The Day After Tomorrow (2004) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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This is what Mondays feel like.

The world has had enough and is fighting back against the humans that have been damaging it. The Day After Tomorrow takes the science of global warming and turns it into a disaster of the week film, as the Earth suddenly enters a new ice age.

First Impressions

In what appears to be another in a long line of disaster films, the trailer depicts several scientists trying to convince members of the government that some kind of global disaster is coming. Meanwhile, animals start acting strange and a homeless man witnesses water bubbling up from a manhole in New York City. Suddenly, everything goes to hell as a superstorm sends tidal waves into New York City, and temperatures plummet, freezing the Statue of Liberty. The Day After Tomorrow definitely has vibes of The Core.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

At the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica, paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) avoids falling into a crevice when a chunk of the glacier the size of Rhode Island breaks off. He later attends a UN meeting on global warming in New Delhi where he embarasses the Vice President of the US, Raymond Becker (Kenneth Welsh), regarding the urgency of global warming. Scottish oceanographer Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) approaches Jack to discuss theories of abrupt climate shifts related to the Mid-Atlantic current. Meanwhile, evidence of strange weather events, including heavy snow in New Delhi and melon-sized hail in Tokyo, begin to happen around the globe.

Jack is late to pick up his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) at his ex-wife’s house in Washington DC, to get him on a flight to New York for an Academic Decathlon. The plane experiences strong turbulence as more strange weather occurs, including tornadoes in Los Angeles. After speaking further with Rapson, Jack tells his colleagues at NOAA that the models predict they have only six to eight weeks before a major climate shift. In New York, heavy rains continue stranding the students. Sam, along with teammates Laura (Emmy Rossum) and Brian (Arjay Smith), stay with local boy J.D. (Austin Nichols).

The students plan to take the train home, but the subways begin to flood. Laura helps rescue a woman trapped in a cab and accidentally cuts her leg on a piece of metal under the water. Sam sees a giant tidal wave coming up a New York street and grabs Laura to take shelter in the New York Public Library. Jack’s new model now predicts that a new Ice Age will happen in seven to ten days. He warns the President that the Southern states must be evacuated, and that it’s too late for anyone above the Mason-Dison line; they will all freeze to death. Managing to get a call to his father, Sam says he’s okay. Jack tells him he’ll come for him.

The rains turn into snow as the world begins to freeze. Rapson and his colleagues at their Scottish oceanographic station take a final drink before their generator gives out, dooming them to a quick death. A large group of New Yorkers in the public library decide to follow a police officer onto the frozen flood waters, believing they can make it to safety. Sam warns them that his father says that they’ll all freeze to death suddenly when the weather shifts even further. They ignore his advice and only a few people choose to stay behind. Lucy (Sela Ward), Sam’s mom and Jack’s ex, stays with a young patient at her hospital when there are no ambulances left to transport him.

Jack’s colleagues, Frank (Jay O. Sanders) and Jason (Dash Mihok) drive through a blizzard with him as far as Philadelphia. They put on their Artic gear and begin walking to New York. Frank falls through the ceiling of a mall they’re crossing over, and dies. The President (Perry King) is forced to evacuate the White House, but his flight crashes and he is killed. Laura becomes feverous from sepsis, so Sam, Brian, and J.D. head outside to a Russian freighter that ran aground on the streets outside the library. They get the medicine they need, avoiding a pack of hungry wolves which escaped from the Zoo.

The boys make it back into the library just as the eye of the storm reaches them causing a massive drop in temperature that freezes everything at -150 degrees F. The storms begin to dissipate, just as Jack and Jason make it into New York. They find the survivors at the library and radio for help. Raymond Becker, now President, sends a rescue team into New York that saves many other survivors. President Becker goes on television from his camp in Mexico, and thanks these equatorial countries for taking in so many refugees. He apologies to the American people for being so closed minded about climate change. Two men in the International Space Station remark at how clear the air across the frozen planet looks.

“This one storm is going to change the face of our planet.” – Jack Hall

History in the Making

The Day After Tomorrow will be the last disaster film for a few years, as the love for this genre dies down again. Disaster films have been around almost as long as film, but really hit their peak popularity in the 1970s. Most of those films dealt with manmade disasters brought about by man’s hubris. They depicted the largest or best of something being destroyed putting hundreds of lives at risk, and included The Towering Inferno, the Airport films, and The Poseidon Adventure. There was one sci-fi related film from 1979 called Meteor, but the majority of films in this genre were dramas. That is until the resurgence of the genre in the 1990s, where films were split between natural disasters (Twister, Hard Rain, Dante’s Peak) and threats from space (Deep Impact, Armageddon, Independence Day). This last group started the more science-fiction based aspect for disaster films.

After a lull in the genre, post-Armageddon, it was resurrected in the early 2000s with The Core and The Day After Tomorrow which are global disaster films. They are similar to the threats from space films, where all of Earth is in danger, but in these newer films the threats come from the planet Earth itself. After this film, the genre would receive maybe a dozen more films of prominence over the next twenty years, but none of them have come close to the popularity of the films from the 70s or 90s.

The Day After Tomorrow features several actors from other, more popular sci-fi films. Dennis Quaid, whose brother Randy was in Independence Day, had some early sci-fi hits in the 80s before transitioning to other dramatic roles. These include the shrinking comedy Innerpace with Martin Short, a xenophobic space drama Enemy Mine with the late Lou Gossett Jr., and the nightmarish Dreamscape. His character’s son, Sam, was played by Jake Gyllenhall whose star was on the rise after Donnie Darko. He would achieve much greater acclaim the following year with his Best Supporting Actor nominated role in Brokeback Mountain. Rounding out the sci-fi alums is Ian Holm, still best known for his role as the android Ash in Alien and as Father Cornelius in The Fifth Element.

