One thing you'll notice right off the bat about most of these movies is that the producers (rightly so) felt that they needed the security of a group of celebrities in order to get people in to see the flick. If you keep track of these movies, using a different gtoup of celebrities in each one, you gotta wonder who the heck was left in Hollywood that didn't do a disaster flick. Some of these movies listed in the theatrical releases may instead be made for tv movies. As we research this more, you may find some titles moving to the correct section.
Airport Universal, 1969. Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jacqueline Bisset, Burt Lancaster, and Maureen Stapleton star in this adaptation of the bestselling novel by Arthur Hailey. Van Heflin stars as the mentally disturbed man who builds a bomb in his briefcase, then takes it on a plane headed for Rome. He explodes the bomb in the bathroom and the pilots must somehow get the severely damaged plane back home.
Airport '75 Universal, 1974. Charleton Heston, George Kennedy, Karen Black, and a number of big name stars are in this second installment of the Airport series. In this one, the stewardess becomes the plane's pilot (yeah, we know-real likely!) when another plane crashes into the cockpit midair, killing the copilot and blinding the pilot. How the heck is she going to land the thing??
Airport '77 Universal, 1977. Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Olivia DeHavilland, and lots of famous celebrities that weren't in the last installment. A privately owned 747 is targeted by a group of thieves when they find out it's loaded with valuable paintings. They're supposed to land it on an uncharted island once they've knocked everyone on the plane out, but unfortunately they end up landing it in the middle of the ocean and it's a race against time to bring up the plane and get everyone out before they drown. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book adapted from this movie's screeenplay.)
Armageddon 1998. Bruce Willis stars in this blockbuster about an asteroid headed straight for earth. A rag tag group of oil drillers is recruited to destroy it before it hits. Not a bad flick-this one has more action than Deep Impact.
Backdraft Universal, 1992. Alec Baldwin, Robert DeNiro, and Kurt Russel star in this story about firefighters. Someone is deliberately setting an extremely deadly type of fire all over town and it could very well be a fireman seeking revenge for one thing or another. The "backdraft" and fire effects in this movie are a must see.
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure Warner Brothers, 1979. Irwin Allen directed the sequel to his blockbuster, The Poseidon Adventure. Michael Caine, Telly Savalas, Sally Field, and some other lesser known celebrities star. This was adapted from Paul Gallico's book of the same name. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book.) If you've read the book, keep in mind that the movie is a little different. None of the original characters (that were focused on for more than 5 seconds) return, with the possible exception of the nurse played by Shirley Jones. The nurse in the original was played by someone else. Anyway, 2 different groups of people board the overturned ship. One group is the bad guys, Russians looking for some kind of stuff their Government needs. The other group, the good guys, starts out looking for treasure after they've claimed salvage rights and along the way pick up a gaggle of other survivors. (Some of these are the people in the first movie that were "Going the wrong way, Dammit!!", as Gene Hackman so eloquently put it.) Naturally, a conflict ensues when the good guys get in the way of the bad guys plans.
The Birds Universal, 1962. Jessica Tandy, Rod Steiger, and Tippi Hedren . Alfred Hitchcock directed this adaptation of the Daphne DuMaurier novel. An enormous flock of birds attacks a small New England town.
The Cassandra Crossing Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, and O.J. Simpson. A deadly virus breaks out on a train, which is rigged to become a runaway in order to save the rest of the world from the virus. The passengers figure it out, but are they in time to stop the train from getting to the Cassandra Crossing, a bridge so old and rickety it couldn't possibly hold a train.
The Concorde: Airport '79 Universal, 1979. George Kennedy, Martha Raye, and other Hollywood celebrities that weren't in the first 3 Airport movies star in this one. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book adapted from this movie's screenplay.)
Dante's Peak Universal, 1997. Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton star in one of the 2 volcano flicks put out in 1997. As is the norm with disaster movies, scientist warns everyone about the volcano erupting soon in this small town, but nobody listens and boy are they sorry later!
Deep Impact Dreamworks, 1998. Morgan Freeman and Robert Duvall star in this blockbuster about a comet headed straight for Earth. The government has been trying to keep this one a secret, but an enterprising MSNBC reporter stumbles across it. The large part of the story is what they do in preparation for the impact, but it really keeps you interested.
