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:

Where will you be?

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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]

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

The United States Embassy in Mexico was actually the Centro Vida/Life Center Ministries and school in El Paso, Texas. Mexico is visible from the building, which is on Glory Road near the University. The church and school have since moved. The Mexico-United States "bridge" is really an overpass in El Paso which overlooks Mexico. El Paso's real border bridges don't look like that. Security is much stricter, with fences and Border Patrol Agents. During filming, local residents were concerned about closed streets and military-style helicopters landing and flying low over residential neighborhoods.

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Goofs

During a meeting with his cabinet, the President stands and leaves, yet everyone seated at the table remains seated. White House protocol requires that when the President stands up, so does everyone else.

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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

Referenced in Roland Emmerich - Mein Leben (2009)

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Soundtracks

Karma
Written and Performed by Emanuele Arnone (as Fungone)
Courtesy of Compression Records/Magelic Productions Inc.

User Reviews

Ridiculous Story, But Fun To Watch

I was leery of a heavy propaganda piece on "global warming," but I still saw this and found that, yeah that's what it was but it was really more of just a straight adventure story than anything else.....and not a bad one, at that. The first 50 minutes of this two-hour film have the "fun parts" where the special-effects dominate. We see all kinds of radical weather disasters that are extremely dramatic and entertaining to watch, even if they don't make a bit of sense.

After the blizzard and sub-zero, unlivable weather conditions arrive the movie settles down to a young romance and survival story with Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Rossum and other people trapped in a library in New York City and Jake's father, played by Dennis Quaid, walking all the way from Philadelphia to rescue him. Yes, it's very, very far-fetched - the whole thing - but it's a fun adventure story with nice people. It's especially refreshing to see Hollywood portray a father as being so loving and selfless. The romance wasn't overdone and the young people were not profane and/or annoying, as so often is the case.

Except for the over-exaggerated and extremely erroneous scare tactics of this movie, and a ridiculous portrayal of the Vice Preseint of the United States, the movie works strictly as an entertaining fantasy-adventure story.