The big trend in disaster movies began in 1972 with The Poseidon Adventure, when Gene Hackman starred in a film featuring a cruise liner that was tipped upside down by an enormous tsunami. Two years later, a star-studded cast, led by Charlton Heston, struggled to survive after Los Angeles was hit by an earthquake.

Sean Connery starred in Meteor in 1979 and 1980 saw Paul Newman fleeing from a volcano in When Time Ran Out. In the mid-1990s, there was a renaissance for the disaster movie, as special effects became increasingly convincing. Bill Paxton chased tornadoes in 1996’s Twister, while George Clooney tried to get away from bad weather in 2000's The Perfect Storm.

In 1997 there were volcanoes erupting all over both Pierce Brosnan, in Dante’s Peak, and Tommy Lee Jones, in Volcano. In 1998, Armageddon and Deep Impact both featured giant meteorites on a collision course with Earth – perhaps they should have called Sean Connery for some advice. In 2004, the big story was rapidly melting ice-caps, with Dennis Quaid trying to save the planet from global warming so we’d make it to The Day After Tomorrow.