First we had Twister, then Volcano, The Perfect Storm and now an icy Day After Tomorrow. Natural disaster movies have long provided a soft target for critics. Yet when we look at these films more closely we can see that they have important things to say.

Anthropological research suggests that particular types of story arise when they provide a way of expressing socially relevant needs, desires and problems. In traditional cultures, folk stories and myths tell of heroes and villains, gods and devils, chance and fate. Such generic forms provide a way of thinking through the dilemmas and choices that confront not only individuals, but also whole societies.

The world's oldest known story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, concerns a great flood and its impact on Mesopotamian society several thousand years ago. This myth provided the basis for the Old Testament episode concerning Noah's Ark. This fable, which we pass on to our children today, can be seen as containing important messages about human responsibility for preserving species diversity and the interdependence of people with the land. It also points to the need to rebuild community. Noah’s time afloat represents a mythical journey from the old world of corruption and excess to a new world of moral purity.

Biblical natural disasters also play a role as a form of punishment - remember that the flood that Noah survived wiped out licentiousness. In the "Book of Revelations" we find natural disasters associated with the apocalyptic processes in which the damned are punished at the end of the world. In these sorts of stories the natural world is more than just a vehicle for supernatural vengeance and justice - it is also an agency through which surviving humans can learn about human arrogance and error. Nature, in other words is a sort of teacher.

In contemporary natural disaster films we find remarkably similar concerns dramatised and played out in ways that are accessible to the modern audience. The central concern of these movies is one that is fundamental to our continued existence on this planet. It is the question of learning to live with nature, on the one hand, and with science on the other.

Just as Biblical disasters punished those who worshipped mammon and false idols, films such as Twister, Dante’s Peak and The Day After Tomorrow preach against the unbridled worship of mammon and science. The heroes of these movies are scientists, but who rely as much on intuition as on scientific instruments. For example, in The Day After Tomorrow the charismatic climatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) uses his “gut feeling” to predict that there are survivors in New York, including his son who is held up in the New York Public Library. In Twister, Bill (Bill Paxton) is a meteorologist who can “feel” a tornado on its way before it has been detected by advanced technology.

The villains in these movies, by contrast, are those people who worship the false idol of technology in an uncritical way. This short-sighted approach puts other people’s lives at risk. In Dante's Peak it is Harry's boss who is unwilling to issue a warning (without positive scientific proof) because subsequent media attention would result in lost of tourist revenue. Eventually the scientific proof, that is the volcanic eruption, comes too late - for him at least. In The Day After Tomorrow it is the Vice President (Kenneth Welsh) of the United States who dismisses Jack’s prediction of the disastrous effects of climate change as “sensationalist” in light of conflicting scientific evidence.

These may be simple fables. But we shouldn't confuse being simple with being simplistic. The story lines of Twister, Dante’s Peak and The Day After Tomorrow speak of important issues. While these natural disaster films may not have the accumulated symbolic resonance of millennia old Biblical stories, they do at the very least provide a connection with these ancient and sacred traditions. They tell of the mystery and unpredictability of the natural world and of its ability to humble human arrogance. They tell of the need for humans to be open and honest with each other, rather than secretive and acquisitive. They call for the application of technology to be balanced with an appreciation of human community and spirituality. In a sense, then, they provide an environmentalist manifesto in a metaphorical form by helping us to think through issues of how to live with technology, nature and each other. In an era of greenhouse gases, ozone depletion and global pollution these are vital concerns.

Such themes are clearest in Volcano, where people need to overcome racial, class and age divisions to stop a tide of molten rock sweeping through central L.A. The story may be rather implausible, but the point is an important one for a city that has been torn by racial crisis.

It would be foolish to deny that these movies are amusing, popular entertainment. But we should not forget that the genre is also a contemporary manifestation of primordial mythologies which wrestle with issues that have endured for millennia. Perhaps it is this kind of fantasy situation that allows humans to rediscover the need for cooperation.

About the authors

Dr Philip Smith is the Associate Director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. Dr Brad West lectures in the Department of Sociology at Flinders University. Their research has explored the social meanings of natural disasters in Australia.

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