The Movie 2012 *Review*

2012 is a disaster film, directed by Roland Emmerich and released in 2009. The film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Woody Harrelson. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver.

The film briefly references Mayanism, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and the 2012 phenomenon in its portrayal of cataclysmic events unfolding in the year 2012. Because of solar flare bombardment the Earth's core begins heating up at an unprecedented rate, eventually causing crustal displacement. This results in an onslaught of Doomsday event scenarios plunging the world into chaos, ranging from California falling into the Pacific Ocean, the eruption of the Yellowstone National Park caldera, massive earthquakes, and Megatsunami impacts along every coast line on the Earth. The film centers around an ensemble cast of characters as they narrowly escape multiple catastrophes in an effort to reach ships in the Himalayas, along with scientists and governments of the world who are

In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley learns from a colleague in India that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are acting as microwave radiation, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Adrian informs White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser and US President Thomas Wilson that this will trigger a catastrophic chain of natural disasters. At the G8 summit in 2010, other heads of state and heads of government are made aware of the situation. They begin a massive, secret project intended to ensure the survival of humanity. Approximately 400,000 people are chosen to board a series of ships (called arks) to be constructed in the Himalayas. The majority of tickets aboard these ships are reserved for notable government officials and selected people, while additional funding for the project is raised by selling tickets to the private sector at the price of €1 billion per person.

In 2012, Jackson Curtis is a writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for wealthy Russian businessman Yuri Karpov. Jackson's ex-wife Kate and their children Noah and Lily live with her boyfriend, plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon Silberman. Jackson takes Noah and Lily on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park, where they meet Charlie Frost, a conspiracy theorist living as a hermit and hosting a radio show from the park. Charlie references a theory that suggests the Mayans predicted the world would come to an end in 2012, and claims he has knowledge and a map of the secret ark project. The family returns home as cracks develop along the San Andreas Fault in California and large earthquakes occur in many places along the West Coast. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a plane to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon when the Earth's crust displacement begins and they escape Los Angeles as it collapses into the Pacific Ocean.

As billions die in cataclysmic earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie's map. The group narrowly escapes as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie, who stayed behind to broadcast the eruption, is killed in the blast. Learning that the ships are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas, where they meet Yuri, his sons, girlfriend Tamara, and pilot Sasha. They join the group and secure an Antonov aircraft, fleeing just as Las Vegas is destroyed. Also bound for the arks aboard Air Force One are Anheuser, Adrian, and First Daughter Laura Wilson. President Wilson chooses to remain in Washington D.C., and is soon killed by a megatsunami. With the Vice President also dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser takes over as acting president.

Arriving in China in a crash-landing that kills Sasha, the group is spotted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the ships. The Curtis family, Gordon, and Tamara, who do not have tickets, are picked up by Nima, a Buddhist monk on his way to the arks. They sneak into an ark with the help of Nima's brother Tenzin, a welder for the ark project. A tsunami approaches the site as thousands are still attempting to board the final ark, and a large drill becomes lodged between the gears of the ark's hydraulics chamber, preventing a boarding gate from closing and rendering the ship unable to start its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon, and Tamara are killed, and the flooded ark is set adrift. Jackson and Noah free the drill from the closing mechanism, and the crew regains control of the ark, preventing a fatal collision with Mount Everest.

When the floodwater from the tsunamis recedes, satellite data shows that Africa's elevation rose in relation to sea level, and the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu Natal are now the highest on the planet. As three arks set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, Jackson reconciles with his family and Adrian starts a relationship with Laura. The movie ends with a view of the Earth from space, showing a drastically different continental landscape.

The credits cite the bestselling non-fiction book Fingerprints of the Gods by author Graham Hancock as inspiration for the film,^[3] and in an interview with the London magazine Time Out Emmerich states: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods."^[4]

Director Roland Emmerich and composer-producer Harald Kloser co-wrote a spec script titled 2012, which was marketed to major studios in February 2008. Nearly all studios met with Emmerich and his representatives to hear the director's budget projection and story plans, a process that the director had previously gone through with the films Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).^[5] Later that month, Sony Pictures Entertainment won the rights for the spec script, planning to distribute it under Columbia Pictures^[6] and to make it for less than the estimated budget.^[7] According to Emmerich, the film was eventually produced for about $200 million.^[1]

Filming was originally scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, California, in July 2008,^[8] but instead commenced in Vancouver in August 2008 and concluded in January 2009.^[9] Due to the possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike, filmmakers set up a contingency plan for salvaging the film.^[10] Uncharted Territory, Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Scanline, Sony Pictures Imageworks and others were hired to create visual effects for 2012.^[11] Thomas Wander co-wrote the score with Harald Kloser.

Okay this scientific vision of things to come was a big pill to swallow. The ideal that the earth will self destruct because of constant earth changes was way over my head for now... I watched the movie wondering when is this going to end. I wish that there was something about this movie that I could give a great review but it held my attention simply because I wanted to see what was going to happen next! This hodgepodge of everything happening was just to much. My recommendation is save your money and wait for it to come on regular TV. My review is two (2) ** stars.

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