Matters of life and death are the most enthralling to audiences everywhere, whether it is in the real world or just something you watch through a screen. Who can forget the tragedy of The Titanic, or the saga of the missing submersible “Titan”. They are both breath-taking incidents, and a rich resource for authors to write novels like Moby Dick. It’s also the inspiration for several movies such as Titanic and Cast away. Find here the best ocean storm movies list that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Life of Pi – 2012
A fantasy movie directed by Ang Lee, starring Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan. It’s about Pi, the Indian storyteller who left his country with his family in the era of French-occupied India. They owned a zoo before their business fails and they decide to move to Canada. However, a violent storm hits their cargo ship and makes it sink. Pi was the only person who survived the storm, he took a lifeboat with some strange company from his father’s zoo, and fights for his life. His faith and hope keep him alive. The movie is a great addition to the best sea movies of all time list.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes.
Movie type: Adventure, Drama and Fantasy.
In The Heart Of The Sea – 2015
A biography movie starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and directed by Ron Howard. It’s our second entry in the best ocean storm movies list. The movie is about a real-life disaster that happened in 1820, when Essex, the New England whaling ship was attacked by a huge whale with a thirst for vengeance. The ship crew who survive the disaster go through a hard time to stay alive, having to fight off storms and starvation. The ordeal makes them question everything they knows about their beliefs, values and morales.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 2 minutes.
Movie type: Adventure, Action and Biography.
The Perfect Storm – 2000
Another one of the best sea storm movies directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly. The movie is about an unusually violent storm that hit the North Atlantic ocean and affected many fishing boats there, from the point of view of the crew in a fishing boat called Andrea Gail. The movie shows us every details of the fishing boat and how the crew manages to survive the storm, and go back home safely.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Movie type: Adventure, Action and Drama.
Geostorm – 2017
A sci-f movie and one of the best ocean storm movies created by Dean Devlin, starring Gerard Butler and Jim Sturgess. The movie is about a worldwide governmental project called “Dutch Boy”, made to protect Earth from the life-threatening effects of climate change. The project consists of a satellite net surrounding Earth, armed with a special technology designed to prevent all natural disasters. The project goes well for three years, but after that something wrong happens and a huge worldwide Geostorm that threatens everything hits Earth.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Movie type: Sci-fi, Action and Thriller.
Underwater – 2020
A movie directed by William Eubank, starring Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel. The movie is set in 2050 about a research facility established in Mariana Trench, called the Kepler 822, the facility was struck by an earthquake, causing a lot of damage to it. The scientific group inside it tried to find their way outside to survive, but they had to face challenges like 36 thousands feet underwater, and the huge pressure found at this point.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Movie type: Sci-fi, Action and Horror.
Adrift – 2018
A biography and one of the best ocean storm movies directed by Baltasar Kormákur, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin. The movie is about the true love story of a young couple named Tami and Richard. They lead a life of adventure and they decide to sail across the ocean, but their boat gets hit by a terrible hurricanes. Richard got injured, and Tami found herself in a difficult situation where she not only needs to survive, but she has also has to save the love of her life.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 36 minutes.
Movie type: Biography, Action and Adventure.
The Finest Hours – 2016
A history movie directed by Craig Gillespie, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, the movie about a horrible storm that hit the East Coast of New England in 1952. The storm destroyed an oil tanker near Cape Cod coast. The water is very cold and the waves are up to 570 feet high. In this dangerous situation, there are four coastguard members going on a small lifeboat to save more than 30 sailors from drowning. Could they succeed in their mission?
Movie Time: 1 hour and 57 minutes.
Movie type: History, Action and Drama.
Deepwater Horizon – 2016
A movie directed by Peter Berg, and one of the best ocean storm movies starring Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell. The movie is set in 2010 about an oil-drilling rig called Deepwater Horizon, established beside Mexico gulf for British Petroleum. The company’s executive managers give the crew an order to bypass the cement foundation of the oil rig, putting it at risk of an explosion. They may save money this way, but they are also risking the equipment and the crew’s life. Williams and Harrell from the crew defend their right to work in safe condition and fight against the managers’ greed, but they could still not prevent one of the worst disaster in U.S history.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes.
Movie type: History, Action and Drama.
Waterworld – 1995
An adventure movie directed by Kevin Reynolds, starring Kevin Costner, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. It’s about climate change, and how it affects the ice caps in the two poles and melts it. The water covers everything on Earth, and the people who survived the disaster try to adapt and find a way to stay alive. One of them is The Mariner who found himself responsible for a woman and a young girl, while they are all hunted by the Deacon.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Movie type: Sci-fi, Action and Adventure.
Titanic – 1997
One of the best sea movies of all time directed by James Cameron, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The movie is about the most famous ship sinking disaster of all time; the Titanic. It’s told from the point of view of one of the survivors, Rose, a 100-year-old lady who lived through the tragedy, and also met the love of her life onboard the sinking ship. Rose tells the full story that happened in 1912 to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, and the crew of the Keldysh ship who is going for a mission to find a rare gem that they believe sank with the Titanic.
