The right mix of terror and an amazing duo sets ’90s disaster movies apart from stuffy romances and comedies.
In the ’90s, disaster movies were all that. If you wanted to experience a plane crash, an earthquake, a tornado ripping through the drive-ins, or an alien takeover, you’d find yourself at the theater from 1990-1999. Disaster movies are loved and accepted by so many people, because they’re such a guilty pleasure; sometimes they’re so bad that they’re good. Natural disasters were dominating the screen, and people just accepted it; some hating it; others loving it, as avalanche after avalanche hit their screens. You might find the CGI of Godzilla (1998) to be absolutely terrible, but there’s something so nostalgic about a 400-foot monster robotically moving through the city, destroying everything in its wake.
Updated December 29th, 2022: If you are here for disaster movies, you’ll be pleased to know we’ve updated this article with new entries.
In 2022, we have so many remakes of original movies that we don’t know what to do with ourselves, but you can find peace in ’90s disaster movies. Flicks that were original, weird, and slightly dark, and took the plot in bizarre directions to make the movie even more of a mess than it already is. Plus, you can always count on the cast to be absolutely stacked, whether you expect it or not. There are tons of ’90s disaster movies, so with that being said, here’s a few of the best of the best, ranked.
10 Outbreak (1995)
Warner Bros.
Wolfgang Petersen’s medical disaster film Outbreak was a box-office hit in 1995. Featuring an impressive A-list cast, including Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, and Donald Sutherland, the film focuses on an outbreak of a killer virus brought to America by a monkey from the African jungle. It is a terrifying thriller, which was released when a shocking real-life outbreak of the Ebola virus was occurring in Africa.
Because of a realistic look for handling a pathogen able to cause a global biological meltdown, Outbreak’s popularity surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, akin to other films like Contagion. After all these years, Outbreak is more watchable than ever.
9 Armageddon (1998)
Buena Vista Pictures
Michael Bay’s 1998 blockbuster, Armageddon, stars Bruce Willis as an oil driller leading his team on a mission to nuke a Texas-sized asteroid from the inside before it hits Earth. It is unrealistic but still highly entertaining. Entertaining enough to become the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. Nevertheless, film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that, “It’s strictly a side issue whether mankind will survive colliding with an asteroid the size of Texas; the real question is whether Liv Tyler, who plays Bruce Willis’s daughter, gets to keep her boyfriend (Ben Affleck).”
8 Deep Impact (1998)
DreamWorks Pictures
In 1997, these were volcano disaster films (Dante’s Peak, Volcano). In 1998, two films about comets hurtling toward Earth, Deep Impact and Armageddon, were released. Armageddon fared better at the box office, but Deep Impact became one of the most scientifically accurate movies. The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson did not bring up any scientific errors in Mimi Leder’s science-fiction disaster film, saying that Deep Impact “had really good science going there.” (via BuzzFeed).
The film begins when a 14-year-old amateur astronomer (played by pre-The Lord of the Rings Elijah Wood) discovers a giant comet. Like Netflix’s important failure Don’t Look Up, Deep Impact involves the media’s and the president’s (played here by Morgan Freeman) reaction to the crisis.
7 Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Easily one of the best shark movies of its time, the iconic Samuel L Jackson and Saffron Burrows star in Deep Blue Sea, and it really takes the cake for cheesy ’90s CGI sharks. The story follows Burrows’ character, Dr. Susan McAlester, as a researcher for an Alzheimer’s disease cure, which conveniently is found in brain tissue of altered sharks. When things go wrong (which, of course they do) she calls Russel Franklin (Jackson) to help combat these man-eating sharks. Paired with a great cast and solid soundtrack, you can see how it made $165 million at the box office.
6 Independence Day (1996)
20th Century Fox
Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day is routinely considered the most expensive B movie ever made and the turning point in the history of the Hollywood blockbuster. The astonishing images of mass devastation from this action-packed film about an alien force that attacked on July 4 became commonplace in disaster movies that followed.
Despite quite a ridiculous script, stereotypical characters, and weak dialogues, Independence Day benefited from outstanding visual effects and became the highest-grossing film of 1996. 20 years later, in 2016, the sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, was released.
5 Apollo 13 (1995)
Universal Pictures
Ron Howard brings the true story of the Apollo 13 mission to life with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and the late Bill Paxton leading the journey. This film dramatizes what happened on the mission to land on the moon, but when an explosion of an oxygen tank takes place, things start to go very wrong for Lovell (Hanks), Swigert (Bacon), and Haise (Paxton).
This disaster movie is so good because, while it isn’t something nature-related, like an earthquake or a tornado, this is history being retold again. The audience is entranced by the performances of three critically-acclaimed actors, telling the frightening story of what it was like to be on that mission. You almost feel like you’re there with them on the spacecraft, due to the shaky camera and lighting, sweating along with them as they try to figure out what to do, and how to safely land Apollo 13.
4 Titanic (1997)
The spectacle of the doomed luxury liner with the love story of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) is still one of the most important disaster movies of all time. James Cameron’s Titanic won 11 Oscars, including awards for Best Picture and Best Director, and was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. Compared to the ‘so bad that they’re good’ disaster B movies, Titanic is even better than it needs to be; it’s a disaster epic about an epic disaster.
3 Volcano (1997)
Inspired by the real life Parícutin volcano in Mexico, Volcano pretty much gives you all you need to know about it in the title. Tommy Lee Jones stars as Michael Roark, the city of Los Angeles’ director of emergency management, and from the beginning, he suspects that something is going wrong in his city. When a volcano erupts in the middle of downtown, it takes a stacked cast of Jones, Don Cheadle, Keith David and Anne Heche to try and stop the flow of lava. This movie is such a pure disaster film simply because of all the reckless destruction that takes place. In the end, Los Angeles is destroyed, and Tommy Lee Jones is the hero. What more could you ask for?
2 Dante’s Peak (1997)
Unlike Volcano, Dante’s Peak, another volcano movie, did absolutely terrible at the box office. It received negative reviews, certainly couldn’t keep up with Volcano in box office revenue, and people just hated it. However, that’s what makes it so good. The CGI is unpolished, the story is already over-done and cooked, and Pierce Brosnan delivers one of his weakest performances, and yet… it’s a ’90s cult classic.
The film stars Brosnan, alongside Linda Hamilton and the late Charles Hallahan. It’s based in a fictional town where a dormant volcano sits, until one day it wakes up and wreaks havoc on the sleepy little town. Chaos ensues. If you love bad disaster movies and acting that’s so weird that it’s good, look no further and pop Dante’s Peak in. You’re in for quite a ride.
1 Twister (1996)
The first thing you need to know about Twister, is that it is the most ridiculous tornado movie ever made. The second thing you need to know, is that it is the best disaster movie ever. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt lead this epic flick, with a handful of notable cast members surrounding them, including the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Jami Gertz, and Cary Elwes. The film is about a group of tornado chasers and their love for horrible weather, but also, each other.
Twister has something that most disaster movies ignore; the found family. Helen Hunt’s character, Dr. Jo Harding leads this group of misfits almost around the state of Oklahoma, chasing the biggest tornados they can possibly find, and using their new device, Dorothy, along the way. Twister features a number of nasty tornadoes that come sweeping in, and with them, a ton of life-or-death moments. In the end, every single person survives and the family is brought back together, as Jo Harding and Bill (Paxton) reconcile. Oh, and the villain of the story, Dr. Jones Miller (Elwes) certainly gets what’s coming to him.
