So an amusing little tidbit before I begin my review: while I was taking notes for this movie, I could not, for the life of me, remember anyone's name so I would refer to them as "DQ" or "Jake" or "Emmy" or "Sela" until I figured out their character's name. I did figure out Dennis Quaid's characters's name was Jack and Jake Gyllenhaal's character's name was Sam within the first half hour, but it took me a long time before I figured out Emmy Rossum's character's name was Laura and I'm still not sure what Sela Ward's character's name is...Helen, maybe? I'll have to double check that. Also, it wasn't till the last half hour of the movie that I figured out Sam's nerd friend's name was Brian, and not Charlie, which is what I referred to him as for some reason while I was taking notes. It just cracks me me up that I couldn't remember anyone's name.
This movie, about severe climate change that causes a new Ice Age across the globe, has a few different storylines going on at once as certain doom (and a blanket of snow) covers the Earth. We have three members of the Hall family, two of which we are mostly following. There is Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), the paleoclimatologist, who predicts the Ice Age and is the one to brief the POTUS about what they need to do. His high school-age son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in Manhattan (I think the Hall family lives in D.C, but I wasn't 100% sure about that) with some fellow classmates to compete in an academic decathlon. Then there's Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward - yeah, I don't know where I got Helen!), Jack's wife, or maybe she's his ex-wife. I wasn't really sure. There's this scene that made me think that they might be exes, but it's never brought up. I mean, it honestly really doesn't matter. We have a snowstorm to worry about! We also follow a British scientist and two of his colleagues, but they will die respectfully towards the middle of the movie. Oh, and we see a few scenes with astronauts on the ISS, but they're just there so they can send photos back to NASA and we, the audience, can see the entire planet just covered in snow and ice.
Let's start with Jack's storyline first since he's the one to warn about the upcoming doom. The movie begins in Antarctica with Jack and two of his colleagues (and I had a hell of a time remembering their names so I would refer to them as "younger guy" and "older guy", but now I know that Frank is the older guy and Jason is the younger guy) drilling in the snow and ice. I don't know what they're doing, but while they're drilling, the ice cracks and a huge chasms appears. In a really ridiculous scene, Jack jumps from one side to the other to retrieve some tubes which I'm assuming hold very important information, but so important to risk your life? Of course, the chasm is growing even wider, so he will have to jump a wider distance with all these metal tubes in his arms. What a dumbass. He should have died right here. Of course, since Dennis Quaid is first billed in the movie, I knew he wouldn't. I had seen this movie before, but not for a very long time and couldn't remember if he died at the end of the movie. I knew they wouldn't kill his son, it would definitely be the father sacrificing his life is anyone had to die. But five minutes into the movie? Yeah, he's not dying here. Even though he can't use his arms for momentum, he manages to jump over this wide, gaping hole that not even a gold medal-wining long jumper could leap over. Settle in, gang! You're in for a Roland Emmerich disaster movie! Now, they do make it "suspenseful" because after he lands on the other side, he immediately falls, but he's able to use his ice pic to hang on and have his friends pull him back up. There's no way that thing would have held him. He should be dead....he actually should have fallen because there's no way he could have made that jump in the first place.
Next, we see him presenting at a UN conference on global warming in New Delhi and tells them "what we have found locked in these ice cores is evidence of a cataclysmic climate shift which occurred around 10,000 years ago. The concentration of these natural greenhouse gases in the ice cores indicates that runaway warming pushed the planet into an ice age which lasted two centuries." I promise that will be the nerdiest sentence that I quote from this film! He goes on to say that global warming can trigger a cooling trend and that the northern hemisphere gets its temperate climate from the North Atlantic Current and they could see another Ice Age. When asked when he thinks this could happen, he replies, "Maybe in a hundred years, maybe in a thousand." Something tells me it could happen a lot sooner than he thinks! He says if they don't act soon, their children and grandchild will have to pay the price. The Vice President, who is clearly supposed to be based on Dick Cheney, tells him this will cost the world's economy "hundreds of billions of dollars" and who will pay for that and Jack reports that "the cost of doing nothing could even be higher and the VP says the economy is just as important as the environment (but you know he was thinking it was more important, lol).
