HBO movie "The Day After Tomorrow"

[Skidmore]

Did anyone else watch this? I saw most of it last night and then had to get to bed since my days start early on Mondays. It's a movie about the effects of global warning told from the view point of a climatologist. Some really scary special effects. Makes me want to stay in the Midwest and never live on a coastal plain. However, what was interesting was that the Vice President in the film bore a vague physical resemblance to Cheney and his political stance on global warning and energy were the same. In fact, the character's views were doggedly rooted in the science-is-bogus mentality even as disaster after disaster was unfolding. Now I realize that this is only a movie, but I was struck by the thread of what appeared to be currently applicable political commentary that was running through it.

[Melodybe]

1. It sucks, my grandfather was a consultant on the movie and even I hated it

the only good thing about the movie is that Jake Gyllenhaal is hot. That's it, you didn't miss a thing, it is a complete, gut wrenching waste of 2 hours.

[Skidmore]

2. Admittedly, it'll never win an Oscar.

I was just struck by how Cheney-like the VP character.

[Melodybe]

3. Everyone watching Fox news for their weather info was also a punch

The movie just sucked! Everything about it was awful cept Jake Gyllenhall and even he was hampered by how bad the dialogue was.

[Skidmore]

4. Yeah, I noticed that too. My husband

wondered how much Fox had to pay for product placement.

[Melodybe]

5. Nothing they made the movie, Murdoch plays both sides of the isle to make

money.

[anarchy1999]

7. We have to agree! It is an incredibly bad/awful, gut wrenching waste of

time and money (we were idiots, we actually paid to see it!).

[ldf]

29. au contrair (spelling?)

great movie. i wasn't expecting an oscar contender, but it was very entertaining. even bought it. one of those great "escape" movies.

great special effects, and never stalled.

but then, i also liked (and bought) the "planet of the apes remake", and "28 days later".

i even got "the long kiss goodnight"! nothing like a strong, kickass woman movie. :-)

[rman]

12. It's an exaggeration, but the premise is founded in solid science

It's an exaggeration only wrt the time span involved.

Global Warming May Alter Atlantic Currents, Study Says
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0627_050627_oceancurrent.html

Global warming makes sea less salty
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8408336/

Global Warming Makes Sea Less Salty
http://www.livescience.com/environment/050629_fresh_water.html

Devastation linked to global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,2763,1302855,00.html

A Chilling Possibility
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/05mar_arctic.htm

[dragonkeep]

15. Thanks for the link...

to livescience. There is a lot of interesting information there.

I had seen the series, "The Blue Planet", and it had an entire segment on the dangers of fresh water from melting ice disrupting the salinity pump that drives the ocean currents. It also run various scenarios of likely effects as the result of this. It was a chilling (no pun intended) prospect and I was amazed by the rapidity of the onset of the effects. I think it is a must-see program for everyone on the planet.

I truly mourn the dumbing down of our education. It effects so much of our lives when people who are writing our laws and regulations have no clue what science is and how things work.

A modest example happened in South Florida where a friend of mine, working with the power company, was tasked with setting up a new power station. He had all the statistics, the effects of the station on the environment, including the pH of the water returned to the environment after being used at the substation would be between 6 and 7. When he presented this information to the local council members, one of them actually said, "I don't know what those pHs are, but I don't want any of them in our water!".

[NewJeffCT]

6. the Cheney-esqueness was intentional... but...

I'm pretty sure the VP figure being like Cheney was intentional, as I had thought one of the filmmakers had said that.

However, i don't think the Cheney figure would have had an epiphany at the end & apologized to the world. In real life, if the president of Mexico had criticized him, Cheney would have said "fuck you" and proceeded to blame the disaster on libruls who blocked his energy plan for 3 years.

[Skidmore]

10. He apologized? I didn't see the end of the movie.

I just assumed he would suffer some really great karmic payback like that lawyer in Jurassic Park.

[mandyky]

11. No he even became president

because the president was killed in and evaucuation accident. I noticed the similarity, but Cheney would rather take hemlock and apologize about anything no matter how big.

[DIKB]

8. The one redeeming thing about it

Regarding all movies of this nature, finding out how likely it is. This one's redeeming quality was finding out that the US put a gag order on NASA scientists regarding how plausible these catastrophic results were based on global warming. Especially since this country is one of the only ones to deny the existence of global warming, oh wait. . . they said it's real, but it's a natural trend ? It's hard to keep up with the bullshit they spew.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. I didn't think it quite sucked

But on the other hand, "mediocre" isn't a raging endorsement, either.

The writing seemed to be the real weak spot. The special effects were excellent, but presented what would be a decade-long slow-motion weather change as a month-long catastrophe. The acting was good per se, but like I said, the writing was so bad that the actors couldn't save the film.

There was another movie made along the same lines in 1998, called Ice, which was more of a thriller about a number of survivors trying to make it from the LA basin to the San Diego Naval submarine station. It was another quick-onset ice age, but it had a more engaging plot and better writing (but it still wasn't one for the ages).

