When a geologist discovers that massive solar flares are heating the Earth's core and destabilizing the planet's crust, world leaders secretly begin building massive arks to ensure the survival of humanity. Amidst the ensuing global cataclysm, a struggling writer stumbles upon the government's secret plan and must race across collapsing continents to get his estranged family to safety before the world ends.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
November 13, 2009 |
Running time |
158 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Sci-Fi |
Budget |
$200,000,000 |
Box Office |
$791,217,826 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Roland Emmerich |
Produced by |
Roland Emmerich Mark Gordon Larry Franco |
Written by |
Roland Emmerich Harald Kloser |
Music by |
Harald Kloser Thomas Wanker |
Cinematography |
Dean Semler |
Edited by |
David Brenner Peter S. Elliot |
Production Co. |
Columbia Pictures Centropolis Entertainment |
Distributed by |
Sony Pictures Releasing |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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The Plot
The Neutrino Warning
In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley travels to a copper mine in East India to visit his friend, astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani. Deep underground, Satnam reveals a terrifying discovery: a new type of neutrino, emitted from a massive solar flare, is reacting physically with matter, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Realizing the catastrophic implications, Adrian immediately returns to Washington, D.C., where he briefs White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser. Anheuser rushes Adrian to meet President Thomas Wilson, informing him that the heating core will destabilize the Earth's crust, leading to a global cataclysm.
The Cho Ming Project
By 2010, President Wilson and leaders from the G8 and other nations initiate a massive, covert project to ensure the survival of the human race and its culture. Construction begins on nine colossal vessels, known as "Arks," located in a secret facility within the Himalayas at Cho Ming, Tibet. To fund this astronomical endeavor, tickets are secretly sold to the private sector's wealthiest individuals at the price of €1 billion per person. Meanwhile, the world's greatest art treasures and historical artifacts are covertly transported to the Arks under the guise of protection from terrorist threats, a mission overseen by art expert and First Daughter, Laura Wilson.
Amidst the construction, the human cost begins to mount. Nima, a Buddhist monk living near the site, is forced to evacuate with his grandparents, while his brother Tenzin is recruited to join the Ark construction workforce. By 2011, the preparations are well underway, with the world's elite securing their passage while the general populace remains oblivious to the impending doom.
Prophecies and Conspiracy Theories
In late 2012, Jackson Curtis, a struggling science-fiction writer and part-time limousine chauffeur in Los Angeles, struggles to connect with his family. His ex-wife Kate and their children, Noah and Lilly, now live with Kate's boyfriend, Gordon Silberman, a plastic surgeon and amateur pilot. Taking the children on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park, Jackson discovers that Yellowstone Lake has completely dried up and the area has been fenced off by the United States Army. After trespassing, they are detained and brought before Adrian Helmsley, who recognizes Jackson as the author of Farewell Atlantis. Adrian releases them, but the encounter leaves Jackson unsettled.
While at the park, the group encounters Charlie Frost, a conspiracy theorist and radio personality broadcasting from a camper van. Charlie explains Charles Hapgood's theory of Earth-crust displacement and reveals that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar predicts a worldwide phenomenon in 2012. He claims the government is silencing scientists who try to warn the public, pointing to a list of murdered officials. Though Jackson is initially skeptical, the pieces begin to fit together.
The Collapse of California
Jackson returns the children home, but his skepticism vanishes when massive seismic activity begins tearing apart the West Coast. While driving the twin sons of his Russian billionaire employer, Yuri Karpov, to the airport, the boys taunt Jackson about the coming end, revealing their family has tickets to a "spaceship." realizing Charlie was right, Jackson rents a small Cessna 340 and races to rescue his family. He reaches Kate's house just as the "Earth crust displacement" begins in earnest. The family, along with Gordon, barely makes it to the Santa Monica Airport amidst crumbling infrastructure.
In a heart-stopping sequence, Gordon pilots the Cessna down a disintegrating runway. They become airborne seconds before the runway collapses into the earth. As they ascend, they witness the horrific destruction of Los Angeles; skyscrapers topple like dominoes, and the entire city, including the Santa Monica coastline, slides into the Pacific Ocean, sinking beneath the waves in a catastrophic 10.9 magnitude earthquake.
The Yellowstone Eruption
Desperate for a destination, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie Frost's map of the Ark locations. Upon arrival, they find the supervolcano on the verge of eruption. Jackson rushes to Charlie's camper, finding the theorist ecstatic to witness the end of the world firsthand. As the Yellowstone Caldera explodes in a massive mushroom cloud, Charlie stays behind to broadcast the event, ultimately being killed by flaming debris. Jackson barely escapes, retrieving the map that points to China.
With the ash cloud expanding rapidly, the Cessna is too small to make the trans-Pacific journey. They fly to Las Vegas to find a larger aircraft. They land at McCarran International Airport, navigating through a city already descending into chaos. There, they encounter Yuri Karpov, his twin sons Alec and Oleg, his girlfriend Tamara, and their pilot Sasha. The billionaire's private jet is grounded, but they spot a massive Russian transport plane, an Antonov An-500, parked nearby.
