The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers (WGA):

Roland Emmerich (story)
Roland Emmerich (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 May 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

This year, a sweater won't do.

Plot:

A climatologist tries to figure out a way to save the world from abrupt global warming. He must get to his young son in New York, which is being taken over by a new ice age.

Plot Keywords:

New York | Global Warming | Climatologist | Disaster | Ice Age

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Dennis Quaid	...	Jack Hall
Jake Gyllenhaal	...	Sam Hall
Emmy Rossum	...	Laura Chapman
Dash Mihok	...	Jason Evans
Jay O. Sanders	...	Frank Harris
Sela Ward	...	Dr. Lucy Hall
Austin Nichols	...	J.D.
Arjay Smith	...	Brian Parks
Tamlyn Tomita	...	Janet Tokada
Sasha Roiz	...	Parker
Ian Holm	...	Terry Rapson
Nassim Sharara	...	Saudi Delegate
Carl Alacchi	...	Venezuelan Delegate
Kenneth Welsh	...	Vice President Becker
Michel 'Gish' Abou-Samah	...	Saudi Translator (as Michael A. Samah)

Also Known As:

Tomorrow (USA) (working title)
El día después de mañana (Argentina) (Mexico) (Peru) [es]
Le jour d'après (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Послезавтра (Russia) [ru]
Dan posle sutra (Serbia) [sr]
Dan poslije sutra (Croatia) [hr]
Den poté (Czech Republic) [cs]
El día de mañana (Spain) [es]
L'alba del giorno dopo (Italy) [it]
Meta tin epomeni mera (Greece) [el]
O Dia Depois de Amanhã (Brazil) [pt]
Päev pärast homset (Estonia) [et]
The Day After Tomorrow (Germany) [de]
Yarindan sonra (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense situations of peril.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Japanese | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #40177) | Iceland:L | Brazil:Livre | Malaysia:U | France:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Ireland:12 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Philippines:G | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Zurich) | UK:12A | Greece:K-13

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

As of 2008, has the second highest gross for a movie that did not reach Number 1 at the US box office, behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002).

Goofs:

Plot holes: Sam and his friends are all in High School and on a High School scholastic team. Where are the teachers from the High School that should be there with them? They wouldn't send three teenagers from a High School without an adult.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Frank Harris: See how it's done?
Jason Evans: Yeah, I think I got the hang of it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Snoop Dogg/Avril Lavigne (#29.19)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me

Smoke and mirrors, all flash and no substance

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Super 35)

Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS

Utterly routine blockbuster, loosely based on scientific predictions of disastrous climate changes due to global warming, in which the Gulf Stream is essentially 'shut off', triggering a series of freak weather conditions (giant hailstones in Japan, tornadoes in Los Angeles, tidal waves in New York, etc.) which culminate in a new Ice Age. Dennis Quaid is the obsessive climatologist who struggles to convince sceptical authorities of the impending catastrophe, and who is forced to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) after the boy becomes stranded in Manhattan following torrential floods and the subsequent Big Freeze. Industrial Light & Magic unleashes a wealth of attention-grabbing visual effects during the film's impressive opening stretch, effectively sidelining the crudely drawn characters and half-baked melodramatics, but the superficial script (by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and director Roland Emmerich) fails to sustain the initial momentum, and the second half becomes bogged down in Quaid's ho-hum rescue mission.

To be fair, the movie DOES contain a number of awe-inspiring sequences (the massive wave which rises from the ocean to engulf New York; the view from space as three colossal storms circle the entire northern hemisphere of the earth; a trawler floating serenely down a flooded Fifth Avenue), and a couple of satirical jabs are surprisingly potent (most notably, the mass exodus of American citizens INTO Mexico!), but the movie amounts to little more than smoke and mirrors, all flash and no substance.