Best Disaster Movie of All Time!!!

[Worf101]

Okay, they make us giggle with glee as humanity by the bucketloads meets a grisley death... What's your fave disaster movie of all time?

Da Worfster

[kexodusc]

Guess I'm gonna have to go with Twister, not because I loved it, but because movies like Dante's Peak, Volcano, and Deep Impact were misses..Armageddon doesn't count, and The Day After Tomorrow was just too far fetched.

Hmmm, maybe this is an area Hollywood can tap into still.

[GMichael]

What? No Hitchiker's Guide. The whole Earth got blowed up.

[kexodusc]

Oh, this is a poll now...guess I'll change my pick to an eligible selection...ID4 was simply a great Sci-Fi that really wrote the blue print for sci-fi/disaster films for the next decade or so.
Who'd a thunk Will Smith could actually act as a ass-kickin' alien fighter?

[Kam]

in the... how-could-you-forget-and-leave-this-one-off category, how could you forget and leave off Airport 75 and/or 77!!!
In the absence, i voted for Towering Inferno, i think that was the very first 'disaster' movie i saw and it really stuck with me (if The Man Who Saw Tomorrow doesn't count, although seeing that at 10 or 11 sure as heck scared the beejeezes out of me)

[superpanavision70mm]

THE MATRIX RELOADED...

By far the biggest train wreck...definitely a disaster hard to forget. I think it was even more of a train wreck than the one in THE FUGITIVE.

[paul_pci]

Love ID4, but Inferno is the better "disaster" film. And I'll just say there's a nostalgic place in my heart for Earthquake, that and I was 6 miles from the Northridge quake epicenter.

[Woochifer]

This is kind of a tough one because it all depends on whether you're talking about movies with disasters as a centerpiece of the plot thread, or if you're talking about the Irwin Allen yarns that introduced a paint-by-numbers approach to creating a disaster epic. Your list seems to include a little bit of both. I agree with Kam -- you left Airport off the list! One thing I will say about the disaster genre (as epitomized in those Irwin Allen originals), it got cliched enough to spawn perhaps the greatest spoof ever, Airplane, which single handedly buried the disaster genre for the next decade and a half.

Of the ones on your list, I voted for A Night To Remember because it's the best movie on the list. Not sure though if it fits in with the disaster genre as well as some of the others though. As pure entertainment, I would probably opt for ID4. It had a cheesy sense of fun about itself that's missing with some of the other disaster pics. The overtly serious and moralistic tone of the Irwin Allen epics made them ripe satirical targets for Zucker-Abrhams-Zucker when they made Airplane.

Oh and BTW, let's play the old Sesame Street "Which One Doesn't Belong" game ...

1974 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
The Godfather, Part II
The Conversation
Chinatown
Lenny
The Towering Inferno(?!)

One of the strongest Best Picture groups ever, at least with the top three (what a year for Paramount), and somehow The Towering Inferno got grouped in with them! It had a cast to die for and some great vintage shots of San Francisco, but c'mon that was not Best Picture material and definitely not worthy of mention in the same breath with The Godfather, Part II; The Conversation; or Chinatown.

[Smokey]

What! No Godzilla movies

I pick ID since everything was done in grand scale. Like when 15 mile long ship cast a shadow on the moon as it is passing by.

[Defshep]

Leonard Part 6. I Keed! I Keed!

I really liked Deep Impact. Remember, Morgan Freeman was president before he became God! ( in Bruce Almighty)

[Dusty Chalk]

Poseidon Adventure was a bit of a pinnacle. I have a soft spot for Towering Inferno, too.

And yes, Titanic was a disaster movie.

[dean_martin]

To me, the 70s was the heyday for disaster flicks. Look at the dates by Worf's entries. With the exception of a couple of the Airplane movies, Poseidon Adventure left the most memorable impression on me so it got my vote. Towering Inferno was considered.

[Dusty Chalk]

The earth does not get blown up in Independence Day. Unless you meant all those explosions of stuff on the earth. But the earth itself remains intact.

And where is Snakes on a Plane?

[GMichael]

The earth does not get blown up in Independence Day. Unless you meant all those explosions of stuff on the earth. But the earth itself remains intact.

[/i][/b]?

Just all the major cites?

[Dusty Chalk]

Well...he had When Worlds Collide on that list, in which (not to spoil the ending or anything, but) the earth does get destroyed. Per se.

And, I vaguely remember the alien mothership getting blowed up real good.

Don't mind me, I'm just being pedantic. I just think it's funny the details he remembers about those movies. Shelley Winters used to be hot! Hardly the most important thing about that movie.

Mine would be:

Earthquake (do not go back in the house to turn off the gas!)

[GMichael]

Well...he had When Worlds Collide on that list, in which (not to spoil the ending or anything, but) the earth does get destroyed. Per se.

Huh? Destroyed? Oh no! I was gonna rent this one.

And, I vaguely remember the alien mothership getting blowed up real good.

Spoiled again.

Don't mind me, I'm just being pedantic. I just think it's funny the details he remembers about those movies. Shelley Winters used to be hot! Hardly the most important thing about that movie.

Mine would be:

Earthquake (do not go back in the house to turn off the gas!)

I thought it was: Earthquake (do not attempt the loopty loop on your dirt bike while the ground is shaking)

[Worf101]

You're good.... too good... Didn't anyone ever tell you in school that NOBODY likes a smart-ass? Good stuff there... Just a word though... there's confusion in MY minda about disaster flicks cause you've three basic categories:

1. Personal Disaster Flicks - Usually doesn't involve "earth shattering" events. "Titanic" and "Airport" come to mind as does "The Poseidon Adventure". Small stories set in a small place.

2. World Shattering Disaster Flicks - These films focus on a few individual's reaction to earth shattering events. "When Worlds Collide", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Earthquake" are prime expamples of this.

3. Combo movies where both the above combined and intertwined.

Hmmm hence the confusion on my list.

Da Worfster

[GMichael]

You're good.... too good... Didn't anyone ever tell you in school that NOBODY likes a smart-ass? Good stuff there... Just a word though... there's confusion in MY minda about disaster flicks cause you've three basic categories:

1. Personal Disaster Flicks - Usually doesn't involve "earth shattering" events. "Titanic" and "Airport" come to mind as does "The Poseidon Adventure". Small stories set in a small place.

2. World Shattering Disaster Flicks - These films focus on a few individual's reaction to earth shattering events. "When Worlds Collide", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Earthquake" are prime expamples of this.

3. Combo movies where both the above combined and intertwined.

Hmmm hence the confusion on my list.

Da Worfster

Why thank you Worf. Coming from you that is high phrase indeed! Thank you again.


What Dusty is most likely referring to is that in the poll choices you have written, "Independence Day" (1994) - The earth gets blowed up real good!!" But alas, it doesn't blow up.

Oh, and back in school I was the quiet kid who never made any friends. But I did notice that it was the so called smart-arses who made all the friends. I have adjusted over the years. No more Mr.. Shy-guy for me.

[dean_martin]

Oh, and back in school I was the quiet kid who never made any friends. But I did notice that it was the so called smart-arses who made all the friends. I have adjusted over the years. No more Mr.. Shy-guy for me.

Welcome to Smartassdom - where sometimes some things are better left unsaid but we say them anyway.

[Dusty Chalk]

Huh? Destroyed? Oh no! I was gonna rent this one.



Spoiled again.

Sorry, dude. And to think that that's why I hang out so little in this place myself. I'll try to be more careful and warn from now on.