Top 10 Disaster Movies Pictures

Titanic

It may have shocked those boarding RMS Titanic in 1912 to discover that they were about play their part in movie history, but then they were probably fairly surprised to hear about the iceberg too. Ironically, James Cameron's disaster movie turned out to be one of the most successful films ever made, and the single highest-grossing release ever. This despite - or maybe because - no one pitching up at cinemas during the opening weekend in December 1997 was in any doubt about how it was going to end. ("Well done, Captain. Thought for a moment that iceberg was going to do for us.") There are plenty of odds stacked against the film's success. Kate Winslet is at her most snooty. Leonardo DiCaprio was never less plausible than as a roving, penniless artist. Those horrible below-deck dance sequences. "King of the world!" And yet that sinking sequence is shamelessly spectacular, and the sheer size of the operation renders resistance futile. It's the stadium rock of filmmaking, and by the time we get to the end, the damn thing has done exactly what it was meant to, which is to get you rummaging around for a hankie.

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