Top 5 Best Movies About Hurricanes
Movies have a remarkable way of taking us on thrilling journeys through the lens of storytelling. When it comes to capturing the sheer power and unpredictability of nature, few subjects rival the intensity of hurricanes.
Movies about hurricanesnot only entertain but also serve as a stark reminder of the immense forces of these weather phenomena. Inthis article, we'll delve into some of the best movies that depict hurricanes, showcasing how cinema can portray the raw emotions and harrowing experiences associated with these natural disasters.
Into The Storm (2014)
"Into the Storm" seems like something we'd naturally expect given our fascination with weather-related events. It's like a movie we feel obligated to watch because we're so into weather stuff lately. But honestly, it's not very creative, just like the way I just described it.
We've turned Weather Channel personalities into stars, and we love watching the chaos caused by superstorms like Sandy. We even enjoy weather-themed movies like "Sharknado 2: The Second One." So, it was only a matter of time before someone made a movie about the impact of extreme weather. Now we're throwing things like cows, school buses, and maybe even airplanes into the mix.
The movie tries to be clever by using a style that looks like it's all footage people found and shared online, and the special effects are surprisingly good. But here's the problem: the characters in the movie are not interesting at all, and there's hardly any story to follow. The storm itself is more exciting than the people trying to escape from it.
In the movie, there's a tough Vice Principal named Gary, his two sons Donnie and Trey, and some locals. Donnie is a good kid who likes a girl named Kaitlyn, and he finally gets the courage to talk to her. They plan to film their school graduation ceremony. But, guess what? A superstorm is about to hit their town on that same day, and that's when things go crazy. So, the lesson here is, that maybe it's safer not to talk to the girl you like on such a day.
There are also some storm chasers in the mix, like Allison and Pete, who have this cool tank-like vehicle to get up close to storms and record them for science and TV ratings. The movie is shown through different cameras, like iPhones, security cameras, and news helicopters. It's trying to show how we record everything nowadays, even huge storms that change the landscape. But they could have done a better job with this idea in the movie.
The movie has cool special effects and action that can entertain you on a boring evening. But, the problem is that the characters in the movie are not interesting. The two kids named Donnie and Trey are kind of flat and not very exciting. Plus, something bad happens to Donnie and his crush Kaitlyn, but we don't really care because we don't know much about them.
The movie is about people dealing with crazy storms, but we don't get to know them well enough to care about what happens to them. We know some basic things about them, like Gary being a widower, Allison having a daughter, and Pete wanting a big storm to film, but that's about it.
Adrift (2018)
When it comes to sailing across the ocean, the movie "Adrift" shows why it might not be the best idea. It's based on a true story about a couple who get caught in a big storm while sailing and have to figure out how to survive on their damaged boat with limited food and water. It's a reminder that people who choose to do these things are a bit crazy.
The movie is pretty good but not amazing. Shailene Woodley, who plays the main character Tami, does a fantastic job. She's a great actress, and you can see that in this movie. Sam Claflin, who plays the other lead, is also really good.
The film itself is well-made, and the director does a good job of bringing the story to life. He focuses not just on the survival part but also on what makes Tami tick, which adds depth to the movie. It looks great and makes you feel like you're right there with the characters in the middle of the ocean.
"Adrift" could have been a much more intense and gripping movie if it didn't keep jumping back and forth in time through flashbacks. This storytelling choice means we don't have to wait too long for the storm to hit, but it also prevents the film from building a sustained sense of tension. Instead of feeling the full weight of the situation, we get a series of snapshots from Tami's time at sea.
Imagine how much more powerful the storm scene could have been if it wasn't broken into several segments. Sometimes it's better to stay focused to create maximum impact. If the film had lingered on the part where Tami is truly adrift, we might have felt the despair and her struggle to survive more deeply than we do with the way the story is told in short scenes.
Take Shelter (2011)
"Take Shelter" is a movie where the main character, Curtis LaForche, played by Michael Shannon, believes that the world is going to end because of terrible storms. He's convinced that these storms will kill everyone, including his family. However, he also thinks he might be going crazy and suffering from schizophrenia.
Michael Shannon does an excellent job portraying Curtis, who lives a simple life in Ohio with his wife Samantha, played by Jessica Chastain, and their daughter Hannah. Curtis has scary dreams, and because of these visions, he decides to build a storm shelter in his backyard.
This decision strains his relationship with his wife because she doesn't understand what's happening. Curtis is also worried because his mother has schizophrenia, and he fears he might be following the same path.
The movie is written and directed by Jeff Nichols and is a gripping drama that takes you inside the mind of a person dealing with delusions. It's a slow-paced thriller that shows the confusion, fear, and desperation of someone facing two terrifying possibilities: the end of the world or the end of their own sanity.
Michael Shannon, who will soon play General Zod in "The Man of Steel," delivers an outstanding performance in "Take Shelter." He really lets the audience understand his character's thoughts and emotions. His performance is subtle, moving, and relatable, making his character's worries feel very real, even if they seem impossible to overcome. What Shannon does here is something only a few actors could pull off.
While "Take Shelter" is well-written and has a lot going for it, there's one big problem - it's really slow. It's not boring, but it can feel tedious at times because it takes its time. The movie is over two hours long, and some parts could have been tightened up to make it move faster. Director Jeff Nichols' approach makes sense for the characters, but it might test your patience. By the time things start to get really interesting, you might have wanted the movie to be over for a while.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
It's always a relief in a Roland Emmerich movie when the music swells at the end. It gives us hope because even though billions of people may have died, at least the main characters survive. In Emmerich's past movies like "Independence Day" and "Godzilla," major cities like Los Angeles and New York faced massive destruction.
