What Actually Makes a Disaster Movie? (Explosions Aren’t Enough) | Original Geek | S1E19

What actually makes a disaster movie?

Is it explosions? CGI destruction? Cities getting wiped off the map?

Or is it something smaller—and a lot more human?

In this episode of Original Geek, we break down what defines a true disaster movie, why the best ones still work decades later, and why so many modern films miss the point entirely.

From the golden age classics like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno to modern, grounded survival stories like Greenland, we explore the core formula that makes disaster movies resonate: ordinary people, impossible choices, and society under pressure.

We also debate whether superhero movies, sci-fi epics, and “disaster-adjacent” films really belong in the genre—and why bigger destruction doesn’t always mean better storytelling.

If you love disaster movies, grew up watching them, or just want to understand why some stick with you long after the credits roll, this one’s for you.

Welcome back to the basement.

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

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Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:00)
A disaster doesn't always mean an apocalypse or something natural. It always means, that society is being tested. Society at some level is going to fail or pass the test.

Nine times out of 10, 99 out of 100, if we're calling it a disaster movie, society has failed that particular test.

welcome to original geek. This is the all fandom podcast where we dig into sci-fi, fantasy, comics.

and every pop culture obsession that built the multiverse we live in today. So whether you're Gen X millennial or just geek curious, welcome to the basement. Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (00:56)
and I'm Jeff Shaw and will be your last seat on the evacuation shuttle for today's global collapse. But before we get into our topic, do we need a Canon corrected?

Steve Scarfo (01:17)
All right, this is all me and you have your smile on your face is way too big for the record. And we talked about it before we started recording, because I couldn't believe I got this wrong. And I had said during the last episode about Bruce Willis, I was referring to another movie called The Last Action Hero, which I somehow said was made by Sylvester Stallone and it was not, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger. And they make fun of the Terminator movie.

in a video store, they go into a video store, there's a huge cutout of what should have been Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, and I said it was Bruce Willis, but in fact the cutout was Stallone. So, I effed up the entire reference to the movie, ⁓ The Last Action Hero. So, if you've seen that movie and you enjoyed it like I did, it's a great, fun, fluffy kind of satire of action movies, and I thought they did a great job, but I screwed up the entire reference, so.

Sorry about that. That's my bad. But today, today we're going to talk about disaster movies. And what what makes a movie a disaster movie? So there are a few things, right, that make a movie. Massive unavoidable threat, nature, space, tech, human stupidity, ordinary people versus an unstoppable force.

moral choices under pressure.

Jeff (02:46)
Yeah, one of the reasons

we chose this topic this week is because Greenland 2, Greenland Migration is coming out. If you haven't seen Greenland, great disaster movie. Fantastic. Came out, what, two years ago, I think. It's so good. And ⁓ what I like about that and what I like about disaster movies, and this is a formula that's been a part of the disaster movie genre for

Steve Scarfo (02:59)
Yeah.

Jeff (03:15)
decades. ⁓ The golden age of disaster movies was the 70s and an essential part of that formula, including basically an Oscar winning formula for the Poseidon adventure was an Oscar winner. Towering Inferno was an Oscar winner. There were some other Oscar nominated ⁓ movies that came out like Earthquake as well. Actually, that was an Oscar winner too, just for thing not for its

plot, but for sound effects because it had senso sound, which had extra bass kickers going on in the theater where, yeah, where people like complain of headaches, nosebleeds. The Chinese theater in LA actually put up netting in case the ceiling caved in during the movie. So, yeah. But yeah.

Steve Scarfo (03:51)
Hehehe

It was like today's RPX, right?

geez, I did not know that.

Jeff (04:14)
So, so I mean, the human element was always a part of it. But, um, you know, one thing I love about, you know, Greenland is that, um, unlike these other disaster movies, we're, you know, the, dramatic irony is that, you know, obviously for all these disaster movies is that we in the audience, cause we, we paid the price or now we're streaming it like.

We know things are about to go wrong, whereas the characters don't know that. So that's the dramatic irony and the tension and suspense that makes these things interesting. But normally in these movies, we have some expert who's saying, hey, this skyscraper doesn't have a great evacuation plan. there's ever a fire, everyone's going to die. Hey, this ocean liner, if it hits a tidal wave or an iceberg, everyone's going to die and gets ignored.

Everyone gets, yeah, that person gets ignored. We usually have that character kind of guiding us, the scientist or expert. But in Greenland, don't, the characters are like, they're just, they don't have any subject matter expertise. They're just trying to survive, which is always kind of a key to these. Yeah. Like, yeah, exactly. This is an every man version.

Steve Scarfo (05:34)
Yeah, they're the Everyman.

They're the everyman.

Jeff (05:42)
Like, so as an audience, like, that could have been us. We could have been in that scenario in these disaster movies. can't normally be, you know, ⁓ we're not normally the volcano-ologist for Dante's Peak and Volcano. We're not a FEMA expert. We're not on the front lines. We're just an average Joe. And most of these...

Disaster movies where the person tumbling off the ship into the icy waters

Steve Scarfo (06:14)
Well, and to your point, ⁓ we usually ride shotgun with somebody who knows something. We usually are sitting beside the person who wants everybody else to be safe and doesn't know how to get anyone to understand. And I agree, I loved Greenland. I had said earlier, I don't think I'd seen the whole movie. ⁓

Until last night. I ended up watching it I know I'd seen parts of it and I don't remember watching the whole thing but when you sit with his character you are completely clueless and It feels more grounded and it's not about I think this goes to what you were talking about with some of the classic ones like the towering inferno even like the Poseidon adventure like

when they made these movies because they were using all practical effects. And we'll talk more about that stuff later, but they they had to focus on story. They had to focus on character and they had to focus on escaping the situation. And I think that's what drove them to Oscar success. Yeah, it sounds designed for one movie, but for the others, they had this idea that it's about the people in the situation. The situation was a backdrop. And I think what's happened

over the past 20, 30 years is that shifted because of technology. yeah, Greenland was awesome. Gerard Butler, he's a great actor anyway, but you're with him going, I have no idea what's happening right now. Even when he gets the alert on his phone, he's so clueless. It's not like this was a thing anybody knew about. I was like, what the hell is this? He thought it was like a prank call. Like, I don't even know what this is.

