2012

PLOT:
Dr. Adrian Helmsley is part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms. He soon learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns the U.S. President that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the cataclysm, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

REVIEW: (By Cynthia Fuchs - PopMatters Film and TV Editor)
The first word of the end of the world comes from India. In 2009, sweating and fretting, Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) calls his friend Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who drops everything and rushes right over from the United States. Startled by the data rolling over Satnam’s basement monitors—along with the buckets of ice cooling hardworking assistants’ hot feet—Adrian then rushes right back to DC, where he bum-rushes a fancy-dress fundraiser to get spread the news to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt). Declaring himself the “deputy geologist” at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Adrian gets in, breathless, and hands over a pile of papers. One glance, and Carl is ready to rush as well, meaning that he takes Adrian right on over to meet President Wilson (Danny Glover).

All this rushing about leads to a couple of years later, that is, the titular 2012, when the earth’s plates actually shift, unleashing a whole lot of hell and high water. When the world ends, international leaders stop their infighting (Russians and Europeans and Americans, anyway—no sign of the Iranians here), scientists bow their heads and commiserate, and the principal stunts are performed by a sci-fi author and limo driver, Jackson (John Cusack). The film’s central white guy, he needs to win back his family, that is, his estranged wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their movie-adorable kids Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily), a stock emotional arc intiated by the global meltdown.