Earthquake Universal Studios, 1974. Charleton Heston, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, and another batch of your favorite stars are in for it when an earthquake levels Los Angeles. Both Universal Studios theme parks have a super cool ride based on this movie, so if you're ever in Florida or California, check it out!
Gray Lady Down Universal, 1976. Charleton Heston and David Carradine star in this adaptation of the David Lavalee novel. A sub is run into by a passing ship and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. There are 2 differences between the book and the movie. One is that the crew of the sub is rescued much faster than in the book, where it takes more than a month. The other is that the position of the sub isn't quite as stabile in the movie. It's on the edge of an ocean canyon, ready to slip down to where noone could possibly rescue them. So, for suspense, watch the movie. For a more in depth look at what living in a small can for a month does to people, read the book. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book.)
Independance Day 1996. Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and a bunch of other people star in this 1996 blockbuster about aliens who try to take over the earth.
The Last Voyage MGM, 1960. Robert Stack stars in this movie about a ship sinking because of an enormous hole caused by a boiler explosion. The big problem is that the boiler explosion not only caused a hole in the bottom, it also caused a large hole which went up about 10 decks, trapping the man's (Stack) wife under debris. It's a race against time to get her out before the ship sinks. The director of this movie really sank an old cruise ship, the Ille De France, to make this movie, so it's worth watching just for the effects.
Meteor American International, 1979. Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, and Brian Keith star in this flick about a giant meteor headed straight for Earth. You'll notice that this movie must have been made during the cold war, because it's about how the U.S. gets together with the U.S.S.R. to find a way to destroy the meteor with the nukes that both countries have aimed at each other in space. What a convenient way to dispose of them! Forget all these treaties, someone send a meteor at us and we'll get rid of everyone's missiles that way.
The Poseidon Adventure 20th Century Fox, 1972. Irwin Allen produced and Ronald Neame directed this flick which is our favorite, bar none, of all the disaster movies we've seen. Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Gene Hackman, and a bunch more celebrities star in this blockbuster adapted from the Paul Gallico novel. It's a tale of a number of people trying to escape from cruise ship overturned by a tidal wave. Oscar winning special effects and music by John Williams make this movie super cool. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book.)
Skyjacked MGM. Charlton Heston, James Brolin, and another passel of your favorite stars are in this movie about a plane hijacked to the Soviet Union by a psychotic American who wants to give them our military secrets. John Guillerman, who also did The Towering Inferno, directed.
Starflight One Orion, 1982. Lee Majors, Lauren Hutton, and Hal Linden star in this movie about an airliner which can fly higher in the atmosphere than any other plane. Trouble ensues and the plane ends up in space. A number of rescue missions are mounted, including the space shuttle, to try to save everyone, because this planes gonna get mighty hot when re-entering Earth's atmosphere!
The Towering Inferno 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, 1974. Our second favorite disaster flick was also produced by Irwin Allen, who directed only the action sequences, according to the credits. John Guillerman was director. Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and still more celebrities star in this adaptation from 2 novels: The Glass Inferno, by Thomas Scortia and Frank Robinson, and The Tower, by Richard Martin Stern. It's unusual that one movie is made from 2 books, but there's a reason why. Both books came out at almost the same time. Warner Brothers bought the movie rights to one, and 20th Century Fox bought the movie rights to the other one. When they realized what was going on, the 2 companies decided to pool their resources and make one super huge movie, which was sure to make them lots of money. (See fictional disaster books for information about the 2 books.) Here's the basic premise: A bunch of San Francisco's most rich and famous people are trapped on the top floor of the tallest building in the world by a fire, caused by substandard building materials. It's obvious that this isn't an easy crowd to rescue. The building's 137 stories and we all know fire ladders don't reach much past the 7th floor. You'll recognize that it's the Sears Roebuck tower in Chicago, but through special effects it's been moved to San Francisco. Probably because if they didn't try to make it a little different, nobody in their right mind would step foot in the real building in Chicago. Super-dooper special effects make this fire look so real it's frightening.
Twister Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton star in this 1996 flick about a group of people trying to study tornadoes by chasing after them. Great special effects.
