50 Disaster Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

Critics Consensus: A mostly unqualified triumph for James Cameron, who offers a dizzying blend of spectacular visuals and old-fashioned melodrama.

Synopsis: Two young lovers from different backgrounds meet and fall in love on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the unsinkable R.M.S. Titanic.

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates

Directed By: James Cameron

Critics Consensus: Tense, tightly plotted, and bolstered by a stellar cast, Contagion is an exceptionally smart -- and scary -- disaster movie.

Synopsis: When Beth Emhoff returns to Minnesota from a Hong Kong business trip, she attributes the malaise she feels to jet lag. However, two days later,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law

Directed By: Steven Soderbergh

Critics Consensus: Well-acted and blessed with a refreshingly humanistic focus, The Wave is a disaster film that makes uncommonly smart use of disaster film clichés.

Synopsis: A Norwegian geologist (Kristoffer Joner) and his family (Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro) fight for survival when a massive landslide causes a 250-foot tidal... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande

Directed By: Roar Uthaug

Critics Consensus: Deepwater Horizon makes effective use of its titular man-made disaster to deliver an uncommonly serious -- yet still suitably gripping -- action thriller.

Synopsis: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, igniting a massive fireball that kills several crew members. Chief... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Douglas M. Griffin, James DuMont

Directed By: Peter Berg

Critics Consensus: The screenplay isn't quite as powerful as the direction or the acting, but with such an astonishing real-life story at its center, The Impossible is never less than compelling.

Synopsis: A couple and their three sons encounter terror, courage and compassion following the December 2004 tsunami that devastated Thailand.

Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin

Directed By: J. A. Bayona

Critics Consensus: Black Sea may not be particularly deep, but thanks to Kevin Macdonald's judicious direction and a magnetic performance from Jude Law, it remains an efficiently well-crafted thriller.

Synopsis: Soon after losing his salvage job, former naval officer Robinson (Jude Law) assembles a misfit crew of unemployed sailors for a risky mission: Find a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, David Threlfall

Directed By: Kevin Macdonald

Critics Consensus: Beware, comets of Greenland: Gerard Butler is here to protect Earth -- and show audiences an improbably entertaining time.

Synopsis: John Garrity, his estranged wife and their young son embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. Amid... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn

Directed By: Ric Roman Waugh

Critics Consensus: Summoning a storm of spectacle and carried along by the gale force winds of Glen Powell's charisma, Twisters' forecast is splendid with a high chance of thrills.

Synopsis: Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton

Directed By: Lee Isaac Chung

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kenneth More, David McCallum, Honor Blackman, Jill Dixon

Directed By: Roy Ward Baker

Critics Consensus: An urgent warning against nuclear conflict, Threads is a chilling hypothetical that achieves visceral horror with its matter-of-fact presentation of an apocalypse.

Synopsis: Young lovers Ruth (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale) decide to get married after Ruth unexpectedly gets pregnant. But their quiet lives in Sheffield, England,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Reece Dinsdale, Karen Meagher, Rita May, David Brierly

Directed By: Mick Jackson

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In the mid-1980s, the U.S. is poised on the brink of nuclear war. This shadow looms over the residents of a small town in Kansas... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, John Cullum, John Lithgow

Directed By: Nicholas Meyer

Critics Consensus: The Poseidon Adventure exemplifies the disaster film done right, going down smoothly with ratcheting tension and a terrific ensemble to give the peril a distressingly human dimension.

Synopsis: En route from New York City to Greece on New Year's Eve, majestic passenger ship the S.S. Poseidon is overtaken by a tidal wave. With... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons

Directed By: Ronald Neame, Irwin Allen

Critics Consensus: Proudly, shamelessly, and gloriously brainless, Sharknado redefines "so bad it's good" for a new generation.

Synopsis: A monstrous storm devastates Los Angeles, leaving the streets flooded and infested with sharks.

Starring: Tara Reid, Ian Ziering, John Heard, Cassandra Scerbo

Directed By: Anthony C. Ferrante

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In this large-ensemble disaster movie, Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), the general manager of a Chicago-area airport, must contend with a massive snowstorm and other issues,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy

Directed By: George Seaton

Critics Consensus: The Burning Sea falls back on disaster movie formula, but the end results are gripping enough to satisfy.

Synopsis: In 1969, the Norwegian government announces their discovery of one of the world's largest oil fields in the neighboring North Sea, launching a prosperous period... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kristine Kujath Thorp, Henrik Bjelland, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Daniel Frikstad

Directed By: John Andreas Andersen

Critics Consensus: Snakes on a Plane lives up to its title, featuring snakes on a plane. It isn't perfect, but then again, it doesn't need to be.

Synopsis: FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) boards a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, escorting a witness to trial. An on-board assassin releases a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kenan Thompson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips

Directed By: David R. Ellis

Critics Consensus: Although it is not consistently engaging enough to fully justify its towering runtime, The Towering Inferno is a blustery spectacle that executes its disaster premise with flair.

