Ranking Film: Survival & Disaster
by Movienaut | created - 07 Jul 2016 | updated - 3 weeks ago | PublicRanking my favorite survival films, best to worst, zombies/post-apocalyptic not included.
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1. The Revenant (I) (2015)
R | 156 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson
Votes: 874,373 | Gross: $183.64M
2. Life of Pi (2012)
PG | 127 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu
Votes: 666,872 | Gross: $124.99M
3. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
GP | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Delle Bolton, Josh Albee
Votes: 34,989 | Gross: $47.74M
4. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 638,707 | Gross: $233.63M
5. Rescue Dawn (2006)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Biography, War
A U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Zach Grenier
Votes: 110,802 | Gross: $5.49M
6. The Martian (2015)
PG-13 | 144 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara
Votes: 925,383 | Gross: $228.43M
7. The Impossible (2012)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The story of a tourist family in Thailand caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Director: J.A. Bayona | Stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast
Votes: 244,073 | Gross: $19.02M
8. The Grey (2011)
R | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.
Director: Joe Carnahan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts
Votes: 263,345 | Gross: $51.58M
9. Gravity (2013)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen
Votes: 863,230 | Gross: $274.09M
10. Thirteen Lives (2022)
PG-13 | 147 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
A rescue mission is assembled in Thailand where a group of young boys and their soccer coach are trapped in a system of underground caves that are flooding.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman
Votes: 67,537
11. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Approved | 142 min | Adventure, Drama
After an oil company plane crashes in the Sahara, the survivors are buoyed with hope by one of the passengers, an airplane designer who plans for them to build a flyable plane from the wreckage.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 22,411
12. Kon-Tiki (2012)
PG-13 | 118 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo, Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd-Magnus Williamson
Votes: 51,965 | Gross: $1.52M
13. Everest (2015)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
On May 10, 1996, mountain guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer combine their expedition teams for a final ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. With little warning, a storm strikes the mountain and the climbers must now battle to survive.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Jason Clarke, Ang Phula Sherpa, Thomas M. Wright, Martin Henderson
Votes: 232,422 | Gross: $43.48M
14. Armageddon (1998)
PG-13 | 151 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
After discovering that an asteroid the size of Texas will impact Earth in less than a month, NASA recruits a misfit team of deep-core drillers to save the planet.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler
Votes: 450,833 | Gross: $201.57M
15. Deep Impact (1998)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst.
Director: Mimi Leder | Stars: Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 190,382 | Gross: $140.46M
16. Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Survivors of a plane crash in the Mongolian desert work together to build a new plane.
Director: John Moore | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Miranda Otto, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson
Votes: 56,751 | Gross: $21.01M
17. All Is Lost (2013)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
Director: J.C. Chandor | Star: Robert Redford
Votes: 83,823 | Gross: $6.26M
18. Alive (1993)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Frank Marshall | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay
Votes: 64,432 | Gross: $36.73M
19. Deepwater Horizon (2016)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Drama, History
A dramatization of the disaster in April 2010, when the offshore drilling rig called the Deepwater Horizon exploded, resulting in the worst oil spill in American history.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Douglas M. Griffin, James DuMont
Votes: 182,455 | Gross: $61.43M
20. The Edge (1997)
R | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An intellectual billionaire and two other men struggle to band together and survive after getting stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a blood-thirsty Kodiak Bear hunting them down.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Elle Macpherson, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 79,030 | Gross: $27.78M
21. Jungle (I) (2017)
R | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A group of friends join a guide for a trek into the Bolivian jungle, searching for an Indian village. The men soon realize that the jungle is a difficult place to be.
Director: Greg McLean | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell, Joel Jackson
Votes: 63,642
22. Arctic (2018)
PG-13 | 98 min | Adventure, Drama
A man stranded in the Arctic after a plane crash must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown.
Director: Joe Penna | Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Maria Thelma Smáradóttir, Tintrinai Thikhasuk
Votes: 58,338 | Gross: $2.41M
23. The Finest Hours (2016)
PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Drama, History
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
Director: Craig Gillespie | Stars: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana
Votes: 70,661 | Gross: $27.57M
24. Daylight (1996)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Disaster in a New York tunnel as explosions collapse both ends of it. One hero tries to help the people inside find their way to safety.
Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya
Votes: 76,737 | Gross: $33.02M
25. Tracks (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 112 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A young woman goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her faithful dog.
Director: John Curran | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Lily Pearl, Philip Dodd
Votes: 31,730 | Gross: $0.51M
26. Against the Ice (2022)
TV-MA | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, History
In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they're left behind while on a Denmark expedition in ice-covered Greenland.