Outside, we see that it is snowing, which is a bit unusual for New Delhi. Could it be foreshadowing? A man introduces himself as Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) and asks Jack is he could talk to him about his theory on "abrupt climate shift." Jack knows him from the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland (not a real thing; I know cuz I Googled it!) and says he read his work on ocean currents. That must have been a riveting read!
Terry has his own (much smaller) storyline with his two colleagues. Some of his storyline correlates with Jack because he's keeping him up to date on their findings. For instance, the temperature has dropped 13 degrees not far off the eastern coast of the U.S. Rapson calls Jack to tell him his theory is coming to fruition (much sooner than he thought!).
So the scene where I thought Jack was divorced from his wife is when Lucy calls Jack to tell him she wants him to pick up Sam (their son) and take him to the airport since he's competing with the Scholastic Decathlon Team in New York. Jack is in an apartment when he answers the call and why would he need to pick up Sam if he lived at home? Again, it really doesn't matter, but just found it interesting. There also seems to be a strained relationship between Jack and his son. We find out that Jack travels a lot for his job (hell, we just saw he was in Antarctica and India in the first ten minutes of this movie!) so I'm guessing he's not always around when his son needs him and perhaps Sam resents him for that.
L.A. has been completely destroyed. The news anchor announces that the FAA has ordered all planes to land, though it was too late for two planes that crashed in the Midwest due to turbulence. I know this isn't terrorism, but this feels a little too close to 9/11, especially since this movie came out only three years later.
At a meeting with important figures, we find out "The Canadians are reporting tremendous circulation moving down from the Arctic" and "Australia saw the strongest typhoon ever recorded." Everyone's wondering what could cause all this and Jack tells them how he thinks the current has changed. At this, everyone starts murmuring. He says that because of melting polar ice, a lot of fresh water has been dumped into the ocean, which is bad, but things are going to get worse and they're "on the verge of a major climate shift." Again, more murmuring from the crowd. All the murmuring in this scene cracks me up! Every time he says something dramatic, everyone just starts murmuring!
Jack is told by the President...or maybe it was the Vice President, I don't remember, that he has forty-eight hours to come up with a presentation to prove his theory. Is this referring to the movie's title? The day after tomorrow is 48 hours.
After some quick research with some help, Jack tells the VP that they're looking at a 6-8 week time frame and they need to start thinking about a large scale evacuation especially in the northern states and that if they "don't act now, it's going to be too late."
Jack has managed to reconnect with his wife/ex-wife and they are both upset because they can't reach their son, but Sam will eventually call home from a payphone and Jack is going to get him. Keep in mind it's snowing everywhere and the entire northern hemisphere is covered in snow and ice.
But before he can go fetch his son, he needs to brief the President. He tells the leader of the free world and his cabinet that the "superstorm will last seven to the days" and when it's over, "ice and snow will cover the entire Northern Hemisphere. Well those Southern Hemisphere residents sure are lucky! He says they need to head south as soon as possible. When he said that, I was thinking he meant the Southern Hemisphere, but no, he means Mexico...which is in Northern Hemisphere. I guess it's only the northern Northern Hemisphere that's gonna get really bad? Jack draws a line right through a map of the U.S. that's hanging on the wall and tells them they need to evacuate everyone south of it and that it's too late for the people north of it. Of course I had to pause the movie to see if I had a chance, and nope, Omaha was above the line so I would be f***ed! But New York is even more north than Omaha, so good luck to Jack trying to rescue his son! I went back to read my review of Deep Impact to see if I would survive the asteroid and I do, so at least I'm not dead in both of these scenarios!
