Death as the Eye of the Storm

This chapter argues that disaster films, such as Geostorm (2017), have developed over the years to explore both ecological and anthropogenic fears concerning humanity’s extinction, specifically in the film’s exploration of disaster capitalism as the literal weaponization of the climate. Western society’s view of death as a ruthless adversary to be feared and conquered is magnified through these fears of extinction, thus the environment is depicted as a frightening foe that humans must either tame or destroy. In humanity’s fight against nature, the complicated entanglement between humans and nonhumans is further increased because an Anthropocentric lens is applied directly to the climate.