12 Best Natural Disaster Movies Of All Time

It was a mighty tight call here as to the best Volcano movie, with Pierce Brosnan's more grounded 1997 flick coming mighty close to taking the prize. But as cliched as this Tommy Lee jones vehicle is, the depiction of a volcano erupting in downtown Los Angeles is far more entertaining.

Jones gives a powerful performance as the head of LA Emergency Management, Michael Roarke, getting the right mix between strong authority figure and man completely out of his depth. Anne Heche brings real pathos to her role as Geologist Amy Barnes, proving that you can have a female character that is intelligent who also displays genuine human emotions.

The special effects are overall very strong and there is a real sense that the city is under siege. The toing and froing between Jones and Heche is always believable, unlike the scene where Jones' Roarke somehow survives from a multi storied building falling on him. The film is infamous for these cliched moments, with the least subtle addressing of 'Racism and acceptance' ever put to film.

What the film is less remembered for is the epic speech delivered by Jones at the beginning of the final act. With households and neighbourhoods in the firing line, Jones' Roarke delivers one of the best motivational speech in film history- "You don't like my plan, then give me another one. Just don't tell me we're pulling out." Hell yeah!