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Film Review
The Day after Tomorrow
Twentieth Century Fox (2004)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal
Director: Roland Emmerich
Review by Jenni van Wageningen
A sudden ice age takes the world by surprise as it sweeps across the northern hemisphere. This global cold snap is the consequence of unchecked global warming, and is preceded by dramatic upheavals in weather patterns, as well as cataclysmic natural disasters. Killer tornadoes destroy Los Angeles, giant hailstones rain down on Tokyo, snow falls in New Delhi, and a giant tidal wave thunders across the city of New York. These are definitely some of the best scenes of assorted natural chaos and destruction ever seen on the big screen.
Disaster movies are in a class of their own, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief, logic and scientific understanding, and allow yourself to be swept along by the heroics and the sheer spectacle. The director was responsible for the movie ‘Independence Day’ (1996) in which aliens threatened the world in general and the American way of life in particular. In ‘The day after tomorrow’ it is humankind’s own foolishness which leads to disaster.
There is of course, one man who has seen it all coming. Jack Hall is a workaholic climatologist, but no-one is prepared to heed his dire warnings of looming disaster when he presents his findings at a global summit. He argues that unless the world changes the way natural resources are used, an ice age will appear within a few hundred years. Unfortunately Jack’s calculations are a tad inaccurate and the ice age strikes with a vengeance a mere few days later.
This is a movie with a number of obvious messages, all of them dealt with rather superficially.
Politicians are shown as the bad guys, more interested in economic ambitions than the well being and future of the planet. One of the most telling moments in the movie is when we see hordes of Americans fleeing south to Mexico where they are prevented from entering until the American president graciously wipes out the collective national debt of all Latin American countries.
Another very strong message is that we should listen to environmentalists for our global safety, if not exactly our salvation. There is an obvious appeal to be better stewards of the earth and its resources.
The movie dips just a very tentative toe into the deeper questions of life, philosophy and religious belief. God is left out of the equation, apart from a passing suggestion to pray. Humans, it would seem are able to sort out their own survival. ‘Mankind survived the last ice age… it all depends on what we can learn from our mistakes,’ says one of the characters.
As a lover of books, I found it quite intriguing to witness volumes being ripped to pieces and burnt to provide warmth for the small group of survivors holed up in the New York Public Library. One character tried to save Nietzsche’s works from suffering this fate and ended up defiantly clutching a Gutenberg Bible, not because he believed in the contents, but because it represented ‘civilization.’
Apart from these ‘macro-messages’ there is a more personal ‘micro-message.’ Once again, it is not particularly original and holds no surprises. Hall has neglected his family by devoting himself so single-mindedly to his career. As he faces the possibility of death he has to decide what matters most and he chooses his family. Realising the error of his ways he doggedly sets out on a long journey through a frozen wilderness to rescue his son Sam who is trapped in New York. A prodigal father regains his alienated son, even though the world is crumbling around them.
Director Roland Emmerich says “If the world goes down, you’re forced to take a look at your life. Audiences know that when they watch a disaster movie. They have to think about their life and they have to make decisions like what they really want and who they love.”
‘The day after tomorrow’ is all about warning, survival, searching, sacrifice and saving, but all very much on a horizontal level. This ‘end-of-civilization-as we know-it’ movie provides an excellent springboard for discussion on many more issues from a Christian perspective.
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