Director: Peter Flinth | Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole, Heida Reed, Þorsteinn Bachmann
Votes: 28,399
27. White Squall (1996)
PG-13 | 129 min | Adventure, Drama
Teenage boys discover discipline and camaraderie on an ill-fated sailing voyage.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, John Savage, Scott Wolf
Votes: 25,453 | Gross: $10.30M
28. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok
Votes: 476,060 | Gross: $186.74M
29. The Perfect Storm (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An unusually intense storm pattern catches some commercial fishermen unaware and puts them in mortal danger.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane
Votes: 177,937 | Gross: $182.62M
30. The Vanishing (II) (2018)
R | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles obtain a mysterious trunk, leading to their mysterious disappearance.
Director: Kristoffer Nyholm | Stars: Peter Mullan, Gerard Butler, Emma King, Gary Lewis
Votes: 20,672
31. San Andreas (2015)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
In the aftermath of a massive earthquake in California, a rescue-chopper pilot makes a dangerous journey with his ex-wife across the state in order to rescue his daughter.
Director: Brad Peyton | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Colton Haynes
Votes: 256,709 | Gross: $155.19M
32. Unbroken (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Biography, Drama
After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
Votes: 182,735 | Gross: $115.64M
33. Scenic Route (2013)
R | 82 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Tensions rise between lifelong friends Mitchell and Carter after their truck breaks down on an isolated desert road as they start to attack each other's life decisions with unwavering brutality.
Directors: Kevin Goetz, Michael Goetz | Stars: Josh Duhamel, Dan Fogler, Miracle Laurie, Christie Burson
Votes: 11,380
34. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,280,504 | Gross: $659.33M
35. The Lighthouse (I) (2016)
102 min | Thriller
Based on real events which saw two lighthouse keepers stranded for months at sea in a freak storm, the film tells a tale of death, madness and isolation; a desolate trip into the heart of human darkness.
Director: Chris Crow | Stars: Mark Lewis Jones, Michael Jibson, Ian Virgo, Joshua Richards
Votes: 1,153
36. Vertical Limit (2000)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A climber must rescue his sister on the peak of K2, the second highest mountain in the world .
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Scott Glenn, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney
Votes: 65,349 | Gross: $69.24M
37. Sanctum (2011)
R | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world.
Director: Alister Grierson | Stars: Rhys Wakefield, Allison Cratchley, Christopher James Baker, Richard Roxburgh
Votes: 57,212 | Gross: $23.07M
38. The Quake (2018)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
In 1904 an earthquake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale shook Oslo, with an epicenter in the "Oslo Graben" which runs under the Norwegian capital. There are now signs that indicate that we can expect a major future earthquake in Oslo.
Director: John Andreas Andersen | Stars: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Edith Haagenrud-Sande, Kathrine Thorborg Johansen
Votes: 14,620 | Gross: $0.01M
39. The Blue Lagoon (1980)
R | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the Victorian period, two children are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together, unaware that sexual maturity will eventually intervene.
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels
Votes: 76,555 | Gross: $58.85M
40. Greenland (2020)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Thriller
A family struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh | Stars: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn
Votes: 134,589
41. In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw
Votes: 148,760 | Gross: $25.02M
42. The Mountain Between Us (2017)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Stranded after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must forge a connection to survive the extreme elements of a remote snow-covered mountain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across the wilderness.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad | Stars: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney
Votes: 80,867 | Gross: $30.35M
43. The Shallows (2016)
PG-13 | 86 min | Action, Drama, Horror
A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Angelo Josue Lozano Corzo, Joseph Salas
Votes: 143,431 | Gross: $55.12M
44. Dante's Peak (1997)
PG-13 | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A volcanologist arrives at a countryside town recently named the second-most desirable place to live in America, and discovers that a nearby long-dormant volcano may awaken at any moment.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Renée Smith, Jeremy Foley
Votes: 98,368 | Gross: $67.13M
45. Volcano (1997)
PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A volcano erupts in downtown Los Angeles and a city official and a seismologist try to stop its inevitable flow through the city.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle
Votes: 81,550 | Gross: $49.32M
46. Geostorm (2017)
PG-13 | 109 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
When the network of satellites designed to control the global climate starts to attack Earth, it's a race against the clock for its creator to uncover the real threat before a worldwide Geostorm wipes out everything and everyone.
Director: Dean Devlin | Stars: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara
Votes: 118,468 | Gross: $33.70M
47. 12 Feet Deep (2017)
Not Rated | 85 min | Horror, Thriller
Two sisters are trapped under the fiberglass cover of an Olympic sized public pool and must brave the cold and each other to survive the harrowing night.
Director: Matt Eskandari | Stars: Nora-Jane Noone, Alexandra Park, Diane Farr, Christian Kain Blackburn
Votes: 17,072
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