Genre-fication

While The Day After Tomorrow is a disaster film, it’s also a film about “bad science.” These are films that eschew scientifically accurate principles for a more adventurous and exciting film. The best known film of this type, at least that’s been covered on Sci-Fi Saturdays, has got to be The Core. Its inattention to multiple scientific facts make it infamous with various scientific communities. The Day After Tomorrow is not that bad, but it does have its share of problems. Director Roland Emmerich at least follows the characters and their plight against the backdrop of global climate crisis, instead of trying to make some plot element for the humans to stop the disaster.

It’s sometimes difficult to lump these types of films into the sci-fi genre. By definition, the genre is about science-fiction; fictionality stories that at their heart have some sort of scientific basis or accuracy. If films ignore that science, aren’t they then just a fantasy film, where the normal laws of nature do not apply? ZFor these faults, The Day After Tomorrow does still adhere to certain scientific principles, even if it does take others too far.

Societal Commentary

One of the major themes of the film is the ignorance by the government, specifically the United States, to the effects of climate change. The Day After Tomorrow wastes no time in sending Jack to a United Nations meeting where the US Vice President scoffs at the “sensationalistic” claims of the scientific community, only to be derided by Jack’s claims that they are warranted in their urgency. Writer/director Emmerich makes no apologies for basing the look of Vice President Becker on then VP Dick Cheney, or aping the current political regime and their willful ignorance of climate change which included refusal to take even the most meager precautions against protections.

Jack mentions the price that future generations will pay if changes are not made. Becker counters that the price of The Kyoto Accords is also steep, and asks who will pay for that. The Kyoto Accords were an international treaty that commits countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it. The United States was one of the only signatories of the treaty that has never ratified it, claiming that its policies would damage the US economy. The administration also cited the fact that countries like America would be paying more than their share, while countries with larger populations, like India and China would be exempt. The film is certainly a proponent that climate change is real, and that something needs to be done to at least slow down the effects that it will have for future generations. Of all the disaster sci-fi films of the modern age, The Day After Tomorrow is certainly the most political and vocal about its stance.

The other larger theme of the film is family. Jack has become disconnected from his, as he is always away working on a remote glacier or some other place that his family doesn’t come with him. Yet Sam remembers the trip to Greenland where their ship broke down and got stuck. It was miserable, but his best vacation because he got to spend it with his father. Their desire to reconnect with each other is strong, but neither knows how to make the first step. That is, until the end of the world arrives. What better time to reconnect!  The film also makes a point that it’s not just biological family that’s important. Jack has his two co-workers, Jason and Frank, who are always looking out for each other. Sam has his school friends Laura and Brian, and their new friend J.D. They all figure out a way to keep a small group of people alive until help arrives. The inclusion of these sorts of stories and relationships always makes for a better film than just watching one disaster after another. Because watching disaster films is fun, but caring about the people in danger is what makes it worthwhile.

The Science in The Fiction

Many believe that while the overall message of the film is a necessary one, the film scuttles its own chances of getting more people to buy into that message with its poor science. Of course the filmmakers want to make a film that is exciting and well paced, which is difficult to do with something like climatology, something that  changes on a much slower timeframe than filmgoers might sit still for. Therefore, when Jack talks of climate change occurring in 6-8 months or 6-8 weeks–extremely rapid alterations by any standard–the film takes it to an even more ludicrous level by having the events unfold over 7-10 days! While this drama may shock climatologists, uninitiated viewers might believe that what they’re seeing may be based on something they don’t understand. And given that climate change is something that is important to every person on this planet, it’s important not to disenfranchise those that can help the most.

The Day After Tomorrow also depicts the rapid cooling of air masses inside the eye of the various storms. Cooling that drops the temperature 150 degrees and causes people to freeze into icicles in a matter of seconds. It depicts Sam’s laughable escape from the growing frostline in the same way that he might outrun a bear or some other creature. It makes for a fun ride, but might provide the wrong lesson to those watching. And while temperature fluctuations are occurring they would never behave on a timeline such as shown here.

The Final Frontier

The biggest saving grace of the film is the character interactions. Centered around Jack Hall and his son, Sam, The Day After Tomorrow attempts to create a likable family at its center, while also having a number of other characters that represent other points of view. Whether it’s the de facto villain of the Vice President who won’t listen to the scientific community, or the group of young high school students who attempt to do the best they can to survive. The New York Library scenes feature a slice of America, including the police officer who tries to help people with his best intentions (even though he gets more people killed in the process), a homeless man–who is more prepared for the changes than some, and a pair of citizens who debate the merits of book burning and preserving things from the past. These are some of the more memorable aspects of the film.

Special effects also play a large part in making this film work as well as it does. The imagery of a tidal wave racing across 5th Avenue or a flash frozen Statue of Liberty are strong visual representations of the global disaster that also stick with the viewer. This would not be the last sci-fi disaster film for Roland Emmerich. He would return with 2012, Independence Day: Resurgence, and the even more laughable and scientifically implausible Moonfall. Disaster films as a whole seem to get more outrageous over the next two decades, as each one attempts to one-up the previous in terms of action and spectacle.

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