The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts catastrophic effects of global warming and boasts high-end special effects, bending the lines between science, reality and science fiction. Worldwide, it is the 38th top grossing film of all time, with total revenue of US$542,771,772. It is the second highest grossing movie not to be #1 in the US box office (behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Currently holds the record for biggest opening weekend gross for any movie not opening at #1 with $68.7 million. The movie was filmed mostly in Montreal, and, as of 2007, is the highest grossing Hollywood film in history to be filmed in Canada.

The Day After Tomorrow premiered in Mexico City on May 17 2004 and was released worldwide from May 26 to May 28 except in South Korea and Japan where it was released June 4 and June 5, respectively. (It was originally planned for release in summer 2003.)

Taglines:

• Don't make Mother Nature angry.
• Where will you be?
• This year a sweater won't do.
• Whoever said "Tomorrow is another day" ... didn't check the weather.

Background

The movie was inspired by The Coming Global Superstorm, a book written by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber. (Strieber also wrote the film's novelization). The pair used to co-host a paranormal themed talk show. Bell appeared on the show throughout the week on his Art Bell Show (now Coast to Coast AM) while Strieber hosted the weekend segment of the show entitled Dreamland. On both shows, the co-authors/paranormal talk show hosts would delve into such topics with guesses as what life would be like after humans have depleted all of their natural resources and destroyed their environment. There are relatively subtle connections between the book and the film: one being that there is a scene depicting a rescue mission at the New York Public Library.

Shortly before and during the release of the movie, members of environmental groups and former Vice President Al Gore distributed pamphlets to moviegoers describing what they believe to be the possible effects of global warming. Although the film depicts some effects of global warming predicted by scientists, like rising sea levels, more destructive storms, and disruption of ocean currents and weather patterns, it depicts these events happening much more rapidly and severely than predicted by most scientists, and the theory that a "superstorm" will create rapid worldwide climate change is not widely accepted. When the film was playing in theaters, much criticism was directed at politicians concerning the Kyoto Protocol and climate change, and in the end the movie created quite a political stir.

Synopsis

Global warming causes large areas of the Arctic ice shelf to break off and melt, diluting the North Atlantic Ocean with large amounts of fresh water. This disrupts the ocean's thermohaline circulation and slows the Gulf Stream, causing a rapid cooling of the northern hemisphere. This then triggers a series of anomalies, eventually leading up to a massive "global superstorm" system consisting of three gigantic hurricane-like superstorms, which result in an ice age for the northern hemisphere within days. One hurricane is over Canada, one over Scotland, and a third over Siberia. The movie follows Jack, a paleoclimatologist for NOAA; his son Sam, a high school student; and his wife Lucy, a doctor.

The film portrays the “eye” of the superstorms as having such a low pressure that extremely cold air (−150°F or −101°C) from the troposphere is sucked downward, instantly freezing to death all who are caught in the eye. A woman in NOAA argues that the freezing air would warm up and rise, such as in regular storms, but Jack simply states that the air is dropping too fast. The storm is headed to New York, where Sam is trapped, and which Jack is trying to reach in the hostile frozen environment with Arctic gear and his survival skills.

Throughout the movie, a subplot involves the refusal of the Vice President of the United States to accept the threat of global warming—despite increasingly extreme weather conditions occurring throughout the world—insisting that measures to prevent it will do too much damage to the economy.

Plot

The story follows Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist. The movie opens with Jack, in Antarctica, with two colleagues, Frank & Jason, drilling for ice core samples for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The concentration of greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) contained in the cores is used in a presentation he makes to a United Nations conference held in New Delhi, India on global warming, in which Jack tells the story of the 1,300 year long Younger Dryas cold climate period of the ninth millennium BC in the Northern Hemisphere to a skeptical audience, including the Vice President of the United States, who dismisses the possibility of such an event recurring. The idea, however, resonates with Dr. Terry Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland. After the conference, Jack and Dr. Rapson meet for a cup of tea to discuss Jack’s findings, which establishes a relationship between the two that will be needed later.

Shortly after Dr. Rapson arrives back in Scotland from the conference two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a large drop in water temperature. Other buoys soon begin showing the same. Dr. Rapson concludes that the melting of the polar ice has begun to disrupt the North Atlantic current and calls Jack to see if his paleoclimatological weather model could be used to predict what will happen.

