The 25 Best Natural Disaster Movies
They're the only way you can watch a giant tidal wave crash into the Statue of Liberty or see Yellowstone’s dormant super volcano erupt—at least for now, anyway.
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Few things show off the true powers of movie magic more than natural disaster films. After all, they're the only way you can watch a giant tidal wave crash into the Statue of Liberty or see Yellowstone’s dormant super volcano erupt—at least for now, anyway.
How would we deal with an approaching asteroid set to collide with Earth? Would we send a team of oil drillers-turned-astronauts to destroy it like in Armageddon, or would we ignore it completely and accept our fate like in Don't Look Up? Luckily, we can watch either scenario play out in just about two hours and then go about our day, without having to worry about how to rebuild New York City from the ground up.
Catch a glimpse of the end of the world in many of the films listed below, and then head to our list of the best thrillers available on Netflix for some equally devastating man-made disasters.
2012
The world was supposed to end on Dec. 21, 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, and disaster director Roland Emmerich capitalized on the possibility with his nearly three-hour 2009 epic, 2012. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes—you name it, 2012 has it all.
Twister
Aside from having one of the best natural disaster film romances between Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, Twister is unique for depicting a group of storm chasers who actively drive toward tornadoes to study them—a crazy, real thing that people do.
Deep Impact
The first major natural disaster blockbuster of the Y2K era, everyone's fears that the world was about to end culminated in Deep Impact, a Mimi Leder film starring Morgan Freeman and Téa Leoni about the U.S. military's inability to stop a massive comet from hitting the Earth.
Armageddon
If the plot of Deep Impact was too scary or depressing in 1998 you wouldn't be able to tell by the year's release calendar. Audiences were given Armageddon just two months later, featuring a team of astronauts led by Bruce Willis who go into space to drill into an asteroid before it can decimate all life on the planet.
The Day After Tomorrow
Another Roland Emmerich epic, The Day After Tomorrow signals the beginning of a new global ice age. With the superstorm fast approaching, Dennis Quaid must get to Manhattan to save his stranded son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
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Dante's Peak
While it's incredibly silly to watch the main characters in Dante's Peak drive a car faster than an erupting volcano, stay for the steamy romance between an in-their-prime Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton.
Volcano
Hitting theaters the same year as Dante's Peak, Volcano focused more on the whole "there's a giant volcano in the middle of Los Angeles" and less on romance. At one point in the movie, natural disaster film veteran Tommy Lee Jones asks "Lava? Right here in L.A.?"
The Towering Inferno
If the whole skyscraper is on fire, the worst place to be is on the top floor—but that's precisely where the all-star cast of The Towering Inferno finds themselves, 135 stories high. Back in the 70's, The Towering Inferno was just about the scariest natural disaster movie you could see, and while effects have certainly improved, this plot remains hard to beat.
The Poseidon Adventure
Before his career in comedy, Leslie Nielsen was captain of the SS Poseidon, a cruise ship about to be rocked by an underwater earthquake that flips the vessel completely upside down. He's joined by Gene Hackman, who plays a reverend leading a party through the ship despite believing that they're all doomed to drown.
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Airplane!
A classic comedy, Airplane! spoofed the big-budget natural disaster films of the 70's with a witty script and all-star cast of its own, including a cameo from NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jokes like "I am serious, and please don’t call me Shirley" have even stood the test of time.
Pompeii
Critics hated Paul W.S. Anderson’s Roman Empire romance when it debuted back in 2014, but the natural disaster film has since achieved a cult fanbase thanks to its early inclusion of Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington. It's also worth watching an entire CGI city get wrecked by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The Wave
The Wave is a Norwegian film about a family who gets trapped in an underwater hotel after an entire mountain collapses into a fjord that produces 260-foot waves. It doesn't seem like The Wave was scientifically accurate in any way, but who are we to deny it from gracing our screens?
The Wandering Earth
A more recent addition to the list, The Wandering Earth follows a team of astronauts as they attempt to stop the Earth from colliding with Jupiter after the sun expands. The Chinese Netflix flick was so successful that it became the country's fifth highest-grossing film of all time.
Titanic
One of the most famous tragedies of all time—and technically a natural disaster film—Titanic’s three-and-a-half-hour runtime didn't stop audiences from bawling over the romance between a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, even as the ship got snapped in two by a giant iceberg.
Don't Look Up
The Netflix comedy Don't Look Up polarized audiences, caught in between a conservative Meryl Streep presidency and a screaming duo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. If you can get past the preaching, there's a funny film underneath that satirized famous natural disaster films of the past.
Moonfall (In Theaters)
The most recent film on the list, Moonfall sends an out-of-orbit moon hurtling toward a collision with Earth—and more importantly, Halle Berry. Director Roland Emmerich returned in 2022 for this mosh pit of alien activity, tidal waves, and asteroid-filled nonsense adventure of epic proportions.
Melancholia
One of most brooding and depressing natural disaster films on the list, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia portrays an ambivalent woman (Kirsten Dunst) as another planet slowly collides with our own. Dunst later won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance.
The Birds
The Birds is a natural disaster film, and that disaster is the titular birds, who swarm a town in massive numbers from the sky. Alfred Hitchcock's campy horror may not have the same world-ending consequences as a giant asteroid, but let's see you survive over a hundred angry birds and live to tell the tale!
The Swarm
Remember when everyone was obsessed with murder hornets? Well 1978's The Swarm proved just how scary giant bees taking their revenge against the human race could be for us. Let's hope these East Coast-bound giant Jiro spiders don't get any ideas.
Contagion
A pandemic disaster? Never in a million years! That's what Gwyneth Paltrow was thinking (we'd guess) in 2011 when she starred in Contagion, a film about a deadly virus taking over the globe. Unlike many films on the list, Contagion may be the only movie that looks a lot like our here and now.
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