1970s-80s: Disaster Movies.
by gig-panas | created - 06 Mar 2016 | updated - 21 Feb 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Crowded Sky (1960)
Not Rated | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Disaster movie about a Navy jet and a commercial airliner heading for a mid air collision.
Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., John Kerr
Votes: 962
2. Airport (1970)
G | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
Votes: 21,646 | Gross: $100.49M
3. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
PG | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A group of passengers must embark on a harrowing struggle for survival after a rogue wave capsizes their cruise ship at sea.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons
Votes: 49,161 | Gross: $84.56M
4. Skyjacked (1972)
PG | 101 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crazed Vietnam vet bomber hijacks a Boeing 707 in this disaster film filled with the usual early '70s stereotypes, and demands to be taken to Russia.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Charlton Heston, James Brolin, Yvette Mimieux, Claude Akins
Votes: 2,337 | Gross: $2.50M
5. The Towering Inferno (1974)
PG | 165 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
At the opening party of a colossal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway
Votes: 48,172 | Gross: $116.00M
6. Earthquake (1974)
PG | 122 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene
Votes: 17,857 | Gross: $79.70M
7. Hurricane (1974 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 74 min | Drama
Two hurricane hunters track a huge, violent hurricane that is bearing down on a Gulf Coast town.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Larry Hagman, Martin Milner, Jessica Walter, Barry Sullivan
Votes: 221
8. The Disappearance of Flight 412 (1974 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
During a radar test mission, Flight 412 witnesses the disappearance of 2 fighter-jets scrambled to intercept a UFO but the Air Force is determined to cover-up the incident.
Director: Jud Taylor | Stars: Glenn Ford, Bradford Dillman, David Soul, Robert F. Lyons
Votes: 725
9. Heatwave! (1974 TV Movie)
90 min | Drama
The residents of an isolated mountain town must band together to survive during a devastating heat wave.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Ben Murphy, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, David Huddleston
Votes: 205
10. The Day the Earth Moved (1974 TV Movie)
75 min | Drama
A team taking aerial photographs of the desert deduces that an earthquake is about to strike a nearby town, but nobody in the town believes them.
Director: Robert Michael Lewis | Stars: Jackie Cooper, Stella Stevens, Cleavon Little, William Windom
Votes: 237
11. Airport 1975 (1974)
PG | 107 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A 747 in flight collides with a small plane, and is rendered pilotless. Somehow the control tower must get a pilot aboard so the jet can land.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Votes: 11,835 | Gross: $47.29M
12. The Hindenburg (1975)
Approved | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, History
A chronicle of the Hindenburg disaster in which a zeppelin burst into flames.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes
Votes: 6,577 | Gross: $27.95M
13. Two-Minute Warning (1976)
Approved | 115 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A crazed sniper is set to kill spectators at an L.A. Coliseum football championship game and the police race against time to eliminate him.
Director: Larry Peerce | Stars: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges
Votes: 4,375
14. Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
Flashbacks profile California motorists involved in a disastrous 39-car smash-up over a holiday weekend.
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey | Stars: Robert Conrad, Sian Barbara Allen, Buddy Ebsen, Herb Edelman
Votes: 443
15. Flood (1976 TV Movie)
98 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After several weeks of heavy rainfall, the dam above Brownsville is ready to burst. But the town's mayor refuses to open its gates - paving the way for disaster.
Director: Earl Bellamy | Stars: Robert Culp, Martin Milner, Barbara Hershey, Richard Basehart
Votes: 536
16. The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
R | 129 min | Drama, Thriller
Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease. Nobody will let them off the train. So what happens next?
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, O.J. Simpson
Votes: 9,870
17. Airport '77 (1977)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under one hundred feet of water.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland
Votes: 12,295 | Gross: $30.00M
18. Fire (1977 TV Movie)
97 min | Action, Drama
A convict starts a fire in a forest to cover his escape, but the fire goes out of control and threatens to destroy a small mountain community.
Director: Earl Bellamy | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Vera Miles, Patty Duke, Alex Cord
Votes: 359
19. Flight to Holocaust (1977 TV Movie)
100 min | Action, Drama
A team of troubleshooters is called to a skyscraper where a plane has crashed into the 20th floor and is stuck in the side of the building.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski | Stars: Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Fawne Harriman, Desi Arnaz Jr.
Votes: 77
20. Rollercoaster (1977)
PG | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A blackmailer threatens to sabotage roller coasters at various American amusement parks if he isn't paid a huge ransom.
Director: James Goldstone | Stars: George Segal, Timothy Bottoms, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda
Votes: 6,903
21. The Swarm (1978)
PG | 116 min | Horror, Thriller
A huge swarm of deadly African bees spreads terror over American cities by killing thousands of people.
