The Day After Tomorrow

***The Day After Tomorrow*** is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It was theatrically released in the United States on May 28, 2004.

## Plot

Jack Hall, an American paleoclimatologist, and his colleagues Frank and Jason, drill for ice-core samples in the Larsen Ice Shelf for the NOAA, when the ice shelf splits away. At a UN conference in New Delhi, Jack discusses his research showing that climate change could cause an ice age, but US Vice President Raymond Becker dismisses his concerns. Professor Terry Rapson, an oceanographer of the Hedland Centre in Scotland, befriends Jack over his views of an inevitable climate shift. When several buoys in the Atlantic Ocean show a severe temperature drop, Rapson concludes Jack's theories are correct. Jack's and Rapson's teams, along with NASA meteorologist Janet Tokada, build a forecast model based on Jack's research. Jack tries to get Becker to consider evacuations in the northern states, but Becker refuses.

A massive tropical depression develops in the Northern Hemisphere. This splits into three gigantic superstorms above Canada, Scotland, and Siberia, that siphon frozen air from the upper troposphere into their center, flash-freezing anything caught in their eyes with temperatures below −150 degrees Fahrenheit (−101 degrees Celsius). The storms' magnitude is so severe that they will cause a reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, entering a new ice age. Tokyo is struck by a giant hail storm, Los Angeles is devastated by a tornado outbreak, and three helicopters sent to rescue the British royal family from Balmoral Castle crash in Scotland after they fly into their superstorm's eye.

In New York City, Jack's son Sam, along with his friends Brian and Laura, participate in an academic decathlon, where they make a new friend, J.D. The North American superstorm creates strong winds and rain that flood Manhattan in knee-deep water. All transportation halts, stranding the city population. A massive storm surge inundates the city, forcing Sam's group to seek shelter at the New York Public Library, but not before Laura, in an attempt to help rescuing two French speaking tourists in distress from a cab with a police officer, cuts her leg between two taxis. Sam is able to contact Jack and his mother Lucy, a pediatrician, through a working payphone. Jack advises Sam to stay inside and warm, as the storm will only get worse, and promises to rescue him. Rapson and his team succumbed to the European storm. Lucy remains in her hospital caring for bedridden patients, where the authorities eventually rescue them.

Upon Jack's suggestion, President Blake orders the southern states to be evacuated into Mexico, while the northern ones are warned by the government to seek shelter and stay warm. Jack, Jason, and Frank make their way to New York. In Pennsylvania, Frank falls through the skylight of a mall covered in snow and sacrifices himself by cutting his rope to prevent his friends from falling in with him.

In the library, most survivors decide to head south once the floodwater freezes, despite Sam's warnings. In Mexico, Becker learns that Blake's motorcade perished in the superstorm.

Laura develops sepsis from her injury, whereupon Sam, Brian, and J.D. scour a Russian cargo vessel that drifted into the city for penicillin and supplies. Although they find them, they also encounter a pack of escaped wolves from the Central Park Zoo. The boys fend off the wolves and make it back to the library as the eye of the North American superstorm passes over and freezes Manhattan. Jack and Jason take shelter in an abandoned restaurant.

Days later, the superstorms dissipate. After finding people outside frozen to death including the Public Library survivors who tried to escape, Jack and Jason reach the library, finding Sam's group alive. Jack sends a radio message to US forces in Mexico.

In his first address as the new president from the US embassy in Mexico, Becker apologizes on The Weather Channel for his ignorance and sends helicopters to rescue survivors including Jack and Sam's group in the northern states. On the International Space Station, astronauts look down in awe at Earth's transformed surface, now with ice sheets extending across much of the Northern Hemisphere, remarking that the "air never looked so clear".

## Cast

**Dennis Quiaid** as Jack Hall

**Jake Gyllenhaal** as Sam Hall

**Sela Ward** as Dr. Lucy Hall

**Emmy Rossum** as Laura Chapman

**Ian Holm** as Terry Rapson