The Day After Tomorrow is often thought of as one of the most politically motivated films to come out of Hollywood. The film follows the story of several loosely connected and badly defined characters as they battle for survival against an Ice Age brought about by global warming.
Many political activists who wish to conserve the environment have attached themselves to the film and advertise it as an accurate interpretation of what will happen if we continue to poison the atmosphere with carbon dioxide; unfortunately, it is obvious from the way that the film has been advertised and shot that it simply wants to be an action movie, which confuses the process somewhat.
The film starts with a standard mix of grand music and rolling landscape (you can’t go wrong with a tried and tested formula); the landscape in question being the North Pole. After the opening credits have finished we are greeted with the sight of three environmentalists working at a small camp in the centre of the North Pole, which then breaks in half! Badly acted panic ensues.
This scene is actually more confusing than anything else, as one of the environmentalists leaps onto the land that has broken off, simply to save some equipment. Furthermore the scene serves no purpose other than to show off fancy special effects, camera angles, and inform the audience that they are watching a film about global warming – thanks, everyone really needed you to explain that to them, in fact, explain it again, in case anyone missed the previews.
Unfortunately the director (Emmerich) seems to think that his audience actually does need a second explanation and abruptly we cut to the United States Senate where a climatologist named Jack Hall is trying to persuade the government to do something useful about global warming. The film then descends into lazy dialogue, awful editing (each cut is so fast you’ll get whiplash) and frankly terrible acting (courtesy of Dennis Quaid), until we get to the first storm sequence, which is actually quite good.
This is when it dawns on you; Emmerich really just wanted to make an action film but instead bullied himself into making a serious film. The special effects are outstanding; parts of the city are destroyed and hurled at each other in a cataclysmic wave of destruction, crushing everything in their path. This is accompanied with nigh on perfect sound effects and an amazing musical score.
We then cut to Jack’s family, who are unsurprisingly worried about him, except his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who appears to be more worried about how he’s going to get to New York, so he can impress his potential girlfriend, Laura (Emmy Rossum) with his abilities in Mathematics…
The relationship between Sam and his father is obviously a strained one, yet it is never fully realized as the characters spend the majority of the film apart. This is a shame as there is so much potential in the film and if this core relationship was developed, the experience would be infinitely more satisfying.
Sam gets to New York via a plane which almost gets hit by lightning (are planes even allowed up in storms?), revealing also that he’s afraid of heights; a truly horrible “romance” sequence between Sam and Laura is forced into being by Emmerich. The scene is least emotional love scene ever made; there is absolutely no connection between the actors whatsoever.
This is where the film’s main problem lies. Every part of The Day after Tomorrow could have been an emotional, nerve-racking and genuinely terrifying experience, but Emmerich obviously didn’t envision what he advertised, or else he got lost in production. All that matters, however, is that you won’t feel a thing towards any of the characters, because humans don’t sit around in dangerous situations they panic!
When the plane lands in New York (the main set piece for the film) it is revealed that the storm is headed for the city, and everyone in the United States must go to Mexico to be safe from the storm. Why Mexico remains untouched by global warming is never explained at all, but the difficult relationship with Mexico and the U.S.A could have been an interesting plot point. Unfortunately, once again, this is never expanded upon.
Sam realizes that it would be incredibly dangerous to race the storm to Mexico and stays in New York Library (he conveniently reaches the library just as the storm hits New York, you know like every action movie hero that has ever been threatened by anything). Unfortunately, Jack (the climatologist) doesn’t realize it is in fact suicide to go to New York now, and “heroically” risks his life for Sam.
In a way, The Day after Tomorrow reminds me of an old western, as it’s obvious that Jack won’t die as he is “the all-American hero”, akin to Clint Eastwood. This leads me to the evident patriotism within the film. Essentially The Day after Tomorrow’s message is that America will always triumph and any disaster brought on by emission of Carbon Dioxide isn’t the country’s fault and will be forgiven, contrasting to the “this is where we are going” message provided by every aspect of advertising for the film.
Another problem with The Day after Tomorrow is the constant use of completely impossible plot devices. For example, towards the end of the film a ship full of wolves holds the only medicine that is capable of curing a leg wound. This not only takes the audience even further away from any emotional plot that the film may have, but it also loses any sense of realism that the film could have had otherwise. The plot ends well for all of the main characters and has absolutely no long term effects on America, which discards any message given (except the patriotic one, because taking that away would have catastrophic affects).
By now it should be apparent that the entire budget was spent on special effects and sound, as both the acting and the script is appalling. It appears that Emmerich was simply relying on his cast to act well and attract attention; they don’t. In fact most of the actors are so bad they either aren’t trying or can’t act. Add in some unintentionally hilarious lines such as; “Step aside, my Father’s a climatologist” and the film starts to feel more like a comedy than a serious look at what might happen if we carry on in our current trends.
The Day after tomorrow is actually a very shallow film which doesn’t comment on our own stupidity as a race. It entirely neglects the fact that global warming is brought on by human means, and that it is something we can control. The film is a completely nonsensical mix of American disaster movie, unintentional comedy, tear-jerker and action movie. Ultimately it’s this genre confusion that destroys it.
