Story Details for Roland Emmerich's 2012!

By Kellvin Chavez on June 24, 2008

One of our readers, Dr. Strangefist was able to track down the first big spec script that Sony won in a bidding war after the writer's strike.  The budget is rumored to be close to $200 million and already has John Cusack and Amanda Peet cast in lead roles.
 
The story blends the idea of the Mayan calendar, which predicts the world ending in 2012, with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers plaguing the planet and a large cast of characters dealing with the mayhem.

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS LAY AHEAD

So here we have 2012, the latest magnum opus from disaster enthusiast Roland Emmerich.  Hot on the heals of the disappointing prehistoric epic 10,000 BC, 2012 is a return to what Emmerich ostensibly does best – mass destruction. The hook this time around is the apocalypse itself; more specifically, the year of the title, which marks the end of the Mayan calendar and which many believe will be the end of the world. With the date rapidly approaching, the 2012 apocalypse theory has been a bit of a hot topic in recent years, and there has been rampant speculation been several books written on the subject. Mr. Emmerich likely saw in the theory a concept ripe for use in a big budget disaster movie. After all, the actual end of the world as we know it would surely make for the disaster movie to end all disaster movies. So does it actually live up to the promise of the concept?

Things get rolling in the near(er) future of 2009, as an American scientist named PROFESSOR WEST  rushes to a research facility in India, where a colleague named SATNAM has made a mysterious but alarming discovery: it seems that there have been usually severe storms on the surface of the sun, which are having a grave effect on earth. Professor West contacts his friend ADRIAN HELMSLEY, a young scientific advisor to the president, and informs him of the ominous developments. Helmsley attempts to brief U.S. PRESIDENT WILSON on Satnam’s findings, but is stopped by pompous White House chief of staff ANHEUSER, who has it out for Helmsley.

From here, things move forward to 2010. By this time President Wilson is aware of what is happening, and calls a private meeting with seven other prominent world leaders at the G8 summit in Spain.  What he has to tell them is that the world’s top scientists have confirmed that the world will soon come to an end.  Meanwhile, in Tibet, the Chinese military displaces several villages and begins working on what is supposedly a massive dam-building project, Things jump forward another year to 2011 as more mysterious events unfold; a WEALTHY SAUDI discusses an enigmatic dossier and one billion dollar transaction with an MI-6 AGENT, and a group known as the World Heritage Foundation, headed by President Wilson’s daughter LAURA, is replacing priceless works of art such as the Mona Lisa with replicas and taking the originals to storage facility in the Alps for safekeeping.

Finally we reach the titular year 2012. By now, signs of impending doom have been steadily accumulating. The west coast is beset with so-called “mini quakes,” and fissures randomly appear in the earth. Nevertheless, people are going about their daily lives as usual, oblivious to the doom in store. We are introduced to JACKSON CURTIS, chauffer and aspiring novelist, who is rushing to pick up his two young children LILLY and NOAH from ex-wife KATE’S house in Los Angeles so he can take them on a camping trip in Yellowstone National Park.  After a brief run-in with Kate’s standard issue new man, Porshe-driving plastic surgeon GORDON, the sort of happy trio is off on their camping adventure. Next we meet elderly jazz musician HARRY, conveniently enough the father of Adrian Helmsley, as he boards a cruise ship in San Fransisco to provide the onboard entertainment. As he tries in vain to convince bandmate TONY to contact his estranged son in Japan, the ship is suddenly rocked by an unexpected swell in the ocean.  Back in Washington, Laura Wilson receives a call from a distraught museum director in France, who has just enough time to inform her that the World Heritage Foundation is a sham before his car explodes. It seems that he learned too much about the Foundation’s real purpose and had to be silenced. Laura is horrified to discover that she has been working for a front, and is further incensed when she realizes that both Adrian and her father knew what was really going on and didn’t tell her.

