Hurricanes are a great setting for disaster movies since they are exhilarating to watch, and most viewers can’t take their eyes off the screen. The true story starts when it affects the lives or communities that the storm is coming down on. Strong winds and heavy rain, not to mention the insurmountable amount of flooding, can cause immense damage to cities and towns. Hurricanes disrupt travel and communication, making those affected by the storm feel as if they are isolated with very little hope of actually surviving.
There is no better movie magic than going to the theater to watch a disaster unfold on the big screen. Disaster movies often have big-budgets with the sole purpose of causing as much damage and destruction as possible as the characters try their best to survive in what seems like a completely hopeless situation. Hurricanes often make an interesting plot for disaster movies, with intense action sequences, and even sometimes comedy films use the backdrop of a hurricane to drive its plot. Here are the 10 worst hurricane disasters that drive the story in these movies.
10 Force of Nature
Emile Hirsch, Kate Bosworth, and Mel Gibson star in the 2020 action thriller Force of Nature. A group of people try to survive a Category 5 hurricane set to hit Puerto Rico. Not only do they need to survive a deadly storm, but they also need to stay out of the way of a gang of thieves who are trying to rob their apartment building. During the evacuation, the cops stumble upon the gang who’s trying to recover their $55 million.
9 Bodies Bodies Bodies
A hurricane serves as the backdrop to the events that unfold in Bodies Bodies Bodies while also adding danger and heightened intensity to the story. This black comedy horror film starts in a mansion party during a storm. The guests at the party play a murder game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies” that leads to a bunch of real murders in the house. They need to uncover who’s the real killer if they want to survive the night and the storm. Collider calls the movie a twist on the classic party game “Werewolf,” where the murder is among them and taps the people on their back when they want to kill them.
8 Crawl
Crawl shows audiences that sometimes a hurricane can be the least of someone’s problems. Kaya Scodelario plays a girl who is caught in the middle of a hurricane and trying to save her father who’s trapped in their flooded house. However, she’s being chased by a group of alligators, which is scarier than the Category 5 hurricane happening outside. The alligators are aggressive predators who attack her in the water, and Scodelario will need everything she has to escape them and save her dad.
7 The Day After Tomorrow
A group of scientists makes the discovery that global warming has damaged the Earth’s climate in The Day After Tomorrow. Three hurricane-like storms happen around the world at the same time, creating a devastating super-storm of massive tidal waves, flash floods, and extreme cold temperatures. Jack Hall is a climatologist who makes it his sole duty to save the world from an on-coming ice age. The journey won’t be easy, and he will need to face a wide array of storms and temperatures if he will see this through.
6 The Finest Hours
The Finest Hours is a true story of the Coast Guard’s rescue of an oil tanker in 1952. Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, and Ben Foster star in the film as the crew who decided to risk their own lives to save the SS Pendleton during a hurricane-strength nor’easter. A nor’easter storm is not a tropical storm and affects the East Coast of the United States and can be just as damaging as a hurricane. The extreme weather conditions the men face as they try to save the Pendleton shows the true bravery these men had.
5 The Perfect Storm
The true story of a fishing boat on the Andrea Gail is the plot for the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, according to Outside Online. In 1991, Hurricane Grace was the tropical cyclone that formed in the Atlantic Ocean, and a fishing crew tried to survive not only the storm but its aftermath. The Perfect Storm is able to show audiences how destructive these storms can be in a dramatic but still grounded movie. It also tells the struggles that the families of the crew had during this event.
4 The Hurricane Heist
The 2018 disaster heist action film follows a group of criminals who decide to rob the U.S. Mint during a Category 5 hurricane. The Hurricane Heist mashed two genres of film together that most would never consider doing: disaster and heists. A hurricane barreling down the Gulf coastline for most people means evacuate, but for a team of 30 well-trained mercenaries, it seems like the perfect time to pull a heist. The movie did an amazing job of portraying what a hurricane actually looks and feels like.
3 Adrift
Adrift is another hurricane film set at sea and based on a true story. The survival film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp, respectively. The two were caught out at sea during a category 4 hurricane while sailing across the Pacific Ocean in 1983. Throughout the entirety of the film, the couple struggle to survive the storm and its aftermath as they try to make it to land.
2 Hours
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Nolan Hayes tries to keep his newborn daughter alive in a hospital that has been abandoned by the staff. Paul Walker stars in Hours, which is a 2013 disaster film that is set in New Orleans. The film was the last movie Walker was in before his tragic death and shows the struggles Hayes faced as he tried to keep his daughter alive after the storm hit.
1 Geostorm
Geostorm is a science fiction film starring Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, and Abbie Cornish. A network of satellites is created to control the weather on Earth but somehow becomes sabotaged. The satellites start a series of natural disasters around the globe including tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes. The film shows how destructive storms are and the consequences of what happens when people tamper with Earth’s weather systems.