monica e. hall
Member
I think it's coming back...were some of them living underground / in the Underground?
Top 10 Disaster Films Of All Time
- Thread starter Iain Stuart Yardley
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- films titanic movies
Charlotte Immel
Member
I cant wait to see The Day After Tomorrow
Bob Godfrey
Member
Monica: No, those are your memories of the Blitz!
Actually, I think one of the groups of survivors ended up making use of an old (surface) railway line with steam locomotives.
Paul Rogers
Member
Hi Monica and Bob. Sadly, I can barely remember anything about Survivors except the opening titles, which showed a scientist dropping and breaking a test tube in a laboratory. The infected scientist then got on to a plane. Those he infected then got on to other planes, and thus the plague began to spread. It was, I remember, an extremely eerie sequence with a memorable score. It certainly must have made an impact for me to remember it after all these years!
Hi Charlotte. Personally, I can't wait to see Harry Potter on Tuesday. I'm hoping it won't be a "disaster" movie, 'cos Prisoner is my favourite book in the series to date. I shall be most upset if the film messes up the plot (as per Raise the Titanic.) And how's about that for getting back to the thread topic!
Hi Charlotte. Personally, I can't wait to see Harry Potter on Tuesday. I'm hoping it won't be a "disaster" movie, 'cos Prisoner is my favourite book in the series to date. I shall be most upset if the film messes up the plot (as per Raise the Titanic.) And how's about that for getting back to the thread topic!
Fiona Nitschke
Member
Goodness, On the Beach didn't make it onto the list. Mind you, apart from a few notable exceptions it seems to be a list of 'disastrous' rather than 'disaster' films. 
Count me as another who enjoyed The Cassandra Crossing: it was one of my favourite films when I was a kid. (As an adult it made me wince in parts.) As a bio-hazard movie I think it stands well against some of the more recent efforts.
Back to the list, I think it interesting that two Titanic films made it onto that list. I also question inclusion of The Abyss, and even Independence Day. Whoever compiled it was obviously using a fairly broad definition of 'disaster'.
Iain, I also forget what it was called but do remember finding it riveting. The grim view of how people survived, including a return to a mediaevel, agrarian economy was a welcome counter to the rosy view in other films where society remains largely intact after a few sad moments where particular cities are destroyed. I've only seen it once, but wouldn't mind seeing it again.
Count me as another who enjoyed The Cassandra Crossing: it was one of my favourite films when I was a kid. (As an adult it made me wince in parts.) As a bio-hazard movie I think it stands well against some of the more recent efforts.
Back to the list, I think it interesting that two Titanic films made it onto that list. I also question inclusion of The Abyss, and even Independence Day. Whoever compiled it was obviously using a fairly broad definition of 'disaster'.
David F. Smith
Member
Hi Charlotte! I just saw "The day after Tomorrow" this afternoon. It was good! The special effects are very good!
David in Hartford
David in Hartford
Michael H. Standart
Member
I've seen On The Beach, and also read the book. It was a very sobering tale in any incarnation.
Bob Godfrey
Member
Iain and Fiona, the nuclear war film set around Sheffield was called Threads. Very scary and totally believable. As was Peter Watkins' BBC TV film The War Game, made in 1965 but banned from TV screens for 20 years, though it did have a limited release in cinemas and won an academy award. By creating a dramatised documentary of the immediate results of a fictional bombing, Watkins' aim was to demonstrate that Government plans to deal with the contingency of 'limited nuclear attack' were totally inadequate, and he certainly convinced me.
Michael H. Standart
Member
>>Watkins' aim was to demonstrate that Government plans to deal with the contingency of 'limited nuclear attack' were totally inadequate, and he certainly convinced me. <<
No kidding. Anyone remember the computer's final line in Wargames? "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
No kidding. Anyone remember the computer's final line in Wargames? "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Bob Godfrey
Member
One of the strangest but most effective treatments of the same theme is the animated film version of the Raymond Briggs book When the Wind Blows. It came from the same team that created the ever-popular Xmas fantasy The Snowman. The artwork is in the same homely style and it's wickedly funny in the early scenes, but the subject matter becomes increasingly horrific and the film makes its point (the very same one that Watkins made) with devastating effect.
monica e. hall
Member
All of which, re inadequate preparations, reminds me I still haven't had my Government booklet telling me how many tins of baked beans and tuna etc. to stockpile to see me through a terrorist attack. The Independent assured me it would arrive last week, but in view of the national scoffing which usually accompanies these well-meaning but futile attempts, they might have decided to quietly forget it.
Bob Godfrey
Member
Dunno about the beans, but perhaps Lee Gilliland can advise on the tuna.
Inger Sheil
Member
Tins of tuna and beans, eh Monica? Inexpensive carbs and protein - runners and weight trainers love baked beans as they can pack them in for a fast, unfussy re-fuel of glycogen depleted muscles. Likewise, tuna provides a cheap source of protein and if packed in brine is low in calories. However, the tinned version is also low in the elements that are better served by other canned fish - Mackeral is a far richer source of omega-three fats. The downside is that it's more calorie-dense (which in a survival situation wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing). A good compromise, in terms of nutrients v/ fat content v/cost, is tinned salmon.
