Last Updated on September 6, 2024
Whether it’s a zombie or a twister, these movies allow you to experience heart-stopping dangers from the safety of your own living room! So if you are in the mood for killer asteroids or human-hungry aliens, we have the best collection of disasters right here.
1. Armageddon (1998)
When NASA discovers that a Texas-sized asteroid will hit Earth in eighteen days, they hatch a desperate plan to stop the extinction of humanity. If the asteroid can be blown in half by a nuclear bomb before it reaches a certain distance from Earth, the planet can be saved.
But to insert the device, the world’s best deep core oil drilling team has to go into space. As the countdown begins, the drillers clash with astronauts, deadly accidents and tragedy that threatens their success.
2. Titanic (1997)
Based on the real sinking of the RMS Titanic, the story follows the romance of fictional passengers Jack Dawson and Rose Bukater. Divided by class and Rose’s engagement to a dangerous man, the couple are nevertheless drawn together. When the ship hits the iceberg on that fateful night, they not only have to battle nature but also the wrath of Rose’s jilted fiancé.
3. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
As a paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall can see the signs of an impending ice age brought on by climate change. Despite his repeated warnings, those in power ignore his pleas to begin a mass evacuation of the Northern states.
As he feared, a massive storm envelopes the northern hemisphere and flash-freezes everything in its path. While natural disasters raze all the affected countries, Jack is one of the few people heading back into the storm as he desperately searches for his son who is trapped in Manhattan.
4. Twister (1996)
Jo Thornton is haunted by the childhood memory of the day a massive tornado killed her father. Determined not to let it happen again, she becomes a storm chaser to gather information on how twisters work.
The idea is to use Dorothy, her estranged husband’s invention, to map a tornado‘s formation and behavior. But to succeed, Jo has to survive wreckless rival storm chasers who stole the idea, her crumbling marriage and the most lethal twister of the season.
5. Independence Day (1996)
A few days before Independence Day, pilot Steven Hiller wakes up to the news that large alien crafts are hovering over major cities across the globe. He’s called back to base in case something happens but David Levinson, a satellite technician, knows exactly what’s going on. He’s decoded a countdown signal giving the exact hour when the alien fleet will attack.
When the moment comes, the invaders are brutally efficient and immune to human weapons. Humanity’s last hope rests on a daring plan to have Hiller fly an alien ship back to the mothership where he and Levinson can plant a bomb.
6. Apollo 13 (1995)
Based on the remarkable true story of three astronauts lost in space, the Apollo 13 craft launches on April 11, 1970. Carrying Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, everything goes fine until NASA requests that the crew activate the fans inside the liquid oxygen tanks. One of the tanks ruptures and the explosion causes the craft to careen off course.
A desperate race begins to keep the astronauts alive inside the damaged Apollo 13 and to bring them home.
7. Contagion (2011)
When Beth Emhoff returns from Hong Kong to her home in Minneapolis, she unwittingly infects several people with the novel virus MEV-1. As the death toll rises, violence spreads throughout cities and scientists struggle to find a vaccine. When an antidote is finally discovered, it is already too late for millions and some survivors will resort to extreme measures to get the vaccine for their loved ones.
Related: 15 Scary Pandemic Movies for Your Next Fright Night Pandemic
8. The Impossible (2012)
In 2004, the Bennet family are enjoying the new Thai Orchid Beach Resort when the deadly Boxing Day tsunami crashes into them. Unaware that the others have survived, the family is divided into two groups by the rushing water. Maria is badly injured but glad to find her son Lucas while her husband Henry has managed to find their two other boys.
The family face trauma, devastation and death all around them but are determined to be reunited once again.
9. 12 Monkeys (1995)
In 2035, the world is a grim place. A potent virus, released by the Army of the Twelve Monkeys in 1996, has killed off the majority of the human race. But the survivors now have time-travelling technology and send back James Cole to help find a cure.
But Cole discovers that fixing the situation is not that simple. In 1996, everyone thinks he’s insane and he also finds evidence that the Twelve Monkeys never unleashed the pandemic.