Jeff (07:56)
Right.

Right.

Steve Scarfo (08:01)
and he tried to hang it up and then it came on the TV.

Jeff (08:04)
Right, and I love movies

like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, these big global disaster movies. this is, Greenland is a global disaster movie. For those who aren't familiar with the premise, A Comet, ⁓ pieces of it are just shattering and giant pieces are just hammering our planet and causing global chaos and destruction. And ⁓ one bit of it, one bit of that,

Steve Scarfo (08:18)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff (08:33)
that comet is going to hit in a certain amount of time. And at that moment, it's going to be an extinction level event across the globe. Greenland is not the first to do that. I never saw it, but I was looking this up in the 1950s, the first movie about this was called Worlds Collide.

Steve Scarfo (08:46)
no.

Jeff (08:56)
and they were building a spaceship to take off. So was that evacuation ship. And we've seen that happen too. And what I liked about Greenland was that that's not what's going to happen. This is just a guy, your average Joe getting his family to survival and not having the connections ⁓ to get an escape pod out.

out of there. They were just, they were going to Greenland because that's where the bunkers were that were built during World War II. during the nuclear Cold War, yeah. To survive a nuclear holocaust. Greenland wasn't going to be subjected to nuclear strikes and therefore that was where the safest bunkers were. So, yeah.

Steve Scarfo (09:37)
Cold War.

If you think about it when you compare it to, I laughed a little when you were talking about the fact that he didn't have any golden ticket, right? In Armageddon, which is another Comet movie, ⁓ it's all about the golden ticket.

He's got a specialty that lets him be on the crew that has to go try to destroy the comet. it's literally a golden ticket movie. It's about as opposite from Greenland as you can get. Another great movie and fun in all other ways and a lot of great performances. Steve Buscemi in that movie was fantastic. I thought he was hysterical. ⁓ But this is all about the people. And I was thinking about it while you were talking and maybe a little bit while we were talking before the show is.

You know, could that story have been as good if it wasn't a comet extinction level event, right? Would the story of this family getting torn apart and eventually trying to come back together.

as good without the backdrop of the disaster movie. And I think it would have been, I can't imagine what would have caused a lot of the things that they went through if it hadn't been the disaster. But the story of the people, what you said earlier about, it's really about the human level of what we're ⁓ and what they're going through.

Jeff (11:10)
Right, and actually, I know,

I know like, I know when I buy my ticket to go to a theater, that big screen and a disaster movie, I want that all those effects, whether they're real or CGI, I want to see the destruction. I want to see all that. Like that's why I bought my ticket. But like I said, all of these always have some human story, human element. And even if we don't care for it.

Steve Scarfo (11:22)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff (11:39)
that's an important part of the formula, Titanic, one of the most successful movies ever. ⁓ I, when I went to see it initially, I was there for the sinking of the Titanic and everything that was all about that. thought the Jack, and obviously I'm the minority, I get it. Jack and Rose did not care. The whole like, like.

Steve Scarfo (12:08)
The love story part of it.

Jeff (12:09)
The

love story, which I know that's what made that so successful. And really, if it was just a boat sinking, it would not have been as successful. was their love story that was really a big part of that success. I just didn't care for it. I was ready for the sinking.

Steve Scarfo (12:28)
Well, I think in that case, they, and I don't think it was the first one, but they were trying to do double duty, right? They were trying to make a romantic disaster movie, right? Because in Greenland, and even in Armageddon, when you kind of know, okay, the outcome is X, right? But we haven't seen X. We don't know what that looks like.

Everybody knows what happened with the Titanic. If you've been aware of history at all, the Titanic sunk because it hit an iceberg. No spoilers. ⁓ But at the end of the day, we didn't, I think they were trying to figure, well, what's gonna bring people to a theater to see a movie that is it just the spectacle of this? And I do remember it was one of the first times the effects were so good because they combined CGI with practical and.

Jeff (12:55)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (13:21)
Like some of those scenes with the boat lifted that was real sections that they built. But I wonder if they were just trying to go, well, how else are we gonna get people in the theater? They really have to care about these two characters, and to your point, yeah.

Jeff (13:33)
Right, 100%. It's

part of the formula, I get that. And we're actually touching upon where I want to go in my flashbacks, so shall we?

Steve Scarfo (13:42)
Okay, well

let's let's flash it back. mean not just flash it

Jeff (13:55)
All right. So yeah. So I never watched any of those golden age disaster movies. I was too young for Poseidon Adventure and all that. By 1974, a lot of that had kind of played out and they did like sequels and remakes and it all kind of died out. And then in 1980s, we didn't get great disaster movies. So for me, my flashback is mid nineties.

Steve Scarfo (13:56)
All right, flash us.

Jeff (14:25)
Twister and Dante's Peak. So I know I talked about Titanic, but in this is, you know, little plainthessy for a gate court. I considered, I didn't, I considered a disaster movie a natural disaster movie. And so for me, Twister, and for me, when I saw Twister, I thought the whole, all the special effects were amazing. That cow flying around, like that was awesome. It was cool. And then you had

Like the love story of like, glory, let's get to the, let's get to the, the, the, the, the action. then with Dante's peak Dante's peak, thought like Pierce Brosnan, he was in the middle of his James Bond run. Like this was a great departure and I love a big fan of Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton of Sarah Connor, Terminator fame was in that.

Steve Scarfo (14:59)
Hehehehe

You don't want to close your eyes?

Jeff (15:24)
And I was a big fan of her as well. And the family, our relationship story was not quite as played out as Jack and Rose. Like, that was heavy, Jack and Rose and Titanic. So we didn't have that quite... So Dante's Peak had that human element, but it wasn't overdone. Dante's Peak was a volcano disaster movie, for those who aren't familiar with it. came out in 97.

And of course everyone knows Twister. I mean, Twister became a famous ride. We had a great sequel, what, 20-some-odd years later? No, 25 years later, because it just came out last year. Twisters, which was fantastic. But yeah, so my flashback is not having a great disaster movie until I was in my 20s, in the 90s. as a Gen X teen,

Steve Scarfo (16:09)
They really stretched for the title.

Jeff (16:24)
I didn't get to go see a great disaster movie in the theater. I had a Gen X 20 something when I saw it in the theater. And I know you have a slightly different recollection because you saw some of those classic movies. You go ahead.

Steve Scarfo (16:34)
I do. I do.

And again, I think I said in one of the earlier episodes, my mother made me not made me but had me watch Psycho with her when I was like eight or 10 or some crazy young number, maybe not quite that young, but still early teens. ⁓ So, you know, we were big movie watchers growing up. And of course, when we were kids, it was all TV movies. So whatever was on TV. So we were talking about earlier Poseidon Adventure. ⁓

came out in 72, I would have been three. So I don't believe I saw it that young, but I think I probably saw it late seventies, mid early to mid eighties, right? And when it was on TV at some point. But I remember watching Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno, probably because my mom loved him. My mom was huge in the movies. She was, I should say. And that was her escape is always these movies. And so I remember, oh, Shelley.

Jeff (17:10)
That's right.

Steve Scarfo (17:33)
⁓ I can't think of her name. ⁓

Jeff (17:36)
⁓

Yes, I know exactly who you mean. And the funny thing is, like when, cause these are like all star casts when they came out, like this was, you know, I can't like, ⁓ for those of you who younger generations, this had been like Avengers Endgame where all the characters are there. like, like having Paul Newman and Steve McQueen and.

Steve Scarfo (17:42)
Yeah

Jeff (18:04)
you know, all these other famous actors in the same movie, this was a big deal. These ensemble casts were a big deal. so, yeah, so in the Poseidon adventure, yeah, Shelley Winters, Gene Hackman, there was so many big names in these movies, yeah.

Steve Scarfo (18:12)
Yeah. Shelly Winters.

Yeah.

But in those, and we were started to talk about it before, so I'm glad you dropped us into flashback, is they didn't have, it was 72, right? They did not have the technology that we have. So like you said, we go today, we wanna see on the 95, 150 foot screen that we're watching, the biggest explosions and the best, we want all that. But those movies.

were story driven, they were character driven, were just the backdrop was a disaster. And I think that's sort of what's flipped. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a little while, but that's sort of why those movies like got Oscar nods because yes, ⁓ you know, in the Poseidon adventure, this is a boat disaster like Titanic in this case, I think the boat entirely, I don't remember if it was an explosion that happened, but the whole boat capsizes. So this is a huge.

like a princess cruise liner that's flipped upside down and these people are trapped on what should have been the highest decks, which are now underwater and they're making their way to the bottom of the boat. And it's how do they get these people on Shelley Winters as someone who's an old lady at the time or older lady and not in great shape and how do they get her out and how do they help her and this connection between the characters. That's what made, you know.

the blend was disaster and story, not disaster with a little bit of story, or not story. Like Titanic was Romeo and Juliet in a boat, you know what I mean? That's what they did. And those are both great stories, but I think it muddied the waters, no puns intended. So, or maybe all puns intended, I don't know. But yeah, I love that movie, and I think it's probably what kicked off that.

Jeff (19:54)
Mm-hmm.

Nice!

Steve Scarfo (20:12)
love of this stuff for me. I also saw Towering Inferno but I don't remember that one as much. Poseidon Adventure was one of

Jeff (20:19)
Now.

Citing those two movies, are largely considered to be disaster movies, I would love to take you to court about whether they really should be.

All right, so Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, ship capsizing, skyscraper on fire. Those are not natural disasters. Well, I guess there was like a tidal wave for Poseidon Adventure, so maybe we can let that one go. For me, what we're debating today is what, and I know it was our very first premise, what makes a disaster movie. ⁓ For me,

it has to have a natural disaster element. If it's man-made disaster, different movie. I'm not saying it's not a disaster, but it's just not what I would consider a disaster movie. And I know I'm being, you know, very narrow-minded about this, but it's just when I go to see a movie, like, and I telling people what I'm going to go see and they, they've never heard of it. And I'm saying, I'm going to see a disaster movie. That's what I'm going to say if I go to see.

If I go to see Greenland, if I go to see Dante's Peak or San Andreas, those are natural disasters. Those are, that's what we're expecting when we see a disaster movie. I'm not going to say I'm going to see a disaster movie if I'm going to see Avengers Endgame or if I'm watching The Walking Dead or disastrous things happening. Sure, of course.

But it's not a disaster movie. It's a zombie movie. It's a Marvel movie. It's a Star Trek movie. It's not a disaster movie. We wouldn't say that. You wouldn't say, ⁓ I'm going to see the latest disaster movie. what are you going to see? Avengers Endgame. What are you talking about? so Titanic, when I saw Titanic, I never said I was going to see a disaster movie. I said I was going to see

Steve Scarfo (22:25)
you

Jeff (22:35)
I know earlier I referenced it as a disaster movie because it's widely considered to be one. I just happen to, like, I think when I go to see a disaster movie and when I'm advocating for Hollywood to continue to make them, I want a natural disaster. Anything else has a disaster in it, but is not a disaster movie. Your move, Scarfo.

Steve Scarfo (22:41)
It's on the list.

So what I'm hearing is you're a bit of a disaster purist. That's what I'm hearing, that you have this very purist view of it can't be a disaster movie if something other than natural causes or nature of some sort causes the disaster to happen. And I'm clarifying your somewhat limited viewpoint.

Jeff (23:05)
Yes.

Right.

⁓ so we, I thought we were going to have a debate. You've already conceded that this is true.

Steve Scarfo (23:30)
⁓ And even if I lose, I never concede, let's be honest. But that's not the only definition of what makes it a disaster. A disaster doesn't always mean an apocalypse or something natural. It always means, or also can mean, that society is being tested. Society at some level is going to fail or pass the test.

Nine times out of 10, 99 out of 100, if we're calling it a disaster movie, society has failed that particular test.

And in this case, I think, oh, what were you saying? It's like Star Trek made me think of Scotty with the search for the whales because in the future, an alien,

Jeff (24:12)
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. Like, no one called that

a disaster movie. Thank you.

Steve Scarfo (24:19)
an alien race shows up because they're looking for the whales that they left here and we've killed them all. So we had to go back in time to get whales. Captain, that'll be whales here. Like that, that is the key. But now you have to broaden your horizon, Jeff, broaden it out. You have to include other genres in the disaster mode. So the disaster

is part of it, but just because it's also a science fiction movie or also a zombie movie, I actually think, and we're gonna talk about this in another episode, but I think the ultimate disaster movie is anything that leads to the zombie apocalypse. They don't even call it a zombie movie, they call it a zombie apocalypse. So typically, ⁓

There's other elements that go. So I don't think it has to be pure. Like you mentioned Avengers Endgame. or any, let's think about any superhero movie. There was a movie called Earthquake in the 70s and The Towering Inferno. Both cases, well, The Towering Inferno was just one building. Let's be honest, Die Hard could have been called The Towering Inferno, right? Cause one building went up in flames.

Jeff (25:25)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Steve Scarfo (25:43)
And Earthquake, of course, I think is set in LA, but the entire city is shaken to its core. And the level of disaster there is less than in most superhero movies. Look at Avengers, the very first Avengers movie, when the aliens attack and they destroy New York City. More buildings are destroyed within about five minutes than the entire movie of Earthquake. So.

Jeff (26:09)
Right?

Steve Scarfo (26:10)
I think that you have to maybe look beyond. I don't know that we call them disaster movies, but I see that they could be disaster adjacent.

Jeff (26:19)
Okay. All right. I'll accept that. I'll accept that. Disaster adjacent movies. Yes. Sounds good.

Steve Scarfo (26:22)
You like disaster, Jason?

Yeah, disaster

adjacent. ⁓ right. Let's now, we talked about getting into it, but let's talk about how things have gone, because we talked about the purism. Let's talk about where it came from and where it's going.

Jeff (26:31)
Love that.

Yeah, and I really do think that the reason we did not get great disaster movies in the 80s wasn't because they couldn't do it. Because obviously we had some fantastic movies in the 80s with effects from Star Wars, ⁓ ET, there was so many really cool, there was so much they could have done. There was kind of no new territory.

to explore until CGI really came into its own. Like much earlier, we talked about Tron. mean, early Tron did not look great with our own modern eyes, I'm saying. But man, like the effects in the 90s, Jurassic Park, like blew me away with it. And that was a lot of CGI in that. I mean, there's a blend of practical effects, obviously. I think, you know, CGI,

Steve Scarfo (27:31)
Mm-hmm.

No. Yes.

Yeah.

Jeff (27:53)
Even today, a pure CGI movie generally isn't as good as one that blends some practical effects with the CGI. I feel like that has the best. ⁓ And movies like that we got in the 90s that were awesome, Armageddon, Twister, Titanic had that blend. And because of the events of CGI, that's when we got those great movies. early ⁓ movies though with the...

with the practical effects, those are pretty amazing. Cause even though I didn't watch ⁓ like Poseidon Adventure when it came out, there's this image of a guy, the ship flips over entirely. crew, this gigantic cruise ship flips over entirely. And this guy falling through what was the glass ceiling, but is now the glass floor. And he's just burst through that.

Steve Scarfo (28:48)
Yes.

Jeff (28:52)
And it was an amazing practical effect.

Steve Scarfo (28:55)
Yeah, we talked about it, ⁓ I think, and I'm looking at a list here. So in the 80s, we had The Day After, which is a nuclear war movie, Threads, which I've never heard of, a nuclear war movie, and The Abyss, ⁓ which is, they call it an oceanic tech disaster, but as I recall, there was some sci-fi on The Abyss, because there was that creature.

Jeff (29:18)
yeah.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (29:19)
Right, I would consider

that more of a sci-fi, like we were talking in geek court, like it's not, it's definitely disaster adjacent. This isn't pure disaster. But those were the three that came up in the research that I was doing. And none of those, I think that they went from this idea of the story, towering in front of an earthquake, these are story driven, like we were talking about before. In the 90s, they jumped to Independence Day, Deep Impact, Armageddon, these huge, like,

special effects CGI movies where the story maybe wasn't as strong as in some of the other movies. And I think what we're getting to is what you're talking about is this idea that the story story was great, but visually it was blah. I mean, not bad, but like it was, okay, it's a stage, it's a set. Then they went all effect and all wow factor for the view. And they kind of forgot about

let's make it a really solid story. They were fun. Armageddon was a fun movie. Like they were, they weren't bad, but I think one of the things Greenland really did well, and we talked about this earlier too, is it didn't have, it, the effects that it used were great. You know, meteors falling from the sky, things blowing up, I'm sure was a combination of CGI and practical explosion. But they used it as a backdrop for a story of a family and struggle.

and they brought both this disaster level great effects, cause it made it real. It made it look more real. It's one of the things why, and I might bite my tongue in five years, but I don't know that AI filmmaking will ever truly be a problem, at least on the acting level, because I don't know that an AI is ever going to be able to give a really great performance, right? Somewhere, Chad GPT is,

plotting my death, but, maybe Jem and I, or maybe they're getting together. But I think the evolution there is sort of, God, there's an old picture, our friend Bill Dunbar was a huge, and in fact, Jem and Dave were too, but paintball players, and I remember this evolution of a paintball player image that I saw somewhere. It was like a guy.

