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According to Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The famous poet Robert Frost once wrote: “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” Given the effects of climate change and the fact that each year is warmer than the last, a world ending in fire seems like a pretty safe bet. But one film has a completely different idea: The day after tomorrow is now streaming on Disney+, giving you the chance to watch an icy apocalypse where every day feels like Christmas.
The day after tomorrow
The day after tomorrow is a film in which the effects of climate change are moving insanely fast and threatening to freeze the entire world. We follow the characters who first try to prevent the effects of this ice apocalypse and later try to simply survive it. As the characters try to survive what could be the end of the world, all of them (not to mention those of us watching at home) must consider exactly what they’re willing to do to survive.
Cast The day after tomorrow it has some big Hollywood names in it, including Dennis Quaid as a doomsday paleoclimatologist, and Jake Gyllenhaal as his son. Sela Ward plays Quaid’s pediatrician wife and Emmy Rossum plays Gyllenhaal’s love interest. Ian Holm also appears as an oceanographer, lending the film some of the noble gravitas that underpin his best screen performances.
Master of Scourge
In addition to the cast, it is worth mentioning The day after tomorrow brings us something of a past master when it comes to cinematic apocalypses. It’s in the direction Roland Emmerichwho became famous mainly for directing Independence Day and its undeniably disappointing sequel. He also directed stargate and Godzillaso he’s definitely the right person to direct a sci-fi movie about the end of the world.
While The day after tomorrow has largely faded from our cinematic discourse, it was a huge hit when it was released in 2004. It grossed a very healthy $552.6 million on a $125 million budget. It even won MTV Movie Award for Best Action Sequence, which might give you an idea of just how ubiquitous this weird apocalyptic movie was when it came out more than two decades ago.
Big box office, but not much love
The film’s financial success is all the more impressive when you consider that it failed to win over either critics or audiences. On Rotten tomatoes, The day after tomorrow it has a critical rating of 45 percent, with critics generally noting that the film’s clunky dialogue often undermines its killer special effects. The film also has a Popcornmeter rating of 50 percent, which suggests that mainstream moviegoers weren’t much more impressed than critics.
Now it’s time to answer the burning question (at least something burns among the ice): if this movie didn’t dazzle critics or audiences, why am I recommending you see it? For one thing, the special effects sequences are really cool and have aged surprisingly well. Also, maybe it’s morbid, but I watch disaster movies because I want to see everything fall apart, and a movie that destroys the world in style is one that will keep my attention.
Plus, while the dialogue could undoubtedly be better, the inherent charisma of the actors helps sell each scene. Quaid, Gyllenhaal and others make the various relationships between the characters believable, even as they combine special effects with relatable human moments. My personal favorite is the scene where the characters, tied up in a library, debate whether they should burn Friedrich Nietzsche’s books to stay warm, before deciding to burn some texts that no one wants to protect: those written about the United States’ tax laws.
The day after tomorrow it’s not a perfect movie, but it can provide the perfect night of entertainment when you’re wrapped up in your favorite blankets on a cold night. Of course, you won’t know until you stream it Disney+. If nothing else, watching this icy apocalypse is one way to channel the holiday spirit by watching a movie where “it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas” now describes most of the planet.
