The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers:

Roland Emmerich (story), Roland Emmerich (screenplay)

Stars:

Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum

Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 5 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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)

Storyline

As Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is in Antartica, he discovers that a huge ice sheet has sheared off. But what he does not know is that this event will trigger a massive climate shift that will affect the world population. Meanwhile, his son Sam is with friends in New York City to attend an event. There, they discover that it has been raining non-stop for the past three days, and after a series of weather-related disasters begin to occur all over the world, everybody realizes the world is about to enter a new Ice Age and the world population begins trying to evacuate to the warmer climates of the south. Jack makes a daring attempt to rescue his son and his friends who are stuck in New York City and who have managed to survive not only a massive wave but also freezing cold temperatures that could possibly kill them.

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Plot Keywords:

global warming | end of the world | climate crisis | climate | weather | 

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Taglines:

This year, a sweater won't do.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense situations of peril

Details

Official Sites:

20th Century Fox [Japan] Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese French Arabic

Release Date:

28 May 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tomorrow

Filming Locations:

Colton Street & N Edgeware Road, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$125,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$85,807,341, 30 May 2004, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$186,740,799

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$544,272,402

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Centropolis Entertainment, Lions Gate Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the shot that shows the front of the library, lamps are seen instead of the iconic lions. According to a New York City Public Library employee, the studio didn't want to pay the fee for filming the statues that are a trademark of the institution, and therefore only took advantage of the public area rights of filming.

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Goofs

Commercial aircraft do not fly into thunderstorms. Approx. 16 minutes into the film the flight carrying the students to NYC is show flying into lightning illuminated c. nimbus clouds. Although these clouds can develop rather quickly, there were other routes available to that aircraft to take to maintain their rule of avoiding thunderstorms by at least 8 miles laterally. Rules in effect at the time the movie was made (and still do) virtually "require" separation from building Cumulonimbus Clouds by at least 10 nautical miles when below the altitude where water freezes (the Freezing Level) and 20 nautical miles separation when flying above the Freezing level.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

Greenhouse gases neutralized by future forests.

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Connections

Spoofed in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

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Soundtracks

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
Written by Boy George (as George O'Dowd), Jon Moss, Mikey Craig (as Michael Craig) and Roy Hay
Performed by Culture Club
Courtesy of Virgin Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

Oh! The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

I really enjoyed this film by director Roland Emmerich a great deal. It is a fast-paced, exciting, suspenseful film filled with wonderful images, great CGI effects, plausible acting, and even a coherent script. How realistic is it? I hope not at all, but the director made the film so that it seems very real and like something that MIGHT happen. The story revolves around some major climatic shifts that cause the entire Northern hemisphere to become Artic tundra. New York City is devastated as are other major cities all over Europe. Dennis Quaid gives a good performance as a climatologist that predicted some of these events. We see things through his perspective and that of his son for much of the movie. The acting in general is good in this film. I particularly liked Ian Holm's role as the British meteorologist stuck in the middle of nowhere while these changes advanced. Much of the credit for the film's success must go to Emmerich. This is easily one of his best films. He keeps his viewer on the edge of his/her seat through the entire film. Action is the film's primary objective, but Emmerich also uses a lot of humanity in what his character's motivations are, and I for one, enjoyed seeing that side of humanity rather than what I probably would see under similar circumstances. As a previous viewer noted, this is a great popcorn movie!