This document provides an overview of disaster and thriller movies. It discusses common types of disasters portrayed in films such as natural disasters, accidents, alien invasions, and nuclear incidents. It notes that disaster films were especially popular in the 1970s due to events like Watergate and Three Mile Island. Examples that helped revive the genre included Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Towering Inferno. More recent disaster films have featured viruses, asteroids, and ecological threats. The document also outlines characteristics of thriller films like mystery, suspense, and danger. It provides examples of classic thrillers like Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs and more recent films like Black Swan, The Rite, and Limitless

1. Disaster - Thriller - Movies
by
Federico Lara & Sebastián Loglen
November 5 , 2012

2. Disaster movies

3. Catastrophes
Catastrophes can take so many different forms - but they are mostly man-
made or natural.
They can be either inminent or ongoing, or they can exist locally or globally.
The most commonly portrayed disasters in films are:
•natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tropical storms, etc.)
•accidents (skyscraper fires, plane crashes, ocean liners capsized or struck
by icebergs, viruses unleashed)
•planetary-related (asteroids or meteors off-course)
•criminally-instigated (bombs planted in planes, terrorist conspiracies)
•alien invasions and rampaging creatures (often mutant)
•nuclear-related crises
•millennial-related (the end of the world, or end of the century
tales)
•about failed technology or technology-gone awry (computers
•running amok)

4. Before the 1970s -when disaster films underwent a strong revival-, there were
many earlier action/adventure disaster films, such as The Hurricane (1937) -
including one of the most spectacular tropical storm scenes ever shot in film
history. And two 50s films, The High and the Mighty (1954) and Zero Hour
(1957) - were the inspiration for all the airplane disaster films of the 70s.
[Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) also contained a terrible airplane
crash sequence.]
The real horrors of World War II, and the perceived threat of nuclear destruction
and radioactive mutancy during the resultant Cold War led to a further increase of
disaster-related films in the 50s.

5. The Major Era of Disaster Films: The 1970s
In the 1970s, real disasters, such as the Watergate crisis (from 1972 to 1974), the
collision of two 747s in the Canary Islands (in late March, 1977), and the Three Mile
Island incident (in late March, 1979) made the time ripe for Hollywood to contribute.
Producer and director Irwin Allen was nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" in the 1970s
due to the tremendous success of his films. The three films most responsible for jump-
starting the renaissance of spectacular disaster films were Airport (1970), and Allen's
two special effects-laden epics The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering
Inferno (1974).

6. More Recent Resurgence of Disaster Films:
There was a modern-day resurgence of disaster films, beginning in the mid-1990s.
The sub-genre was really revived at this time with the emergence of advanced
special effects techniques.
The focus of such films is on the spectacular calamity and a small group of people in
imminent danger, and how they must cope or devise a method of escape, or more
recently, to survive in the apocalyptic aftermath.
Disaster films from the recent past and present have included similar and more
imaginative kinds of catastrophes, threats or disasters, such as killer viruses, deadly
terrorists, tornadoes, asteroid impacts, ecological disasters, among others.
Black Horror Comedy of Post-Apocalyptic Survival
by Remaining Few Against Zombies:
Zombieland (2009)

7. Resident Evil:
from a game to a series of movies
on biological weapons and viruses
out of control creating a world of
zombies.

8. A post-apocalyptic aale of a devastated Earth and One Man's
survival:
The Book of Eli (2010)

9. Thriller movies

10. Thriller Films:
These are types of films known to promote intense
excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened
expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and
suspense films are virtually synonymous, having with similar characteristics
and features.

11. Thrillers are often hybrids - there are lots of varieties of suspense-thrillers:
•action- or adventure- thrillers
•sci-fi thrillers (such as Alien (1979)
•crime-caper thrillers (such as The French Connection (1971)
•western-thrillers (such as High Noon (1952))
•film-noir thrillers (such as Double Indemnity (1944))
•even romantic comedy-thrillers (such as Safety Last (1923)
After the assassination of President Kennedy, the political thriller genre
became very popular.

12. The primary elements of the thriller genre:
•The protagonist(s) faces death, either their own or somebody else's.
•The main storyline for the protagonist is either a mission or a character who cannot be put
down.
•The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
•The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.
•All action and characters must be credibly realistic in their representation on screen.
•The two major themes in the thriller genre are the desire for justice and the morality of
individuals.
•A significant, aspect of a thriller is the presence of innocence in a corrupt world.
•The protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) may battle, themselves and each other, not just on a
physical level, but on a mental one as well.
•Either by accident or their own curiousness, characters are dragged into a dangerous
conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve.

13. Another common subgenre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with
fictional espionage. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of
Alfred Hitchcock. The horror and action genres often overlap with the
thriller genre.
Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense Thrillers
No list of suspense or thriller films can be complete without mention of
English film-maker/director Alfred Hitchcock, who is considered the
master of the thriller .
Psycho (1960): This Alfred Hitchcock film is among the best thrillers ever
and perhaps also the very best thriller film. This movie is based on
Robert Bloch’s book, and tells the story of the woman Marion Crane, who
steals a large amount of cash from the woman’s employer, and really
wants to start a brand new life using the money.

14. Films
some of the best known thriller films:
The Sixth Feeling (1999): This is actually the best movie yet produced by
director Michael. Night Shyamalan. This movie is all about a kid psychologist
(Bruce Willis) who’s treating the boy (Haley Fran Osment), who is able to see
dead people.

15. The Silence of the Lambs (1991): This masterpiece is
based on a screenplay by Jones Harris, and tells the story of
Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) along with a young
FBI cadet (Jodie Foster), who wants to find the serial
monster.

16. Black swan (2010)
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren
Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis.
The plot is about a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a
prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to
play both the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed
dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black
Swan, which are qualities embodied by the new arrival Lily (Kunis). When
the two dancers compete for the part, the pressure causes Nina to gradually
lose her connection to reality as she descends into a living nightmare.

17. The Rite (2011)
The film builds on a novel by Matt Baglio. An American student who is
preparing for the priesthood, is in a stage of loss of faith and attends an
exorcism school at the Vatican to come face to face with the demonic forces.

18. Limitless (2011)
A writer discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities.