A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Day After Tomorrow

Date Viewed: 7/4/04

Details:

Dennis Quaid

Jake Gyllenhaal

Emmy Rossum

Sela Ward

Ian Holm

Director: Roland Emmerich

Score: +

The Review: In a counterintuitive exercise in atmospheric and oceanic physics, global warming triggers a new ice age in barely a few weeks of elapsed time. Not to say that intuition should be an accurate guide to these calculations, but if you exercise appropriate suspension of disbelief and check your knowledge of kinetics and thermodynamics at the theatre door, then the premise certainly provides the framework for an otherwise pretty good disaster movie. (Yes, it's possible for a scientist to be entertained by fiction.)

Fairly large ensemble background cast (including a quiet understated performance by Ian Holm as a Scottish climatologist), but the majority of the action is viewed through the eyes of the Hall family: father (Quaid) a Beltway-based paleoclimatologist with both Arctic and Antarctic field experience and a computational model that fits the rapid onset of past ice ages; mother (Ward) a pediatric oncologist dedicated to patients who cannot be blithely relocated; and son (Gyllenhaal) a brainy but unmotivated high-school student overloaded with testosterone who becomes stranded in NYC.

Excellent special effects. Seeing NYC descend into an arctic environment is pretty cool. Finally, a realistic flood surge that wasn't an unrealistic 20-story breaking wave; yes, WHOI disagrees, but this was still more realistic than surges past.

Inspired by, and some scenarios borrowed from, Art Bell & Whitley Streiber's "The Coming Global Superstorm." Not that anyone should mistake this book for excellent and well-reasoned science, neither geophysics nor meteorology: one author is an outspoken talk show host, the other better known as a fiction writer with a fixation on alien abduction, neither are scientists or researchers, but they can read and they can draw (albeit shaky) inferences. Some of their references are valid reports, and some do present a contradictory and (some might say controversial) alternative view of the evidence for (or against) extremely rapid climate change.

Now if you are interested in more mainstream opinions on the science involved, or its portrayal in this movie, or both, there are at least two sites worth visiting. First (and as an ex-graduate, on top of my list) is the commentary from the staff at the Ocean and Climate Change Institute (OCCI), part of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI): "What's after the day after tomorrow?" In addition, this movie catalyzed a decidedly rare occurrence: a movie review in the weekly journal Nature: full text or PDF file. Follow the science and enjoy.

(19-July-04)

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