Weird realization...

[akk]

...on a Saturday evening:

I have yet to see an American catastrophe movie in which the dog dies.

Really, if there is a pet dog in the cast, odds are it survives unharmed.
Volcanic eruptions, torrential floods, avalanches, forest fires, meteorites...
...people may suffer and die, but the dog is fine!

Comments

[primera]

Yeah, it's totally a trope. I never thought about whether this trope is unique to america though! I wonder if there's some sociopsychological explanation. Having seen a fair amount of disaster movies in american theaters, I can testify that the audience is always VERY concerned when the dog is in danger, even moreso than when a person is in danger. I think the dog somehow.. represents hope, LOL.

[primera]

Oh, but I can think of one movie where the dog dies. In Jurassic Park II, the t-rex eats the dog.

[akk]

But JP-2 hardly qualifies as a disaster movie.
SciFi and/or Action/Adventure, but gengineered dinosaurs are still a tad removed from reality, therefore the claim holds.

...and I wonder what it says about a people, when the people are more concerned about the dogs than the people...

...aside from the fact that it takes some (if not most) of the thrill out of the plot (if there is one) in that sort of movies.