There’s no amount of Hollywood creativity that can create a villain more terrifying than the ones that exist in nature. Although it’s unlikely that most movie fans will encounter a villain like Die Hard’s Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) or Skyfall’s Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) at any point within their lifetime, having to deal with natural events in nature is just part of many peoples’ reality. Tornados are very dangerous occurrences that create significant harm and claim many lives each year.
Like anything, tornadoes and the danger they present have become somewhat sensationalized by Hollywood. While goofy disaster films like Sharknado and Geostorm have taken a more comical direction, there are many films that deal with the legitimate issues that tornadoes cause. These film span many genres, but all incorporate tornadoes into the plot in a significant way. Here are the ten best tornado movies, ranked.
1 ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)
Directed by Victor Fleming
The Wizard Of Oz features one of the most iconic tornado disaster scenes in film history, a moment that is particularly impressive considering how well the visual effects have held up from 1939. In The Wizard of Oz, the young Kansas girl Dorothy (Judy Garland) is swept up by a tornado and transported to the fantasy realm of Oz, where she visits various magical creatures. It’s during this scene that The Wizard of Oz makes its infamous shift from sepia to color photography.
Although it’s ostensibly a fairy tale aimed at children, The Wizard of Oz had been interpreted in darker ways due to various fan theories and conspiracies about what the film’s secrets really are. One notable theory suggests that the scenes once the tornado hits sync up to the iconic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon.
The Wizard of Oz
- Release Date
- August 15, 1939
- Director
- Victor Fleming , Mervyn LeRoy , Richard Thorpe , King Vidor
- Cast
- Judy Garland , Frank Morgan , Ray Bolger , Bert Lahr , Jack Haley , Billie Burke
- Runtime
- 101
- Writers
- Noel Langley , Florence Ryerson , Edgar Allan Woolf , L. Frank Baum , Irving Brecher , William H. Cannon
- Studio
- Warner Bros.
- Tagline
- Gaiety! Glory! Glamour!
2 ‘Places In The Heart’ (1984)
Directed by Robert Benton
Places In The Heart is a classic drama about familial dysfunction that explores the reality of what living in a “tornado hotzone” actually looks like. Robert Benton’s beloved classic centers on the single mother Edna Spalling (Sally Field), who attempts to raise her children in Texas as the Great Depression threatens their stability. A final sequence in which a tornado rips through their home is surprisingly terrifying, utilizing some of the best visual effects that were available in 1984.
“A final sequence in which a tornado rips through their home is surprisingly terrifying, utilizing some of the best visual effects that were available in 1984.”
Despite its historical setting and occasionally melodramatic character moments, Places in the Heart presented a realistic depiction of the “Middle America” living experience that many viewers could relate to. The film was showered with multiple nominations at the Academy Awards, and earned Field her second Oscar for Best Actress after Norma Rae had been released to great acclaim five years prior.
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3 ‘Twister’ (1996)
Directed by Jan De Bont
Twister is the rare classic disaster movie that still holds up today, simply because of how creative the concept was. There was certainly the potential for Twister to be nothing but pure campiness, but Speed director Jan De Bont successfully created some stunning disaster sequences, including a moment featuring a flying cow that no one expected to become iconic.
Twister succeeds where other disaster movies failed because it actually tried to bring to life the real science that storm chasers use when trying to predict weather events. It’s also a remarkably heartfelt love story thanks to the great chemistry between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, who add a lot more emotion to the story than it would have contained otherwise. A scene-stealing supporting role from a young Philip Seymour Hoffman is what makes Twister even more fun than it had any right to be.
Twister
Bill and Jo Harding, advanced storm chasers on the brink of divorce, must join together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.
- Release Date
- May 10, 1996
- Runtime
- 113 minutes
- Writers
- Michael Crichton , Anne-Marie Martin
- Studio
- Warner Bros. & Universal Pictures
- Tagline
- The Dark Side of Nature.
4 ‘A Serious Man’ (2009)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
A Serious Man is simultaneously one of the funniest and darkest films that Joel and Ethan Coen have ever made, as it deals with anxiety, faith, and the quest for answers in a way that is far more compelling than most straightforward dramas. A Serious Man centers on the life of the perpetually distressed Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), who fears that his entire life is unraveling due to a conspiracy against him. In the film’s baffling conclusion, Larry’s home and livelihood are destroyed by a powerful tornado.
A Serious Man uses its tornado scene as a source of dark comedy, as it is yet another hardship that Gopnik has to deal with in the most stressful period of his life. The scene can also be interpreted as a metaphor to various natural disasters that appear in sacred religious texts within the Jewish faith.
A Serious Man
Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
- Release Date
- November 6, 2009
- Director
- Ethan Coen , Joel Coen
- Runtime
- 106 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Writers
- Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
- Tagline
- The new film by Joel and Ethan Coen.
5 ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs’ (2009)
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a creative animated film that serves as an empowering story for children about putting faith in science. Based on the popular children’s book series of the same name, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs centers on the brilliant inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who tries to solve the world hunger crisis by creating a device that produces food. Unfortunately, the device goes awry, leading to the emergence of natural disaster events that resemble different breakfast and lunch items.