Jeff (31:16)
Shame on you. Shame on

Steve Scarfo (31:41)
He was just in shorts and a t-shirt, and then he had longer pants, and then he had real gear, and then he had heavy gear, and as it went, as the player got more and more advanced, he went back to shorts and a t-shirt, because he's so good. He evolved from one view all the way right back to that same view, but the experience, he had changed, and I think that's what's happening with... ⁓

with disaster movies and that might be a horrible analogy if no one's ever played paintball or know what picture I'm talking about. Maybe I'll try to post it.

Jeff (32:13)
Well, no, the idea

that it starts with the human story and then it got bigger and bigger and bigger. And I know like some people felt like 2012 was ridiculous because I think that was like the peak of the global effect because people wanted to see. And it's been a while since I saw that, but like, like you went and you saw that and you saw like Egypt getting destroyed, Paris getting destroyed, Tokyo getting like so often.

Steve Scarfo (32:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jeff (32:42)
Like those early ones, was a ship beside an Avenger, a skyscraper, a city, an earthquake with just LA getting affected to flash forward to a day after tomorrow where we're mostly looking at New York. And New York often is a victim in these things because it's so iconic, you know, the buildings and the Statue of Liberty. And so when you see a tidal wave hit New York,

Steve Scarfo (33:01)
Yes.

Jeff (33:11)
It affects you in a certain way. And I think, you know, what, you know, it got 2012, was like the pinnacle of that, where it was global. And you saw all these things getting, all these cities and getting affected by the natural disasters. And I understand like Armageddon, no, no, Independence Day. Like I would not have normally like disaster movie adjacent.

Steve Scarfo (33:29)
you

Jeff (33:37)
Like some people would consider a disaster movie. That's not how I would describe it. you know, those aliens, you know, destroying so much of the earth and so many different iconic areas. Right. And I think then you come around. So I think Greenland's a great example is it is a global catastrophe, but we're focused on this one family. You know, a husband, a wife and a son. That's it.

Steve Scarfo (33:47)
⁓ cities just go, ⁓ yeah.

Jeff (34:07)
And ⁓ you don't hardly see, except when they're watching a news broadcast, of any effect anywhere outside of their immediate environment.

Steve Scarfo (34:07)
Yeah.

Jeff (34:17)
yeah, was just kind of confirming what you had earlier said about coming all the way around where you start small and localized, then it grew bigger and bigger and bigger, then you're kind of back to where you started with that kind of small and localized story, human story, but with the effects that we can have today. So that's our pitch for Greenland.

Steve Scarfo (34:43)
I'm actually really looking forward to Greenland 2 now. I I yeah, I don't want to belabor the point but If we can take the story that we want to hear 99 times out of a hundred is about the people in the situation not the situation ⁓ You were talking about 2012 and the one the one scene I remember is Rio de Janeiro the huge statue of Jesus

Jeff (34:43)
Greenland 2! Yeah. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (35:10)
getting swamped by this, like all of Rio gets wiped out by a tidal wave. That's the one image I remember from that whole movie. And amazing to see, like so cool that they were able to do that, but it didn't, you know, it didn't impact me. What happened to the family in Greenland, every little tweak where you see the look on their faces as shit's going wrong, that really hit you.

Jeff (35:33)
Yeah, because it's like, that would happen to me. if there was, and the bottom line is that although these things are fantastical, what I think is so effective about a natural disaster movie is that you're in that kind of what if, like, oh my God, what if, happens to me, because my wife's reaction to you as kind of watching all these, rewatching a lot of these disaster movies, she's like.

All right, now we gotta become preppers. We gotta start stocking up on dry goods, we've gotta build our bunker, we've gotta get ammo and guns and.

Steve Scarfo (36:03)
Yes.

It definitely made me think we need a bunker.

⁓ I was like, holy shit. ⁓

Jeff (36:15)
like

Made me feel good about living in the highest point. I live in Epping, New Hampshire and I'm at the highest point in Epping, New Hampshire. Like, okay, this is good.

Steve Scarfo (36:23)
Which isn't really

saying a lot for for high points like elevation wise you you might be at like 25 feet versus 10 like Yes, hopefully hopefully it'll it'll stop it right it's fine

Jeff (36:31)
No, no, we're not like in the Rocky Mountains or anything. This is true.

Right, right. Well, when that first tidal wave hits, I'm OK. It's the second one that's going to wipe me out, but that that first one

is going to is not going to hit me.

Steve Scarfo (36:50)
Listen, we're so far inland right now that a good tidal wave just gives us oceanfront property. That's all it's gonna do.

Jeff (37:01)
I mean, we've got some great disaster movies that people can go back and watch. ⁓ I also think as I'm looking back on some of them that I was so, I rewatched Dante's Peak and there's certain like effects, I'm like, my God.

that we can do so much better today. But yeah, they were great at the time. At the time, I didn't feel that way. ⁓ as far as the message to the new generation, though, that I feel is interesting is ⁓ that as I'm watching this thing and I'm watching like the natural disaster movies and you hear the scientific expert and everyone gets ignored.

And the message I have is, you know, I know we've been trying to get this message across for decades now, and not that scientists get everything right, but maybe, I don't know, just give them a good listen. Like, don't immediately tune them out. Like, when you get that warning about that contagion, about that comet, about that earthquake, that volcano.