Balanced against this is the impact on world fishing stocks and substances such as mercury. Pelagic fish like tuna are a resource to be managed better than they have been to date, and farming isn't necessarily the answer. There are a few boutique canneries (yes, there is such a thing) that aren't a bad option - more expensive, but better for you both in terms of taste and in quantities of unwanted substances. Of course, if the end of the world is nigh, even your bland off the shelf budget brand is something to be grateful for. Likewise beans and legumes are great...when not packaged with high levels of sodium! When you're getting in your survival rations, nab some kidney beans, lentils and chickpeas as well...a bit of variety doesn't go astray.
Given my druthers, I like my pelagic fish either seen from 30 meters down (a big tuna or trevally chased by a gray whaler off the Blue Corner in Palau is something to behold), or served up grilled with a not overly-strong sauce and a crisp sparkly...a wahoo steak preferably, but tuna will do in a pinch!
We didn't get doomsday scenario stockpiling advice here - we got snazzy fridge magnets that have coined the popular catchphrase used in mockery: 'Be alert, not alarmed!'
I'm rather surprised that 28 Days Later didn't make the list as it was compiled by the Brits - nasty, chilling movie that gets under your skin. Suppose it's got more of a horror element, though. I suspect you're right, Fi - 'Disastrous' rather than 'Disaster' seems to be the key note here.
Balanced against this is the impact on world fishing stocks and substances such as mercury. Pelagic fish like tuna are a resource to be managed better than they have been to date, and farming isn't necessarily the answer. There are a few boutique canneries (yes, there is such a thing) that aren't a bad option - more expensive, but better for you both in terms of taste and in quantities of unwanted substances. Of course, if the end of the world is nigh, even your bland off the shelf budget brand is something to be grateful for. Likewise beans and legumes are great...when not packaged with high levels of sodium! When you're getting in your survival rations, nab some kidney beans, lentils and chickpeas as well...a bit of variety doesn't go astray.
Given my druthers, I like my pelagic fish either seen from 30 meters down (a big tuna or trevally chased by a gray whaler off the Blue Corner in Palau is something to behold), or served up grilled with a not overly-strong sauce and a crisp sparkly...a wahoo steak preferably, but tuna will do in a pinch!
We didn't get doomsday scenario stockpiling advice here - we got snazzy fridge magnets that have coined the popular catchphrase used in mockery: 'Be alert, not alarmed!'
I'm rather surprised that 28 Days Later didn't make the list as it was compiled by the Brits - nasty, chilling movie that gets under your skin. Suppose it's got more of a horror element, though. I suspect you're right, Fi - 'Disastrous' rather than 'Disaster' seems to be the key note here.
monica e. hall
Member
I hadn't realized shopping for stockpiles might involve so much, Inger. I'd better get cracking if I've got to check the sodium, fat and mercury levels, and then there's the sauce to consider ... we have also, apparently, got to have a wind-up radio and to ensure our mobiles are always fully charged, so that we can ring NHS Direct and get told to die where we are. Paul R. will be aghast at your suggestion of even more legumes for variety - he's already baulking at being holed up under the stairs with his family for days on a diet of baked beans, and as he pointed out to me, nobody has mentioned water so far. I just love the "Be alert, not alarmed" - directly descended from the Ministry of Information, WW2! Oh well, better get on with clearing out the fishing tackle, old maggot boxes and roller-blading gear from under the stairs. And why AM I under the stairs if it's an airborn attack? Why can't I be curled up on the sofa with a good book?
Inger Sheil
Member
Oops - yes...I forgot the most important issues of all! Whether the BB's should be in BBQ or plain tomato sauce!
Shopping with me, I'm told, is no fun at all. Until we get to the Liquor section, that is.
Don't think I was born for post-apocalyptic survival. While panicking throngs around me grabbed anything off the shelves, I'd be there in the midst of them asking politely 'excuse me...can you guarantee that this tuna was caught with a long-line?' At least with all those legumes I'd have sufficiently glycogen pumped muscles to sprint away from those who didn't stockpile their Heinz and John West in preperation.
Isn't it about time someone stepped in to tell us to get back on topic? Not that I'm alarmed at the prospect...although I am alert!
Shopping with me, I'm told, is no fun at all. Until we get to the Liquor section, that is.
Don't think I was born for post-apocalyptic survival. While panicking throngs around me grabbed anything off the shelves, I'd be there in the midst of them asking politely 'excuse me...can you guarantee that this tuna was caught with a long-line?' At least with all those legumes I'd have sufficiently glycogen pumped muscles to sprint away from those who didn't stockpile their Heinz and John West in preperation.
Isn't it about time someone stepped in to tell us to get back on topic? Not that I'm alarmed at the prospect...although I am alert!
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