I’ve previously posted about some of the best security movies made but I have to confess I’m not a big fan of the genre. They tend not to actually have a lot of real human drama. But I am a big fan of disaster movies, particularly ones that are true to life. I especially like ones that are more “procedural", showing the intricacies of the response and investigation processes rather than just the flash bang of the events themselves. So, here’s my top 10 disaster movies (or mini series) that fit the bill.
1.The Railway Men
An incredible story of the Bhopal disaster. It is not totally accurate (“inspired by”) but it has everything from the stumbling into disaster from compounding safety errors on plant management, corporate neglect, through to the adjacent story of the logistical heroics of the eponymous railway men who were able to keep trains away from the area.
Best part: the opening episode showing management’s rationalization of the plant safety failures and the pressure to ignore those in the face of profit.
2.Chernobyl
An epic telling of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster from the event itself, the steps to contain the disaster to the subsequent investigation.
Best part: the powerful courtroom scenes reminiscent of Feynman at the Challenger disaster inquiry.
3. The Days
Sticking with the nuclear theme, The Days is a great disaster recovery procedural drama about the containment management at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the tsunami.
Best part: the realistic portrayal of the pressures between the headquarter‘s incident response / crisis management executive team and the on the ground plant incident response leadership team.
4.Margin Call
A supposedly true story, from the 2008 financial crisis. It is a rough amalgam of some true events but mostly it is fragments of truth presented in a highly stylized and politicized way to make a point. Nevertheless, it is a gripping telling in a 24 hour period of the identification of a critical financial hole, management being brought in and the dramatic plan of action unfolding to remedy the problem including the obligatory executives falling on their swords as a result.
Best part: the Jeremy Irons portrayal of the ruthless executive, feigning ignorance, “Please, speak as you might to a young child, or a golden retriever”.
5.Too Big to Fail
Another 2008 financial crisis movie adapted from what I think was the best book of the events. It does a great job of explaining the intricacies of what happened and the activities inside the New York Federal Reserve Bank and the US Dept. of Treasury to contain the situation as well as the drama of the Bank CEO interactions and haphazard deal making over a weekend.
Best part: the restatement of the famous Lloyd Blankfein (CEO of Goldman Sachs at the time) quote to an exhausted staffer to get some perspective: “You're getting out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve. It's not a Higgins boat on Omaha beach.”
6.Deepwater Horizon
The telling of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blow out that led to immense pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. As with some of the other examples on this list I like the “normal accident” chain of event stories of small problems adding up to big problems.
Best part: the leaders who, even when the disaster happened still cannot believe it is happening because of their prior cognitive dissonance that it couldn’t happen.
7.Thirteen Days
The telling of the Cuban missile crisis from the perspective of President Kennedy, his senior leadership team, the international negotiations as well as the difficulties with his own Joint Chiefs.
Best part: when the US Ambassador to the UN puts his USSR equivalent on the spot in the UN chamber.
8.Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room
The story of the Enron scandal and collapse that led to many reforms including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Although this is a documentary rather than a movie it is told in dramatic fashion from the build-up to the cover-up to the locking up of the leaders. It’s a great telling, again, of all the small decisions that didn’t look so bad at the time that became a massive issue and by the time it was a mess, people had convinced themselves it wasn’t.
Best bit: the sound track especially this.
9.The Challenger Disaster
The telling of the Challenger disaster and subsequent investigation with heavy emphasis on the role of Richard Feynman.
Best bit: the cold water and the O-ring, of course.
10.Captain Phillips
This movie of the rescue of the Captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama container ship from Somali pirates. It’s an awesome tale of crew response, rescue and (no spoiler here) the dramatic final rescue scene.
Best part: “Look at me, I am the Captain now” (if only for the memes).
