21 Best Natural Disaster Movies as Per IMDb That Will Have You Running for Cover
Whether it's a single boat in a storm or a comet headed toward earth, natural disaster movies are sure to get your adrenaline pumping. Here are the top disaster movies as per IMDb.
Natural disaster movies offer some of the best large-scale CGI moments in cinema, outside of big sci-fi sagas and superhero movies, making them even more intense. Viewers are not only terrified by what they see on film but they are also terrified that it might happen to them. Although zombie attacks are unlikely to occur very soon, you might experience an earthquake or a tsunami. After all, a pandemic did strike us. Natural disaster movies are sure to get your heart racing and your adrenaline pounding, whether the subject is as intimate as one boat in a storm or as grandiose as a comet heading toward earth. These are a few of the best the cinema has to offer.
21 Best Natural Disaster Movies You Should Watch Right Now
Disaster movies are among the biggest, most epic canvases that filmmakers can work on because they combine spectacle special effects with human drama. We're now ranking some of the best depictions of natural disasters, including earthquakes (San Andreas), asteroids (Deep Impact), tsunamis (The Impossible), airplanes (Airport), volcanoes (Volcano), boats (Titanic), and pretty much anything else mother nature can throw out (2012). So prepare for the rated disaster movies by donning a helmet, and a life jacket, and hiding out in your fallout shelter.
21. Airport 1975 (1974)
A small plane collides with a 747 in flight, leaving it pilotless. So that the plane can land, the control tower must find a way to get a pilot on board.
IMDb: 5.7/10
Run time: 107 minutes
Director: Jack Smight
Cast: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Watch on: Amazon Prime
20. Contagion (2011)
The CDC is trying to find a cure while medical professionals, government leaders, and regular citizens find themselves in the middle of a pandemic.
IMDb: 6.8/10
Run time: 106 minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Watch on: Netflix
19. The Core (2003)
Drilling to the core and restarting the Earth's rotation are the only ways to prevent catastrophe in this mind-blowing natural disaster movie.
IMDb: 5.5/10
Run time: 135 minutes
Director: Jon Amiel
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Greenwood
Watch on: Netflix
18. Dante’s Peak (1997)
A volcanologist learns that the long-dormant volcano, Dante's Peak, could erupt at any time upon arriving in a rural community recently ranked as the second-most desirable place to live in America.
IMDb: 6/10
Run time: 108 minutes
Director: Roger Donaldson
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Renée Smith, Jeremy Foley
Watch on: Amazon Prime
17. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall must undertake a perilous journey from Washington, D.C., to New York City to find his son, who is caught in the path of an unexpected global storm that sends the earth into a new Ice Age.
IMDb: 6.4/10
Run time: 124 minutes
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok
Watch on: Amazon Prime
16. Deep Impact (1998)
It is discovered that a comet is headed straight toward Earth. The human species is preparing for the worst as Armageddon draws closer.
IMDb: 6.2/10
Run time: 120 minutes
Director: Mimi Leder
Cast: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman
Watch on: Netflix
15. Geostorm (2017)
It's a race against time for the satellite network's designer to identify the real threat before a global Geostorm wipes out everything and everyone as the network of satellites built to govern the global climate starts to attack Earth.
IMDb: 5.3/10
Run time: 109 minutes
Director: Dean Devlin
Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara
Watch on: Netflix
14. Gravity (2013)
After an accident leaves two astronauts trapped in space, they band together to survive.
IMDb: 7.7/10
Run time: 95 minutes
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris(voice)
Watch on: Amazon Prime
13. Independence Day (1996)
Aliens are approaching intending to invade and destroy Earth. The human will to survive is the finest weapon against advanced technology.
IMDb: 7/10
Run time: 145 mins
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell
Watch on: Amazon Prime
12. Armageddon (1998)
When NASA learns that a Texas-sized asteroid will strike Earth in less than a month, they assemble an oddball group of deep-core drillers to save the planet.
IMDb: 6.7/10
Run time: 151 minutes
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler
Watch on: Amazon Prime
11. Moonfall (2022)
The moon is thrown out of its orbit by an unknown force, rushing toward earth in its path.
IMDb: 5.1/10
Run time: 130 minutes
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley
Watch on: Amazon Prime
10. Don’t Look Up (2021)
Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.
IMDb: 7.2/10
Run time: 138 minutes
Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep
Watch on: Netflix
9. Pompeii (2014)
The genuine love of a slave-turned-gladiator, who has been betrothed to a dishonest Roman Senator, must be saved in a race against time. He must struggle to save his beloved as Pompeii burns around him and Mount Vesuvius explodes.
IMDb: 5.5/10
Run time: 105 minutes
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Kiefer Sutherland
Watch on: Amazon Prime
8. San Andreas (2015)
A rescue-chopper pilot crosses California in a perilous voyage with his ex-wife after a massive earthquake in an attempt to save his daughter.
IMDb: 5.5/10
Run time: 114 minutes
Director: Brad Peyton
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Colton Haynes
Watch on: Netflix
7. This Is the End (2013)
Six well-known Los Angeles residents are stranded in James Franco's home after a slew of tragic incidents just decimated the city. Now, the group has to contend with themselves inside as well as the end of the world.
IMDb: 6.6/10
Run time: 107 minutes
Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Cast: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen
Watch on: Netflix
6. Titanic (1997)
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
IMDb: 7.9/10
Run time: 194 minutes
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Watch on: Disney Hotstar
5. 2012 (2009)
A dissatisfied writer fights to keep his family alive when a string of worldwide disasters threatens to wipe out humanity.
IMDb: 5.8/10
Run time: 158 minutes
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: John Cusack, Thandiwe Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet
Watch on: Amazon Prime
4. Volcano (1997)
A seismologist and a city official attempt to halt the volcano's inevitable flow across the metropolis as it erupts in downtown Los Angeles.
IMDb: 5.5/10
Run time: 104 minutes
Director: Mick Jackson
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle
Watch on: Amazon Prime
3. Cloverfield (2008)
A gang of friends goes on a rescue mission through the streets of New York amid a raging monster onslaught.
IMDb: 7/10
Run time: 85 minutes
Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller
Watch on: Amazon Prime
2. The Wave (2015)
Even though it was expected, nobody is truly prepared when the mountain pass above the picturesque, constrained fjord Geiranger in Norway falls, generating an 85-meter-high catastrophic tidal wave. One of those caught in the middle of it is a geologist.
IMDb: 6.6/10
Run time: 105 minutes
Director: Roar Uthaug
Cast: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande
Watch on: Amazon Prime
1. The Impossible (2012)
The account of a tourist family who was thrown into the chaos and devastation of the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean in 2004.
IMDb: 7.5/10
Run time: 114 minutes
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast
Watch on: Netflix
Conclusion
You might be interested in the thought of kicking back and unwinding while sympathetically witnessing how others handle a significant calamity in light of everything we've gone through over the past year and a half. If that sounds alluring, there is no safer or better way to indulge than by loading up your preferred streamer and watching classic natural disaster movies.
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