a desperate battle for survival. Regardless of the mixed reviews, Airport ’77 was a box office hit, earning $91 million worldwide. It was chosen for 2 Academy Awards.
The Concorde… Airport ’79 (1979)
It is a 1979 American disaster movie and the last and fourth part of the Airport franchise. Poorly rated by critics, the movie was a huge hit globally, grossing $65 million on a $14 million budget plan. The movie was directed by David Lowell Rich. The cast consists of George Kennedy, who appeared in all 4 movies of the Airport series, Susan Blakely, Alain Delon and Robert Wagner in the lead roles. Mercedes McCambridge and Martha Raye have cameos.
The Swarm (1978)
It is a 1978 American disaster movie directed and produced by Irwin Allen and based on the 1974 book by Arthur Herzog. The cast consists of Michael Caine , Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray.
A researcher and a military task force attempt to stop a large swarm of killer bees from attacking Texas. The movie received extremely poor ratings from critics and was a box office failure. It has been considered one of the worst movies ever made. Despite this, Paul Zastupnevich was chosen for the Oscar for best costume design.
Meteor (1979)
It is a 1979 science fiction disaster movie directed by Ronald Neame and starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood. The film’s structure, which follows a group of researchers grappling with Cold War politics after an asteroid is identified to have collided with Earth, was motivated by a 1967 MIT report Project Icarus. The screenplay for the film was written by Academy Award winner Edmund H. North and Stanley Mann. The cast also includes Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Joseph Campanella, Richard Dysart and Henry Fonda. The film was a box office flop and garnered unfavorable reviews, It was still shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Sound.
When Time Run Out… (1980)
It is a 1980 American disaster movie directed by James Goldstone and starring Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset and William Holden. Supporting cast includes James Franciscus, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Burgess Meredith, Valentina Cortese, Veronica Hamel, Pat Morita, Edward Albert and Barbara Carrera. Produced by Irwin Allen, the screenplay for the movie When Time Ran Out… by Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant is partially based on the 1969 novel The Day the World Ended by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts which details the accurate eruption 1902 volcanic attack of Mount Pelee on Martinique, which eliminated 30,000 individuals in 5 minutes. The film marked the last and second time Newman and Holden appeared together since the making of The Towering Inferno 6 years earlier, as well as reuniting Borgnine and Buttons from The Poseidon Adventure. The film was a commercial flop and is often considered the last disaster movie of the 1970s period.
The Big Bus (1976)
It is a comedy disaster movie 1976 directed by James Frawley. A satire of the disaster movie category that was popular at the time, it follows the first cross-country trip of a huge nuclear-powered bus called the Cyclops. The Big Bus received mixed reviews upon its release in 1976. The film performed poorly at the box office but was recognized as a cult classic in its category.
Director Frawley won the Audience Award at the 1977 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. Coyote Bus Lines designers and researchers work feverishly to complete Cyclops, a state-of-the-art jumbo bus, which allows Guy to reach a new turning point in bus history, especially the nonstop service between New York City and Denver. Almost immediately after the bus engine is fed with nuclear fuel, a bomb explodes, seriously injuring Professor Baxter, the researcher in charge of the job. Cyclops itself is intact, however Coyote Bus Lines has lost both its driver and co-driver.
Tornado (1996)
It’s a epic disaster movie directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. It was produced by Crichton, Kathleen Kennedy and Ian Bryce, with Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Gerald R. Molen serving as executive producers. The movie stars an ensemble cast including Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Todd Field and Jeremy Davies as a group of storm chasers attempting to publish a study of tornado research in Oklahoma. Tornado was the first movie to be released on DVD in the United States.
The film grossed $495 million worldwide and became the second highest-grossing film of 1996. It received generally favorable ratings from critics, as some applauded the visual impact and sonic style, but others criticized the movie script. The film earned Academy Award elections for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound, but lost the award to Independence Day and The English Patient.
Volcano (1997)
It is a 1997 American disaster movie directed by Mick Jackson and produced by Neal H. Moritz and Andrew Z. Davis. The movie stars Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Don Cheadle and Keith David and tells the story of diverting the course of a dangerous flow of lava on the streets of Los Angeles following the eruption of a volcano at the La Brea Tar Pits . The story was developed from a film script written by Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray, and was influenced by the 1943 eruption of Parícutin Volcano in Mexico. Volcano garnered mixed reviews from critics and grossed $122 million worldwide on a $90 million budget plan.
Titanic (1997)
It is a 1997 American disaster romantic movie directed, written, produced and co-edited by James Cameron. The movie includes both fictional and historical aspects, is based on accounts of the sinking of the Titanic and stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated first voyage. Starring are Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber and even Bill Paxton.
Cameron’s ideas for the movie came from his fascination with shipwrecks; he truly felt that a romance mixed with human loss would be key to sharing the psychological effect of the calamity. The scenes on the studio ship were filmed aboard the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Production design, computer-generated imagery and a restoration of the Titanic developed at Baja Studios were used to recreate the sinking. It was one of the most expensive movies ever made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million. Filming took place from July 1996 to March 1997.
Titanic achieved significant critical and commercial success, and subsequently garnered many accolades. It was applauded for its special effects, production design, performances (especially DiCaprio, Winslet and also Stuart), production values, Cameron’s direction, musical arrangement, cinematography, story and psychological depth. Shortlisted for 14 Academy Awards, it won 11, including Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben-Hur (1959) for the most Academy Awards won by a film. With a global first-time gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first film to reach the $1 billion mark. It continued to be the highest-grossing film ever until another Cameron film, Avatar, surpassed it in 2010. A 3D re-release variation of Titanic, released on April 4, 2012, celebrating the centenary is extra by $343.6 million worldwide, bringing the film globally to $2.195 billion and making it the second film to earn more than $2 billion globally after Avatar.
Deep Impact (1998)
It is a 1998 American science fiction disaster movie directed by Mimi Leder, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin and starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave , Maximilian Schell and Morgan Freeman. Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. The movie portrays efforts to prepare for and destroy an 11 km wide comet destined to strike the Earth and trigger a catastrophe.
Deep Impact was released in the same summer season as a movie of the same theme, Armageddon, which did much better at the box office, while astronomers explained that Deep Impact is more accurate with information. Deep Impact earned over $349 million worldwide on an $80 million production budget. It was the last movies of cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann, who passed away before the film’s release.
In May 1998, while stargazing, teenage amateur astronomer Leo Beiderman observes unfamiliar things in the night sky. Send an image to astronomer Dr. Marcus Wolf, who figures out it’s a comet on a collision course with Earth. Wolf dies in a car crash while running to raise the alarm. A year later, reporter Jenny Lerner questions Treasury Secretary Alan Rittenhouse about his relationship with Ellie, who she assumes is a girl, but is puzzled when she finds him and his family filling a boat with large quantities of food and other equipment. of survival. She is captured by the FBI and asked to meet with President Tom Beck, who talks her out of sharing the story in exchange for a popular role in the news conference he will organize. As a result he discovers that “Ellie” is actually an acronym meaning “extinction-level occasion”. 2 days later, Beck reveals that the comet is about to hit Earth and in about a year, it could trigger the end of humanity. He explains that the United States and Russia built the Messiah, a spacecraft to alter the trajectory of the comet with atomic bombs.