Meanwhile, Jackson and the kids arrive at Yellowstone to discover that the military and teams of government scientists, led by Adrian Helmsley, have taken over sections of the park for reasons they cannot fully reveal. Jackson also encounters crackpot radio host CHARLIE FROST, who believes that all signs point to a major catastrophic event beginning in California, spreading to Yellowstone, and eventually destroying the whole world. Jackson is understandably dubious, but back in Los Angeles the previously small fissures become massive, yawning cracks in the earth.

It appears that things are progressing faster than anyone anticipated, and we get our first inkling of what it is that world leaders are planning to do about it; they, along with select wealthy elite from across the globe, will board specially built ships that can weather nature’s wrath. Everyone else will be left to perish and the people from the ships will be left to rebuild civilization and repopulate the planet. Basically, Noah’s Ark for the new millennium.

Gordon and Kate narrowly avoid dying in a crevase in Los Angeles, and Jackson and the children rush back to find them. They arrive just in time to pick them up and escape as earthquakes ravage the city. Against all logic they return to Yellowstone to track down Charlie, who Jackson realizes was not as much of a crackpot as he initially thought, and who may be able to help them survive the rapidly approaching doomsday. Once again their timing is impeccable, as they reach the park just as it is turning into the world’s biggest active volcano. Our motley but determined band of protagonists once again narrowly escapes impending death, this time armed with details about the Arks and a map to their location.  What follows is a race against time, earthquakes, dust clouds, and tsunamis as the various groups of characters make their ways across the globe (remember the displaced villagers building the dam in Tibet? Well, guess what they were really building) to try and be among the lucky few who are spared as the earth gets ready to flood Old Testament style.

As it turns out, the answer to the question posed in the introductory paragraph is a resounding NO. Who knew the end of the world could be so predictable? This is an almost completely by-the-numbers disaster movie, featuring all the requisite dubious science, silly and implausible set-pieces, narrative clichés, broad, one-dimensional characters, and heavy handed attempts at emotion and morals that one would expect from the genre.

Aside from the idea of the Arks there is really no aspect of this film that we haven’t already seen in dozens of other action, sci-fi, and disaster blockbusters. It is so steeped in predictability, ridiculousness, and cliché that it borders on self-parody. In the tradition of previous Emmerich blockbusters such as ID4 and The Day After Tomorrow, the obligatory action and destruction scenes are particularly bad offenders in this regard, featuring characters impossibly running away from massive explosions, dust clouds, and bizarrely personified cracks in the earth.

The script barely even hints at the details or origins of any of the real theories about 2012, suggesting that the association is mainly here just to cash in on a trend.  Instead, Emmerich and co-writers Harold Kloser and Matt Charman shoehorn in several brief but glaringly awkward attempts at political commentary and even what could be construed by some as a few baffling jabs at religion. And of course everything leads to an unbearably neat and happy ending, despite the fact that the film is about the vast majority of the world’s population being wiped out. 

It would have been great if Emmerich & Co could have injected some new life into this tired genre, but unfortunately, and not that surprisingly, all they are giving us here is more of the same.

Source:Dr. Strangefist

• 

  Comments

• Welcome to the Great Tribulation Thu Nov 27 at 10:24 EST

  The Book of Revelation outlines in detail the period of the Great Tribulation. This is God's judgement upon the earth for those who have rejected the salvation of Christ Jesus.

  Author: James Bailey | Permalink

• mnjionmj Wed Nov 26 at 23:09 EST

  nmhoiujhniu

  Author: g7yug7y68 | Permalink

• you have got to be kidding Wed Nov 26 at 22:58 EST

  I go to this site to find a premise of a coming attractions, and you people are on here chatting about the end of the world. WOW.

  Permalink

• 2012 Galactic Horizon Wed Nov 26 at 17:56 EST

  MUST SEE : Horizon Project 2012 Pole Shift & Lost knowledge 1/8 http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=V2mWsqkmu8E When you get some time watch this stuff ,,,,8 episodes. The first episode (kind of boring) is a setup of the rest, ,,,,,skip episode 4. This explains the Mayan Calendar and the pole shifts. After you watch them then criticize, but only after you watch.