Escape from Las Vegas
The two groups join forces. Sasha and Gordon take the controls of the Antonov. As they taxi, the volcanic ash cloud from Yellowstone engulfs the Las Vegas Valley, turning day into night. They manage to take off just as the pyroclastic flow obliterates the airport, narrowly clearing the fiery destruction threatening to pull them down. They set a course for the Himalayas.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., mass evacuations are underway. Adrian, Carl Anheuser, and Laura Wilson board Air Force One to head to the Arks. President Wilson, however, chooses to remain behind. In a solemn address to the nation, he faces his end as a megatsunami hurls the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy directly into the White House, killing him. With the Vice President dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Carl Anheuser appoints himself acting commander-in-chief, effectively seizing control of the remnants of the US government.
Crash Landing in Tibet
Upon reaching Chinese airspace, the Antonov runs out of fuel. Sasha, realizing the grim reality, continues to pilot the gliding aircraft to give the others a chance to survive. The group scrambles into a Bentley Flying Spur stored in the cargo hold. As the plane attempts a rough landing on a glacier, they drive the car out of the rear ramp. The plane slides off a sheer cliff, exploding and killing Sasha instantly. The survivors in the Bentley drift to a halt, alive but stranded in the freezing mountains.
Rescue seems imminent when Chinese Air Force helicopters appear. However, the soldiers are under strict orders to collect only ticket holders. Yuri Karpov presents his passes for himself and his sons, Alec and Oleg. Despite Tamara's pleas, Yuri abandons her, Gordon, and the Curtis family in the snow, boarding the helicopters to safety. The abandoned group seems doomed until they are found by Nima, the Buddhist monk, who is traveling to the Arks with his grandparents. They join Nima in his truck, hoping to find another way aboard.
The Stowaways
Nima takes the group to the Ark site, where his brother Tenzin is working as a welder. Tenzin agrees to help them stow away on Ark 4, the vessel designated for the American contingent. They sneak through the massive industrial infrastructure of the ship's hydraulics bay. Meanwhile, inside the command center, satellites detect a colossal megatsunami surging across the ocean, triggered by the tectonic shifts. The wave is high enough to breach the Himalayas.
Panic ensues as the wave approaches. Anheuser orders the loading gates sealed immediately to protect the ships, condemning thousands of people waiting on the docks to death. Adrian Helmsley pleads with the captains and other world leaders to open the gates, arguing that civilization cannot be saved if it starts with an act of cruelty. He convinces them, and the gates are briefly reopened.
The Hydraulic Failure
As the masses rush the gates, Yuri Karpov tries to push his sons through the crowd. In the stampede, Yuri falls from the gangway to his death, but ensures his sons make it safely onto Ark 4. As the tsunami strikes the site, the gates begin to close again. In the hydraulics chamber, the stowaways are trying to enter the ship proper. Gordon is crushed by the massive gears. During the struggle, Tenzin is injured, and his heavy impact driver falls, becoming lodged between the gears of the gate mechanism.
The tool jams the gate, preventing it from sealing completely. Consequently, the ship's engines cannot start due to a safety override. As the tsunami engulfs the monastery and the surrounding valley, water begins flooding into the unsealed Ark 4. The vessel is battered by the wave and set adrift, floating uncontrollably toward the jagged peak of Mount Everest. Inside the flooding chambers, watertight doors seal off sections to save the ship, trapping Tamara, who drowns as she bids farewell to Lilly through the glass.
Saving the Ark
The situation is critical; if the gate does not close, the engines will not fire, and the Ark will fatally collide with Everest. Adrian rushes to the gear room but finds it flooded. Jackson and his son Noah volunteer to go underwater to dislodge the jamming tool. Working together in the freezing, rising water, they manage to free the impact driver from the mechanism. The gate seals instantly, and the crew regains control of the engines. The captain throws the Ark into full reverse, steering it away from the collision course with Everest just seconds before impact. Jackson and Noah narrowly escape the flooded chamber and are reunited with Kate and Lilly.
A New Beginning
Twenty-seven days later, the floodwaters have begun to recede. The atmosphere on the Arks is one of relief and tentative hope. The fleet approaches the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Due to the crust displacement, the Drakensberg Mountains have risen to become the highest mountain range on Earth. On the deck of Ark 4, Adrian and Laura Wilson begin a romantic relationship. Jackson and Kate, having survived the end of the world, reconcile and rekindle their romance. The camera pans out to space, revealing a radically changed Earth with a new continental landscape, as humanity prepares to disembark and rebuild.
Alternate Ending
In an alternate ending included in the film's home release, a subplot involving Adrian's father is resolved. After the captain announces their destination, Adrian receives a phone call revealing that his father, Harry, and his friend Tony survived the megatsunami while aboard their cruise ship, the Genesis. The ship was carried inland and grounded safely. On the deck of the Ark, Adrian and Laura bond with the Curtis family. Laura tells Jackson she admired his book, Farewell Atlantis, and Jackson returns a cell phone to Noah that was recovered during the flood. The film concludes with the Ark discovering the shipwrecked Genesis stranded on a beach, confirming the survival of another group of people.
