Entertaining but totally unbelievable disaster film

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2004)

(Synopsis-Spoiler?) Climatologist Dr. Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is drilling ice cores in Antarctica when a piece of the Antarctic Ice Shelf the size of Rhode Island breaks off. Jack presents his research to a conference on global warming. Jack found that ten thousand years ago, a global warming changed the earth's climate into the Ice Age. Jack said at the conference, 혩that it could happen again in maybe 100 to 1,000 years from now if we don't stop polluting the atmosphere.' At the conference, Jack meets Professor Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) of Scotland, who is keeping track of the world's ocean currents. Terry tells Jack that the melting of the polar ice caps has poured fresh water into the oceans and diluted the salt level, which has caused the temperature of the ocean currents to drop 13 degrees. The world's climate system changes for the worst. Tokyo is hit by softball size hail; it begins to snow in New Delhi; and Los Angeles is destroyed by a group of tornadoes that hit all at the same time. Jack sees the President and gives him the bad news that his estimate of years is now down to days, before we enter a new Ice Age. Jack advises the President to evacuate everybody in the southern states to Mexico, because it is too late to evacuate the people in the northern states. Jack gets a phone call from his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has taken up refuge in the Manhattan Public Library. Jack tells him to stay inside and ride out the coming storm, because if you go outside, you will die. Jack heads for New York City to save his son. The special effects are great. You can almost feel that you are there, when the tidal wave hits New York City. One of the very funny scenes is at the just-closed Mexican border, where Americans begin to cut the fence and cross the river into Mexico. The storyline is so fantastic that I hope people won't think this could actually happen. (Twentieth Century Fox, Run time 2:04, Rated PG-13) (7/10)