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Inferno tells the story of a deadly fire that breaks out in and during the opening of the Glass Tower, supposedly the world’s tallest building. A series of unfortunate events permits the blaze to expand quickly and renders rescue nearly impossible, leaving a significant number of hapless victims to meet untimely and fiery deaths. The movie has it all: the not-so-subtle allusions about how the greed of mankind is responsible for the world’s ills; the sacrifice by the unlikely hero; the gruesome demise of sympathetic characters; and even the horror film-esque message that those who stray into adultery from moral ways are fated to meet a disturbing, crispy death.

What’s interesting about this movie is that it takes itself absolutely seriously (unlike some of the other disaster films, notably Independence Day) and even delivers on some compelling drama between some characters (again, unlike most of the disaster films you will encounter). And, for its time, some of the effects are terrifying - perhaps because this disaster seems much more likely than any other on this list…

Oh, and if all of this is not enough to convince you to watch this movie, don’t forget the secondary role played by now-convict O.J. Simpson.

3. 28 Days Later

Before he hoisted the little golden man for his helming of Slumdog Millionarie, Danny Boyle toiled in arguably the bottom of the movie barrel with this independent disaster/apocalyptic/horror flick. An early day augur for The Walking Dead, this movie, of course, tells the story of a gripping virus that takes over humanity and seemingly wipes it out within 28 days, during which time our hapless hero/victim lay in a coma.

This movie makes the list because it is so different than any of the other disaster movies you will see (and perhaps because it is not strictly a destruction/disaster movie as much as it is a post-apocalyptic horror movie). In any event, the movie is positively gripping, terrifying, and absolutely merciless. Whereas one expects a noble sacrifice and one emotional but necessary death of a beloved character in your typical disaster movie, 28 Days Later offers no such facile reprieves. Nor does it, unsurprisingly, offer an easy or palatable denouement to leaves the audience feeling like the roller coaster has ended and one is safely back on land. To the contrary, what little hope the movie leaves by the end is shrouded in an aura of mystery and anxiety, and one simply does not know the ultimate fate of the main characters.

The movie became a sleeper hit and spawned a much lesser sequel, but it remains one of the most entertaining disaster/end of the world movies of all time.

2. The Day After Tomorrow And so we arrive at the top two - the guilty pleasures. Oh, I would not for one instance begrudge you arguing that, at the very least, Inferno or 28 Days deserve a higher position than this other Ronald Emmerich flick. But I found The Day After Tomorrow so entertaining and so full of the old disaster movie clichés in new and creative ways that I had to put it high on the list.

And this movie, it has it all. Briefing of the President. Noble sacrifices. Familial reconciliation (Dennis Quaid and an impossibly dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal). Animals - droves of animals - warning of impending danger. The not-so-subtle implication that humans are responsible for the end of the Earth. The clichés are as plentiful as the snow.

At the same time, it contains its fair share of added twists, which is what ultimately makes the movie great. The conclusion offers a new twist on an old problem - the North/South divide of the world is reimagined. Some of the ways to die are singularly creative - in the eye of a deadly ice hurricane no less. The destruction scenes are new and refreshing - New York is gone, but so is Los Angeles (in a scene where, once more, the fornicating couple bites it - are we sure this is a horror movie moniker and not a disaster movie trick?). And, of course, we have the skeptical humans who don’t believe in the impending disaster until the end (a device resorted to from time immemorial in disaster-type movies, from Jaws, to 2012, and beyond).

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