When it's time for Jack to go get his son, Frank and Jason join him. One of them has a compass to tell them where they are. And it's one of those old fashioned ones that I certainly wouldn't be able to use. I mean, it's still an electronic one. It's not one that has a magnetic needled that points to N, E, S, W. It's NOT that archaic! No Google Maps in 2004! I guess it's a good thing they have a compass because everything looks the same outside since everything is blanketed in snow. They're around Philly when their truck crashes in a snow bank. I know they have 4WD, but how are they driving in all this snow? Guess they'll have to walk the rest of the way! Good thing Jack brought snowshoes! According to Google Maps (which they didn't have!), it takes one day to walk from Philly to New York. (Not sure why anyone would want to walk between those two cities!)
They move on without their older colleague and without their equipment. (But, yet, they still have their tent, so I guess all their stuff wasn't in that huge duffel.) The weather is getting worse, but hilariously, neither of their faces are fully covered. Jack's attempt at covering his face is at least better because he has goggles and is wearing something over his mouth and nose, but the other guy is just wearing goggles. Nothing to cover any other part of his face. He would get frost bite in five seconds! Uh, I'm pretty sure in a situation like this, you would want your whole face completely covered. The elements have gotten so bad that they seek shelter in the kitchen of a fast food restaurant where they turn on the stove to get a fire going. Everything else is covered in ice and snow. At this point, they're forty miles away from Manhattan and Jack is a-rarin' to go!
In a tent they set up outside with the wind blowing (and that tent must have amazing insulation because I don't see a fire or anything that would keep them warm and dry and they've also shed their coats), Jason asks Jack what he thinks is going to happen to civilization and Jack replies, "Mankind survived the last Ice Age. We're certainly capable of surviving this one." Well, that's uplifting.
So they do eventually make it to Manhattan, but before I reveal if they rescue his son and his friends, let's now talk about Sam's storyline. Like I mentioned earlier, he's in New York to compete in an academic decathlon. The other members on his team is Brian (who I kept referring to as either "nerd kid" or, for whatever reason, "Charlie" - I seriously thought that was his name until the very end!) and Laura (Emmy Rossum), who he has a crush on and she's the only reason he joined the team even though he's super smart and I'm sure he would have been recruited to join anyway.
When they arrive, they see thousands of birds flying (probably south!); the animals seem to know something is up. At the zoo, we see many of them are in distress and the wolves are howling. Yep, total foreshadowing. Even if you've never seen this movie, you probably at least know about the wolves!
While they're competing in the competition, the mass destruction is going on in L.A. and later we see them watching it all as it unfolds on TV. A storm's a-brewin' in Manhattan and Sam calls his dad to tell him the school is finding them a place to stay Jack tells him he wants his home now and Sam assures him he'll be on the next train tomorrow. Yeah, don't think that's happening!
One of the members they were competing against is a rich kid named J.D. (who I called "rich kid" because I didn't figure out his name until the end) who also has a crush on Laura. But don't worry, he realizes Sam likes her and tells him to tell her how he feels. Really unnecessary drama. He has invited Sam, Laura, and Brian to stay at his place.
Eve though the worst storm on record is happening outside, the kids go to the Natural History Museum. Makes perfect sense.
As they start trudging their way through the water to get to the library, Laura sees a woman with her baby stuck in a taxi. A cop is telling her what to do, but she doesn't understand him because she speaks French. Luckily, Laura does too so she goes over to communicate with the woman and hep her out. On the way there, she slips and cuts her leg on something under the water. Sidenote: I bet this movie helped prepare Emmy Rossum for Poseidon!
We see the sea level is so high now that waves are crashing up over the Statue of Liberty and the water is covering nearly everything but her extended arm holding the torch. They can ruin the Hollywood sign, but don't you dare touch Lady Liberty!
Now there's a literal wall of water coming for everybody. I mentioned earlier that this movie coming out only three years after 9/11 still felt raw, but also keep in mind that it came out months before the terrible 2004 tsunami. This depressing movie just reminded me of how depressing our world is.
The library is packed with people and cell service doesn't seem to be working (what a surprise!) so Sam asks an employee (I love how people seem to still be working there even though there's total chaos going on outside; she's literally at her desk when he goes up to her) if there are any pay phones on the upper floor. She tells them there are some on the mezzanine, but they're underwater.
