There is nothing quite as scary as the environment that you've surrounded yourself with since birth becoming the one thing you must fight against to survive. It is larger, it's been here longer, it knows how to adapt better, and it's got Mother Nature on its side.

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One of the most peaceful parts of being a human is knowing that the environment, for the most part, is predictable and calm. It is frightening when someone, or something, weaponizes that peace and turns the plants and oceans into something sinister. Whether it's aliens, the freezing sea, or even humans, the environment is a lot more terrifying than you think.

Okja (2017)

Okja and Mija hugging
Image via Netflix 

The current environmental climate poses many questions, one of which is: how will humans adapt to food scarcity in the future? Okja tackles this question and other theories about meat consumption in a heartwarming tale about a girl and her giant, mutated pig.

Okja weaponizes its environment in the way of genetically engineered animals, grown for human consumption as revolutionary meat products. The tale takes a turn for the worse when a kooky Mirando spokesperson, played by Jake Gyllenhaal in one of the best performances of his career, visits Mija to take her super-pig to New York. The chaos of a company hellbent on proving that Okja is tasty meat, rather than an empathetic animal, results in the public turning on the company and destroying its future.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

Crysta the fairy in FernGully.

Unlike most animated movies of its time, FernGully had strong environmental themes that caused an entire generation of children to want to treat the trees better. The movie takes place in a pristine rain forest, untouched by humans, and follows the fairy, Crysta, in her journey to protect it.

The fairies of FernGully believe that humans have gone extinct due to the dark spirit, Hexxus. Crysta explores a new part of the rainforest one day and finds a bat that claims it was experimented on by humans. When she investigates the humans cutting down her forest, Hexxus is unknowingly released when his tree is cut down and becomes stronger by feeding on pollution. The entire film is a beautiful ode to the dangers of the oil industry and timber wars of the 90s.

Titanic (1997)

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack and Kate Winslet as Rose on the wooden door at the end of Titanic.
Image via 20th Century Fox

Titanic became a giant in pop culture in 1997, after the release of James Cameron's dramatic and masterful film about the sinking ship. In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the voyage of the Titanic met its ill fate in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

Cameron's version of the film shines a light on the environmental aspects of Titanic's voyage. Thanks to years of unusually warm weather before the ship's sailing, the Atlantic became home to icebergs that may not have normally been there because of weakened glaciers. The freezing or near-freezing water is talked about as the deadliest enemy in the film when Jack tells Rose that it will hit like a thousand knives if she chooses to go overboard.

Annihilation (2018)

Natalie Portman investigating The Shimmer in Annihilation.

Annihilation weaponizes its environment in a different way than most movies, in that pollution and human behavior don't directly cause it– aliens do. In the movie, a biologist agrees to study the dangerous quarantined zone known as “The Shimmer,” where the laws of nature do not apply.

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It is how the alien zone causes a grotesque change in the environment that makes this film so eerie. Natalie Portman's character doesn't find a single thing that she is expecting. The plants are mutated, and the creatures are melded together into strange hybrids of multiple different animals and dying humans. All of which want her group dead.

Jumanji (1995)

Alan Parrish fights off a giant bird in Jumanji.
Image via Sony Pictures

Jumanji quite literally turns the environment into a terrifying rendition of itself. Whether it's a monsoon inside a home, or mosquitoes the size of hawks, the film struck terror into every young child in the 90s. And maybe even some adults too.

The thumping of the board game, Jumanji, became synonymous with the drums of a wild jungle that wanted to infiltrate Alan Parrish's every nightmare. By putting pieces of the jungle into Alan's small, cozy town, it became a chaotic battle between the ferocious wild and a bewildered 20th-century civilization.

Waterworld (1995)

The Mariner on his boat in Waterworld.

Waterworld is one of the most expensive odes to environmentalism ever made. After the ice caps melt in the future, most of the globe is underwater in the film. Very few humans survived, and even fewer have evolved to grow gills. Luckily, Kevin Costner's character was one of those humans, and he can fight the baddies.

Waterworld forced its people to adapt to a world filled with the precise thing they both need and fear most: large bodies of water. Evil groups of humans try to find the mythical Dryland, one of the only remaining islands in the world. It's kind of funny how even in the future, people will still try to conquer what isn't theirs.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Tsunami waves hitting NYC in The Day After Tomorrow.

The shot of Jake Gyllenhaal running from the tsunami-like storm waves in The Day After Tomorrow is one of the most memorable scenes in any disaster movie. It shows what the future might be like in the bustling cities of New York, where hundreds of thousands of people will have to flee at a moment's notice.

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This film is a quintessential environmental disaster film that touches on the subject of climate change and warming oceans. It opens with Jack, the paleoclimatologist, experiencing an ice shelf splitting away and then befriending an oceanographer who shares his same fears. A deadly storm hits where Jack's son is staying, and they must live out an intensely horrific ice storm, riddled with escaped zoo animals and life-threatening injuries. The real problem with this movie isn't how it weaponizes the environment though, it's how the movie ends in an unconvincing hopeful light, which just goes to show how little humans want to accept the irreversible dangers of it.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Nausicaa speaks to the gigantic bugs in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind takes place after an apocalyptic disaster has devastated most of the world. The world has become a series of toxic lands that are no longer habitable for any of the surviving humans.

Nausicaä lives in the Valley of the Wind though and can speak with the giant insects that populate the dangerous jungles. Like many Studio Ghibli films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is shrouded in warnings about environmental catastrophes and tells the tale of humans striving for peace with their environment.

Soylent Green (1973)

In the lab of Soylent Green.

Soylent Green's over-populated and starving New York City shows just how desperate humans can get. NYPD detective, Robert Thorn, begins investigating the rations manufacturer, Soylent Corporation, only to find his investigation is leading him down a much darker path.

When the environment can no longer sustain a population, things will get a little freaky. Or at least, that's what Soylent Green believes. That's why their rations are made from soy, lentils, and, well, dead human bodies. After all, recycling is excellent for the environment. The film's take on eco-horror sends the important message that humans will end up dooming themselves into using each other if they continue on their path of over-consumption.

The Happening (2008)

Mark Wahlberg and Zoey Deschanel in The Happening.
Image via 20th Century Studios

The Happening opens with the inexplicable deaths of people spreading throughout the country, despite nothing seemingly being wrong. There is no smell in the air, no deadly storms, and no aliens or monsters. In fact, it's the trees that are killing people.

While many M. Night Shyamalan fans (and critics) describe this film as being a little too out-there, and generally gave the film a negative reception, The Happening weaponizes the environment in a particularly terrifying way. It is precisely because there doesn't seem to be any threat that makes the random deaths so scary. When you can't see the threat, there is no real way to conquer it.

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