Movie Time: 3 hours and 14 minutes.
Movie type: Drama and Romance.
Tomb Raider – 2018
An adventure movie directed by Roar Uthaug, starring Alicia Vikander and Dominic West. The movie is about Lara Croft, Lord Richard Croft’s daughter. Her father disappeared in mysterious circumstances, so Lara lives out her life away from his business empire, working as a bike courier. She tries to follow his tracks to a fabled tomb on an island near the Japanese coast, and goes on a dangerous adventure uncovering many secrets that could lead to him.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Fantasy.
Crawl – 2019
A horror movie and one of the best ocean storm movies directed by Alexandre Aja, and starring Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper. The movie is about Haley the swimmer. Haley ignored the evacuation orders after her hometown Florida was hit by a devastating category 5 hurricane, because she needed to rescue her father. She found her father, but he was wounded and trapped in his house because of the water, as well as an unusual enemy with strong jaws and 6 feet of length.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 27 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Horror.
Aquaman – 2018
A fantasy movie and an adaptation from the comic book series. Directed by James Wan, starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard and Willem Dafoe. The movie is about Arthur Curry the man who discovered that he is half-human and half-Atlantean, not just that but also he is the heir to the undersea kingdom. However, first he had to face his evil half brother Orm who wants to unite the seven underwater kingdoms under his empire.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 23 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Fantasy.
Cast Away – 2000
One of the best sea movies of all time directed by Robert Zemeckis, and starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunts. The movie is about Chuck Noland the executive operation manager of FedEx, who went on Christmas day in 1995 on a business trip at the same night he got engaged to Kelly the love of his life. However, the aeroplane faces a storm and crashes on the pacific. Chuck survived using a lifeboat and found himself on the shore of a deserted island, with most of the packages that were on aeroplane. Chuck knows that his priority is to survive, by finding water, food, and a safe place to live, but as the time goes on, day after day, he misses his old life, especially his relationship with Kelly.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 23 minutes.
Movie type: Drama, Adventure and Romance.
Pacific Rim – 2013
A Sci-fi movie created by Guillermo del Toro, starring Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi. It’s about a life-threatening challenge for all of humanity that came from the sea, huge creatures called Kaiju. In order to fight these creatures, people created giant robots and called them Jaegers. This kind of robot is controlled by two human pilots locked together with a neural bridge, but even with this unusual weapon they still cannot defeat the Kaiju. People hope that Raleigh Becket and Mako Moriwho can drive a legendary Jaeger to victory.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 23 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Sci-fi.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – 2007 ‧
A movie directed by Gore Verbinski and is part of a legendary and well-known franchise. The movie is starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. It all starts with the epic loss of Jack Sparrow against Davy Jones, which motivates Will Turner’s team to get involved in a strong alliances to defeat Lord Cutler Beckett and rescue Jack Sparrow. However, it was not an easy mission.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Fantasy.
The Little Mermaid – 2023
An animation and one of the best ocean storm movies directed by Rob Marshall and starring Halle Bailey and Javier Bardem. The movie is about Ariel the young mermaid, and also the youngest daughter of King Triton. Ariel is so beautiful, and so curious to have knowledge and adventures. This makes her want to know more about the humans that live on land. She falls in love with a human prince, but she knows that he will not fall in love with her while she has a tail, so she makes a deal with Ursula the evil sea witch to replace her tail with a pair of legs. Could she get the prince’s attention now?
Movie Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Movie type: Family, Adventure and Fantasy.
The Impossible – 2012
A true story and one of the best sea storm movies directed by J.A. Bayona, starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. It’s about Maria and her husband Henry, who decide to go on a vacation with their three kids in Thailand during Christmas. They are thrilled to get a coastline villa with a pool, and everything seems wonderful for them. They all felt like they found a paradise until the coast is hit by tsunami, and in less than a second, everything turns upside down.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes.
Movie type: Drama, History and Thriller.
True Spirit – 2023
Another one of the best ocean storm movies created by Sarah Spillane, starring Alyla Browne and Teagan Croft. The movie is about Jessica the young sailor who lives most of her life with her family in a boat, even her education was about the ocean. She knows almost everything about sailing boats, and she is working very hard to make her dream come true by sailing around the world. She wants to be the youngest person on Earth who achieves this task, which only very few people could do.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Movie type: Drama, Biography and Adventure.
Kong: Skull Island – 2017
A fantasy movie directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, starring Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie is set in 1944 about Hank Marlow the American fighter pilot and Gunpei Ikari the Japanese fighter pilot who found themselves together on an island in the South Pacific, they fought each others until a giant ape forced them to stop fighting to escape with their lives. In 1973, the U.S. government sent Captain James Conrad from the British Special Air Service to discover an island they called Skull island. He went on this mission with a team including Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard, and his group of soldiers, with Mason Weaver the photographer, but they found themselves in a battle with the nature on this island.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 58 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Fantasy and Adventure.