When Laura asks where he's going, he tells her that "older payphone draw their power directly from the telephone line." I'd be like..."okay, and...?"The two of them go down to the payphone (remember, this is 2004!) where the water is waist deep, but the phone is working. He gets through to his dad and Jack tells him to forget what he said about trying to get home. He warns him the storm is going to turn into "a massive blizzard" and not to go outside and to burn whatever he can to stay warm and to "try to wait it out" and that he will come for him. When he says that, his wife/ex-wife (who's there with him) gives him an "are you crazy?" look. Sam asks his mom if she can call his friends' parents to tell them that they're okay (at least for now!).
We get this absolutely ludicrous scene of a huge ship passing right by them outside. Would a ship really be able to through through the streets of New York? Because I seriously have my doubts. Underwater we see it stop when a bunch of submerged cars and busses halts its movement. Keep this ship in mind because it will come back later (well, duh, otherwise, what would be the point of it?).
One of the many people who are inside the library is a homeless man (although I'm sure he's not the only homeless person who's seeking shelter there) with a dog. When he takes the dog outside to do his business (I thought Jack said that if anybody goes outside they would freeze to death...or maybe he meant that would happen later....there's a lot of information to digest in this movie), the dog starts barking and the guy sees many people walking. He runs back inside to inform every that he sees hundred of people outside. Everyone looks out the windows and assume they're getting out of the city "before it's too late." Okay, but where are they gonna go? Manhattan was way above that line Jack drew on the map. A police officer asks when was the last time anybody got a signal on their phone and someone tells him she got through to her cousin in Memphis an hour ago and they're being evacuated. The officer says they should move out too and that "the water is frozen over enough to walk on." Sam doesn't think this is such a good idea and announces this to everyone, saying when he talked to his dad, they should stay inside. Nobody gives a hoot what his climatologist dad said! They start heading out because they want to get a head start before the storm gets worse. I bet they're all gonna die because they didn't listen to the smart kid with the dad who's a climatologist and knows everything about storms. Just a prediction!
At this moment, we get news reports saying that Mexican officials "closed the border" because "so many U.S. refugees are fleeing south in the wake of the approaching storm." I see what you're doing there, movie. Eventually, Mexico will allow Americans to cross because "the president was able to negotiate a deal to forgive all Latin American debt in exchange for opening the border." When we see the refuge camp in Mexico, it's snowing. The VP gets word that that President's motorcade was caught in the storm and they didn't make it. Well, no sh*t. Who can drive in this weather? So now Dick Cheney-lite is the President. (Are you surprised that I couldn't tell you the name of the President of VP in this movie?)
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, we see a bunch of helicopters from the Royal Air Force go down as they're flying through a terrible blizzard. I'm pretty sure they are picking up the Royal Family to bring them to safety. Looks like they're all screwed now. Poor Queen Elizabeth; dying eighteen years before the Good Lord was supposed to take her. At least at his point neither William or Harry have children (and aren't married) so at least those young lives are spared (although they were pretty young in '04!). What happens if the entire Royal Family is wiped out? Does the monarchy just go away? To be fair, they never explicitly say that the Royal Family didn't make it and even if some members did die, I doubt everyone died because plenty of people were rescued.
One of the pilots is still alive when they crashed, but when he opens the doors, he instantly freezes....okay. We later learn that "they crashed because the fuel in their lines froze" as it was -150 F. Ahh, that sound terrible and there's no way it could get that cold. That sounds like hell which is ironic because hell is hot!
Okay, back to New York. Only a handful of people have stayed at the library with Sam and his friends, including the homeless guy and his dog, thank God. I swear, if anything happens to that dog... Sam starts gathering books to burn. The librarian he had asked where the phones are is still there too and she is aghast that he's burning books, but Sam tells her they need to or they will freeze to death. Yeah, I think this is the only time when it's acceptable to burn books. Their only source of food are snacks from a vending machine. (I've never seen a vending machine in a library, but I know the NY Public Library is huge, so it's possible it has them.)