10. Deep Impact (1998)
During a press conference, US President Tom Beck announces to a shocked world that a comet will hit Earth in about a year. To ward off this extinction-level event, the US and Russia send a crew into space to alter the comet’s path with nuclear bombs.
But when this tactic merely breaks the comet into two, the world becomes chaotic. In the US, the elite and 800,000 random winners are taken to underground shelters and the rest are abandoned to face the double impact.
11. Gravity (2013)
Dr Ryan Stone is on a spacewalk when her crew receives a NASA warning to return to Earth immediately. A deadly debris cloud, caused by the destruction of a satellite, is heading their way.
The cloud hits before Stone can make it back to the ship but after she’s rescued by a fellow astronaut using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), they discover that their crew and craft had been destroyed. Wearing only their suits and the MMU, they have to reach the International Space Station before the orbiting debris field hits them again.
12. World War Z (2013)
Gerry Lane barely escapes when the zombie apocalypse happens during a traffic jam. With his city of Philadelphia overrun by the undead, Lane constantly flees with his family from place to place to keep them safe.
Thanks to his UN ties they are accepted aboard a Navy ship where he learns that the plague can be traced back to a virus. Lane is given a choice – join a team that will have to leave the ship to find the source or his family will be kicked out of the safe zone.
13. Geostorm (2017)
After a series of devastating natural disasters, the world launches a group of satellites capable of controlling the climate. When its chief controller, Jake Lawson, uses it without authorization to stop a typhoon in Shanghai, he’s fired.
But when terrifying natural disasters return, Jake suspects that the satellites are being used by someone as a weapon. As he races to neutralize the threat, he discovers a dangerous plot to turn America into a dictatorship that will dominate the world.
14. The Perfect Storm (2000)
Based on the real sinking of a fishing boat in 1991, the Andrea Gail, the story is a blend of known facts and fiction.
In October, Captain Billy Tyne sets off on a late-season trip with the hope of reversing a really bad fishing streak. The crew get a lucky break at the Flemish Cap but when their ice machine breaks, they decide to risk returning through a storm rather than lose the fish. But fueled by two epic weather fronts, rogue waves and a hurricane, the storm is just too powerful.
15. Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Another true-life drama, the Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana that caused the biggest oil disaster in US history.
In 2010, an electronics technician called Mike Williams is alarmed to discover that an integrity test for new concrete is not following the normal procedure. But his concerns are overruled by BP managers and the rig returns to operations with disastrous results.
16. Melancholia (2011)
Justine suffers from deep melancholy and cannot hide it, not even during her wedding reception. The next day, there is big news. A rogue planet, ironically called Melancholia, has entered the solar system.
Some reports state that the planet is a “fly-by” while others claim the massive world is on a collision course with Earth. As Justine and her terrified family soon discover, Melancholia is about to do both.
17. San Andreas (2015)
When an unknown fault ruptures near the Hoover Dam, seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes is almost killed by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Upon investigating, he finds the horrifying reason why – the entire San Andreas fault is migrating.
Major earthquakes soon follow and devastate San Francisco and Los Angeles, including a catastrophic 9.6 quake; the strongest magnitude ever recorded.
18. Pompeii (2014)
In 62 AD, the Celtic boy Milo is captured by slave traders after the Romans kill his family. Trained as a gladiator, the grown Milo fights at Pompeii where he recognizes Corvus, the Roman leader who had personally murdered his mother.
Milo has to overcome fixed fights in the arena, Corvus’s attempts to kill him and the city-destroying eruption of Mt Vesuvius to get his revenge.
19. This Is The End (2013)
A group of friends gather in Los Angeles when overnight, the city is almost entirely destroyed by an evil force. The men struggle to survive as old tensions flare, demonic creatures attack, and strange blue lights suck people up into the sky.
20. Dante’s Peak (1997)
When volcanologist, Dr. Harry Dalton, investigates seismic activity close to the town of Dante’s Peak, he becomes convinced that an eruption is imminent.
At first, no one really believes Dalton but when the town’s water is contaminated with Sulphur dioxide, his superior allows Dalton to warn the town. But it’s too late; the volcano erupts shortly afterwards and Dalton faces a desperate race against time to find two missing kids on the mountain.