In Tokyo and Los Angeles, the beginnings of the superstorm begin to show. Large hailstones the size of grapefruits (about 5 pounds) fall on Tokyo’s Chiyoda District, causing massive damage and fatalities. In Los Angeles, numerous tornadoes devastate the city, destroying notable landmarks such as the Capitol Records Tower and the Hollywood Sign in a spray of debris^[1] and killing a newsreader.^[2] Jack approaches his boss, Tom, at NOAA for time on the mainframe to run his paleoclimatological weather model with Dr. Rapson’s data. The results show the global climate will change in 6-8 weeks.

Shortly thereafter, a report comes in from Rapson that a bizarre, gigantic hurricane-like storm has formed over northern Scotland. At the eye of the storm, temperatures drop 200 degrees in seconds, flash-freezing people. Seeing two more such storms at the same latitude, Hall manages to get a few minutes with the President and suggests that he evacuate two-thirds of the population of the United States to Florida, Texas or Mexico. The population in the 30 other southernmost states can move because snow there is only falling at about a foot a day. In the 18 northernmost states, however, snow is falling at a foot per hour, meaning anyone remaining outside for long periods will probably die. Before the President can act, the pseudo-hurricane in Canada reaches out 3,000 miles, its arms overlapping those of the pseudo-hurricane in Scotland, and creates a storm surge which increases the sea level of the north Atlantic Ocean by fifty feet, putting Manhattan underwater and presumably putting an end to the Dunkirk-in-reverse-like scene in southern Britain.^[3]

Rapson and his team of researchers, only one of whom has succeeded in evacuating his family to southern Europe, meet death bravely. When one of his team suggests using a bottle of single malt whisky to power the generator, Rapson exclaims in mock horror, "That's twelve year old Scotch!" He then retrieves three glasses and the doomed scientists drink final toasts, to the child of one and then to humanity.

Reduced to an uncharacteristic mode of begging, the President finally obtains permission from Mexican authorities for the majority of the U. S. population to seek shelter there, and from the military to stay in the White House a few hours longer so he can save another million people. This, however, results in his death when his motorcade can't make the nearest helicopter. Jack takes off to somehow save, or share the fate of, his trapped son Sam in New York City, whom he earlier advised not to leave the upper floors of the New York Public Library, as this would result in his being squashed between 50 feet of frozen sea and 50 feet of snow.

While Jack and two other climatologists are on this mission of mercy, the pseudo-hurricane in Canada spreads out and travels south-east, eventually bringing its eye directly over New York City. Sam, J.D. and Brian decide to leave the library to retrieve antibiotics from a Russian ship, conveniently stuck fast in the ice right outside the library windows, in order to save Laura's life. There they encounter the wolf pack shown earlier to have escaped from the Central Park (?) Zoo, after their enclosure was damaged by the storm.

They elude the wolves as the "super-cooled" air begins to descend on Manhattan, as the eye of the "super storm" rests briefly over the area. Ice begins to cover the top of the taller buildings in the city including the Empire State Building, moving quickly downward and shattering windows as the wave of super cold air continues to drop toward the ice and snow clogged streets. Jack, barely a day's walk away by now, hurls an unconscious teammate into a Wendy's (the other teammate having fallen to his death as they walked across the roof of a snowed-under shopping mall). He manages to get the grills going, saving them both from freezing to death.^[4]

Jack and his partner finally arrive in New York, but find the entire library covered in snow except for several blown out-windows in the courtyard.

The movie ends with people emerging onto the roofs of skyscrapers to be rescued and Jack (with the library group) being picked up by a helicopter--greeted by his boss as the chopper touches down on the sea ice. Now President Raymond Becker (who succeeded to the office, under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, when his predecessor was killed in the storm ) gives a speech thanking "the countries we used call the Third World" for sheltering Americans and other First Worlders; he also notes that there are survivors in the north of the country and that he has ordered (the previously seen) rescue operations to commence. His speech also includes an acknowledgment of the alleged over consumption of natural resources as well as a mea culpa ("I was wrong [about 'global warming']"). We are also shown that Jack's wife Lucy and her young cancer patient have survived, making their way to a camp in Mexico. In orbit the space station crew is shown observing the Earth and one of the crew members comments that he has "never seen [the atmosphere] so clear”.

