The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roland Emmerich
Produced by	Roland Emmerich Mark Gordon
Written by	Roland Emmerich Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring	Dennis Quaid Jake Gyllenhaal Emmy Rossum Ian Holm Sela Ward Sasha Roiz
Music by	Harald Kloser
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Editing by	David Brenner
Studio	Centropolis Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	May 26, 2004 (2004-05-26) United States (United States) May 28, 2004 (2004-05-28)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$125 million
Gross revenue	$544,272,402[1]

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in a new ice age. It did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally. Domestically, it is the sixth highest grossing movie not to be #1 in the US box office (behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sherlock Holmes, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs), but worldwide, it is third behind only Ice Age 3 and Casino Royale. The movie was filmed in Montreal, and is the highest grossing Hollywood film in history to be filmed in Canada (if adjusted for inflation).

The Day After Tomorrow premiered in Mexico City on May 17, 2004 and was released worldwide from May 26 to May 28 except in South Korea and Japan where it was released June 4 and June 5, respectively. The film was originally planned for release in summer 2003. The film made $110,000,000 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $654,771,772.^[2]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 5 Criticism 6 Home media 6.1 Releases 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Reviews from Climate Change Skeptics

Plot

Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is a paleoclimatologist who is on an expedition in Antarctica with two colleagues, Frank (Jay O. Sanders) and Jason (Dash Mihok), drilling for ice core samples on the Larsen Ice Shelf for the NOAA when the ice shelf breaks off from the rest of the continent, and Jack almost falls to his death. Jack presents his findings on global warming at a United Nations conference in New Delhi where diplomats, including the Vice President of the United States, (Kenneth Welsh), are unconvinced by Jack's theory.

However, Jack's concerns resonate with Professor Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) of the Hedland Climate Research Centre in Scotland. Two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a massive drop in the ocean temperature, and Rapson concludes that melting of the polar ice has begun disrupting the North Atlantic current. He contacts Jack, whose paleoclimatological weather model holds reconstructional data of the climate change that caused the first Ice Age, to predict what will happen. Jack believed that the events would not happen for a hundred or a thousand years, but he, Frank, Jason, and NASA's meteorologist Janet Tokada (Tamlyn Tomita) build a forecast model with his, Rapson's, and Tokada's data.

Across the world, violent weather causes mass destruction, including a snowstorm greatly impacting New Delhi, a hailstorm ultimately destroying Tokyo, Japan, and a large outbreak of tornadoes wrecking Los Angeles. The U.S. President (Perry King), authorizes the FAA to suspend air traffic over the United States due to severe turbulence. The situation worsens when three massive hurricane-like blizzard superstorms begin to form over the northern hemisphere, with their eyes pulling down super-cooled air that causes anything in contact with it to instantly freeze, thus heralding the predicted ice age in seven to ten days.

Meanwhile, Jack's son, Sam, (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in New York City for an academic competition with his friends Brian and Laura (Arjay Smith and Emmy Rossum), where they also befriend a student named J.D. On the flight over, there is severe turbelence, and Sam grabs Laura's hand in fright. During the competition, the weather becomes massively violent with intense winds and flooding rains. Sam calls his father, making a promise to be on the next train home. Unfortunately, the storm worsens, forcing subways and Grand Central Station to close. As the storm worsens in Manhattan, a tidal wave of overwhelimg size (up to the neck of the Statue of Liberty) impacts the island, causing major flooding. Sam and his friends are able to seek refuge in the New York Public Library.

While the survivors in the Northern United States are forced to stay inside due to the storm, the President orders to evacuate the southern half of the country, while Jack sets off for Manhattan to find his son, accompanied by Frank and Jason. Their truck crashes into a snow-covered tractor-trailer just past Philadelphia, so the group continues on snowshoes. During the journey, Frank falls through the glass roof of a snowbound shopping mall. As Jason and Jack try to pull Frank up, the glass under them continues to crack; Frank sacrifices himself by cutting the rope. The U.S. President's motorcade is fatally caught in the superstorm, leaving the U.S. Vice President in charge.

Inside the library, Sam advises everyone of his father's instruction to stay indoors. Few listen, and the small group that remains burns books to keep warm and breaks the library's vending machine for food. Laura is afflicted with blood poisoning, so Sam, Brian, and J.D. must search for penicillin in a Russian cargo ship that drifted inland, and are attacked by escaped wolves from the New York Zoo. The eye of the superstorm begins to pass over the city with its −150 °F (−101 °C) temperatures, and the entire New York City skyline begins to freeze. The three return to the library with medicine, food, and supplies, making it to safety.