The tornado made of spaghetti is one of the funniest jokes in Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, as the film seems to be interested in developing as many clever food puns as possible. As with any of the animated films from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is simply stunning on a visual level.
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6 ‘Take Shelter’ (2011)
Directed by Jeff Nichols
Take Shelter is one of the best films of Jeff Nichols’ career, as it managed to merge a heartfelt family drama story with elements of the supernatural. Michael Shannon stars as a caring father who experiences visions about a vicious tornado that will destroy his hometown, claiming the lives of his wife (Jessica Chastain) and children. This causes conflict with the local community, who dismiss his concerns as the ramblings of a mentally ill person.
Take Shelter does a great job at articulating how scary tornadoes are for those in dangerous areas without sufficient resources, and shows the anxieties that parents face when rearing their children. Although it was an independent film that’s budget was significantly lower than most modern blockbusters, Take Shelter does feature some extraordinary moments of visual spectacle when it reaches its emotionally jarring third act climax.
Take Shelter (2011)
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
- Release Date
- September 30, 2011
- Director
- Jeff Nichols
- Runtime
- 120 minutes
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Writers
- Jeff Nichols
- Tagline
- Winner Grande Prize Critics Week Cannes.
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7 ‘Man of Steel’ (2013)
Directed by Zack Snyder
Man of Steel may be a flawed Superman origin story, but it does feature one of the most memorable tornado scenes in cinematic history. In flashbacks that show how Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) tries to conceal his Kryptonian heritage from the other residents of Smallville, Man of Steel shows his adopted father, Pa Kent (Kevin Costner), trying to protect local residents from a tornado. While Clark knows that he can save Pa, he’s forced to let him die so that he does not end up revealing the secret powers that he has kept hidden.
Although it’s a film that spends far too much time destroying cities and delivering brooding dialogue, Man of Steel actually does a good job at exploring midwestern life, as Zack Snyder used fields of real corn in order to make Smallville feel like a real place.
Man of Steel
An alien child is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.
- Release Date
- June 12, 2013
- Director
- Zack Snyder
- Runtime
- 148
- Tagline
- A film by Zack Snyder.
8 ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)
Directed by George Miller
Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the greatest action movies ever made because it incorporates every sort of imaginable danger that could feasibly pop up in George Miller’s wildly imaginative version of the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland. Early on in the film, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Max (Tom Hardy) try to avoid the war boys that pursue them by driving their rig into a chaotic storm where it is impossible to see.
One of the reasons that Mad Max: Fury Road is as striking as it ended up being is that Miller chose to make every action scene as practical as possible, and only used computer generated imagery when it was absolutely necessary to avoid getting too dangerous. The result is a grounded, tactile piece of thrilling entertainment that lacks the overt sensationalism and fakeness that many modern blockbusters have.
Mad Max: Fury Road
- Release Date
- May 13, 2015
- Director
- George Miller
- Runtime
- 120
- Writers
- George Miller , Brendan McCarthy , Nick Lathouris , Byron Kennedy
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Tagline
- What a Lovely Day.
9 ‘The Fabelmans’ (2022)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
The Fabelmans was a heartfelt film from Steven Spielberg that served as a semi-autobiographical examination of his own childhood, showing all the experiences that shaped him into the filmmaker he ended up becoming. One of the most defining memories in Sammy Fabelman’s (Gabriel LaBelle) life is when his mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams), chooses to run outside as a tornado appears in their front yard in New Jersey. It’s this experience that shows to Sammy that natural occurrences in nature can end up serving as inspiration for some of his films.
The Fabelmans couldn’t feel more sincere, as Spielberg wrote, directed, and produced the most personal film of his career thus far. Although its without a doubt one of the decade’s best drama films so far, The Fabelmans also includes the visual spectacle that reminds viewers why Spielberg is the king of summer blockbusters.
The Fabelmans
- Director
- Steven Spielberg
- Main Genre
- Biography
- Writers
- Tony Kushner , Steven Spielberg
10 ‘Twisters’ (2024)
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
Twisters is the rare “legacy sequel” that justifies its existence because it found a compelling new way to take the story. Rather than trying to bridge some unnecessary connection with the original Twister purely to hit nostalgic notes for fans, Twisters develops a new story about the scientist Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who is forced to team up with the YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) in order to detect recent tornado activity.
Director Lee Isaac Chung is able to bring back notes of the first film without ever feeling derivative, and succeeds in showing how radically the storm detection technology has evolved since 1996 thanks to the development of drone footage and surveillance technology. Although the summer of 2024 has been filled with some pretty significant disappointments, Twisters is the rare film that hit all the right notes.
Twisters
An update to the 1996 film ‘Twister’, which centered on a pair of storm chasers who risk their lives in an attempt to test an experimental weather alert system.
- Release Date
- July 19, 2024
- Runtime
- 117 Minutes
- Writers
- Mark L. Smith , Joseph Kosinski , Michael Crichton , Anne-Marie Martin
- prequel(s)
- Twister