Cast

Science analysis and criticism

There is little meteorological or climatological science in the actual events of the movie. Critics of the science shown in the film have asserted that global warming is unlikely to bring about a sudden onslaught of natural disasters, but is rather an observed trend in which the average climatic temperatures are shifting. In the film, the disasters are entertainingly sudden and cataclysmic. Criticisms of the science portrayed in the movie include:^[5]

• The initial idea that an increase in freshwater could cause a shutdown of thermoelastic circulation|slowdown or stop of the thermohaline circulation has some probability. However, simulations generally show a gradual slowdown over a timescale of centuries rather than days and overall the temperature continues to warm.^{[citation needed]}
• The plot-feasibility condition that descending stratospheric air would be cold, because it was apparently descending too fast to warm up, is incorrect. The potential temperature of stratospheric air is higher, not lower than the temperature of the surface air. Rapidly descending, rarefied air would also have relatively little thermal mass, and would be compressed to sea level pressure as it descended, heating it greatly and having little effect on sea level temperature.^[6]
• Hurricanes can only form over very large bodies of seasonably warm water, such as an ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes cannot form over land, such as Siberia.
• Hurricanes are often assumed to be unable to produce frozen precipitation, as was shown in the movie. The water vapor in hurricanes generally rises too swiftly to allow for sufficient cooling, and any frozen precipitation that falls must go through a very warm region of air (thereby assuring that it will melt). However, extremely rare documented cases of snow associated with tropical cyclones do exist, notably involving Hurricane Bonnie (1998).[4]
• The sizes of the superstorms are not realistic.^{[citation needed]}
• The buildup of massive snow piles and glaciers, such as in an ice age, would again take thousands of years.^{[citation needed]}
• The closest thing to a "snow-driven hurricane" in reality is a polar low: very small, shortlived low-pressure systems found in the high latitudes. Most of these storms are not capable of leaving the polar regions and causing serious damage, although when they reach land they're capable of bringing large amounts of snow in a short time span.^{[citation needed]}
• Most tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes, making them unrelated to global warming.
• The freezing temperature for the kerosene fuel used in most commercial and military jet engines, such as the RAF helicopters, freezes at -40 to -52.6 °F ( -40 to -47 °C) and not at the -151°F Prof. Rapson informs Jack is the freezing temperature ("We had to look it up!" Rapson tells Jack). Yet jets engines are routinely flown at 30,000 ft (9144m), the upper part of the troposphere whence the supercold air is supposed to be descending across the northern hemisphere.^[7]
• In the scene where helicopters freeze solid in mid air, the temperature required for this to happen would be far too low for snow to occur (snow is shown falling). Below about −40°C the moisture capacity of air is so low that snow is very unlikely. The temperature in this scene would need to be much colder than −40°C. [5]
• American wolves do not attack humans unless provoked or rabid (and the wolf is extinct in extra-Russian Europe). There has never been a verified case of a wolf killing a human in North America. In the movie's context they would feed on corpses and try to find some kind of shelter from the storm. Even if the extreme temps didn't force the wolves into a makeshift den, then they certainly would have done what they are shown doing on the Russian ship when Sam traps them in the Galley: eating the half-finished meals left by fleeing sailors. Though stray dogs would probably have been a much bigger threat, presumably, though, nearly all of them would have drowned (which, in all likelihood, would have happened to the wolves as well).
• In order for the sea ice to reach the level it does on the Statue of Liberty (approximately 215 ft--65.6m), 75% of Antarctica's ice would have to melt, which would take more than 2.5 years--only if all the solar radiation received by the Earth were concetrated on the southern-most continent (quoted in http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/dayAft.htm, notes 4-6.)
• Environmental activist George Monbiot called The Day After Tomorrow "a great movie and lousy science." [6].

Technical and Continuity Errors

Technical Inaccuracies

• In many scenes with computer models of cyclonic behavior, the low pressure system is spinning clockwise, not counterclockwise as cyclones spin in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e. the Coriolis effect)^[8]. Similar inverted flow is seen in displays of ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream.

• The Trimble GPS unit shown in the film displays satellite mode, which is used to identify the character's location; however, the real Trimble GPS unit can only provide location information in map mode.

• The payphone in the New York Public Library that Sam Hall uses to call his father Jack (Dennis Quaid) continues to work despite being partially and then fully submerged.

• Jack saves himself and his colleague by lighting the natural gas stoves inside the Wendy's restaurant even though three RAF helicopters are shown crashing due to frozen fuel lines caused by the very same kind of super-cooled air.

• When Jack and crew stop to camp on their trek north to save Sam, we are not shown their breath inside the tent.

• The visibility level as Jack and crew hike to New York is much clearer than could be expected from an average blizzard.

• While New York is shown to be flooded by the rise in sea levels, no such flood is seen in Washington DC despite the fact that the American capital is also a coastal city (and built over a swamp as well).

• A five-star general is shown in the emergency meeting with the President; in fact the five-star general rank is used only in time of war and has not been awarded since 1945.