There's a funny moment when Brian and two other random people are gathering books to burn and the two others are auguring over whether they can burn a book by Friedrich Nietzsche, but Brian tells them there's a "whole section on tax law that [they] can burn."
Earlier, Brian had found an old radio that he was able to fix and he hears snippets on the radio and informs everyone that the storm is in the entire Northern Hemisphere and that "Europe is buried under 15 feet of snow." Meanwhile, the people in the Southern Hemisphere are sitting pretty! Laura's cut on her leg is also starting to give her problems and nobody knows about it except for a girl she told. Sam is concerned about Laura because it looks like she has a fever. They start chatting and he admits that he likes her and they start kissing. I guess when the apocalypse is upon you, who cares if you start making out with someone who is flushed and sweaty and appears to have a fever?
The next morning, Laura has gotten worse. The girl (if you think I had a hard enough time remembering main characters' names, I sure as hell didn't learn the ancillary characters' names!) tells the others Laura said she had a cut on her leg and they see the nasty gash and it looks severely infected. The librarian looks up her symptoms in a medical book and says she needs penicillin before it gets worse. Remember that huge ship right outside the library? I told you it would come into play because Sam decides he's going to check it out to see if there's any medicine on it and Brian and J.D. join him. They are able to find penicillin and find a mess hall where they start gathering food. Well, those four wolves who have escaped from the zoo have also come to roam the ship. This storyline is so stupid and it reminds me of season 2 of 24 with Kim Bauer and the cougar. All y'all 24 viewers know what I'm talking about! One of the wolves bites J.D.'s leg (good thing they have that penicillin!) but they manage to escape. I really thought J.D. was going to die by sacrificing himself so the other two could escape, but nope.
Now it's starting to get so cold that we see a waving American flag just freeze midwave. Sam and Brian are running to the library, dragging J.D. along. The floor behind them is starting to ice over and they manage to get in the room where the others are and slam the door shut and from the outside we see the door ice over. They throw more books in the fire, trying to stay as warm as possible.
Okay, now let's go back to Jack and see if he's able to rescue his son. He and Jason have reached New York and the snow is so high, it's covering the pedestal the Statue of Liberty stands on. They realize the library is almost completely covered in snow, but they're able to get in through a window that's only partially covered. They see the dim glow of a fire from under closed double doors. He opens the door to see the fire has died down and everyone seems to be passed out on the couches, but they're just sleeping. I really thought they were all unconscious. Father and son hug and it's a sweet moment, aww. Now everyone just has to wait for a chopper to rescue them and there are many helicopters arriving because many people in New York have been bunkering down. Oh, yeah, remember those people that were originally in the library, then left to start walking who knows where? Yeah, they're all dead. But at least none of our main characters are dead! Except for the POTUS, but he really wasn't much of a character anyway. Most importantly of all, the dog is still alive! That was the only character I was concerned about!
Oh, wait, I probably shouldn't tell you that all the main characters survived because that's not true. I totally forgot about Dr. Terry Rapson and his two colleagues in Scotland. They know the clock is up on them and with a bottle of twelve-year-old Scotch, they propose a toast to "England, mankind, and Manchester United." It's really sad because one of the guys has a young child and says he wishes he could see him grow up. The generator dies and you know they soon will too.
Oh, crap, I totally forgot Frank died. Sorry, Frank. How soon we forget.
I haven't forgot about Jack's wife/ex-wife (okay, maybe I did a little), Dr. Lucy Hall. She has a young cancer patient named Peter (who seems to be her only patient). Everyone (patients, nurses, doctors) have left. Peter needs an ambulance so she waits with him, wondering if one will come. So I guess no other patient in this hospital needed an ambulance? But don't worry; everything works out and they both make it to Mexico and she is able to reunite with her son and husband/ex-husband.
One of the last scenes we see are the astronauts starting to see land as it was once completely covered by the storm, so everything is going to be okay.
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