In "The Day After Tomorrow," he takes it to another level: Los Angeles gets hit by multiple tornadoes, New York gets buried in ice and snow, the UK freezes, and a lot of the Northern Hemisphere is in big trouble. But don't worry, the key characters, including Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason, and Dr. Lucy Hall, manage to survive, along with a young cancer patient.
So yes, the movie is pretty silly when it comes to the story. However, what surprised me is that it's also quite scary. The special effects are so impressive that the movie works despite its cheesy plot. When you see tornadoes tearing apart Los Angeles, a huge wall of water flooding New York, a Russian tanker floating through the streets of Manhattan, skyscrapers buried in snow, and a space station surrounded by violent storms, you can't help but be captivated by it all.
When the world is falling apart, and the movie focuses on just a handful of people, you can bet they'll make it out okay, even if some minor characters might not be so lucky. What's funny is how the movie switches between global catastrophes like continents being destroyed and personal stuff like whether one character should confess their love to another.
In the movie, Dennis Quaid plays Jack Hall, a scientist who predicts that global warming will cause a new ice age. He tries to warn people at a conference in New Delhi, but they don't take him seriously, especially the American vice president (who looks a lot like Dick Cheney). The vice president is more concerned about the economy and dismisses Jack's warning.
But soon enough, it starts snowing in India, and giant hailstones are wrecking Tokyo. Birds, which seem to know when disaster is coming, fly away fast. Turbulence is causing airplanes to crash. The president is told that the FAA wants to ground all flights and asks the vice president for advice on what to do.
Meanwhile, Jack's son, Sam, goes to New York with his academic decathlon team, which includes Laura and Brian. They get stuck in New York because of all the crazy weather. Jack, on the other hand, is struggling to get his warning about the impending disaster through to the government.
Finally, he manages to reach someone important in the White House and gets the chance to brief the president directly. Jack marks a line on a map of the United States and basically says that everyone north of that line is in big trouble.
He warns that super-cold air will be deadly, and he tells people to stay indoors if they want to survive. Then, he decides to walk from Washington to New York to find his son, and a couple of his buddies who are experienced in dealing with extreme cold weather join him on this journey.
Why is he walking to New York when his expertise is needed to save millions of lives? Won't his son be either dead or alive whether he makes the journey or not? How fast can you walk from Washington to New York through ice and a blizzard? It seems like this movie believes it can be done in two nights and most of three days. Oh, and they drive part of the way on snowy and gridlocked highways, but they don't really explain how they find enough gas.
As for the first question, it's mainly because he feels guilty about not spending enough time with his son due to his work as a paleoclimatologist. It's a way for the movie to add drama to the story. Now, the human side of the movie doesn't always make sense, except for the scenes with Ian Holm, who plays a wise Scottish meteorologist. He's like a breath of fresh air in the film, showing how a talented British-trained actor can make any scene feel meaningful.
Quaid, Gyllenhaal, and a small group of survivors in New York try their best with some really unbelievable dialogue in a situation that doesn't make much sense. Dr. Lucy Hall, Jack's wife, has her own storyline where she looks after a little cancer patient named Peter, even though the hospital is evacuated. She calls for an ambulance, which seems pretty optimistic considering Manhattan is underwater, frozen, and covered in snow. But does the ambulance actually come? And remember those escaped zoo wolves? Will they show up again?
Geostorm (2017)
At the start of the movie, we're told that in 2019, Earth faced some really terrible extreme weather disasters that destroyed entire cities. Finally, people realized how serious global warming is (even though this is a fantasy movie). So, the United States and other countries decided to work together to stop it. They create a giant satellite system called "Dutch Boy" (don't ask why it's called that) to track dangerous weather and stop it before it causes destruction.
The person behind Dutch Boy is a scientist named Jake Lawson, who's a bit of a tough and hard-drinking guy, and surprisingly, he's Scottish-American. He manages the system with an international team up in space. But things get messy when he gets fired from the project by his own brother, Max, who is played by Jim Sturgess and doesn't have a Scottish accent.
Three years later, the U.S. is about to hand over control of Dutch Boy to all the countries. But there's a problem when one of the satellites malfunctions and a whole village in Afghanistan, which should be really hot, suddenly freezes. The U.S. President, played by Andy Garcia, doesn't want to give away a broken system. So, he asks Max to send someone to space to find out what's wrong and fix it. And guess what? Jake ends up going.
It doesn't take long for Jake and the space station commander to realize that someone messed with the system on purpose. Max figures this out on Earth too. While crazy weather is hitting different cities around the world, like Tokyo getting huge hail and Rio getting unexpectedly cold, the two brothers try to uncover a big conspiracy and stop it. They want to prevent a "geostorm," which is a massive and ever-growing storm that could kill millions of people worldwide.
Conclusion
Movies about hurricanes have provided audiences with heart-pounding moments, breathtaking visuals, and gripping narratives. These films offer a unique window into the chaos and resilience that emerge when facing the full force of nature's fury. From disaster epics to character-driven dramas, the best hurricane movies resonate with viewers, leaving them both in awe of nature's might and inspired by the human spirit's unwavering determination to weather the storm.
