"Disaster movie" redirects here. For the 2008 film of that title, see Disaster Movie. For movies that perform "disastrously" from a financial standpoint, see Box-office bomb.
A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, military/terrorist attacks or global catastrophes such as a pandemic. A subgenre of action films,[1][2] these films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself, and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families or portraying the survival tactics of different people.
These films often feature large casts of actors and multiple plot lines, focusing on the characters' attempts to avert, escape or cope with the disaster and its aftermath. The genre came to particular prominence during the 1970s with the release of high-profile films such as Airport (1970), followed in quick succession by The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974).[3]
The casts are generally made up of familiar character actors. Once the disaster begins in the film, the characters are usually confronted with human weaknesses, perhaps falling in love or finding a villain to blame. The films usually feature a persevering hero or heroine (Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, etc.) called upon to lead the struggle against the threat; in many cases, the "evil" or "selfish" individuals are the first to succumb to the disaster.[4] The genre experienced a renewal in the 1990s boosted by computer-generated imagery and larger studio budgets which allowed for greater spectacle, culminating in the cinematic phenomenon that was James Cameron's Titanic in 1997.[5]
Origins
Disaster themes are almost as old as the film medium itself. One of the earliest was Fire! (1901) made by James Williamson of England. The silent film portrayed a burning house and the firemen who arrive to quench the flames and rescue the inhabitants.[6] Origins of the genre can also be found in In Nacht und Eis (1912), about the sinking of the Titanic; Atlantis (1913), also about the Titanic; the Danish The End of the World (1916), (about a comet); Noah's Ark (1928), the Biblical story from Genesis about the great flood; Deluge (1933), about tidal waves devastating New York City; King Kong (1933), with a gigantic gorilla rampaging through New York City; and The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), dealing with the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption in 79 AD.[7]
Additional precursors to the popular disaster films of the 1970s include The High and the Mighty (1954), starring John Wayne and Robert Stack as pilots of a crippled airplane attempting to cross the ocean; Zero Hour! (1957), written by Arthur Hailey (who also penned the 1968 novel Airport) about an airplane crew that succumbs to food poisoning; Jet Storm and Jet Over the Atlantic, two 1959 films both featuring attempts to blow up an airplane in mid-flight; The Crowded Sky (1960) which depicts a mid-air collision; and The Doomsday Flight (1966), written by Rod Serling and starring Edmond O'Brien as a disgruntled aerospace engineer who plants a barometric pressure bomb on an airliner built by his former employer set to explode when the airliner descends for landing.[8][10][11]
1970s peak
The golden age of the disaster film began in 1970 with the release of Airport.[3] A huge financial success, earning more than $100 million ($713 million in 2022-adjusted dollars) at the box office, the film was directed by George Seaton and starred Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jacqueline Bisset and Helen Hayes. While not exclusively focused on a disaster—in this case, an airplane crippled by the explosion of a bomb—the film established the blueprint of multiple plotlines acted out by an all-star cast. Airport was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning Best Supporting Actress for Hayes.[12]
The trend reached its zenith in 1974 with the release of The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and Airport 1975 (the first Airport sequel). The competing films enjoyed staggering success at the box office, with The Towering Inferno earning $116 million ($697 million in 2022-adjusted dollars), Earthquake earning $79 million ($475 million in 2022-adjusted dollars), and Airport 1975 earning $47 million ($282 million in 2022-adjusted dollars) in theatrical rentals.[14]
Earthquake was also honored with four Academy Award nominations for its impressive special effects of a massive earthquake leveling the city of Los Angeles, winning for Best Sound and receiving a Special Achievement Award for visual effects. The film was directed by Mark Robson and starred Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Geneviève Bujold, George Kennedy and Lorne Greene. It was noted as the first film to utilize Sensurround, where massive subwoofer speakers were installed in theaters to recreate the vibrating sensation of an earthquake.[16] Several made-for-TV movies also capitalized on the craze, including Heatwave! (1974), The Day the Earth Moved (1974), Hurricane (1974), Flood! (1976) and Fire! (1977).[17][18][19][20][21]
The genre began to burn out by the late-1970s when the big-budget films The Swarm (1978), Meteor (1979), Hurricane (1979), The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979), Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) and When Time Ran Out... (1980) performed poorly at the box office, signaling declining interest in the disaster film product.[22][23][24]
Although The Big Bus (1976), an earlier disaster film spoof, had failed to be a hit, the end of the trend was marked by the 1980 comedy Airplane!, which fondly spoofed the clichés of the genre to surprising box-office success, producing a sequel of its own, Airplane II: The Sequel, in 1982.[25]
1990s revival
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2023)
^ ab"Disaster Movies". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Thomson Gale. 2005–2006. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-08-10 – via BookRags.
Broderick, Mick (January 1992). Nuclear Movies: A Critical Analysis and Filmography of International Feature Length Films Dealing With Experimentation, Aliens, Terrorism, Holocaust. McFarland & Co. ISBN0-89950-543-0.
Dixon, Wheeler Winston (1999). Disaster and Memory. Columbia University Press. ISBN0-231-11316-1.
Keane, Stephen (2006). Disaster Movies: The Cinema of Catastrophe. Wallflower Press. ISBN1-905674-03-1.
Newman, Kim (February 2000). Apocalypse Movies: End of the World Cinema. St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-25369-9.
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