Disaster movies rely heavily on special effects to recreate on-screen violent disasters such as earthquakes, plane crashes, and meteorite storms. The category also includes monster-disaster movies in which an enraged, oversized creature destroys buildings and other large objects. The golden age for disaster movies was the 1970s, but they began to be produced in large numbers in the years after the horrors of World War II (1939–45). This timing may be significant because these films are not just about averting disaster, but surviving it. Old people and pregnant women are rescued, children are lifted from the rubble, and love affairs blossom. Although their plots are often unrealistic, and the acting and special effects unconvincing, disaster movies offer a positive message. It is that through self-belief and the right moral choices, people have the ability to save themselves.

As Hollywood re-embraced the idea of making popular big budget...