The film opens on a vast glacier in Antarctica with our hero, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) leaping across a ridiculously large gap to save some unimportant reports on his research. We then follow a series of gradually increasing severities of weather across the world, (snow in Delhi, bucket-size hailstones in Tokyo, and a series of severe tornadoes that wreck downtown Los Angles). The only person who seems genuinely worried by all this is Jack, who as a climatologist, believes a new ice age is coming. However, as in all Emmerich films, the hero’s apocalyptic warnings are not taken seriously until it is too late. Whilst Jack wastes his time attempting to convince the vice president of the forthcoming cataclysmic events in Washington D.C, Sam, Jack’s son, becomes stranded with three friends and a few other plot less characters in New York City public library. This is after a massive tidal wave strikes the city, and then freezes within hours. Not before a 300 ft tanker ship floats up Broadway of course. From the audiences first encounter with Sam we get to see that he clearly has super powers. He can work out every sum on a maths paper in his head, can easily out run a tidal wave and can, without any difficulty, hold his breath under freezing water for five minutes! This ‘super Sam’ character trait is about as realistic as man landing on Jupiter and removes any realism the films special effects had managed to build up prior to his introduction. After becoming stranded in the library Sam and co. then have to face rapidly decreasing temperatures- and a pack of not so realistic CGI wolves that recently escaped from a zoo, (they managed to both defy metal gates and escape an engulfing tidal wave, clever guys). Despite all this life in the library remains pretty sweet. Sam finds it the perfect time to fall in love, and everyone else present just lies around sleeping, this makes viewing for the audience little more interesting than watching ‘Big Brother’ at night.
In an attempted twist to the extremely bland story line, whilst in Washington D.C daddy realises in the wake of catastrophe that he hasn’t spent enough time with his family, and with the help of his loyal team of two he embarks on a perilous journey to reach Sam. (Yes. That’s right he intends to walk from Washington to New York in snow, and succeeds!)
The film is generally very depressing; along with uncountable casualties and worldwide devastation other cheerful features of the picture include the deaths of both the U.S president and the royal family!
In Emmerich’s previous accomplishments we’ve seen recognisable national features being utterly decimated (the White house being obliterated in Independence Day and Madison square being reduced to nothing in Godzilla). Emmerich clearly believes this typical feature of his is a saving grace of his films as he doesn’t come up with anything original in his latest disaster flick. Instead uses the same trick just different national landmarks. Although this is as predictable as the sun rising, it is actually a rare redeeming trait of the movie. Whether it’s the statue of liberty being encased in icicles or the Hollywood sign being erased by multiple tornadoes, the annihilation of these American symbols is extremely entertaining, despite the lack of originality. In fact, generally the special effects are awesome, close to perfection even; they also manage to convey the massive scale of destruction exceptionally well. Without this fantastic leap in visual technology, I think the film would be utterly dead.
Overall the film isn’t half as epic as Emmerich’s previous blockbusters or half as entertaining. The dialogues are about as interesting as watching paint dry and the bland characters have about as much depth as a puddle in the street! The storyline isn’t exactly deep, introspective stuff either. To top it all off ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ fails to really alarm the audience, which seriously undermines it’s purpose, as you will not be inspired to become a cleaner, more user friendly citizen. The visual quality of the picture means it is hanging on by it’s fingernails however I don’t think even the stunning special effects can save this film from boring you stupid.