Continuity errors

• In the scene where Sam breaks into the vending machine in the library staff lounge, the time on the microwave is lit even though all power to the island is out.

DVD Details

Releases

• It was first released on DVD in the USA on October 12 2004 in both widescreen and fullscreen versions.

• A 2-disc "collector's edition" containing production featurettes, two documentaries: a "behind-the-scenes" and another called "The Forces of Destiny", as well as storyboards and concept sketches were also included. It was released on May 24 2005.

Deleted scenes

• One deleted scene included two surfer bums in Kona, Hawaii, who are killed by a canoe rigging thrown at their SUV by hurricane Noelani.
• One deleted scene revealed that the Japanese man killed in the hailstorm was talking on a cell phone to the rude businessman (the same one who later dies on the bus when the giant wave hits New York City) about a failing insider trading scheme. Instead the final cut of the film he is shown talking to a woman.

TV releases

It received its terrestrial UK premiere on Sunday February 11 2007 on Channel 4. On February 16 2007, it premiered on the Seven Network in Australia. The Thailand Premium showing was on Saturday March 3 2007 on Channel 7 BBTV. FX premiered the movie in the U.S. on Monday, March 12 2007.

References to real life and popular culture

• When Sam, Laura, and Brian are at J.D.'s apartment in New York, they are watching the local FOX station on the television. The logo in the bottom-right identifies the station as WTTG-DC, the FOX affiliate 250 miles south in Washington, D.C. The FOX affiliate for New York is WNYW-TV. Also, the Los Angeles FOX affiliate KTTV is mentioned more than once in the movie as well in near-disastrous results such as a truck being thrown at the TV truck while on the 105 Freeway near LAX due to the force of the winds of the tornado.
• In the party scene at the school in New York, Sam's name tag reads "Hello my name is Yoda".
• There is one scene in which Jack Hall is wondering whether or not humans will survive a second ice age. His friend, Jason Evans, says "You were there for the first one" which is a reference to Dennis Quaid's role in Caveman.
• During the tornado scene, the anchor in the Fox news studio and the helicopter pilot out on the field were named "Bart" and "Lisa". These are famous characters from The Simpsons.
• Both Celtic and Manchester United get a mention in this film as they were apparently playing a UEFA Champions League qualifier at Celtic Park just before the blizzards hit in Scotland. However, the football coverage shown is not Celtic against Manchester United, but Manchester United against Boca Juniors of Argentina at Old Trafford which took place on August 10 2002 in a benefit match that raised money to help support disadvantaged children. In reality, the two clubs were paired in Group F of the 2006-2007 UEFA Champions League Group Stage, although the player mentioned as scoring, Ruud van Nistelrooy, had been sold (to Real Madrid) by then.
• The news footage of "a plane that was brought down in the hurricane" was actually real-life news footage of Avianca Flight 52 which crashed in Long Island, New York on January 25, 1990.

South Park Parodies

The animated show South Park has parodied this movie at least three times, in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," "Die Hippie, Die" and "Lice Capades." In addition the conversation about global warming in "Goobacks" seems similar to the theme of this movie.

Notes

1. ^ Tornadoes in Los Angeles are not science fiction: on December 28 2004, the neighborhoods of Inglewood and Ladera Heights were shocked when a small tornado blew through the district, just outside of the city center. Part of the Los Angeles Convention Center was damaged severely by the twister. On average, a total of 90 tornadoes spawn each year in the Los Angeles County area (though most are in the areas eastward of the city: the desert).
2. ^ The news reporter in Los Angeles at the time of the tornado outbreak is crushed by one of the Angelyne billboards, a notable landmark to Los Angeles residents.
3. ^ The wave that overtakes Manhattan comes from the east out of Queens, but the Atlantic Ocean is located south of Manhattan. The closest body of open ocean from Manhattan heading east is 120 miles away at the end of Long Island.
4. ^ Previous concepts of the super freeze sequence had Jack Hall escaping the lowering temperatures in a Wendy's next to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
5. ^ Movie Physics: The Day After Tomorrow[1]
6. ^ Movie Physics: The Day After Tomorrow[2]
7. ^ Movie Physics: The Day After Tomorrow[3]
8. ^ entry "Coriolis effect": the apparent deflection of a moving mass of water, air, etc. to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere) [Webster's New World Dictionary & Thesaurus, Version 2.0, 1998)]

See also

• State of Fear, a 2004 novel by Michael Crichton.
• Fifty Degrees Below, a Kim Stanley Robinson novel in which greenhouse warming similarly disrupts the Gulf Stream; the rate of cooling is somewhat less exaggerated.

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