⁓ What can it hurt to take a few precautions? ⁓ We've had a number of these stories. Do they all come true? Of course not. But I think it's interesting that Contagion, when that first, that movie first came out, I can't remember exactly what it was, didn't do as well as it did on a re, like the number of rewatches it got during COVID exceeded its original watch count. So.

Steve Scarfo (38:46)
Contagion was 2011

and it was in fact, of course, a pandemic movie.

Jeff (38:51)
So, mean, like we shouldn't have to be in the pandemic or in the volcano or in the tsunami before we take like that movie seriously. then, hey, wasn't there a movie about this? Let me give that a watch.

Steve Scarfo (39:09)
Did you see the movie Don't Look Up? It was 2021. I think it's Jennifer Lawrence and a couple others. It's got a lot. It's 100 % what you're saying. It's a satire of disaster movies. It's essentially a planet killer kind of thing, think. Asteroid. But it's basically, and I think it is Jennifer Lawrence. She comes, I might have to can and correct, but I'm pretty sure it was her.

Jeff (39:12)
No. Good.

Is it about people ignoring the experts?

Steve Scarfo (39:37)
It's the whole thing you were just talking about. She's the specialist. She knows what she's talking about and she goes to the government and everybody ignores her. And then of course, most people die because, spoilers, it's five years, four years old at this point. it's exactly all the things you were just saying. That there was a move, like this person trying to tell them and nobody listens to her.

Jeff (40:01)
Right. And the thing is, you know, as I, we watched some of these and I know, you know, one of our plans is to talk about these zombie apocalypse movies, you know, Fallout and all that. Science fiction, and I know I said this last year, I think, you know, when it works well, is really about our current state. People watch that like, oh wow, 500 years from now, that's what it's going to be like. Now that's a commentary on today's society.

Steve Scarfo (40:28)
Yes.

Jeff (40:29)
Like, you're supposed to be, that message is supposed to be sinking in now. Like, don't just sit back, put your brain on hold and get entertained. But listen to the messages. ⁓ Like, watch the Orville. I know it's ⁓ probably not coming back. ⁓ But man, like in Star Trek does the same thing. But Orville was so good at really being...

Steve Scarfo (40:51)
It's too bad too.

Jeff (40:58)
You have you have a sci-fi look at our current society. You know? And so that's my message to the new generation is watch these movies. Don't just get entertained and think, oh, that can't happen. That's crazy. It could happen. And maybe we all have to become Doomsday Preppers.

Steve Scarfo (41:18)
My message is prep for Doomsday. No, I'm kidding. I think my message is more, and I agree with all that, but in terms of the movies that you're watching, the disaster stuff, don't discount a smaller, I'm gonna call it a smaller movie like Greenland, right? We talked a lot about this movie, we were excited for the second one to come out. Yeah, the big spectacles are great, but don't overlook the story.

Right, we want that blend Jeff was talking about earlier. And that's what I think. Don't just discount a movie because it doesn't look spectacular or monstrous or huge, depending on who you are too, if there's this particular actor that you like, there's certain things, certain people, if they're in it, I don't care what it is, I'll go watch it. But for specifically these kinds of movies.

Don't overlook a good story just because it may not have the biggest special effects or the biggest CGI. We talked about movies that hopefully some of you guys will go back and watch. And if you're our age and you've seen them, go back and watch them again, Poseid Adventure. Those are great movies.

Yeah, it's not always about the spectacle.

But now...

We're going to talk about the things we did like and the things we didn't.

All right, you want to roll this out?

Jeff (42:40)
no, I've got an epic fail, so you go critical hit.

Steve Scarfo (42:42)
Okay, well, I don't think it is a surprise that my critical hit is gonna be Greenland because we've talked a lot about it already. ⁓ So I'm not gonna dig too, too deep. We've given you the whole premise of the movie. If you haven't seen it, go see Greenland. ⁓ Marina Bakker and Gerard Butler, ⁓ the guy who plays her dad, I can't think of his name, but he's another famous actor. ⁓ Great cast.

Great storytelling. There's a couple of side characters that are like bad. They end up kind of being bad guys. ⁓ Both people I reckon. Solid performances all around. ⁓ Blends the CGI, everything that we said. It's a great watch. It's tense. ⁓ There's no real lulls. We talked about it I think last time about how they'll shoehorn in a ⁓ love story where they don't need to.

They're a married couple and they have a kid. The emotional intent and the trauma and the tension is there from the beginning because it's just about saving everybody and making sure everybody gets out alive. my hit is Greenland. Go see it. Or don't go. Just whatever. Watch it online.

Jeff (43:56)
Yep.

Yeah. Watch it. Stream it before the Greenland 2 comes out and then go see Greenland 2 in the theater. I know we've it's been I know it's been a while since we've said go see a movie in the theater, but we're saying it again. I think it was August when we were talking up the new naked gun. All right. So my epic fail is a movie I actually really like. I get a kick out of it. I bought it. I saw it in the theater. was Moonfall.

Steve Scarfo (44:06)
Yeah.

Jeff (44:24)
I bought it when it was available on Prime Video. So why am I calling Moonfall an epic fail? Because it's an epic fail because it pitched itself incorrectly. So it pitched itself as that disaster movie that I think about, that natural disaster, like the moon's coming closer to the earth. And what dangers would that present? And that's primarily the way the trailer plays.

And that entire premise is so ridiculous. And then you watch the trailer, it was full of other ridiculous things like, oh, the character from Game of Thrones, that actor that's from Game of Thrones, not the character, obviously, that would be really bad. The actor from Game of Thrones is this social media conspiracy scientist that has free bagels.

Steve Scarfo (45:09)
Hehehehehe

Jeff (45:22)
Hey, the moons, I tried to tell NASA the moons, what's that? John Bradley. The moons, the orbit is getting closer to the Earth and I'm the one breaking the news. Like as if every astronomy student, every guy with a telescope and.

