We like disaster content and extreme content
Flirting with death and destruction just to feel something
A shorter meditation this week.
I initially approached the topic of disaster movies and extreme sports documentaries with the intent to make an argument of sorts, or at least explore the phenomenon of society’s obsession over them in a question-and-answer format. However, it turns out that’s been written about a lot already, which suggests that quite a few people really do get their juices flowing by watching people struggle against the elements, be it in a fictional or real-world setting. So instead of asking “well, why?” I’ll just stick with the observation. We like to consume content about outrageous, life-threatening stuff from the comfort of our couches. We really do.
Personally speaking, the content that best proves this simple statement is the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow. In it, Dennis Quaid plays a climatologist who warns of a great environmental disaster, gets ignored by the powers that be, and then said environmental disaster occurs in dramatic fashion. As a plot driver, his son (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is trapped in the New York Public Library after a series of superstorms trigger a new ice age, and papa must trek across an icy North American tundra to reach him. The thin character development doesn’t really matter, because this is a Roland Emmerich film, which means Shit Goes Down and special effects make that shit look pretty cool. I mean, there are three gigantic hurricanes stretching across the northern hemisphere. Very large hail in Tokyo. A crazy tornado ripping Los Angeles to shreds. Massive flooding in New York. It’s pretty messed up! And pretty dramatic! In my opinion.
The Day After Tomorrow is but one in a celebrated line of mediocre disaster films. There’s 1996’s Twister. 1997’s Volcano. 1998’s twin big-rock-headed-for-Earth films, Armageddon and Deep Impact. 2003’s The Core. 2009’s 2012 (yep). San Andreas. Moonfall. On and on, in oceans, on land, inside the planet, out in space. Disaster is everywhere! How thrilling!
More recently, a genre of extreme sports documentaries has catered to the same sensibility in disaster movie fans, providing us with dramatic tales of borderline nutjobs who are seemingly unable to feel alive unless they’re in extreme danger. We’re talking climbing adventures like Meru, Free Solo, and The Alpinist. We’re talking a personal recent favorite of mine, 100 Foot Wave, in which surfers ride down—you guessed it—really big waves. Lots of times they make it down these waves intact. Other times they fall and get severely injured or nearly die. The footage is absolutely beautiful, and the wipeouts produce the same feeling I imagine appears in people who guiltily pray for 10-car pileups at a Nascar race. We like feats of seemingly superhuman strength and perseverance. We might like it even more to watch those attempts fall brutally short.
It’s possible this obsession is similar to the fascination with true crime, which took off in a big way the past decade thanks to Serial. It’s possible these feelings are why many (privileged) people thought the initial lockdowns due to COVID in March 2020 were somewhat exciting. It’s possible we’re so bored with day-to-day life that we need the prospect of tremendous danger, or even total annihilation—as long as we’re somewhat safely removed from it—to feel alive. Like I said, I’m not going to dig deep into the why. I’m just observing it in myself and the society in which I participate, and leaving it at that.
So, then. What’s your guilty disaster pleasure? Don’t pretend you don’t have one.
wait – twister fully slaps though???