Disaster movies remain one of the ultimate guilty pleasures. They basically ignite your imagination and adrenaline, with their breath-taking visual effects, loud tension, and the perfect level of chaos, and all that just from the comfort of your own armchair. We could be faced with giant waves swallowing whole cities, tornadoes picking up cows, or an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth, yet the feeling of something going terribly wrong on the screen is strangely comforting. Moreover, these films end up being a bit too close to our reality when climate change is a severe threat, and we are trying to pretend that it is not the case. So get some snacks, and check out these 12 greatest disaster movies you can stream right now, going from the last to the first.
12. Concrete Utopia (2023)
Concrete Utopia is a South Korean thriller that lacks the charm of Hollywood movies but effectively depicts the aftermath of an earthquake that destroyed the entire city except for an apartment complex that is still standing. Inside, the survivors grapple with the terrifying decisions about which ones they will keep and which will be thrown out. The plot is engrossing, contemplative, and has less sheen than the characters’ human traits.
11. Mira (2022)
A shooting star obliterates Vladivostok, and a teenager struggling for her survival is left with her astronaut father, who is in space, and she is on Earth. The only emotive tune in this Russian survival narrative is the father-daughter bond.
10. The Wave (2015)
This Norwegian disaster thriller centers on a geologist who is desperately trying to save his family as a mountain collapses into a fjord, thus creating a massive tsunami. The disaster is huge, but it is the family drama that gets the most screen time.
9. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic is a wild and cold catastrophe scenario that thrusts massive storms and a new ice age onto the earth, which no one had foreseen. The scientific inaccuracies are quite a bit, but the stunning visuals and the great spectacle are what make it recognized as one of the genre’s classics.
8. Deep Impact (1998)
This comet picture was the big feeling and the unforgettable moments generator before Don’t Look Up came about. Morgan Freeman as the President, tears on the faces of the viewers during sacrificial scenes, and still a tidal wave that amazes – it is the end of the world done in a more soulful way.
7. Twister (1996)
Flying cows, gigantic storms, and storm chasing without rules. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, the two ’90s stars, anchor this film, and somehow it manages to work, giving you both the effects in your face and the real heart in your chest.
6. San Andreas (2015)
Dwayne Johnson versus an earthquake that can destroy the whole world, really, do I have to add more? San Andreas is definitely a film where reason is not the main character, buildings fall from the sky as if they were bricks in a game of dominoes, and large areas of California are going down the gutters. Earthquakes and sinkholes swallowing up the city, landslides demolishing highways, and tidal waves hitting the shore, meanwhile, The Rock is using his power to get through the disaster and rescue his family.
5. Society of the Snow (2023)
The 1972 Andes plane crash is the basis of this harsh, stark survival story that manages to be both frightening and heartening. Human fanaticism is never enough to prevent director J.A. Bayona from depicting the characters going to the most extreme measures in order to stay alive.
4. Don’t Look Up (2021)
The biggest Hollywood at-bats between comedy virtues and political vices, this satire was a loony, half-satire, black comedy. It mainly presented politics, media, and denial as its antagonists, who were characters in the film dealing with a deadly comet. The work was entertaining, morbid, and, unfortunately, quite close to the actual world.
3. Society of the Snow (2023)
The first movie that dramatized the survival of the incident of the 1972 Andes plane crash, Society of the Snow (2023), is a heavy drama that could take two places on the list. It was a film that did not at all underestimate the survivors’ sorrow from the terrible ordeal. It is a little bit impolite, extremely painful, and mostly a homage to the greatness of man and his determination to live no matter what happens.
2. 2012 (2009)
If you want utter mayhem combined on the most gigantic scale possible, 2012 is the movie you get. Roland Emmerich shoves all of the calamities you can think of, earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis, into just one mammoth extravaganza. John Cusack plays the role of a panicky father who tries to frantically rescue his family amidst the global catastrophe. The film is characterized by its loudness, exaggeration, and, surprisingly, it is very enjoyable, which is why Emmerich is called the maestro of movie disasters.
1. Concrete Utopia (2023)
Though we first talked about this one, it is still the best and the most fair way to end our list. In recent days, Concrete Utopia has been considered the most intelligent and captivating disaster film. Inescapable as it was through its spectacle, the film questions survival, collectivity, and egoism through dwelling on human nature and moral dilemmas in a post-earthquake Seoul. It’s a very grave and timely story, and one of the decade’s most unforgettable entries in the genre.
Disaster films are likely overly dramatic, but that is the whole point. They make us remember that no matter how terrible the world may seem right now, there is always space for hero survival, and maybe just one more serving of popcorn.