During the deep freeze, Jack and Jason take shelter in an abandoned Wendy's, then resume their journey after the storm dissipates, finally arriving in New York City. They find the library buried in snow, but find Sam's group alive and are rescued by Chinook helicopters. The new President orders search and rescue teams to look for other survivors, having been given hope by the survival of Sam's group. The movie concludes with two astronauts looking down at Earth from the International Space Station, showing most of the northern hemisphere covered in ice, and a major reduction in pollution.

Cast

• Dennis Quaid as Professor Jack Hall, government climatologist and father of Sam Hall.
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Sam Hall, teenage son of Jack and Lucy Hall.
• Emmy Rossum as Laura Chapman, love interest and classmate of Sam Hall.
• Ian Holm as Professor Terry Rapson, colleague of Jack Hall stationed in Scotland.
• Christopher Britton as Vorsteen, associate of Jack.
• Arjay Smith as Brian Parks, best friend and classmate of Sam Hall.
• Dash Mihok as Jason Evans, friend and colleague of Jack.
• Jay O. Sanders as Frank Harris, friend and colleague of Jack.
• Sasha Roiz as Parker, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.
• Sela Ward as Dr. Lucy Hall, Doctor, wife of Jack and mother of Sam.
• Austin Nichols as J.D., rival turned friend of Sam.
• Adrian Lester as Simon, colleague and friend of Terry Rapson.
• Tamlyn Tomita as Janet Tokada, Hurricane specialist for NASA, colleague of Jack Hall.
• Glenn Plummer as Luther, a homeless man in NYC.
• Perry King as President Blake, President of the United States.
• Kenneth Welsh as Raymond Becker, Vice President of the United States, later President of the United States.
• Amy Sloan as Elsa, a woman who remains in the library and survives with the group.
• Sheila McCarthy as Judith, the librarian.
• Nestor Serrano as Gomez, Director of NOAA.

Production

The movie was inspired by The Coming Global Superstorm, a book co-authored by Coast to Coast AM talk radio host Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. Strieber also wrote the film's novelization. The book "The Sixth Winter" written by Douglas Orgill and John Gribbin published in 1979 follows a similar theme. So does the novel "Ice!" by Arnold Federbush, published in 1978.

Shortly before and during the release of the movie, members of environmental and political advocacy groups distributed pamphlets to moviegoers describing what they believe to be the possible effects of global warming. Although the film depicts some effects of global warming predicted by scientists, like rising sea levels, more destructive storms, and disruption of ocean currents and weather patterns, it depicts these events happening much more rapidly and severely than is considered scientifically plausible, and the theory that a "superstorm" will create rapid worldwide climate change does not appear in the scientific literature. When the film was playing in theaters, much criticism was directed at politicians concerning the Kyoto Protocol and climate change. The film's scientific adviser was Dr. Michael Molitor, a leading climate change consultant who worked as a negotiator on the Kyoto Protocol.

Reception

The movie generated mixed reviews from both the science and entertainment communities. The online entertainment guide Rotten Tomatoes has rated the movie at 45%, with an average rating of 5.3/10.^[3] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film's special effects, giving the film three stars out of four. Environmental activist and Guardian columnist George Monbiot called The Day After Tomorrow "a great movie and lousy science."^[4]

In a USA Today editorial by Patrick J. Michaels, a Research Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, and global warming skeptic, Michaels called the movie "propaganda," noting, "As a scientist, I bristle when lies dressed up as 'science' are used to influence political discourse."^[5] In a Space Daily editorial by Joseph Gutheinz, a college instructor and retired NASA Office of Inspector General, Senior Special Agent, Gutheinz called the movie "a cheap thrill ride, which many weak-minded people will jump on and stay on for the rest of their lives."^[6] Paleoclimatologist William Hyde of Duke University was asked, on rec.arts.sf.written, whether he would be seeing the film; he responded that he would not unless someone were to offer him $100. Other readers of the newsgroup took this as a challenge, and (despite Hyde's protests) raised the necessary funds. Hyde's review, which criticized the film's portrayal of weather phenomena that stopped at national borders, and finished by saying that it was "to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery", was quoted in New Scientist.