  Author: John | Permalink

• Just so you know. Wed Nov 26 at 14:12 EST

  2012 was solely based around the Mayan Calendar ending. The calendar ended because they all died off. Now, everyone is trying to match up ANYTHING with this time-frame to bring on any paranoia they can. It won't happen. People just like to freak themselves and everyone else out. But really anything with John Cusac is unbelievable to begin with. These "comets" and apocalypse stories just may be the reason the damn world ends. I have no doubt everyone will start rioting and freaking out and killing people this day and when they finally realize, "Oh shit nothing happened." Half a million people will be jailed and all the whilst looking completely retarded.

  Author: Everyone Smart | Permalink

• Hmmm Wed Nov 26 at 00:09 EST

  There's a push for Sarah Palin to run in 2012. Do you think?

  Author: RB | Permalink

• SO WHAT!! Tue Nov 25 at 18:01 EST

  if this, not what happens in the movie but something like it happens and the world is thrown into chaos and you survive, just ask yourself "will you fight" for whatever your cause will be humanity maybe.

  Author: RISE | Permalink

• Why Not? Tue Nov 25 at 13:09 EST

  Lets just look at our lazy society, economy and global warming. If you will forget everything realize how fragile is any system with amount of people occupied this earth. How easy would be to destroy a whole world just from economy stand point. People fighting for water and food. Where would you get it with other few million people in same moment? When system collapses , crime goes up hunt goes on……….I think end of the world is closer than ever been. So lets have some fun until then

  Author: Radim | Permalink

• IDK Tue Nov 25 at 11:56 EST

  Idk the mayan calender ending on 2012, it sounds to me like more Y2K stuff but it makes for an interesting movie. It would have been awful if someone had made a movie about Y2K. lol

  Author: Vic | Permalink

• i know the truth Tue Nov 25 at 11:37 EST

  its all so obvious. the mayan calander the ice caps melting and shifting everthing makes sense. cthulhu is awaking and life as we know it will cease to excist. the elder gods will return and take back the planet that was once thiers and we will all be washed away like a bad dream.

  Permalink

• Guess what? Tue Nov 25 at 06:36 EST

  NOTHING is going to happen on Dec. 2012. Everything from Mayan predictions to biblical fables are nothing more than stories. It was just their ancient way to try to understand the world around them.

  Author: Rob | Permalink

• CRAP Tue Nov 25 at 04:19 EST

  Oh... My.. God... This reads like the most cliché ridden piece of crap I've ever read. The pompous White House chief of staff doesn't like the scientist? Why, was the Vice President from The Day After Tomorrow all booked up? We've got the ex-husband with the kids dealing with the rich new man in the life if his ex wife... This is going to be soooo bad.

  Author: Anthony | Permalink

• loyal decree of fonsie, 2nd son of chocolate Mon Nov 24 at 18:24 EST

  i defy "pooba's" idea. while the sun exploding is scientifically tru, i beleive that cannibalistic asylum dwelling lunatics will destroy the earth using only a lot of ammo, a bazooka, and a lot of coffee. by the way, if that doesn't happen(which it will) i totally back the sun exploding and destroying our universe. it will take, however, a very long time. very long. like 3billion yeers long. it happens in every solar system. pooba sucksssss!!!!!!!!

  Author: fonsie, 2nd son of chocolate | Permalink

• DON'T BE INGNORANT Sun Nov 23 at 18:49 EST

  Anything is possible don't be ingnorant enough to say something is impossible just say it is very highly unlikely

  Author: Notreal | Permalink

• We Are Doomed! Sun Nov 23 at 10:25 EST

  The Truth: The Earth will be invaded my a race of Flesh-Eating Space Moneys in 2012! It is foretold by my dachshund Fred, who is really the 12th incarnation of the Grand Pooba of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos. You have been warned!