Steve Scarfo (45:26)
Yeah, it's John Bradley. John Bradley.

Jeff (45:49)
And of course NASA and other space agencies around the world would already have known this. it's like that whole premise was so ridiculous. Of course I was going to go see it. I don't care. I'll watch B movies. I love sharknado. ⁓ But ⁓ if they had just come, if they had just presented it for what it ended up being, spoiler alert, the moon is not really a moon. It's this ancient alien base.

Steve Scarfo (46:05)
disaster adjacent.

Jeff (46:19)
that's hollow inside and NASA knew it all along. Well, they held off the Roland Emmerich who did some of these disaster movies we've talked about in Love 2012, ⁓ Day After Tomorrow. He was disaster movie overlord for the 2000s. He was the man until Moonfall destroyed his career.

It was a huge, it was not a success at all. Like, like I couldn't, like it was the biggest failure ⁓ in the twenties, the 2020s at least for a box office failure. And, but if they had just advertised it for what it was, which was a relatively silly concept about the moon being an alien, ancient alien base, I feel like if they had let that be known at the beginning,

that would have worked out. I love the trailer using Bad Moon Rising from John Fogerty, a version of it. Like, I see a bad moon and then the moon's coming in and the, you know, bad times are on the way and you can just see all the destruction and the wind for nasty weather. Yeah, baby. When that moon comes in, all the weather patterns are going to be disrupted. Like, so like, yes, yes. I loved it. loved it. But man.

I feel like if they had just not tried to make it seem like a normal disaster movie that, like the moon is getting closer to us, when in fact, anyone that is a scientist knows the moon's actually drifting farther away from the earth. So you've lost everyone that already knows that, which is every science teacher in the world already knows. So you've lost all of them and anyone else that cares and any astronomy.

So you've lost so many people that would have wanted to go see this. And you would have, but that same audience, they love sci-fi. So if you had just played that as a sci-fi movie, not a disaster movie, then it would have worked. So epic fail is how it was presented, not the ultimate product, which was just a fun movie. And have they just like put it out there as a fun movie? ⁓

Steve Scarfo (48:43)
So I agree mostly, I think I disagree a little only in that ⁓ it wasn't just the way it was presented in terms of the marketing, because I agree with all of the marketing issues. But they also, it was a movie that didn't pick a lane. It was, like you said, science fiction movie, disaster movie, they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do.

and had they made it just a pure science fiction movie, one, this is one of those things we've talked about in the past, one line of text from any one character who turned around and went, how come the moon's coming closer when it's supposed to be going further away? Right? I just fixed half your problems with that movie by one line of text, all it would have taken. And then they were also trying to be kind of playful with the whole, the moon.

Let's be honest, the moon is a spaceship is a fucking weird kind of funky topic and they didn't play with it. They tried to make it serious. Like if it was a goofy, if it was Galaxy Quest level of silliness, like everyone would have bought in. I love Galaxy Quest, silliest premises in the planet for any kind of, but they tried to be serious and they couldn't pick a lane. So I think it had more troubles than just the marketing. ⁓

Jeff (49:58)
Right.

Steve Scarfo (50:02)
think he was trying to go too broad an audience.

Jeff (50:05)
Well, in another disaster movie by another filmmaker that I love, Night Shyamalan, which I almost chose as my epic fail was The Happening. ⁓ And it's funny because that movie also was a failure. And Mark Wahlberg, who was in it, tried to distance himself from it. ⁓ But one of the actresses, don't know the actress, Zoe Deschanel, she said that it was like a B movie.

Steve Scarfo (50:15)
Yeah.

Jeff (50:35)
And then M. Night Shyamalan, I think, heard that. It was like, oh yeah, I was trying to make a B movie. I was trying to do like a creature for the black lagoon, like that kind of vibe. Like, no, you were not. And I'm like, but just like you said, like if they had just, if he really was trying to do that, if that was supposed to be more like a B movie, which that's not his lane, but let's say he was just trying something new out.

Steve Scarfo (50:44)
Yeah. No you didn't.

Jeff (51:03)
then maybe that would have worked. But he tried to present it as a serious... movie.

Steve Scarfo (51:09)
Well, he had

just come off a stretch of movies where everybody was enthralled with the way he told stories. The Sixth Sense blew up, you know what I mean? The Signs was one of his movies and it was like, he tried to present it in that same vein. The one we talked about with Bruce Willis, ⁓ not Mr. Glass, ⁓ Unbreakable, right? He had done all of these movies and they were all so sick. Poor Mark Wahlberg got stuck in the dumper ⁓ with the one that was not good. ⁓

Jeff (51:37)
Well, actually,

that's the thing is like, I still enjoyed it, but it was like, for those who don't know it, there's a scene where they've got to get through this house and they know that the plants are, so the idea is like plants are fighting back against humans. And it's just because of the bad energy that humans are putting out there. Like there's plenty of reasons you could have chosen to take the humans out, not just the bad energy. So there's this scene like Mark Wilber's like, hey.

Steve Scarfo (51:43)
But it was...

Jeff (52:06)
Talking to this house plant, hey, we're just trying to get to the back door. If you could just let us through, that'd be great. come on, man.

Steve Scarfo (52:16)
I'll be honest, I've never

seen it. And now with the description of that scene, I never will. ⁓ Before I have to, before I have to can and correct, and actually I would not have to can and correct. I will say I just looked up, don't look up. Jennifer Lawrence was the star, but Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Ariana Grande, like it's a list of A-list actors in this ⁓ satire of a disaster.

Jeff (52:20)
Hey, we're just trying to work our way through here.

Yeah. So that's going back

to the heyday of disaster films having a huge ensemble, A-list cast like that.

