12 Disasters That Should Be Movies

Plague Of Justinian (541)

The Plot: As bubonic plague sweeps through the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian I attempts to resurrect the Rome of old through the conquering of neighbouring lands.

But the plague complicates matters, as thousands of people daily perish from disease, inheritance suits are filed, and even the Emperor himself falls at the mercy of the deadly disease…

The Cast: Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender

Dream Director: Peter Jackson

St. Lucias Flood (1287)

The Plot: The day after the Feast Of St. Lucia, the people of Griend – a small Dutch island - face unimaginable peril when a raging storm breaks a dike in the Netherlands and leads to a massive flood on 14 December.

With around 50,000 lives lost, the city of Griend is almost entirely destroyed, with a mere handful of houses surviving. Resolute that they will survive, one family attempt to escape the island…

The Cast: Toni Collette, Robert Downey Jr, Emma Roberts

Dream Director: Taylor Hackford

Black Friday Eyemouth Storm (1881)

The Plot: On the Southern coast of Scotland, a devastating storm whips the sea into a frenzy. Carrying out their jobs trawling for fish, a group of fishermen brave the storm.

But their boat is ripped to shreds. As one young survivor clings to a piece of driftwood, he calls on his memories to keep him alive. But are they real, or are they figments of his desperate imagination?

The Cast: James McAvoy

Dream Director: Kevin Macdonald

Schoolhouse Blizzard (1888)

The Plot: An Arctic cold front collides with warm Gulf air and a snowstorm like no other descends on the open plains of the U.S.A. Teacher Lois Royce is trapped in her school house with three of her students, scared and freezing.

As she attempts to jolly their spirits, they run out of heating fuel. In desperation, Mrs Royce decides to trek with the children through the cold to safety. But they become lost in the snow, and the children freeze to death.

The Cast: Kate Winslet, various unknown child actors

Dream Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Swatow Typhoon (1922)

The Plot: The deadliest typhoon in recorded history sets out to claim almost 100,000 lives as it envelopes the Chinese city of Swatow (now known as Shantou).

As the typhoon rages, destroying outlying villages on its way to the city, a group of tourists seek help from the city people and are taken in by a man who turns out to be an escaped criminal…

The Cast: Robert De Niro, Jackie Chan, Maggie Chueng, Chow Yun-Fat, Susan Sarandon

Dream Director: Roland Emmerich

Ashgabat Earthquake (1948)

The Plot: The testing of a new Soviet bomb has dire consequences for the residents of Ashgabat, who are hit with a massive earthquake that reads 7.3 Mw in Magnitude. Striking at 2am, while people sleep, entire chunks of Earth subside and people are sucked into the ground during their sleep.

One night train is also derailed, crashing down the side of a newly-created maw in the ground. As after tremors threaten to dislodge the train into the Earth’s belly, a small group of surviving passengers try to claw their way out.

The Cast: Husein Huseinov, Elnur Hüseynov, Freida Pinto

Dream Director: Martin Campbell

Great Chinese Famine (1958)

The Plot: In Xinyang, people are dying. Significant institutional changes and policy amendments mean that an emphasis has changed from a priority in crop growing to industrial growth, leaving thousands starving.

Chinese forces refuse to acknowledge they are responsible, instead casting blame at a number of natural disasters for the hardship. Refusing to admit defeat, a young journalist decides to start digging into the new Chinese policies in an attempt to turn the country around - before it’s too late.

The Cast: Kelly Hu, Jet Li, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh

Dream Director: Ridley Scott

Bhola Cyclone (1970)

The Plot: As powerful as a Category 3 hurricane, this devastating tropical cyclone swept from the Bay of Bengal northwards, only gathering in strength as it went.

In the town of Thana, a young man has a massive fall-out with his sister over their ailing mother. Returning to his flat, the young man listens to a radio report warning of the impending cyclone assault. His first thought is to get across town to his family – but can he reach them in time?

The Cast: Freida Pinto, Hrithik Roshan

Dream Director: Steven Spielberg

Lake Monoun Eruption (1984)

The Plot: Paranoia runs rampant when people and animals living near Lake Monoun start to die mysteriously, with no obvious cause of death. As the residents begin to suspect terrorist activity, the arrival of a stranger in the town brings out the worst in all of their natures.

Only when they have taken matters into their own hands (to tragic ends), is it discovered that carbon monoxide ruptured from the lake was in fact responsible for the deaths…

The Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, Josh Brolin

Dream Director: Gus Van Sant

Indonesian Tsunami (2004)

The Plot: After an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean, 100 ft waves batter the inhabitants of the nearby 14 countries.

On the island of Sumatra, two back-packers record their trip around the world using their home video camera. They’ll never know how important their footage will become, as they film the devastation wrought on the island, then their struggle to survive, and ultimately their own deaths. Years later, their footage is found…

The Cast: Unknown

Dream Director: Unknown

Haiti Earthquake (2010)

The Plot: A man who was caught in a collapsing building during the latest Haiti earthquake is saved from the rubble, but is ensnared in a coma.

Thanks to some special new technology, his wife is able to enter his mind in search of her husband’s latent consciousness. There, in a dreamworld of confused possibilities, she searches for the man she loves. But will the horrors he’s seen manifest against her?

The Cast: Holly Hunter, Jeff Bridges

Dream Director: Christopher Nolan

BP Spill (2010)

The Plot: Animated adventure courtesy of those wizards at Pixar. A sea gull called Skree goes off on his holidays, only to return and find that his beloved homeland has become destroyed by black goopy stuff.

As he investigates, he finds some of his friends have perished, while others are clinging on to the lives they once had. Can Skree rally the troops and clean up the mess the humans caused better than they could?

The Cast: Ray Romano, Kathy Burke, Kathy Najimy, Kirstie Alley, Al Pacino

Dream Director: John Lasseter