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The Greatest Disaster Movies of All Time

With 'Twisters' in theaters, The Hollywood Reporter looks back on 11 top disaster movies.

Disaster is approaching, and we’re all on the edge of our seats to see what happens next.

We’re excited, afraid and not devoid of a little morbid curiosity. But this is the movies, of course, where such feelings are validated with the knowledge that safety resides outside the theater doors, or outside of our living rooms.

Moviegoers have always been drawn to spectacle. That’s been true since people first started going to the pictures. And that draw has become all the more prevalent as screens and actors got bigger, and the stakes got higher. Disaster films — which are a subset of many other genres including action/adventure, romance, thriller and military films — first emerged as their own clearly defined genre in the 1970s with Airport (1970), which not only launched sequels but also led to other, similarly themed, though arguably more exciting, films like Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), Meteor (1979) and countless others, both celebrated and lauded. It became customary for these films to be led by a notable star with instant name recognition, along with a cast of talented supporting actors or Old Hollywood icons. While disaster films fell out of fashion in the ’80s due to more high-concept blockbusters launched by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who could incorporate disasters as diversions within much larger adventures, they once again rose to prominence in the ’90s, and are hit or miss in the 21st century.

With the release of Twisters, Lee Isaac Chung’s stand-alone sequel to the 1996 hit Twister, which helped relaunch the disaster movie in the ’90s, The Hollywood Reporter is counting down the best disaster movies of all time. For the sake of simplicity, and to avoid the murky waters of mixing blockbuster entertainment alongside films based on real-life tragedies, left off this list are movies involving aliens, giant monsters and films centered on actual events. So sit back, feel the ground shake beneath your feet, and enjoy the wave.