A Look Back at L.A.’s Greatest Hits

It’s survived fire, floods, riots, acid rain and earthquakes--not to mention giant ants, martian attacks and several nuclear explosions.

Now, Los Angeles--the city filmmakers love to annihilate--is about to endure another on-screen assault, when director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell unleash “Escape From L.A.” this summer.

The thought of yet another L.A. disaster tale may give some residents pause, given the city’s recent spate of nonfictional crises. But even at its worst, reality hasn’t quite reached the heights of Hollywood’s tallest L.A. stories.

A few past high points, in chronological order:

“Mighty Joe Young” (1949): Decades before Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” documented the Sunset Strip’s seedy glamour, this junior King Kong (created by stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen) trashes a swanky Sunset nightclub with a flair even Jim Morrison couldn’t match.

“The War of the Worlds” (1953): Out-of-town tourists have a blast downtown when Mars’ Red Army pays a visit in producer George Pal’s loose adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel (which--surprise--used England, not L.A., as its battleground). Architectural highlight: the aliens’ zapping of City Hall after creating street-size craters unimagined in pre-MTA L.A.

“Them!” (1954): Los Angeles becomes the ultimate picnic table when the city sewers are invaded by nuke-enhanced ants the size of Chryslers. “Miracle on 34th Street’s” Edmund Gwenn sheds his Kriss Kringle suit for a scientist’s microscope, while a pre-Spock Leonard Nimoy turns up as a Teletype operator.

“Kiss Me Deadly” (1955): Director Robert Aldrich’s ultra-violent crime story inspired by Mickey Spillane offers the last word in explosive finales: the beach-side detonation of a stolen nuclear weapon (“Pandora’s box”) that presumably wipes out bad guys and nominal hero Mike Hammer.

“Alex in Wonderland” (1970): Nine years before Steven Spielberg unleashed a military assault on Hollywood Boulevard (see below), director Paul Mazursky staged a smaller-scale Army attack on the Walk of Fame, in this Fellini-influenced fantasy about the visions of a stressed-out filmmaker (Donald Sutherland).

“Earthquake” (1974): “This used to be a hell of a town,” Lloyd Nolan muses to (who else?) George Kennedy, after the Big One levels Los Angeles--unleashing sex-crazed cops (Marjoe Gortner), repentant adulterers (Charlton Heston, Genevieve Bujold) and bemused winos (Walter Matthau).

“The Day of the Locust” (1975): They don’t give out-of-control movie premieres like they used to. In this adaptation of Nathanael West’s novel about Hollywood excess, rowdy fans turn a Tinseltown bash into a casualty-filled, flesh-stomping riot.

“1941” (1979): Steven Spielberg meticulously re-creates World War II-era Los Angeles only to blow it halfway to hell in this raucous and once-reviled comedy about Angeleno wartime hysteria. Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Tim Matheson and Nancy Allen are a few of the stars ducking for cover. Architectural highlights: pre-”Jurassic Park” dinosaurs in the La Brea tar pits, a soldiers’ brawl at the Hollywood Canteen and Belushi’s eye-popping aerial dogfight over Grauman’s Chinese.

“Blade Runner” (1982): With its images of a glitzy neon apocalypse, director Ridley Scott’s futuristic drama may be the most influential L.A. movie of the last two decades. Acid rain never looked so romantic, as Harrison Ford stalks killer androids through an overpopulated Chinatown and beyond.

“Miracle Mile” (1989): Despite a title Frank Capra would love, this feel-bad thriller delivers yet another nuclear apocalypse to the City of Angels, as Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham flee the bright lights of Wilshire Boulevard (including another trip to the La Brea tar pits) in a fruitless effort to escape the Bomb.

“Short Cuts” (1993): The emotional fissures of some all-star Angelenos--from Andie MacDowell to Jack Lemmon--unlock a climactic earthquake that tidily unites director Robert Altman’s multiple plots.

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So why has Los Angeles proved so popular for on-screen target practice?

Author and film historian Rudy Behlmer (“Hollywood’s Hollywood: The Movies About the Movies”) ascribes part of its allure to “the Sodom and Gomorrah aspect” of the city: “In a place people think of as glamorous--the dream factory, a place of fame and success--the apocalypse has a certain ironic significance.

“Los Angeles is Fantasyland--and what better place to have a fantasy catastrophe?”