In Hollywood, disasters run the gamut from planes in peril (Society of the Snow, Airport) to post-war devastation (Grave of the Fireflies) to planets on the brink of destruction (Don’t Look Up, Melancholia). Whether the catastrophe is global or limited to just a sliver of humanity, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the situation as characters scramble to survive.
Whether you crave dismay or humor in your world-ending threats, Netflix has you covered. Entertainment Weekly is here with a rundown of the 10 best disaster movies the streaming giant has to offer.
Airport (1970)
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The OG stakes-on-a-plane blockbuster ushered in the Disaster Film era — and yes, capital letters are necessary to indicate how big the films and their audiences got over the decade that followed. Dean Martin plays the pilot in charge of a flight facing down a blizzard, a suicide bomber, and a boatload of personal dramas, with Burt Lancaster as the airport director dealing with things from the ground.
“It was a curious set because it was like two movies going on at once,” star Jacqueline Bisset told EW in 1996. ”One was a movie with Dean Martin, which was absolute hilarity. Then there was the other set, which was with Burt Lancaster and was the very serious set.”
The movie earned 10 Oscar nominations, with Helen Hayes taking the supporting actress trophy for her scene-stealing turn. —Sara Netzley
Where to watch Airport: Netflix
Directors: George Seaton
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Jacqueline Bisset
Bird Box (2018)
How do you survive a disaster you can’t see? The Sandra Bullock-fronted Bird Box forces viewers to confront this question. The menace isn’t invisible; rather, simply looking at the mysterious cause of this global calamity drives humans to suicide. EW’s critic praised the film for its taut pacing and of-the-moment chills as reluctant mother-to-be Bullock scraps for survival (often from behind a blindfold).
“How do you convey the fact that you can’t see and yet not lose touch with the character’s emotional journey?” director Susanne Bier said to EW in 2018. “I kept asking myself, ‘How do we track her? Do we understand where she’s at? Do we know exactly what she feels?’ Because Sandra is such an amazing actress, you do feel it and you do track her.” —S.N.
Where to watch Bird Box: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, B.D. Wong, John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Niko Tavernise / Netflix
Although director Adam McKay swaps global climate change for a killer comet in this political satire, his message remains the same: Ignore science at your peril. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence star as astronomers who try in vain to warn politicians and the public about the existential threat barrelling toward them. In the end, they’re no match for blissful ignorance.
Meryl Streep admitted she struggled to practice her craft while shooting scenes as President Janie Orlean during the pandemic. “I didn’t feel funny in the lockdown,” she told EW in 2021. “I just lost it. I forgot how to act, I forgot what I was about. It sort of dismantles your humanity, to be isolated like that. But thank god for Jonah [Hill], because he kept us laughing.” —S.N.
Where to watch Don’t Look Up: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Mark Rylance
Melancholia (2011)
Magnolia Films/ Everett
Considered one of the best movies ever made about mental health and depression, EW’s review describes Lars von Trier’s 2011 science fiction drama, Melancholia, as a “giant achievement.” Kirsten Dunst took home the Best Actress trophy at the Cannes Film Festival that year for her portrayal of Justine, a bride whose descent into depression coincides with the arrival of a rogue planet called Melancholia, which threatens to collide with Earth.
The movie was a hit among the critical community when it was released, with most noting how Melancholia departed from some of von Trier’s earlier, more provocative work. EW’s critic writes that he creates, “striking visual tableaux that, in their majestic simplicity, convey a profound emotional depth that transcends word.” —Ilana Gordon
Where to watch Melancholia: Netflix
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Everett Collection
This animated masterpiece from Studio Ghibli follows siblings Seita and Setsuko, who are taken in by their aunt after their mother dies during the 1945 U.S. firebombing of Kobe. But their struggle to survive doesn’t end there, as they face a shortage of food in the final days of WWII.
Based on a 1967 semi-autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, the film is a haunting, harrowing look at the physical and emotional costs of war. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s a rewarding one. —S.N.
Where to watch Grave of the Fireflies: Netflix
Director: Isao Takahata
Cast: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi
Related content: All of the Studio Ghibli movies, ranked
The Midnight Sky (2020)
Netflix
The Midnight Sky may focus on a lone Arctic scientist attempting to save a group of astronauts from returning to the doomed planet, but for director-star George Clooney, part of the film’s magic was entirely Earth-bound thanks to his character’s extensive screen time with a young mute girl (Caoilinn Springall).
“That makes for a slower-paced film, and I felt strong enough that that’s the kind of film it has to be,” Clooney told EW in 2020. “It has to be a film that sits with him and the little girl looking up at Polaris… You have to let it bake a little bit so that there’s loss and then there’s some redemption along the way.” —S.N.
Where to watch The Midnight Sky: Netflix
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: George Clooney
Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir, Caoilinn Springall
Related content: George Clooney discusses the difficulties of filming The Midnight Sky
Pandora (2016)
Netlfix
An earthquake can be devastating enough, but in director Park Jeong-woo’s Pandora, the tremor strikes a nuclear power plant, causing a meltdown that threatens the nearby town. Although the film was inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, it’s a fictional tale that focuses as much on the political climate that led to the disaster as the disaster itself.
If you’re wondering whether aging infrastructure and indifferent officials made a bad situation worse, well, you might be onto something. You’ll have to watch the film to see just how much worse it gets. —S.N.
Where to watch Pandora: Netflix
Director: Park Jeong-woo
Cast: Kim Nam-gil, Kim Joo-hyun, Jung Jin-young, Kim Young-ae, Moon Jeong-hee
Society of the Snow (2023)
Netflix
This survival epic dramatizes the real-world plane crash that stranded a group of rugby players, plus scattered family and friends, in the Andes in 1972. J.A. Bayona, who also directed the Indian Ocean tsunami film The Impossible (2012), based Society of the Snow on the non-fiction book that was also the basis for the 1993 American feature, Alive. Reading accounts from the 16 survivors of the crash was just a start; Bayona and his cast also met with the survivors.
“It’s a story that is based on humanism, on an extreme generosity,” Bayona told EW in 2023. “It’s extraordinary the way they deal with that, very calmly talking from their point of view, never forcing anyone to do anything that they didn’t want to.”
The film landed two Oscar nominations, including one for Best International Film. —S.N.
Where to watch Society of the Snow: Netflix
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Felipe González Otaño, Agustín Pardella, Luciano Chatton
Suzume
Crunchyroll
Suzume is the story of a 17-year-old high school student who meets a mysterious stranger tasked with sealing doors that keep popping up across Japan, unleashing earthquakes. Add in a cat, a supernatural worm, and a three-legged chair, and you have an anime movie that is hard to explain, but easy to enjoy.
An adventurous disaster movie from director Makoto Shinkai (Your Name), Suzume is a visual and auditory achievement: the animation is stunning and meticulously detailed, and the movie boasts a killer soundtrack. —I.G.
Where to watch Suzume: Netflix
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Cast: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu, Shota Sometani, Sairi Ito, Kotone Hanase
Train to Busan (2016)
Well Go USA
The only thing faster than a bullet train is the zombie infection overtaking its passengers. In the South Korean action horror film Train to Busan, a work-obsessed father (Gong Yoo) traveling with his young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) sees their bullet train trip detrailed when a sick woman begins transitioning into a zombie — and infecting everyone around her.
These zombies seem to have studied at the World War Z School of Swarming; they move at the same frenetic speed, infecting the entire country during the course of the movie’s under two-hour run time. —I.G.
Where to watch Train to Busan: Netflix
EW grade: B+
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, Kim Eui-sung
