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Actors: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Day After Tomorrow |
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Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Quaid) is at a research station in Antarctica when an ice block as big as a state breaks off the continental shelf. Jack senses that wild weather patterns (huge typhoons, large hailstorms in Japan and other temperate zones) might signal a coming ice age tripped off by global warming. U.S. government officials won't listen, of course. But then the patterns accelerate: multiple tornadoes devastate Los Angeles, a tsunami washes over Manhattan (where Jack's son Sam is in town for a scholastic competition and holes up with other folks in the NY Public Library), and Europe freezes over. While the government belatedly orders evacuation of southern states into Mexico, Jack heads north from Washington, D.C. (and his estranged wife, a physician played by Ward) with a couple of colleagues to try to save his son. Terrific special effects dwarf the pedestrian script and acting in this 2004 blockbuster.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Directed by Roland Emmerich, this movie takes us to the next Ice Age after a dramatic climatic shift, as paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) had predicted and voiced in a conference with the world's leaders. Except that he did not predict that the phenomenon would take place shortly after. The climatic change was brought about by the melting of the ice caps in the North Pole due to global warming. Due to a devastating increase in water levels and temperatures, the ocean currents became affected, and so did the temperatures, resulting in a disastrous hailstorm that hit Tokyo, tsunami that engulfed Manhattan (and not to mention the Statue of Liberty), twisters in Los Angeles that turned a beautiful, bustling city into a vast field of ruin and debris. And it did not stop there.
Jack's son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) was trapped in Manhattan together with his decathlon team mates, one of whom is his love interest Laura (Emmy Rossum) and other survivors who somehow made it into the public library. And after trying ways and means to save civilization, Jack trekked over ice, snow, and blizzards to search for his son.
The special effects were as expected of Emmerich, and they were magnificently done. The process of how the Big Apple transformed into a city of ice is breathtaking and the disastrous scenes were magnificient.
--Serene Guay, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Day After Tomorrow |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 60%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Time/Era of Movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Disaster, Natural/Nuclear
Yes
Kind of disaster:
- hurricane/storm
Romance
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- scientist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
- muscular (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Genius
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Body type
- average build (man)
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Ice Caps?
Yes
Where?
- North Pole
- Ocean
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- Washington D.C.
Misc setting
- fort/military installation
- scientific labs
- building
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- non-gory references to death/punishment
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- concerned
How many deaths in film?
- 8 or more
- thousands
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 6 (an above average amount)
Kind of violence:
- mission to rescue
- hand to hand
Unusual forms of death
- crushed
- frozen
- drowned
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Lot of special effects?
Yes
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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