Beware the Elements! Natural Disasters on Film

Following a summer of record-breaking heatwaves, extreme wildfires, historic floods, and a truly unprecedented “hurriquake,” we find the perilous realities of climate change increasingly impacting our daily lives. Naturally, we see our fears reflected in cinema, especially in the case of the so-called “disaster film.” In 1989, the Los Angeles Times predicted “global warming [was] expected to be the hot issue of [the] 1990s,” and an anxious Hollywood responded with relentless tornados and angry eruptions. And, in proximity to the wake-up call of An Inconvenient Truth (2006), the climate crisis was in the subconscious of many filmmakers in the 2000s and beyond.

In considering natural disaster films and the scientists who intervene within them, we can use cinema to envision a world in which humans can harness the elements, tame nature, and save the day. Yet, as real-world climate science has proven time and again, most of these imaginative interventions are too little, too late and only collective science-based action by government, industry, and civil society can ensure our survival.

This screening series considers natural disasters through our planet’s primary elements—earth, wind, water, and fire—and seeks to highlight key moments in the history of the disaster film genre as a source of entertainment and portrayal of science, and as a tool to raise our collective consciousness about science-based solutions to the mounting global climate crisis. Discussions with noted scientists will follow select screenings.