This week’s big movie pits The Rock against an earthquake, which sounds like a WWE match that never happened between Dwayne Johnson and John Tenta (aka Earthquake). Instead, it’s a below-average disaster movie, in which the entire San Andreas Fault goes off and destroys Los Angeles, San Francisco and Bakersfield — and presumably many other cities we don’t see — while Johnson, playing a professional rescue worker, pretty much saves only his wife and daughter (Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario) during the catastrophe.
This is not a movie that inspires discussion outside of its many inaccuracies, and there’s not enough going on outside the destruction to evoke much outside of the disaster movie genre. I didn’t want this just to be a list of other earthquake movies, but that’s at least a third of what you’re getting. Not just any, though. I’m not recommending 1974’s Earthquake, for instance, and not just because I’ve actually never seen it. Any disaster movies included below are there because of specific relevance and points to make about San Andreas or because they’re more obscure and hopefully something you’ve never seen before.
Like a listicle version of Paul Giamatti‘s scientist in the new movie, I have to try to put out a warning: the comments on the following titles may spoil elements of San Andreas, in case you do have a desire to see it.
Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl (2002) and Bad Luck (2004)
First, let’s get to know San Andreas director Brad Peyton, who we showed great promise early in his career with Tim Burton-like shorts. Evelyn, his thesis film, is his most recognized work from that time, sort of a live-action cartoon about a lonely dead girl in search of friends. Bad Luck (aka A Tale of Bad Luck) is actually a music video for the song “Bad Luck” by Royal City, but it’s also a stop-motion-animated short about a teddy bear who selfishly abandons his doll girlfriend when a tornado approaches. I wonder if Peyton had the film in mind while making San Andreas, in which Ioan Gruffud plays a rich prick who selfishly abandons his girlfriend’s daughter when a natural disaster strikes.
Force Majeure (2014)
If you think Gruffud’s character in San Andreas is bad, consider that he at least thought about Daddario’s character for a few moments and seemed like he kinda wanted to help her, if he knew how without a chance of being crushed in the process. Not as bad as the father in this Swedish hit from last year (played by Johannes Kuhnke). He bolts out of presumed harm’s way without a single thought of his wife and kids, and that creates a lot of tension for the family for the rest of their ski vacation. The movie could have been all over very quickly had Gugino played the wife. Her character in San Andreas didn’t even want to discuss the matter. The situation called for immediate break-up (and maybe murder).
From One Second to the Next (2013)
San Andreas begins with a teenage girl getting into a car accident caused by falling rocks. Before the natural events that send her down a canyon in need of The Rock’s help, we are teased of her fate with a gag involving the girl texting while driving. It’s slightly humorous, but given how much of the movie turns out to be a PSA about earthquake preparedness and survival, its viewers deserve another PSA about the issue of texting and driving. Especially if there’s a great one directed by Werner Herzog. There is!
Straight Up: Helicopters in Action (2002)
If you were more interested in the opening sequence and The Rock’s character’s day-to-day rescues than the disaster movie stuff, you’ll probably appreciate this short documentary narrated by Martin Sheen. Directed by David Douglas (Island of Lemurs: Madagascar), the film was produced for IMAX screens (specifically the one at the National Air and Space Museum) but looks damn good on any screen as it follows a bunch of helicopter-based missions, including rescues in the mountains and at sea.
Though the Earth Be Moved (1964)
During Giamatti’s character’s Caltech class lecture, he mentions the 1964 earthquake in Alaska, still the worst in U.S./North American history. Some of the footage he presents might have come from this short film produced by the U.S. Office of Civil Defense, which documents the 72 hours following the disaster, including their own and the military’s response. You’ll notice that like the earthquake in San Andreas, this real one produced a devastating tsunami. Unlike the one in San Andreas, this tsunami was (obviously) scientifically accurate.
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