The latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie deals with the unlikely question: What if we are on the brink of a new ice age?
One of the main characters, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is a climatologist who everyone thinks is the boy calling wolf. Everyone that is, except Professor Rapson (Ian Holm) a colleague based in Scotland, who helps confirm Jacks fears are more than real, they are hugely underestimated.
But as Jack is trying to warm the Vice President, his teenage son Sam (Jake Gyllenhall) is on his way to New York, officially to compete in a High School academic competition. But really he’s there because he likes a cute girl who’s on the team.
Whilst they are in New York, a huge storm system appears, and the movie really kicks in.
Special effects have come along way, and passionate directors are realizing that effects have to be used to make us believe what we are seeing. And even though this movie deals with the unbelievable, you find your self-believing that everything is real, and we start to enjoy the experience of watching the world change in front of our eyes.
But special effect, no matter how believable they are, are nothing without a story line, and The Day After Tomorrow has the perfect modern day disaster flick story line: Jack, the father who was never there, promises Sam that he will come and rescue him.
Fortunately being a climatologist, Jack has the experience and equipment to trek across the USA through the storm of the millennium. But no amount of experience ever saves a movie like this from the clichés: there has to be sacrifice, there has to be humour, and there has to be love.
And of course, no blockbuster disaster movie would be complete without a cheesy ending.