Synopsis: Classic 1970s disaster movie about a fire that breaks out in a state-of-the-art San Francisco high-rise building during the opening ceremony attended by a host... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway

Directed By: John Guillermin, Irwin Allen

Critics Consensus: A high-concept blockbuster that emphasizes special effects over three-dimensional characters, Twister's visceral thrills are often offset by the film's generic plot.

Synopsis: During the approach of the most powerful storm in decades, university professor Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and an underfunded team of students prepares the... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz

Directed By: Jan de Bont

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Cliff (Robert Stack) and Laurie Henderson (Dorothy Malone) are vacationing on an cruise ship with their young daughter when disaster strikes in the form of... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O'Brien

Directed By: Andrew L. Stone

Critics Consensus: A frustratingly uneven all-star disaster drama, Outbreak ultimately proves only mildly contagious and leaves few lasting side effects.

Synopsis: A dangerous airborne virus threatens civilization in this tense thriller. After an African monkey carrying a lethal virus is smuggled into the U.S., an outbreak... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey

Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen

Critics Consensus: Though it gets occasionally bogged down by touchy-feely sentiment, White Squall benefits greatly from Jeff Bridges' assured lead performance and Ridley Scott's visceral, exciting direction.

Synopsis: In 1960, a hardy group of prep school students boards an old-fashioned sailing ship. With Capt. Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges) at the helm, the oceangoing... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, Scott Wolf, John Savage

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: The same couple (Dolores Costello, George O'Brien) appear in parallel dramas of the Deluge and World War I.

Starring: Dolores Costello, George O'Brien, Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda

Directed By: Michael Curtiz

Critics Consensus: Don't Look Up aims too high for its scattershot barbs to consistently land, but Adam McKay's star-studded satire hits its target of collective denial square on.

Synopsis: Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Rob Morgan

Directed By: Adam McKay

Critics Consensus: Volcano's prodigious pyrotechnics and Tommy Lee Jones' crotchety sneers at lava aren't quite enough to save this routine disaster film.

Synopsis: When a massive earthquake rocks the city of Los Angeles, Emergency Management department head Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) returns from his vacation to help... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle

Directed By: Mick Jackson

Critics Consensus: San Andreas has a great cast and outstanding special effects, but amidst all the senses-shattering destruction, the movie's characters and plot prove less than structurally sound.

Synopsis: A seemingly ideal day turns disastrous when California's notorious San Andreas Fault triggers a devastating, magnitude 9 earthquake, the largest in recorded history. As the... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd

Directed By: Brad Peyton

Critics Consensus: The 33 offers an appropriately inspirational account of real-life heroism, but its stirring story and solid performances are undermined by a flawed focus and an overreliance on formula.

Synopsis: Disaster strikes on Aug. 5, 2010, as a copper and gold mine collapses in Chile, trapping 33 men underground. With more than 2,000 feet of... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne

Directed By: Patricia Riggen

Critics Consensus: The Hurricane Heist is a throwback to the overblown action thrillers of yesteryear -- and a thoroughly middling example of why they don't make 'em like this anymore.

Synopsis: The rural town of New Hope, Ala., has a pair of super-sized problems heading its way: There's a hurricane bearing down on the Gulf coastline,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace, Ryan Kwanten, Ralph Ineson

Directed By: Rob Cohen

Critics Consensus: While the special effects are well done and quite impressive, this film suffers from any actual drama or characterization. The end result is a film that offers nifty eye-candy and nothing else.

Synopsis: Based on a true story, the film tells of the courageous men and women who risk their lives every working day, pitting their fishing boats... View Full Synopsis

Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane

Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: On a flight from Hawaii to California, the engine dies on the plane Dan is flying. As he prepares for a crash landing, the passengers... View Full Synopsis

Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Jan Sterling

Directed By: William A. Wellman

Critics Consensus: The Day After Tomorrow is a ludicrous popcorn thriller filled with clunky dialogue, but spectacular visuals save it from being a total disaster.

Synopsis: After climatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by U.N. officials when presenting his environmental concerns, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum

Directed By: Roland Emmerich

Critics Consensus: A tidal wave of melodrama sinks Deep Impact's chance at being the memorable disaster flick it aspires to be.

Synopsis: A comet is hurtling toward Earth and could mean the end of all human life. The U.S. government keeps the crisis under wraps, but crack... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave

Directed By: Mimi Leder

Critics Consensus: The destruction of Los Angeles is always a welcome sight, but Earthquake offers little besides big actors slumming through crumbling sets.

Synopsis: When a major earthquake hits Los Angeles, the various residents of the city cope with the chaos and destruction. Successful architect Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston)... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Geneviève Bujold

Directed By: Mark Robson

Critics Consensus: Lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist, Armageddon slickly sums up the cinematic legacies of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay.

