CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 05/28/04

Tomorrow's Forecast:

Hot FX, Cold Characters

By jeff goldsmith

Mother Nature has decided she's sick of all these gas- guzzling, freon-spraying, smokestack-belching humans and decides to wreak her vengeance with a new ice age in this FX-heavy summer flick where the CG comes alive but the characters are frozen stiff.

The Day After Tomorrow

Roland Emmerich & Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Professor Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) witnesses the Larsen B ice shelf crumble into the Arctic Ocean 100 years earlier than it should have. Soon after, Hall delivers a keynote speech about global warming, only to be shot down by a Dick Cheney-alike vice president. Suddenly, the world's weather systems spin out of control when North Atlantic currents change for the worse and permanently alter the planet's weather -- and, yes, disaster ensues, including a superfreeze where the temperature drops 10 degrees a second and insta- freezing everyone in the vicinity. Meanwhile, Jack's son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his friends are stranded in the New York Public Library on a high school trip, and Jack vows to rescue him no matter what it takes.

It's important to remember that this is a disaster film -- a sub-genre usually beat up by critics and rarely taken seriously. Yet, every genre has its greats. A film like The Day After Tomorrow was clearly influenced by its predecessor, the 1961 British classic The Day The Earth Caught Fire, which smartly intermixed disaster and environmental politics. But the greatest disaster film ever made -- the one that set the bar for all to follow -- was 1972's The Poseidon Adventure. It's a classic example of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances and rising to the challenge (remember, Gene Hackman is a minister).

Tomorrow has a solid cast, set-up and story, but lets the special effects overshadow the characters. If you think of the effects as another character, it's easy to see how this character was given too many great scenes and cool things to do whereas its human counterparts weren't given enough. Also, since the film employs "man vs. nature" scenarios (thus, a nebulous antagonist), many of the protagonists' actions remain reactionary. Things happen to Jack, Sam and the rest, rather than have the heroes making things happen. To their credit, Emmerich and Nachmanoff spared us the usual disaster genre character clichés involving long, uninteresting back stories that we simply don't care about.

Proof of the film's intelligence lies in the fact that there's no witty way to save humanity. The new ice age is forced upon us, and we either kick-start our survival instincts or die. It also intelligently addresses global warming. Some will complain about the preachiness of this message, which overstayed its welcome by a minute or two. But folks, you're buying a ticket to a global warming disaster film -- are you really surprised? Preachy or not, Emmerich and Nachmanoff's well-researched scenarios are smart enough that the film always maintains an air of legitimacy (assuming you share the belief that global warming is a reality). In fact, the story of a woolly mammoth being "flash frozen" and later dug up with undigested food in its stomach is based on a real scientific dig (read more about this in the current issue of Creative Screenwriting magazine). The Larsen B ice shelf falling into the ocean was also true. In reality, it fell a month after the writers were done with their script! They left it in the film to show the reality of global warming and don't see it as the inciting incident -- just another factor to push global weather over its tipping point.

Science aside, when Jack says he'll walk to New York to get his son if he has to, the audience chuckled. A hundred years ago -- when people still walked long distances -- this wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. Strangely, the film's audiences are willing to believe tornados in LA more than the idea of an experienced Arctic explorer hoofing it. (A snowmobile might have fixed the problem.) Ultimately Quaid seems to walk from Philadelphia to New York in about four days -- and yes, due to the bad weather they're walking through, it's a stretch. But is it enough to invalidate the rest of the film? No. It's just a speed bump.

If you're a disaster film junkie in the mood for a popcorn-cruncher with an environmental message, this film is for you. If you're expecting an Academy Award winner, stay home. The Day After Tomorrow offers a solid, effects-heavy roller coaster ride from writers who know their genre, are connected to their audience and have presented one of the more entertaining tentpole pics so far this summer.

The Day After Tomorrow
20th Century Fox
Rated PG-13; 124 min.

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Jeff Goldsmith is a regular columnist for Creative Screenwriting Magazine and serves as the Los Angeles Events Coordinator in charge of the Creative Screenwriting screening series.

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