The Abyss – 1989
A movie created by James Cameron, and one of the best ocean storm movies starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The movie is about a mysterious crash that destroyed an American nuclear submarine. The U.S government believes that the Russians are responsible for the incident. They hired a team of underwater drilling workers, but they informed the Navy SEALS about a UFO moving underwater. The SEALS thought that it was a Russian submarine, but after a while they realize that there is something different down there.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Movie type: Drama, Mystery and Adventure.
Swiss Family Robinson – 1960
A movie directed by Ken Annakin, starring John Mills and Dorothy McGuire. The movie is about a family that decided to travel by sea to New Guinea, but their ship crashed and the found themselves on a tropical island. They create their own home on the island. They know that they could not leave the island because of the ship’s damage and the pirates presents everywhere. They start exploring the place surrounding them, and find a way to survive and live together peacefully.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes.
Movie type: Family and Adventure.
Jaws – 1975
A famous Steven Spielberg movie, and one of the best sea movies of all time starring Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw. The movie is about Amity Island, and the people living on it. They are a small community, and the sea is the most important part of their life, but when Martin Brody the new sheriff finds human remains that look like a shark attack victim, he want to prevent swimming in the sea. The Mayor Larry Vaughn finds it a bad idea that could affect the local business, but again they found another victim which was a young boy. The boy’s mother offered a big prize to whomever can kill the shark and soon the sea became full of bounty hunters.
Movie Time: 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Movie type: Mystery, Thriller and Adventure.
Deep Blue Sea – 1999
A Sci-fi movie you may like if you are a fan of the best sea movies of all time. The movie is directed by Renny Harlin and starring Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s about a billionaire that spent about 200 million dollars on Alzheimer’s research to find a cure for it. He hired the medical biologist Susan McAlester to do the job, and she had an insane idea for that. She genetically modified a shark’s brain to become bigger, to harvest the enzymes she thinks could fight the disease, but the sharks became too smart and they hated the way people treated them in the research place and found a way to escape.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 45 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Sci-fi and Adventure.
Dunkirk – 2017
A WWII movie created by Christopher Nolan and starring Fionn Whitehead and Tom Hardy. The movie is a nice addition to the best sea movies of all time list, and it’s set in 1940 about the Dunkirk siege. 400 thousand British and French soldiers were surrounded by the German air force during WWII, and to escape this trap, the British government sent civilian boats for evacuation.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 46 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Drama and History.
Read also: Best Sea Battle Movies
Poseidon – 2006
An adventure movie directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Kurt Russell, about Poseidon the huge ship which travels on new year’s eve with more than 2000 person to the Atlantic Ocean for celebration. The ship crashes and few people survived, most of them decide to stick together to help each others, and wait for someone to rescue them, but Dylan Johns prefer to go by himself to find his way to safety. Some other passengers followed him on his way to the surface through the wreckage.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 38 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Adventure and Thriller.
47 Meters Down – 2007
A horror movie created by Johannes Roberts, and starring Mandy Moore and Claire Holt. It’s about Lisa and Kate, who decide to go on a vacation to Mexico to watch the sharks in deep water from inside a cage, but they start panicking when the sharks came too close to them. They tried to pull themselves up but the cable snaps and the cage falls down. They both have less than one hour of air in their tanks, and they lost communication with the surface while they are surrounded by sharks. Could they find their way back to safety?
Movie Time: 1 hours and 29 minutes.
Movie type: Horror, Mystery and Thriller.
Airport ’77 – 1977
If you like some of the best ocean storm movies you may also like this one. The movie is directed by Jerry Jameson, starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Grant, about Mr. Philip Steven the rich man who invites a group of VIPs to see his art collection on a plane in Florida, but the plane is hijacked and the pilot is forced by the hijackers to lower the altitude of the plane to avoid detection, while they steal the art treasures. However, the plane crashes on an oil rig and falls down into the Bermuda Triangle. Now it is time for the passengers and hijackers to unite together to stay alive and forget about everything else.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 54 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Drama and Thriller.
Open Water – 2003
A horror movie created by Chris Kentis, and starring Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis. It is about Daniel and Susan the happy couple who decide to go on a diving trip in the Caribbean, but they got enchanted by the deep water and the boat leaves without them. They get tired and the water flow strands them into the ocean. They tried to get anybody’s attention but they failed. The ordeal exhausts them and they get stung by jellyfish, and lose their temper, blaming each others for what happened, until people notice they didn’t come back and start a rescue operation to find them.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 19 minutes.
Movie type: Horror, Drama and Adventure.
All Is Lost – 2013
Another one of the best ocean storm movies list, created by J.C. Chandor and starring Robert Redford. It is about a man lost in the Indian ocean. When the man woke up he could not remember who he is, and he found himself on a yacht, the water leaking into it after colliding with a floating ship container. He still has a radio and navigation tools, but finds it too difficult to sail with a broken boat alone, facing a storm, while he cannot remember who he is, where he’s coming from, or where he wants to go.
Movie Time: 1 hours and 46 minutes.
Movie type: Action, Drama and Adventure.
