This study analyzes the film “San Andreas” through Ulrich Beck’s risk society theory and Barthes’ semiotic method. Beck argues that modern societies face escalating natural and technologically induced risks, with earthquakes standing out as disasters that cause severe destruction and long-term social consequences. These risks have increasingly drawn the attention of the film industry, leading to the production of earthquake-themed narratives. In this study, the film’s representations of earthquake-related dangers are examined through signifier, signified, and semiotic structures, focusing on the images, spaces, and associations that construct the film’s portrayal of risk. The analysis reveals that while earthquakes are natural phenomena, their impacts can be amplified by human actions and urban vulnerability. In conclusion, earthquakes are natural risks, but they can be triggered by man and can cause great destruction in settlements, and earthquakes involve risks that will lead to material losses, mass causalities, displacement, and broader social transformations.
Earthquake, risk society, semiotics, Ulrich Beck, Roland Barthes.