| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Dennis Quaid | as Jack Hall |
| Jake Gyllenhaal | as Sam Hall |
| Emmy Rossum | as Laura Chapman |
| Dash Mihok | as Jason Evans |
| Jay O. Sanders | as Frank Harris |
| Sela Ward | as Dr. Lucy Hall |
| Austin Nichols | as J.D. |
| Arjay Smith | as Brian Parks |
| Tamlyn Tomita | as Janet Tokada |
| Sasha Roiz | as Parker |
| Ian Holm | as Terry Rapson |
| Nassim Sharara | as Saudi Delegate |
| Carl Alacchi | as Venezuelan Delegate |
| Kenneth Welsh | as Vice President Becker |
| Michel 'Gish' Abou-Samah | as Saudi Translator |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 |
| Production Companies: | * Twentieth Century Fox * Centropolis Entertainment * Lions Gate Films * Mark Gordon Productions * Mel's Cite du Cinema |
| Distributor: | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release Date (US): | 5/28/2004 |
| Running Time: | 124 minutes |
| Languages: | English; Japanese; French; Arabic |
| Domestic Box Office: | $186,739,919 (10/29/2004) |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $125,000,000 (Est.) |
Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is in Antarctica when he gets bad news from a colleague. Returning to the United States, he sees more onimous signs. He heads to Washington, DC to present his warning of imminent disaster. His warning is ignored.
Jack is estranged from his wife, and his son Sam is in Manhattan for an event. When the predicted disaster hits, plunging the northern hemisphere into bitterly cold conditions within the space of a week, Jack undertakes a trek to rescue his son. He and a few colleagues start out in an SUV, but soon must continue across the frozen landscape on foot.
Meanwhile, ocean waters have inundated lower Manhattan to a depth of about 20 feet. After that, local temperatures plunged to about 18 below zero (°F), freezing everything in place. Jack's son and his friends are holed up in the public library, burning books to keep warm. But a girl friend has been injured and is developing an infection. They need to find medicine stat! Luckily, a Russian freighter has been swept into the street just outside and is trapped, fortuitously upright, in the ice. Sam and two other boys bundle up and climb aboard the ship. They find the needed medicines but are menaced by wolves. They survive and make it back inside, where the medicines prove effective.
The larger picture is that the northern half of the U.S. is essentially lifeless. Hordes of refugees, in an ironic reversal, have fled south and are pleading for entry into Mexico — which ultimately grants the request. And our leaders wait, along with Jack and his family, to see whether the cold snap will end.
As with Ridley Scott's Prometheus, this plot summary is meant to be slightly sarcastic. I hasten to add that The Day after Tomorrow is a much better film in its internal logic and support for science. Nevertheless, its premise that such drastic changes can occur within a week or two is absolutely unscientific — although justifiable on cinematic grounds, because a scientifically accurate depiction would be more excruciating than watching paint dry.
Actually, there are several big questions about the plot, premises, and characterization of this film — and a host of small ones as well. To mention just a few: why would the star maps left on Earth lead humans to what turns out to be a military base? Why would the supposedly benevolent aliens even have a military base? Why, if they created us, do they suddenly want to wipe us out? (Suddenly being some 2,000 years ago; that's how long the lone alien has been slumbering.) And why, if they're so advanced, do they do it this way — with a substance that wipes out virtually all animal life, and (oops!) managed to wipe out their own military garrison? We don't know the condition of their other worlds, but the fact that the base hasn't been recovered for 20 centuries is not a good sign.
No matter how much I might wish to, I can't even call the clueless government officials an over-the-top caricature. I mean, we have Lamar Smith, Dana Rohrabacher, Louis Gohmert, and James Inhofe (to name just four) holding office for multiple terms.1
What it comes down to, then, is that The Day after Tomorrow is a well-plotted, well-acted, and enjoyable action picture that, for good cinematic reasons, happens to strain scientific credibility in one area. That puts it in a category which already holds many excellent films.
My Rating:
8 out of 10
Capsule review:Good acting, a largely coherent plot, excellent special effects and cinematography, and plenty of plausible jeopardy make The Day after Tomorrow a thoroughly enjoyable film.
| IMDB Rating: 6.4 | Raters: 370,969 |
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