Volcano The second of the 1997 volcano movies. Tommy Lee Jones stars in this flick about a volcano that forms in the middle of Los Angeles. Once again, scientist warns people, nobody listens, and half of L.A. is toasted. The effects here are even better than Dante's Peak. There's lots more lava flow in this movie than the other one. Each movie has it's own merits, so it's really hard to say which one is better, so why not check them both out and decide for yourself? Each story is different enough from the other that you won't get bored.
Made for TV Movies
A Fire in the Sky 1978. Another of those disaster flicks hoping to keep your interest by having a bunch of washed up stars in it. A comet is headed for Phoenix and noone can stop it. It moves way too slow and there's no action until the last 20 minutes.
Aftershock: Earthquake in New York 1999. 2 part miniseries broadcast by CBS, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Scarborough. What if New York City got hit by an earthquake? It could happen-NYC is on a fault line and WAY overdue. Pretty good adaptation of the book-the effects weren't bad, either. (See fictional disaster books for information about the book.)
The Big One 1990. Joanna Kearns and some other tv celebrities star in this movie speculating on what would happen if a large scale earthquake hit Los Angeles.
The Day After ABC, 1983. The famous "what if" movie that had everyone glued to their TV when it first came on. What if the nuclear rockets Russia used to have aimed at us really were launched? This is a really chilling speculation of what would be left of a small town in Kansas if a nuke were to hit it. Neat effects and the make-up they did on the survivors to show how their bodies would deteriorate over time (losing hair and other stuff) was pretty good.
Earthquake in New York Fox Family Channel, 1998. A major earthquake hits New York City, which doesn't have any buildings made to withstand an earthquake. Naturally the city is devastated. The one problem I had with the movie is that they had to add a villain. The main character is a policeman who is after this villain. After the earthquake, he takes the opportunity to do dastardly deeds. Isn't the earthquake enough of a plot element to fill up a 2 hour movie?? Sheesh. Besides that, though, it wasn't bad for a tv movie.
Final Descent 1997. Robert Urich, John DeLancie. A passenger jet is struck midair by a small plane. The damage that ensues makes it so the plane can only go up. How will they get down? This is what we'd call a keeper. The action starts really quickly and the rest of the movie keeps up a pretty good pace.
Flood Warner Brothers, 1976. Martin Milner, Robert Culp, and Barbara Hershey. Irwin Allen, master of disaster, directed this movie about a town endangered by a dam which was poorly built. This movie came out before the Richard Martin Stern book of the same name. (See the fictional disaster books section for details about the book, which in our opinion is loosely based on this movie.)
International Airport Aaron Spelling, 1985. Gil Gerard, Bill Bixby, and George Kennedy. This obvious ripoff of the original Airport movie twists the plot just enough to make it watchable, though a touch hokey. There is a bomb threat on a plane bound for Hawaii. Trouble is, noone on the plane will own up to it and noone knows exactly where the bomb is.
Mayday at 40,000 Feet Warner Brothers, 1976. Don Meredith, David Janssen. A convict being transported on a plane to another city causes mass mayhem when he tries to escape and grabs a gun that the government agent responsible for watching him has. He succeeds not only in putting a hole in the pilot, but also the hydraulics, making this one tough bird to land.
SST:Death Flight ABC, 1976. Robert Reed. The container a deadly virus is in breaks and begins making everyone on the plane sick. One problem. None of the airports will let them land for fear of making the virus spread.
TV Shows
Night Gallery "Lone Survivor" An episode of the 1960's tv series by Rod Serling, creator of "The Twilight Zone". This episode stars John Colicos (Baltar of Battlestar Galactica). A man who was captain of a WWII submarine that sank many Allied ships is doomed for eternity to relive some of the most famous ship sinkings in history, over and over again. Included are the Andrea Doria and Titanic. Cool.
Fantasy World of Irwin Allen Sci Fi Channel documentary focusing on behind the scenes of many Irwin Allen productions, including The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
What If.... Discovery Channel. What if a large earthquake hit Los Angeles a week after the 1994 Northridge, CA quake? This show speculates about the damage an earthquake 7.4 on the Richter scale would do to L.A. Pretty neat show-it combines footage from other earthquakes along with dramatized scenes to make it look like a real hour long news report.
Comments, things we should check out or add? Please Email / knighton@cablespeed.com
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