What If?

By now if you have not heard of the growing global warm phenomenon, you are either a hermit, or just very ill-informed. It is the scientific debate of the new century, and with the recent Russian Parliament’s approval of the Kyoto Protocols on climate change, the rhetoric concerning the causations of aforementioned global warming are once again news.

The United States callously abandoned the Kyoto Protocols early in the Bush Presidency, with the President claiming the jury was still out on global warning. But is it really? Is the phenomenon real or imaginary? Is the next ice age coming, and will it be within out life-times? These are questions tackled with zeal by the producers of Independence Day, in the summer thriller The Day After Tomorrow. Though full of clichés—the workaholic father who is no less a hero for his shortcomings, the broken marriage, the out of touch government officials—I found The Day After Tomorrow enjoyable.

The Storyline

Directed by Roland Emmerich (Universal Soldier, Independence Day, The Patriot), The Day After Tomorrow centers on climatologist Jack Hall, portrayed by Dennis Quiad (Enemy Mine, The Big Easy, Any Given Sunday) who works for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington DC. He believes the climate on earth propelled by global warming is changing, and if unchecked, will herald the next ice age within a few generations. But his theories and the warning they signal are dismissed by a less then skeptical Vice President of the United States who is more concerned with economic grow then the impact of global warming; sound familiar? This attitude even as snow uncharacteristically falls in India where he presenting his finding before the world.

Meanwhile, Jack’s son Sam, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal (Bubble Boy, October Sky, The Good Girl), his estranged from his father, the later having spent far too much time on his scientific research to bond with the boy. But Sam has inherited his father’s genius. And Jack’s wife Lucy portrayed by (mostly television actress) Sela Ward (Double Jeopardy, Sisters, Once and Again) a doctor in her own right is of course still in love with Jack, but resents all the time he spends away from her.

The weather strangeness around the world continues to build apace; a killer hurricanes, freak hail storms in Japan, tornadoes touch down in Los Angeles virtually destroying the city (I’m not sure that is such a bad thing), and the surface temperature in the oceans north of the equator started to drop. Jack believes his predictions are off by oh say a few decades and that the storm the will precipitate the earth’s next ice age is here. The Vice President of course dismisses Jack’s findings even as the storm clouds gather over most of earth north of the equator in three huge cells, dumping inches of rain and then snow across the northern latitudes.

Against this backdrop Sam, who as I mentioned earlier is a smart lad, travels to New York as part of an academic team to compete in a competition. Laura portrayed by Emmy Rossum (Mystic River, The Phantom of the Opera) has his heart and is the reason he joined the team, and Brian has is back when things start to get hairy.

As the days pass the storm gets progressively worse, and as the competition wraps up in New York, Manhattan starts to flood and before long a huge wave floods the city, trapping Sam, Laura, and Brian, who find shelter in the majestic New York Public Library along with several other people. Ever resourceful Sam manages to get a call through to Jack who tells him to stay put and stay indoors. And Jack promises to come and get his son. Meanwhile in wicked twist of irony, as the storms worsen driving people from their homes, American stream south into Mexico, refugees, illegal aliens…

For many The Day After Tomorrow did not work, too implausible they quipped, but it is a movie I retort, not a docudrama. Its primary purpose is to entertain, and that it does rather well. Rich in visuals, but admittedly short of human interaction, The Day After Tomorrow is one long thrill ride; there is scant time to catch your breath once Mother Nature sets about reminding man that what he destroyed, she shall renew. She and not he is master of the earth. Mother Nature is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, one which man is powerless to prevent or circumvent.

The special effects in this movie struck the right balance between gee-wiz and human interplay; in other words, they were not the movie only a part of the movie. In the final analysis The Day After Tomorrow is thankfully just fiction, but it will make you think, or at least it did me about what we are doing to our planet that will eventually come back to bite us hard!


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older