My Top Disaster Movies

For my article “Disaster Narratives by Design: Is Japan Different?” I studied 38 English-language disaster movies from 1978 to 2018 and a further 22 Japanese-language disaster movies. Since the article was published, I have seen a few more disaster movies. All of these I have written separate blog posts about. What I haven’t done until now on this site is to rank them. This is what this post is. All of this comes with the caveat that I am by no means suggesting that my score is in anyway correct – but if you have similar tastes to me, it may provide some indication of what films to watch (or avoid). For comparison, most things I watch tend to get ratings of 6, 7, or 8. Also be aware that I sometimes change scores for things on IMDb as my tastes change.

My rating on IMDb	Movie/Dramatization
10	Titanic
9	Kuroi Ame (Black Rain)
	Shizumanu Taiyō (The Unbroken/The Sun Which Doesn’t Set) (2016)
	Kuraimāzu Hai (Climber’s High) (2008)
	Threads
8	Fukushima 50
	Hiroshima (Hiroshima)
	Deepwater Horizon
	Shizumanu Taiyō (The Unbroken/The Sun Which Doesn’t Set) (2009)
	The Impossible
	Fearless
	Kuraimāzu Hai (Climber’s High) (2005)
	Special Bulletin
	The Day After Tomorrow
	Greenland
	Aftermath
	Armageddon
	Twister
	Mari to Koinu no Monogatari (A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies)
	Deep Impact
7	Doragon Heddo (Dragon Head)
	St. Helens
	The Perfect Storm
	Blackout Effect (aka: 747)
	One-no-Kanata-ni (Inseparable Souls: Fathers, Sons, and The Crash of JAL123/Beyond the Ridge)
	The Day After
	United 93
	Flight 93
	Fukkatsu no Hi (Virus/Day of Resurrection)
	Outbreak
	Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (aka A Thousand Heroes)
	Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan Sinks) (2006)
	Everest
	We are Marshall
6	Nihon Chinbotsu (2020)
	Crash: Mystery of Flight 1501 (aka Aftermath)
	World Trade Center
	Into the Storm
	Itai: Asu-e no Tōkakan (Reunion/Corpses: 10 Days to Tomorrow)
	252 Seizonsha Ari (252: There Are Survivors)
	The Last Message: Umizaru (Sea Monkeys)
	Jishin Rettō (Megaforce 7.9/Earthquake Archipelago)
	Kansen Rettō (Pandemic/Infection Archipelago)
	Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen (Prophecies of Nostradamus)
	Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac
	Dante’s Peak
	Crash: The Crash of Flight 401
	Sekai Daisensō (The Last War)
5	Rokku: Wanko no Shima (Rock – Dog’s Island)
	Kibō-no-Kuni (Land of Hope)
	Shuto Shōshitsu (Tokyo Blackout/Disappearance of the Capital)
	The Chain Reaction
	Volcano
	Ground Control
	Pompeii
	Daylight
	Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan Sinks) (1973)
	San Andreas
	Testament
	Hard Rain
4	The Core
	The Hurricane Heist
3	When Time Ran Out…
2	Firestorm

See also my book Dealing With Disaster in Japan: Responses to the Flight JL123 Crash and my post Narratives on the World’s Worst Plane Crash: Flight JL123 in Print and on Screen (note that these were written prior to the release of some narratives about the crash which are discussed in the IJMED article).