Snakkle Picks Our Top 9 All-Star Disaster Movies

Gwyneth Paltrow is patient zero for a deadly disease that spreads like wildfire around the globe. Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Elliott Gould are the doctors trying to stop it from killing more civilians, played by Matt Damon, Jude Law, Bryan Cranston, and Sanaa Lathan.

The king of modern-day disaster films is director Roland Emmerich, and in 2012 he hammers the globe. When the Earth’s core starts to overheat, humanity needs to run, including John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, and Oliver Platt.

In another Emmerich epic, Dennis Quaid is a paleoclimatologist trying to save humanity from the effects of rapidly accelerating global climate change. He races to New York City, where it’s literally freezing over, to save his son (Jake Gyllenhaal). It also stars Sela Ward, Ian Holm, and Emmy Rossum.

Who’s going to save the world from an asteroid the size of Texas? You bet Bruce Willis is! Along with Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Owen Wilson, Willis and company fly into space in a shuttle to save the day.

You'd think Mother Nature's cyclonic fury would be terrifying enough, but when you add Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as bickering, almost-divorced storm chasers, Twister takes frightening to a whole new level. Add in flying cows, cheese-ball dialogue, exploding tankers and an '80s-riffic cast including Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, and Alan Ruck, with Twister who needs to leave their storm cellar DVD player ever again?

A monkey with the Motaba virus enters the U.S. and spreads the lethal disease to the population, with horrible results. Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Rene Russo, Donald Sutherland, and Patrick Dempsey band together to stop the infection.

Fire is the enemy when it breaks out inside a brand-new high rise that was built on the cheap. Partiers on the top floor, like Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, and O.J. Simpson, have to make it out alive with the help of rescuers Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. William Holden plays the boo-hiss villain.

On New Year’s Eve, a 90-foot tidal wave capsizes the S.S. Poseidon out at sea, leaving the passengers and crew fighting for their lives. Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall, and Pamela Sue Martin were just part of the massive cast. This movie was so big, it even spawned a sequel.

It’s the worst day ever for Mel Bakersfeld (played by Burt Lancaster), when he’s got to keep his airport open in a blizzard. As an in-distress plane circles, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Maureen Stapleton, and Gary Collins add to the drama (mostly with their awesome hair and clothing).