Introduction: Disasters have been the subject of film-goers' fascination since the time of silent film epics, and this interest continues to exist up to the present time. Films have often depicted large-scale natural disasters (weather-related usually) or man-made calamities (a wreck at sea, an airplane crash), often accompanied by massive crowd scenes. Other disasters may be planetary-related, criminally-instigated, nuclear-related, millennial-related, or involving alien or mutant invasions of some kind. They can be either impending or ongoing, or they can exist locally or globally.

The focus of such films is on the spectacular calamity and a small group of people in imminent danger, and how they must cope or devise a method of escape. Tension is developed by concentrating on the miraculous means of rescue and whether all the characters (usually in an all-star cast) have the inner strength to survive the ordeal. Also see this site's writeup on the Greatest Disaster Films.

(See this site's Film Terms Glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.)

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Night and Ice (1912, Ger.) (or Night Time in Ice) (aka In Nacht und Eis)

One of the earliest disaster films, this rare and restored film was the first of many feature films about the doomed ship that sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage, after striking an iceberg. This film was made in studios in Berlin, and on an actual shipboard (the German liner Kaiser Auguste Victoria) and released a few months after the RMS Titanic's actual sinking! It was of epic length (35 minutes) in comparison to other films of the time. The filmmakers sunk a real boat to show realism.

Metropolis (1927)

This film climaxed with the spectacular flooding scenes of the underground city, with its tracking camera, when the children are led to safety from the rising waters.

Noah's Ark (1928)

Originally a silent film - and then made into an early 'talkie' a year later (with several stultifying scenes of Vitaphone sound-on-disk dialogue) -- about the Biblical story of the 'Great Flood', directed by Michael Curtiz. It was intercut with a parallel melodramatic romance story about soldiers in the Great War - with moralizing about the hedonistic sins of the Jazz Age and Wall Street speculation. The parallel intercutting was reminiscent of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), with actors playing roles in both sections. This was Warner Bros.' answer to Cecil B. De Mille's Biblical epics of the 20s (especially The Ten Commandments (1923)), with a climactic flood sequence - that mixed minatures, double-exposures, and the full-scale destruction of actual sets. Reportedly, three extras died during the flood scenes, and many others were severely injured.

The Wind (1928)

Victor Sjöström directed this silent film about the relocation of Letty (Lillian Gish) from Virginia to the windblown frontier ranch/farm of her male cousin, where she experienced jealousy, an unending desert prairie sandstorm, and ultimately madness in the face of misdirected passion and the relentless tempest. In the film's finale, she shot male assailant Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love), buried him in the shifting sands, and watched in horror as his corpse was uncovered. The film was made in California's inhospitable Mojave Desert under temperatures of up to 120 degrees, with sand projected by multiple airplane engine propellers.

King Kong (1933)

The first "gigantic monster rampage" film, a classic adventure film about Beauty and the monstrous ape Beast. The colossal hairy creature, once returned to Manhattan Island, went on a rampage (attacking the elevated subway) and created havoc, before falling to his death from the 'Empire State Building' (the World Trade Center in a later version). Remade in the 'disaster film' decade of the 70s as a modernized King Kong (1976) by producer Dino De Laurentiis, starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange - and then an awful followup called King Kong Lives (1986) that added a Lady Kong, and another remake by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, as King Kong (2005), starring Adrien Brody, Jack Black and Naomi Watts - and a computer-generated ape.