5 best disaster movies to watch while waiting out a typhoon in Hong Kong
When heavy winds and rain hit the city, there’s a great way to survive – curled up under a duvet to watch movies such as The Day After Tomorrow, Twister and Contagion
When a typhoon hits Hong Kong there’s nothing to do but hunker down at home and safely wait out the storm. But how do you stave off cabin fever while you count the hours until the wind and rain have passed?
We suggest doubling down on the extreme weather phenomenon and going all-in on an entertaining disaster film.
So if a T8 has got you down and you want a taste of how bad things could be, try one of these films.
The Day After Tomorrow
This 2004 environmental disaster release stars Dennis Quaid as a paleoclimatologist who needs to rescue his son just as global warming is having a catastrophic impact on the world. Cue a storm surge flooding Manhattan, Los Angeles being devastated by tornadoes and Tokyo blasted by a giant hailstorm.
One of the few disaster films to feature concerns about global warming, The Day After Tomorrow may exaggerate the immediate dangers, but it feels increasingly prescient as the years go by. It might be scary if it weren’t an equally engaging blockbuster.
Twister
If you’re not scared stiff by the, uh, stiff winds of a typhoon then try this ’96 classic. Twister follows a team of storm chasers looking to get an experimental machine into the heart of a tornado to learn more about the perilous phenomenon.
Human drama comes in the shape of Bill (Bill Paxton) and Jo (Helen Hunt), the now divorced couple tailing tornadoes all in the name of science (while maybe trying to patch things up on the side). The special effects may no longer be as innovative as they were 20 years ago but the suspenseful story still holds up.
The Towering Inferno