Director: Irwin Allen | Stars: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain
Votes: 8,543 | Gross: $10.00M
22. Gray Lady Down (1978)
PG | 111 min | Adventure, Drama, History
A Navy Captain uses his experimental Snark to reach a nuclear submarine stuck on an ocean ledge.
Director: David Greene | Stars: Charlton Heston, David Carradine, Stacy Keach, Ned Beatty
Votes: 3,524
23. Avalanche (1978)
PG | 91 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
The vacationers at a winter wonderland struggle to survive after an avalanche of snow crashes into their ski resort. Their holiday then turns into a game of survival.
Director: Corey Allen | Stars: Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, Jeanette Nolan
Votes: 2,395
24. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
PG | 114 min | Action, Adventure
An extension of the previous film, wherein a group of adventurers return to the overturned ship to seek several fortunes.
Director: Irwin Allen | Stars: Michael Caine, Sally Field, Telly Savalas, Peter Boyle
Votes: 5,866
25. S.O.S. Titanic (1979 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 194 min | Drama, History
On her maiden voyage in April 1912, the supposedly unsinkable R.M.S. Titanic strikes an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
Director: William Hale | Stars: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Harry Andrews, David Battley
Votes: 1,498
26. Meteor (1979)
PG | 108 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
The U.S. must join forces with the U.S.S.R. in order to destroy a gigantic asteroid heading straight for Earth.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith
Votes: 8,192
27. City on Fire (1979)
R | 106 min | Action, Drama
A pyromaniac, ex-employee of a city oil refinery creates an explosion at the facility which starts a chain-reaction of fires that engulf the entire city.
Director: Alvin Rakoff | Stars: Barry Newman, Susan Clark, Shelley Winters, Leslie Nielsen
Votes: 1,587
28. The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
PG | 113 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A supersonic airborne disaster. In order to survive a flight headed for the Moscow Olympics, passengers of the Concorde must endure aerial acrobatics to dodge missiles and survive a device that decompresses the plane.
Director: David Lowell Rich | Stars: Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, George Kennedy
Votes: 6,944 | Gross: $13.00M
29. Jishin rettô (1980)
TV-14 | 126 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.
Director: Kenjirô Ohmori | Stars: Hiroshi Katsuno, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Yumi Takigawa, Kayo Matsuo
Votes: 214
30. Ekipazh (1980)
PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Story of the lives of three Soviet pilots who are united by disaster in a small town in the mountains.
Director: Aleksandr Mitta | Stars: Georgi Zhzhyonov, Anatoliy Vasilev, Leonid Filatov, Alexandra Yakovleva
Votes: 2,631
31. When Time Ran Out... (1980)
PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An active volcano threatens a south Pacific island resort and its guests as a power struggle ensues between the property's developer and a drilling foreman.
Director: James Goldstone | Stars: Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert
Votes: 3,193 | Gross: $1.70M
32. The Chain Reaction (1980)
92 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A holidaying couple is pursued by the thugs of a nearby nuclear storage facility's boss, who is intent on covering up an accidental leak.
Director: Ian Barry | Stars: Steve Bisley, Arna-Maria Winchester, Ross Thompson, Ralph Cotterill
Votes: 1,172
33. Airplane! (1980)
PG | 88 min | Comedy
After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Votes: 260,577 | Gross: $83.40M
34. Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
PG | 85 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
A faulty computer causes a passenger space shuttle to head straight for the Sun. Can Ted Striker save the day and get the shuttle back on track - again?
Director: Ken Finkleman | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Raymond Burr
Votes: 56,680 | Gross: $27.15M
35. The Great Los Angeles Earthquake (1990 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 180 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
After a series of small tremors in Los Angeles, Dr. Clare Winslow, a local seismologist, pinpoints the exact location and time of when the long awaited earthquake--"The Big One"--will ... See full summary »
Director: Larry Elikann | Stars: Joanna Kerns, Dan Lauria, Bonnie Bartlett, Lindsay Frost
Votes: 708
36. After the Shock (1990 TV Movie)
PG | 100 min | Drama
On October 17, 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale rocked San Francisco. Presented here are some of the stories of the brave members of the public and emergency services ... See full summary »
Director: Gary Sherman | Stars: Nicholas Zaninovich, Yaphet Kotto, Jack Scalia, Tuck Milligan
Votes: 174
37. Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor (1991 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 94 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Susan and Paul are working late on the thirty-seventh floor of a Los Angeles skyscraper. Also in the building are the cleaning staff, security, and some engineers installing sprinklers. As ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Day | Stars: Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman, Peter Scolari, John Laughlin
Votes: 260
38. The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1980 TV Movie)
194 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A group of random individuals get stranded on a bridge that begins to collapse at both ends. Not only that, but a gun-wielding bank robber is using the bridge as his means of escape, and he... See full summary »
Director: Georg Fenady | Stars: James MacArthur, Desi Arnaz Jr., Char Fontane, Richard Gilliland
Votes: 166
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