Synopsis: When an asteroid threatens to collide with Earth, NASA honcho Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) determines the only way to stop it is to drill... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck

Directed By: Michael Bay

Critics Consensus: Aftershock hints at an inventive twist on horror tropes, but ultimately settles for another round of mind-numbing depravity that may alternately bore and revolt all but the most ardent gore enthusiasts.

Synopsis: Mayhem and death follow when an earthquake traps a group of tourists (Eli Roth, Andrea Osvárt) in a Chilean town.

Starring: Eli Roth, Andrea Osvárt, Ariel Levy, Nicolás Martínez

Directed By: Nicolás López

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Terrorists have planted a deadly virus on a transcontinental train. On board are the glamorous Jennifer Chamberlain (Sophia Loren) and her ex-husband, Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster

Directed By: George P. Cosmatos

Critics Consensus: Roland Emmerich's 2012 provides plenty of visual thrills, but lacks a strong enough script to support its massive scope and inflated length.

Synopsis: Earth's billions of inhabitants are unaware that the planet has an expiration date. With the warnings of an American scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), world leaders begin... View Full Synopsis

Starring: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt

Directed By: Roland Emmerich

Critics Consensus: A B-movie with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, The Core is so unintentionally (intentionally?) bad that it's a hoot.

Synopsis: Geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes discovers that an unknown force has caused the Earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci

Directed By: Jon Amiel

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A U.S. admiral (Jason Robards) and his team (Richard Jordan, David Selby) compete with Russians in an attempt to salvage the luxury liner.

Starring: Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer

Directed By: Jerry Jameson

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A Navy captain's (Jason Robards) daughter (Mia Farrow) flirts with an ensign and a well-heeled native (Dayton Ka'Ne) in windy 1920 Pago Pago.

Starring: Jason Robards, Mia Farrow, Dayton Ka'Ne, Max von Sydow

Directed By: Jan Troell

Critics Consensus: Whether Moonfall is so bad it's good or simply bad will depend on your tolerance for B-movie cheese -- but either way, this is an Emmerich disaster thriller through and through.

Synopsis: In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña

Directed By: Roland Emmerich

Critics Consensus: Hard Rain is an implausible heist movie soaked in disaster movie trappings.

Synopsis: The small town of Huntingburg is forced to evacuate when torrential rains bring rising flood waters. The local sheriff (Randy Quaid) and town residents, having... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Randy Quaid, Minnie Driver

Directed By: Mikael Salomon

Critics Consensus: This remake of The Poseidon Adventure delivers dazzling special effects. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any of the budget was left over to devote to the script.

Synopsis: After a huge tidal wave capsizes a luxury liner in the North Atlantic, individual survivors (Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett) band together and traverse... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss

Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Nazi Germany's prized airship is threatened with sabotage, so Col. Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) is charged with its safety. As the massive Zeppelin lifts... View Full Synopsis

Starring: George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes

Directed By: Robert Wise

Critics Consensus: The movie works when things are on fire, but everything else - from dialogue to characters - is scathingly bad.

Synopsis: Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) and Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), finally convince the unbelieving populace that the big one is about to hit and... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Charles Hallahan, Grant Heslov

Directed By: Roger Donaldson

Critics Consensus: This big-budget sword-and-sandal adventure lacks the energy and storytelling heft to amount to more than a guilty pleasure.

Synopsis: In 79 A.D., Pompeii, a bustling port city, stands in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Milo (Kit Harington), a former slave, is a gladiator who... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Directed By: Paul W.S. Anderson

Critics Consensus: The opening's got a great fiery explosion and Stallone puts in another earnest, sympathetic performance, but all else in Daylight feels designed to annoy the audience into submission.

Synopsis: A group of armed robbers fleeing the police head for the New Jersey Tunnel and run right into trucks transporting toxic waste. The spectacular explosion... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya

Directed By: Rob Cohen

Critics Consensus: Clumsily scripted and populated with forgettable characters, Into the Storm has little to offer beyond its admittedly thrilling special effects.

Synopsis: Professional storm-chasers run toward danger to track a series of deadly tornadoes menacing a town over the course of a single day.

Starring: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Max Deacon

Directed By: Steven Quale

Critics Consensus: Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama, Geostorm aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle but ends up simply being a disaster of a movie.

Synopsis: After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara

Directed By: Dean Devlin

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Scientist Dr. Bradford Crane and army general Thalius Slater join forces to fight an almost invisible enemy threatening America; killer bees that have deadly venom... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain

Directed By: Irwin Allen

Critics Consensus: Meteor is a flimsy flick with too much boring dialogue and not enough destruction. At least the pinball game is decent.

Synopsis: In this disaster movie, Americans and Soviets must put aside their differences to save civilization from a huge meteor bearing down on the planet. Paul... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith

Directed By: Ronald Neame