If the next ice age begins in our lifetime -- which is plausible -- it won't be so dramatic. The evacuation of the northern countries will not have to take place all at once, and New York City won't become an ice-age wonderland for several centuries. The most dramatic effect will be a permanent drought and consequent famine.

The up side is that there will be some incredibly good skiing weather for the next 90,000 years.

--p!

[thecrow]

13. I noticed that the President looked like AL Gore!

[Halliburton]

21. but he was dressed like Bush

when he is at Crawford.

[theophilus]

14. Hey, it's just a movie. Do we have to be so critical?

I think the special effects were good and ANY attention that can be brought to the problem is appreciated by little ol' me. They condensed the effects down dramatically but the overall impact and possible implications hold up pretty well, imho. Besides, I have been a Dennis Quaid fan since he and his brother "talked to the naughty lady" all those years ago on SNL. I wish him well.

I loved the last scene of the movie where the space based types talked of never seeing the air so clear! Clear Skies the natural way. The Earth will have the last laugh.

[dsc]

16. I actually didn't find the movie that bad

I showed it to my advanced functions and modeling class since it shows people using mathematical models. Jake G is one hot dude and for the record he plays gay in a very hot scene in an upcoming film. It was exaggerated and the script was not the best, but I thought it was at least as good as, the typical large action movie.

[Lisa]

17. it's difficult to condense several decades of changes into a 2-hour movie

So I'm willing to give the scriptwriters some slack -- and for even discussing some of the more recent impact stuff (like Dr. Broecker's work on what might happen if the Gulf Stream heat flow is disrupted), that's better than most of the media coverage has done on this issue.

I swear, I've seen newscasters (and even environment ministers) blithely mixing up ozone depletion and global warming -- so any improvement in accuracy is welcome.

However, I can't help thinking if a longer-term view might have been more helpful for understanding what's at stake -- an epic story rather than a blockbuster. Nix the flash-freezing of the British Royal Family, and focus instead on mass starvation, riots, and environmental refugees. You can still have action sequences, but maybe not the ultra-extreme superstorm special effects. This doesn't mean that a movie is doomed -- think of what "On the Beach" or "Testament" did for our understanding of the human consequences of nuclear war.

For another SF view of global warming, try "The Fire Next Time" -- more than a decade old now, and a cheapo made-for-TV movie. The acting and production values have something to be desired, but they still did some effective sequences.

[Dogmudgeon]

19. The Fire Next Time

I had an evening job when it was on; I only watched one night of it, but I figured it would be released as a videotape set.

Nope.

It's still out of print, at least the last time I looked for it on-line.

I'm also looking for The Wild Palms -- the Oliver Stone mini-series version. It is set in 2006, IIRC, and is about a government clique taking over a world that is falling into environmental and energy resource trouble.

--p!

[Lisa]

23. it actually was released on video, in the mid-1990s (not on DVD yet)

Used copies do still turn up on eBay, or at secondhand stores. I got mine from the discount bin at a local video store.

[B Calm]

18. I too watched this movie. It made you think...

[Halliburton]

20. the movie is terrible

and downright awful. I wish they would have made a better movie that would have at least made the concept of global warming more credible to Americans.

[Kraklen]

22. People came out of that movie...

less convinced that climate change was a problem than when they went in.

That's how bad it was.

[FreedomAngel82]

24. I thought it was pretty good

I enjoyed it pretty well. Basically because it was based on something that can really happen and not aliens.

[pitohui]

25. the trailer was better than the movie

a truly fine trailer

maybe one of the best ever made

chilling, disturbing

the movie itself was fun but the usual routine characters and heroism we always see in such movies, a formula, just fill in the blanks

[walldude]

26. It's not really an "HBO" movie..

It had wide release last summer.. did near $200 million in Box Office.

[Blue Belle]

27. I love the fact that the air is so cold that it literally...

freezes the helicopters mid flight, but Dennis Quaid has no problem snowshoeing 35 miles through a snow covered NYC to get to his son. :eyes:

[Lisa]

30. and he has a nifty yellow tent that will block the extreme cold

I want one of those!

[WilliamPitt]

28. I got a kick out of the President

who bore a stiking resemblance to a guy named Al.

[Lisa]

31. yes, but alas, he doesn't make it down to Mexico with the others ...

... to head the US government-in-exile. That's VP Kenneth Welsh's job. (Why are they putting a Canadian in charge?)


Don't get me wrong -- I love Dennis Quaid (ever since "Come See the Paradise").

[Strelnikov_]

32. And The President Was Modeled After The Chimp

Remember when they were dealing with the LA disaster. The VP was conferencing with other officials, and in walks the Pres dressed like he had been out jogging. In the sequence he asks "what is happening? What should we do?" The VP makes the decision.

In the meeting regarding evacuation, the VP was pretty much running the show. However, at the end, he overrides his VP's decision.

Overall, they made the Pres out to be indecisive and disconnected, with a strong VP running the show behind the scenes.

Yes, I think they were making a statement.