Steve Scarfo (52:49)
Yeah, great cast in that movie. So one of the things I wanna talk about, so I'm gonna throw it in here as a last minute fail. ⁓ And we almost did a whole geek court about this, but it's something that happened in the 90s, specifically, mostly the 90s, and that was the double up ⁓ of these movies. And that is, and you've mentioned a bunch of them already. ⁓

In 1998, there were two asteroid killer movies. There was ⁓ Deep Impact and Armageddon. In 97, there were two volcano movies, one just called Volcano, one called Dante's Peak. And I think Volcano actually highlighted the L and the A, because it was the volcano erupted in LA. ⁓ In 96, again, there were two tornado movies, one Twister, which we all love, and then one just called Tornado. They really weren't the most... ⁓

descriptive on some of these. And then alien invasion movies, ⁓ Independence Day, again, 96, Independence Day and Mars Attacks. And Mars Attacks is just a goofy sci-fi fun movie to watch. So definitely watch Mars Attacks. But then in then Deep Sea, they had The Abyss, The Leviathan, Deep Star Six. Like for some reason in the 90s, ⁓ they did not check with each other at the studio level. People were shopping stories around town and every, like it seems like periodically two of them would go.

let's buy the concept and then they develop their own script and then two movies would come out that were almost identical and it happened for like a decade. So that is definitely a disaster movie fail in my part. I love all of them, but this is more of a come on guys. Don't you know come up with come up with something different.

Jeff (54:22)
Yeah.

What's?

Yeah.

Yeah. And actually, you know, it's funny you talk about that as being a fail. And I do agree with that because I stupidly made a decision. I got to see Dante's Peak and I'm not going to see volcano. I'm going to see him again. I'm not going to see deep, deep impacts a movie like I would like. So you're right. They killed a fair amount of their

box office by not working together because in part of the episode found out that the Towering Inferno was made with Warner Brothers and Paramount Studios working together. Paramount owned the movie rights to a book called The Glass Inferno about a fire and a skyscraper. And Warner Brothers owned the movie rights to the book The Tower. And they just combined it to The Towering Inferno and they worked together to create this.

Cause they're making the same movie. It's the same movie. So work together and they made something amazing. And maybe if deep impact, again, they were together, would have made even better movie. Although, but those are both like good examples. Whereas, ⁓ I've heard I never watched volcano. Like I've already said, chose Dante's peak. ⁓ but Dante's peak, they were in a rush to be first. They released in February. They were going to release in the summertime with

Steve Scarfo (55:33)
Mm-hmm. If they could have easily done them both. Yeah.

Jeff (56:01)
like try to do that summer blockbuster thing. And ⁓ so they cut their post-production work in half just to beat Volcano. Like you wouldn't have had to do that if you'd just worked together. I mean, I guess those were two very different concepts, because one is Volcano in the Northwest and the other one is in the Southwest in LA.

Steve Scarfo (56:28)
Southwest ⁓

Jeff (56:30)
Very different.

Steve Scarfo (56:33)
I Will say too on the asteroid movies they're very Same kind of thing because deep impact is very much starts almost like a political thriller Because the main character ⁓ she's chasing a story About this woman called Ellie who is supposedly sneaking around with the president

And it turns out Ellie is ELE for extinction level event. But I mean, that's how she discovers what's going on. And that's very much presented as that political thriller. And of course Armageddon is, ⁓ you know, again, our friend Bruce from last episode, Mr. Bruce Willis on that, and a great movie. But ⁓ had they put those two together, it might have made for a richer story. But also either that or

Jeff (57:02)
That's right, that's right.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (57:24)
If you find out a rival is making a volcano movie, don't fuck your movie into the ground by cutting post-production and making it look shitty just to get there first. It seems like the 90 was full of movie pissing contests. Like who can get there first? Just make a good movie and if someone's doing a volcano movie, do a different disaster movie, it's fine. And maybe they just didn't have a lot of good ideas at the time, I don't know.

Jeff (57:39)
Yes.

You

or just delay release. Delay it and get it even better, right? Don't cut it.

Steve Scarfo (57:57)
yeah, if

you liked Dante's Inferno, Dante's Inferno, I went classic literature. If you like Dante's Peak, you're gonna love volcano, you know. But all right, well, we're running a little long even with my cat interruption, which if I edit it out, you won't understand what that means, but I'm leaving this part in. ⁓ Welcome to, we should have started with this. Happy New Year. Welcome to 2026, people.

Jeff (58:18)
Hey

Happy New Year!

Steve Scarfo (58:25)
If you're still with us and you've been listening, thanks for staying with us. ⁓ Check us out on all the social media. Recommend us to your friend. Leave comments on the podcast apps. We're trying to keep this thing rolling and get some growth in 2026. We ⁓ love you guys. Thanks for being here. OriginalGeekPodcast.com. Check us out on Gmail and ⁓ go watch Greenland.

Jeff (58:51)
Yes, and buy some OG swag. I'm wearing my King of Nightmares t-shirt. You can find on our website, Original Geek. It's ⁓ back from our Stephen King episode that was ⁓ referenced too. And we have plenty of other merchandise tied to a variety of topics from our previous episodes. And who knows, we might have a disaster movie one coming out. And... ⁓

Steve Scarfo (59:09)
Yeah.

Jeff (59:18)
It's a great time. I think your news New Year's resolution is get some of that og merch

Steve Scarfo (59:25)
OG swag. have our original ⁓ original geek podcast shirt. ⁓ We got a Tron shirt. We got a stranger thing shirt out there. Creature double feature. ⁓ Check us out.

Jeff (59:37)
Good stuff.



00:00 Introduction to Disaster Movies
13:47 Geek Flashback
20:30 Geek Court
26:46 Geek Evolution
36:56 Geek Rant
42:31 Critical Hits and Epic Fails
53:01 The 90s Disaster Movie Phenomenon
59:40 Full Video End.mp4