First of all, let's just all admit that this is a great title. It accurately conveys the level of hysteria that the filmmakers want you to feel about Global Climate Change. At the beginning of the movie, Earth's plunge into a new Ice Age is first predicted to occur in the next 100 to 1000 years.[1] Then they revise that to six to eight months. Oops. That was six to eight weeks. Scratch that. It's now six to eight days before—never mind. It's already here. Apparently this and other glaring inaccuracies prompted NASA to refuse to help with the movie—perhaps when Roland Emmerich (the director) went to see them, he shouldn't have worn his The-End-Is-Near sandwich board.
Another laughable scenario is when supercell storms start sucking air down from the upper troposphere. The air is so cold that everything freezes. But the super-cold air can't kill anyone as long as they can stay ahead of the ice forming on the ground behind you. Let's face it, if it's that cold, they're dead already just for being outside. Besides, the upper trophosphere is only about –110°F [2] and it would warm up due to the ideal gas law.[3]
Predictably, one character, the Vice President, is a Global Climate Change skeptic who gets his comeuppance. The director acknowledged basing this character on Dick Cheney (who was Vice President when this movie premiered).[4] I also suspect that the character of the President was based on Ronald Reagan—the actor resembled him both in appearance and voice.
My verdict: Roland Emmerich has put out some tolerable popcorn flicks (e.g. 2012; 10,000 BC; Independence Day; The Patriot). As far as that goes, The Day After Tomorrow was no different. The human interest angle is trite and predictable, with most of the attention given to the special effects. And I really did have a few good laughs at the sloppy, sloppy science. This is not a terrible movie, it's just not a terribly believable one, either.
Notes:
[1] At this point in the movie, parts of the North Atlantic suddenly drop 13 degrees in a matter of hours—another ridiculous scenario. See http://nsidc.org/news/press/day_after/q10.html.
[2] See http://nsidc.org/news/press/day_after/q9.html.
[3] Good ol' pV = nRT.
[4] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Day After Tomorrow#Criticism.
Another laughable scenario is when supercell storms start sucking air down from the upper troposphere. The air is so cold that everything freezes. But the super-cold air can't kill anyone as long as they can stay ahead of the ice forming on the ground behind you. Let's face it, if it's that cold, they're dead already just for being outside. Besides, the upper trophosphere is only about –110°F [2] and it would warm up due to the ideal gas law.[3]
Predictably, one character, the Vice President, is a Global Climate Change skeptic who gets his comeuppance. The director acknowledged basing this character on Dick Cheney (who was Vice President when this movie premiered).[4] I also suspect that the character of the President was based on Ronald Reagan—the actor resembled him both in appearance and voice.
My verdict: Roland Emmerich has put out some tolerable popcorn flicks (e.g. 2012; 10,000 BC; Independence Day; The Patriot). As far as that goes, The Day After Tomorrow was no different. The human interest angle is trite and predictable, with most of the attention given to the special effects. And I really did have a few good laughs at the sloppy, sloppy science. This is not a terrible movie, it's just not a terribly believable one, either.
Notes:
[1] At this point in the movie, parts of the North Atlantic suddenly drop 13 degrees in a matter of hours—another ridiculous scenario. See http://nsidc.org/news/press/day_after/q10.html.
[2] See http://nsidc.org/news/press/day_after/q9.html.
[3] Good ol' pV = nRT.
[4] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Day After Tomorrow#Criticism.
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