10 best natural disaster movies, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes scores

Twisters, the highly anticipated sequel to the hit 1996 tornado flick, just came out, adding to the collection of natural disaster movies that feature some of the most adverse events nature has to offer.

From avalanches to wildfires and hurricanes, natural disaster films are their own genre of cinema that, while most are fictitious, offer some of the purest spectacles in movie theaters. At their best, these movies showcase pretty special effects and an impressive sense of scale that still feels grounded in real life.

Here are the 10 best-rated natural disaster movies on Rotten Tomatoes, ranked, that provide the classic man vs. nature hook.

Disclaimer: This list is purely based on the writer's opinions.

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10 highest-rated natural disaster movies on Rotten Tomatoes

1) A Night to Remember (Tomatometer: 100%)

Disaster: Iceberg

A Night to Remember (Image via The Rank Organisation)

Think Titanic but without the Jack and Rose romance and more about the realistic disaster of the sinking of the "unsinkable" ship. A Night to Remember, which Roy Ward Baker directed, is a tense drama portrayed from the perspective of the ship's crew.

In the movie, the ship continues to sail despite the warnings about a huge block of ice until disaster strikes, and when the crew discovers they don't have enough lifeboats to save everyone, they are left scrambling for survival as the doomed vessel hits an iceberg and starts sinking.

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2) Force Majeure (Tomatometer: 94%)

Disaster: Avalanche

Force Majeure (Image via TriArt Films)

Out of all the natural disaster movies on this list, Force Majeure, which Ruben Ostlund directed, didn't have a disaster where a lot of people lost their lives. While there is a disaster, the danger it posed wasn't on the lives of people, but on the marriage and relationship of a man's selfish reaction when disaster strikes.

The story revolves around a husband/father trying to justify why he quickly ran away, leaving his wife and kids, during an avalanche—leaving his family for dead had the disaster been more fatal.

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3) Titanic (Tomatometer: 88%)

Disaster: Iceberg

Titanic (Image via 20th Century Fox)

This cinematic masterpiece by Avatar's James Cameron is a real tear-jerker not only because of the tragic natural disaster in the movie but also because of the ill-fated young love story of Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio's characters, Rose and Jack.

The multi-Academy Award-winning movie, which was the highest-grossing film of all time for many years, is based on one of the deadliest seafaring disasters over a hundred years ago, which claimed more than 1,500 lives.

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4) Only the Brave (Tomatometer: 87%)

Disaster: Wildfire

Only the Brave (Image via Columbia Pictures)

Only the Brave, which recounts the story of 20 firefighters who fought against a devastating wildfire, is among the string of natural disaster movies inspired by real, horrible tragedies.

Based on the very real Yarnell Hill Wildfire in 2013, the film is a tragic cinema that mixes biopics and natural disaster movies, complete with a full ensemble cast of all the firefighters who risked their lives in the tragedy. 19 of those 20 heroic firefighters didn't come home.

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5) Contagion (Tomatometer: 85%)

Disaster: Global pandemic

Contagion (Image via Warner Bros.)

While not a weather phenomenon, Contagion is considered one of the natural disaster movies on this list because of its widespread phenomena, and the nature of the virus featured in Contagion, which was transmitted from an infected pig to humans, is as natural as any other disaster caused by extreme weather conditions.

The disaster thriller film, which Steven Soderbergh directed, follows a Minnesota resident who contracted a fatal virus from a Hong Kong business trip, leaving her dead and the doctors scrambling to contain the lethal virus.

It's the cinematic version of the COVID-19 pandemic before the coronavirus was even a thing.

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6) Crawl (Tomatometer: 84%)

Disaster: Flood and alligator infestation

Crawl (Image via Paramount)

Crawl joins the list of must-watch natural disaster movies with a plot of survival from rapidly encroaching floodwaters and an attack from gigantic alligators.

The movie, which is by Piranha director Alexandre Aja, mixes the tragedy of a hurricane that hit a Florida town and its people scrambling for survival and searching for their lost family members with the thrill of a greater risk than the rising water level—a pack of alligators waiting to attack.

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7) The Wave (Tomatometer: 83%)

Disaster: Tidal wave

The Wave (Image via Magnolia Pictures)

The Wave is another of the reality-based natural disaster movies on this list, a Norwegian hit about a massive tsunami that hit several villages along Norway's fjords some 90 years ago.

It emphasized the survival journey of a Norwegian geologist and his family after a scenic fjord collapses, creating a 250-foot tidal wave, and his heroic action to help evacuate the whole city in ten minutes before the monster wave crushes everything in its path.

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8) The Impossible (Tomatometer: 82%)

Disaster: Tsunami

The Impossible (Image via Warner Bros.)

Based on a Spanish family's experience during the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, where 250,000 people from 14 different countries, including tourists, reportedly lost their lives, The Impossible delivers a dramatized version of how mother nature can be a cruel mistress.

While the movie is uplifting in some sense with the family's story of survival, the nightmare scenario in the film is even more gripping because it's based on true events.

The Juan Antonio Bayona-directed film, which stars Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, and Tom Holland, is a must-watch for those looking for natural disaster movies rooted in real-life stories.

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9) The Poseidon Adventure (Tomatometer: 80%)

Disaster: Tsunami

The Poseidon Adventure (Image via 20th Century Fox)

Think of Titanic, but instead of an iceberg, a rogue wave capsizes the ship in The Poseidon Adventure. While it's not a true story, the plotline took inspiration from the 1942 incident when the British ocean liner RMS Queen Mary nearly sank to the bottom of the sea after getting hit by a 90-foot rogue wave.

In the movie, the captain of the ship is dead, and surviving passengers try to make it through the nightmarish event, from averting fires and flooding to fixing the ship's mechanical malfunctions, in their desperate attempt to survive.

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10) Twisters (Tomatometer: 78%)

Disaster: Tornado

Twisters (Image via Universal Pictures)

Tornadoes, sometimes called twisters, are a pretty common natural disaster. But, add in a reckless storm-chasing character and an intense storm season, Twisters offers pulse-pounding tension and action for moviegoers looking for thrill-seeking natural disaster movies.

The Glen Powell and Daisy Edar-Jones-led disaster film, which premiered on July 19, is a stand-alone sequel to the 1996 disaster hit and features some nod to the OG Twister movie.

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These natural disaster movies bring the spectacle of massive threats from nature, from alligator-infested floodwaters to several hundred-foot tidal waves, and the scrambling thrill of trying to survive those events that could very well happen or have happened in real life.