2 of 3

Manhattan in need of a snow plow

The movie's most amusing moments come from seeing conventional wisdom turned on its head. Americans fleeing the invasion of frost from the north are stopped at the Mexican border, and so begin illegally crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico; finally the American President earns the support of Latin American countries by cancelling their debt. And much to the shock of the resident librarian, Sam tells those hiding in the library to keep warm by burning books; his friend suggests starting with the massive tax volumes.

Alas, the film does not exploit as many opportunities for irony as it could have. One of the library survivors, an atheist, professes a love of Nietzsche, but is never compelled to re-think that philosopher's nihilism; the only retort anyone can muster is to mock Nietzsche's sexual preferences. This same atheist later clings to a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and refuses to allow anyone to burn it, not out of any respect for sacred scripture, but because, as the first book to be printed on a printing press, it represents the dawn of the Age of Reason; he goes on to say the written word is mankind's greatest achievement.

A tornado destroys the Capitol Records building in Hollywood

This marks an interesting departure from earlier disaster movies, such as Daylight, Deep Impact and Armageddon, which went out of their way to include religious symbols, however superficial, that signified salvation in the midst of suffering. But the disaster movies released since September 11—and yes, the studios do hope audiences will pay to see even more national landmarks destroyed at the multiplex, even though these monuments might very well be terrorist targets in real life—are of a more skeptical, humanistic breed. Last year's The Core also included a single reference to God, mainly to emphasize that no one should bring him up; now The Day After Tomorrow follows a similar path. Between this, the dull writing, and the hypocritical message—it waves an anti-consumerist flag, yet the disaster genre is itself all about the spectacle of consumption—this is one film viewers might want to put off until some time long, long after the day after tomorrow.

Talk About It

1. Do you think God would allow—or even cause—a disaster of this magnitude? Why or why not? If disasters like this happen, are they just accidents? Or do they sometimes mean something more? (See Isaiah 45:7, Luke 13:1-5, and the biblical accounts of the Flood, etc.)
   
   
2. If you knew your world would come to an end tomorrow, what would you do differently? What would you do the same? How attached are you to this world? How attached should you be?
   
   
3. What do you think is mankind's greatest achievement? What significance should the Age of Reason have? Is mankind's trust in its own reason perhaps responsible for the sorts of problems on display in this film? What role does reason have in our faith? How does faith inform our reason?
   
   

The Family Corner

The violence in the film is pretty much all of the accidental or natural variety—wolves chasing people, people falling through holes in the ground, people and so on. In one scene, a teenaged girl huddles close to a boy to share her body heat with him, but nothing sexual transpires. There is also a four-letter word or two, but remarkably few for a film of this genre and rating.

Photos © Copyright 20th Century Fox

The environmentalists were right. The President and his administration were wrong. That is the premise of The Day After Tomorrow. But Roland Emmerich's blockbuster action movie is much more a special-effects extravaganza than it is a scientific argument. And in spite of the participation of such fine actors as Dennis Quaid (The Rookie), Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), and Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings films), most critics say the movie is just a frail echo of Independence Day, with bad weather taking the place of the aliens in the role of wreaking devastation upon historical landmarks.

next page... |  2 of 3