Everest (2015)

Everest (2015)

[6] Everest is the true story of a deadly 1996 expedition up Mount Everest in which two climbing parties suffered casualties after a fierce blizzard engulfed the mountain with little warning. The film is more of a dramatic biopic than…
Speed (1994)

Speed (1994)

[8] It's formulaic, overblown and downright preposterous at times, but it's also everything moviegoers want in a summer action movie. Speed has a tight, rapid-fire script, awesome sound design, a remarkably kinetic score, and surprisingly good acting for a movie…
The Finest Hours (2016)

The Finest Hours (2016)

[8] Chris Pine stars in this emotional rescue story about a heroic Coast Guardsman who leads a small crew into a winter storm to rescue the workers on a sinking oil tanker. The Finest Hours is based on the true 1952…
Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

[7] Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell headline this true story about the largest oil drilling disaster in American history. Deepwater Horizon is essentially a disaster movie in the grand tradition of that subgenre, but director Peter Berg is sensitive to the…
The High and the Mighty (1954)

The High and the Mighty (1954)

[6] John Wayne leads an ensemble cast in this William Wellman film about the passengers and crew of a trans-Pacific flight who experience engine failure and a loss of fuel. When they realize they won't reach the California shore, everyone…
Deep Impact (1998)

Deep Impact (1998)

[7] Deep Impact feels like an old-fashioned Irwin Allen disaster flick -- and I dig that. Basically, the world learns that an asteroid is headed toward earth and we have one year before we can attempt to destroy it with a…
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

[4] The first Independence Day is one of those films that strikes just the right tone, something between earnest and goofy-as-hell, genuinely terrifying and gloriously indulgent. It was like the best possible kind of Irwin Allen disaster movie, where the…
The Concorde: Airport ’79 (1979)

The Concorde: Airport ’79 (1979)

[4] In this fourth installment (and final, by my count) of the disaster franchise, George Kennedy returns to pilot a super-sonic plane to Paris. Trouble is, the bad guy (Robert Wagner) wants to blow the plane out of the sky…
Airport (1970)

Airport (1970)

[6] This star-studded best picture Oscar nominee is credited for kicking off the boom of disaster flicks that plagued (or bedazzled?) the 1970s. It's entertaining enough, though I much prefer The Towering Inferno. All of the Airport movies (there would…
A Night to Remember (1958)

A Night to Remember (1958)

[7] If you've only seen James Cameron's telling of the R.M.S. Titanic's tragic 1912 sinking, you might be surprised how much that film owes to this earlier British version directed by Hammer and Amicus alum Roy Ward Baker (Scars of…