10 Years After Katrina: The Film Disaster Most Due to Human Error
by rubyfruit76 | created - 18 Aug 2015 | updated - 28 Aug 2015 | PublicThe end of August is the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the tragic flooding of New Orleans.
Most experts agree that Katrina was influenced by human behavior and certainly the catastrophic damage to New Orleans was largely due to human failure to prepare and react effectively; the films on this list also illustrate human error or negligence. If human beings can prevent some devastating effects of otherwise (or seemingly) natural disasters, films on the subject can be instructive. Which of the following movies depict the most egregious human error?
Discuss here
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. 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: 2,397
2. Blade Runner (1982)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 823,318 | Gross: $32.87M
3. Children of Men (2006)
R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Votes: 529,530 | Gross: $35.55M
4. The China Syndrome (1979)
PG | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady
Votes: 33,046 | Gross: $51.72M
5. Contagion (2011)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Votes: 316,024 | Gross: $75.66M
6. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
R | 117 min | Biography, Drama
In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn
Votes: 519,429 | Gross: $27.30M
7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The fragile peace between apes and humans is threatened as mistrust and betrayal threaten to plunge both tribes into a war for dominance over the Earth.
Director: Matt Reeves | Stars: Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Andy Serkis, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Votes: 469,417 | Gross: $208.55M
8. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok
Votes: 476,187 | Gross: $186.74M
9. Deep Impact (1998)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst.
Director: Mimi Leder | Stars: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 190,424 | Gross: $140.46M
10. District 9 (2009)
R | 112 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.
Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Vanessa Haywood
Votes: 717,059 | Gross: $115.65M
11. Hard Rain (1998)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The partner and nephew of an armored-truck driver tries to prevent three million dollars from being taken by a gang during a catastrophic flooding caused by a severe storm.
Director: Mikael Salomon | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Randy Quaid, Minnie Driver
Votes: 37,310 | Gross: $19.82M
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: 6,589 | Gross: $27.95M
13. If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010)
Documentary
In 2006, director Spike Lee created an astonishing record of the cataclysmic effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans with his epic award-winning documentary, When the Levees... See full summary »
Stars: Calvin Mackie, Mitch Landrieu, Jacques Morial, Fred Johnson
Votes: 578
Even though it was aired on HBO as a mini-series, it was filmed as a movie and has the power of a feature film.
14. The Impossible (2012)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The story of a tourist family in Thailand caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Director: J.A. Bayona | Stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast
Votes: 244,143 | Gross: $19.02M
15. Interstellar (2014)
PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy
Votes: 2,101,211 | Gross: $188.02M
16. Into the Storm (2014)
PG-13 | 89 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Storm trackers, thrill-seekers, and everyday townspeople document an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes touching down in the town of Silverton.
Director: Steven Quale | Stars: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Max Deacon
Votes: 71,511 | Gross: $47.60M
17. Jurassic Park (1993)
PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 1,067,507 | Gross: $402.45M
18. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
R | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz
Votes: 1,086,832 | Gross: $154.06M
19. Oblivion (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.
Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko
Votes: 553,288 | Gross: $89.02M
20. On the Beach (1959)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
Votes: 14,418 | Gross: $11.00M
21. Outbreak (1995)
R | 127 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Army doctors struggle to find a cure for a deadly virus spreading throughout a California town that was brought to America by an African monkey.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 137,807 | Gross: $67.82M
22. The Perfect Storm (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An unusually intense storm pattern catches some commercial fishermen unaware and puts them in mortal danger.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane
Votes: 177,989 | Gross: $182.62M
23. 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: 49,252 | Gross: $84.56M
24. The River (1984)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama
A farming family battles severe storms, while taking a valiant stand against a bank foreclosure and a powerful land grabber.
Director: Mark Rydell | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, Shane Bailey, Becky Jo Lynch
Votes: 7,712 | Gross: $11.49M
25. San Andreas (2015)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
In the aftermath of a massive earthquake in California, a rescue-chopper pilot makes a dangerous journey with his ex-wife across the state in order to rescue his daughter.
Director: Brad Peyton | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Colton Haynes
Votes: 256,766 | Gross: $155.19M
26. Silent Running (1972)
G | 89 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Votes: 31,475 | Gross: $0.69M
27. Snowpiercer (2013)
R | 126 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris
Votes: 389,122 | Gross: $4.56M
28. Soylent Green (1973)
PG | 97 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors
Votes: 70,585 | Gross: $7.92M
29. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,280,844 | Gross: $659.33M
30. 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: 48,278 | Gross: $116.00M
31. Transcendence (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence takes on dangerous implications when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.
Director: Wally Pfister | Stars: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy
Votes: 238,888 | Gross: $23.02M
32. Volcano (1997)
PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A volcano erupts in downtown Los Angeles and a city official and a seismologist try to stop its inevitable flow through the city.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle
Votes: 81,566 | Gross: $49.32M
33. WALL·E (2008)
G | 98 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.
Director: Andrew Stanton | Stars: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard
Votes: 1,200,798 | Gross: $223.81M
34. Waterworld (1995)
PG-13 | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a future where the polar ice-caps have melted and Earth is almost entirely submerged, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw "smokers," and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl try to find dry land.
Director: Kevin Reynolds | Stars: Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dennis Hopper, Tina Majorino
Votes: 210,010 | Gross: $88.25M
35. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006–2007)
TV-MA | 51 min | Documentary
An examination of the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Stars: Darleen Asevedo, Jay Asevedo, Shelton Shakespear Alexander, Lee Arnold
Votes: 4,825
Tell Your Friends