2012
2009 · Directed by Roland Emmerich
Original language: English
- action
- adventure
- science fiction
The story
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.
What it’s like
Huge digital spectacle with glossy, high-saturation color and sweeping aerial shots of cities folding into dust, Los Angeles freeways splitting and Las Vegas casinos collapsing under a sky that turns from clean blue to apocalyptic orange. The mood is big-budget dread crossed with popcorn fun: loud, propulsive, and built around vast set pieces rather than quiet interiors, with a bombastic orchestral score that swells whenever the ground gives way. Pacing is relentless, cutting between continents and a family road trip, so the rhythm feels like a ride that rarely lets up. Its people are an ordinary divorced father and his estranged family, scrambling toward redemption as the stakes climb, and the emotional register stays broad and sentimental. Intensity is high in spectacle terms: heavy destruction and mass-scale peril, with many deaths glimpsed at a distance rather than lingered on, and little gore. It suits a loud weekend night or a disaster-movie craving, and fits viewers who want awe, peril and a comfortable dose of heroics more than subtlety.
More films like 2012
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved 2012and we’ll explain which ones fit you.
