The deluge in New Orleans has got me thinking about putting together a disaster recovery kit. I want to start by renting movies about people surviving disasters. So, what can movies teach me about surviving a disaster? What ones should I see?

you mean real documentaries about disasters ?

or hollywood movies kinda thing etc?

If you're even in an atomic bomb attack, you should duck and cover. Really.

http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951

(Free download of 1950s movies and other old movies. Interesting stuff.)

Stu: anything.

Dawn Of The Dead is my favorite disaster survival film.

Red Dawn! They need to do a re-make of this, but it's a great film in my opinion.

I think every disaster recovery kit has to have at least one rocket launcher.

Hmm, there are so many. Just a few off the top of my head:

Earthquake
Dante's Peak
The Day after Tomorrow
28 Days Later
Hard Rain
Supervolcano

The one thing you can learn from the movies, that I think is also accurate in reality, is that the survivors tend to be aware and informed about their environment and it's dangers. In the case of the movies, there's always an expert around for exposition on important environmental clues. But in real life, these clues tend to be ignored or dismissed. Adding this information to your disaster survival kit would be a key element.

Something along the lines of how do you spot a <disaster>, what should you do if you're in a <disaster>, where should you go ..., what are the local terrain, conditions, and resources like, what are the vital things to start attending to, etc.

Dawn Of The Dead is my favorite disaster survival film.

Dylan, I picture myself like the smart guy who Sarah Polley gets the hots for.

But like that smart guy, I probably would end up getting bitten just before I have a chance to escape.

One of the cable networks - I think it was VH1? - did a great satirical program on the "rules for disaster movies." I wish I could remember them all, but the only one which comes to mind is "greedy people get killed."

Dylan, I picture myself like the smart guy who Sarah Polley gets the hots for.


Sorry man, in that movie, you are "one armed zombie #3".
Heh heh heh...

I love epic, world scale disaster movies.
Others:
Deep Impact
Armageddon
Twister
There were two volcano movies that came out around 5 years ago, forget the names.
The Core (name?)

how about independence day.

Dante's Peak (http://imdb.com/title/tt0118928/combined) and Volcano (http://imdb.com/title/tt0120461/combined).

Sorry man, in that movie, you are "one armed zombie #3".
Heh heh heh...

I love epic, world scale disaster movies.
Others:
Deep Impact
Armageddon
Twister
There were two volcano movies that came out around 5 years ago, forget the names.
The Core (name?)

Towering Inferno is another.

Touching the Void.
I haven't seen it, but it got pretty good comments.
It's a true story about 2 mountain climbers who got in trouble, and the film is kind of a mix between doc and film, because the movie is played out before you, but while that happens, it's being narrated by the 2 survivors.

I thought of another one, a superb movie I saw at last year's Vancouver International Film Fest. It is called "Time of the Wolf" by Michael Hanecke. It actually is probably the most appropriate survival film because it focuses in on a middle class (or upper middle class) family who are fleeing Paris ("the city") for some unspecified reason - so closer to what we might experience. They seem well prepared for a few weeks of hiding out in their cabin but when they arrive at their cabin in their SUV in one moment they have lost almost everything. Hanecke focuses on the realistic issues. I think he wanted to show how western people would react to being refugees. Watching the plight of the New Orleans' people now of course you wouldn't need to make that point.

Haneck's 'disaster' is never stated. All we know from the film is that water supply is a problem and people everywhere are killing and burning animals. The real story is how a family tries to stick together, deals with having nothing psychologically, and just struggles to move on while others become predators, exploit other people, or are driven insane. It stars Isabelle Huppert as the mother and leader of the family. Highly recommended.

Uh, Planet of the Apes...

... and Logan's Run (LMAO ;)

The Poseidon Adventure was good when I saw it 20 years ago.

In Airplane I learned how to assume the crash position and not to pick the wrong day to quit ciggarettes, coffee, and sniffing glue.

And lets not forget Monty Python's Meaning of Life. This one is several disaster sketches actually. The fish being eaten, Mr. Creasotes explosion, the Baked Alaskan, and playing rugby against the masters.

Testament

Probably the most realistic portrayal I've seen of the aftermath of a nuclear war in the United States.

Touching the Void.
I haven't seen it, but it got pretty good comments.
It's a true story about 2 mountain climbers who got in trouble, and the film is kind of a mix between doc and film, because the movie is played out before you, but while that happens, it's being narrated by the 2 survivors.

I've seen it - it's brilliant.
It is essentially a documentary - it all happened. It's so well done that you can almost feel the agonising pain that those two guys went through. How they got out of that situ, with broken bones etc, is quite amazing.

I recommend it to anyone.


ps. oh one more thing - i think the ending to Planet of the Apes is one of *the* all-time classics. The 1st time you see that film (long time ago for most of us) it is really quite amazing when you realise he's looking at the remains of Statue of Liberty, and has been on Earth the whole time.

Good movie, but you have to be young, white, attractive, clean and have good manners to go to the new world.

I've got one of those so nailed.

another trick I've learned from Star Trek TOS is, whatever happens, STAY CLOSE TO SPOCK!