In 2008, Yahoo! Movies listed The Day After Tomorrow as one of Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies.^[7] The film was criticized for depicting several different meteorological phenomena occurring over the course of hours, instead of the possible time frame of several decades or centuries.^[8]

Over its 4-day Memorial Day opening, the film grossed $85,807,341, however it still ranked #2 for the weekend, behind Shrek 2's $95,578,365 4-day tally, however The Day After Tomorrow led the per-theater average chart with a 4-day average of $25,053, compared to Shrek 2's 4-day average of $22,633. At the end of its box office run, it grossed $186,740,799. Its worldwide gross was $542,771,772.^[9]

Criticism

There was some controversy regarding the casting of Kenneth Welsh as the Vice-President of the United States due to his striking physical resemblance to then Vice-President Dick Cheney. Roland Emmerich later confirmed that he deliberately chose Welsh for that very reason. Emmerich stated that the characters of the President and Vice-President in the film were intended to be a not-so-subtle criticism of the environmental policies of the Presidency of George W. Bush. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the film.^[10]

In response to accusations of insensitivity by including scenes of New York City being destroyed, less than three years after the September 11th attacks, Emmerich claims that it was necessary to depict the event as a means to showcase the increased unity people now have when facing a disaster, because of 9/11.^[11][12][13]

A number of scientists were critical of the scientific aspects of the film:

• Daniel P. Schrag, a paleoclimatologist and professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University expressed both support and concern about the film, stating that "On the one hand, I'm glad that there's a big-budget movie about something as critical as climate change. On the other, I'm concerned that people will see these over-the-top effects and think the whole thing is a joke. . . . We are indeed experimenting with the Earth in a way that hasn't been done for millions of years. But you're not going to see another ice age – at least not like that."
• Marshall Shepherd, a research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center expressed similar sentiments, stating that "I'm heartened that there's a movie addressing real climate issues. But as for the science of the movie, I'd give it a D minus or an F. And I'd be concerned if the movie was made to advance a political agenda."
• Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at the University of Victoria said, "It's The Towering Inferno of climate science movies, but I'm not losing any sleep over a new ice age, because it's impossible."^[10]

Home media

Releases

• It was first released on DVD in North America on October 12, 2004, in both widescreen and full screen versions. It also had a limited VHS release with a full screen format.
• A 2-disc "collector's edition" containing production featurettes, two documentaries: a "behind-the-scenes" and another called "The Forces of Destiny", as well as storyboards and concept sketches were also included. It was released on May 24, 2005.
• It was released in high-definition video on Blu-ray Disc in North America on October 2, 2007, and United Kingdom on April 28, 2008, in full 1080p with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track, however with few bonus features. The film made $110,000,000 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $652,771,772.^[2]

See also

• Fifty Degrees Below, a Kim Stanley Robinson novel in which greenhouse warming similarly disrupts the Gulf Stream; the rate of cooling is somewhat less exaggerated.
• Superstorm, a 2007 miniseries.
• Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow, an episode of South Park that parodies the film.
• "The Midnight Sun," an episode of The Twilight Zone in which Earth is rapidly heating.
• Time of the Great Freeze, a novel by Robert Silverberg about a second Ice Age.
• The Coming Global Superstorm, a book on which the movie is based.
• The World in Winter, a 1962 book by John Christopher about the beginning of a new ice age.
• Storm of the Century (1993)
• Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
• 2012
• Knowing

References

External links

• The Day After Tomorrow at the Internet Movie Database
• The Day After Tomorrow at Allmovie
• The Day After Tomorrow at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004) at Yahoo! Movies
• anon (2004-05-26). "The Day After Tomorrow Review". CoolJunkie.com. http://www.cooljunkie.com/movies/the_day_after_tomorrow_review_2075.html. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 
• Scientific explanations of movie scenes on cisci.net Cinema and Science (CiSci)

Reviews from Climate Change Skeptics

• Patrick J. Michaels (2004-05-24). "'Day After Tomorrow': A lot of hot air". USA Today. http://usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-05-24-michaels_x.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 

Films directed by Roland Emmerich 1980s Das Arche Noah Prinzip (1984) · Joey (1985) · Hollywood-Monster (1987) 1990s Moon 44 (1990) · Universal Soldier (1992) · Stargate (1994) · Independence Day (1996) · Godzilla (1998) 2000s The Patriot (2000) · The Day After Tomorrow (2004) · 10,000 BC (2008) · 2012 (2009) 2010s Anonymous (2011)