  Author: Bill | Permalink

• 2012 Phenomenon Engine Sun Nov 23 at 05:55 EST

  Our Planet is part of our solar system and it is part of our galaxy. We reside on a spiral arm that is of itself a sideways vortex. Our system rides a spiraling, circular, spinning arm and the process takes about 26000 years. Twice in that time we pass through the galactic equator, and it is a disk shaped massive gravitational force. Gravity is known to effect not only physical mass but also psychological state of mind. The passage takes seven years and it runs from around May2009-May2016. It is the passage of our system through the gravitational disk. It’s the disk that is the engine that drives the galaxy itself and the 2012 phenomenon. The end of the world is the end of a “world” cycle, and not of humanity nor the planet, but the end of the world is as deadly as it sounds. The Mayan Calendar is not a prediction, it is a pointer. It’s pointing toward the galactic horizontal crossing. This crossing is going to be particularly bad because we’re already in flux of both a magnetic and geographical pole shifting. Along side of that we’re also passing the closest to the sun that we have in 4000 years and the solar max cycle is without understanding of the 2012 phenomenon already speculated to be the worst modern man has ever seen. There are over 3 dozen pointers of science, history and prophecy all pointing at 2012. This is a real phenomenon. Such things as the Malachy Pope Prophecy that lists 111 popes until the end of the world has aligned itself with Nostradamus, Cayce and other prophets not excluding biblical. All this is far more then coincidence or chance. This one Is Real!!!

  Author: Michael... | Permalink

• 2012 Phenomenon Engine Sun Nov 23 at 05:52 EST

  The Mayan Calendar is not a prediction, it is a pointer. It’s pointing toward the galactic horizontal crossing. This crossing is going to be particularly bad because we’re already in flux of both a magnetic and geographical pole shifting. Along side of that we’re also passing the closest to the sun that we have in 4000 years and the solar max cycle is without understanding of the 2012 phenomenon already speculated to be the worst modern man has ever seen. There are over 3 dozen pointers of science, history and prophecy all pointing at 2012. This is a real phenomenon. Such things as the Malachy Pope Prophecy that lists 111 popes until the end of the world has aligned itself with Nostradamus, Cayce and other prophets not excluding biblical. All this is far more then coincidence or chance. This one Is Real!!!

  Author: Michael... | Permalink

• 2012 Phenomenon Engine Sun Nov 23 at 05:46 EST

  Our Planet is part of our solar system and it is part of our galaxy. We reside on a spiral arm that is of itself a sideways vortex. Our system rides a spiraling, circular, spinning arm and the process takes about 26000 years. Twice in that time we pass through the galactic equator, and it is a disk shaped massive gravitational force. Gravity is known to effect not only physical mass but also psychological state of mind. The passage takes seven years and it runs from around May2009-May2016. It is the passage of our system through the gravitational disk. It’s the disk that is the engine that drives the galaxy itself and the 2012 phenomenon. The end of the world is the end of a “world” cycle, and not of humanity nor the planet, but the end of the world is as deadly as it sounds.

  Author: Michael... | Permalink

• do your research Fri Nov 21 at 08:12 EST

  Not only should the writers and producers do their research but so should all that read and comment on this topic. The Mayans and Sumerians both believed the end would be in 2012 and they have been accurate on every calender event. On Dec. 21, 2012 we will be lined up with the center of the Milkway known as the "The Dark Rift" which WILL cause cataclysmic events. The Mayans and Sumerians also state that 10th planet known as Nibiru will return to orbit like it has every 3,600 years. Too much to go into...Look it up!

  Author: FreedomKnight | Permalink

• I KNOW¬ Thu Nov 20 at 22:15 EST

  POLAR SHIFT WILL HAPPEN it already has begun he the melting of the north pole the south will be next . then we will be in the sh.t until the poles re set them self's back to were they were 25,000 years ago spreading from russia all the way acroos the the UK and from south america. that is the real story check your history. This movie is rubbish not fact. This has happened may times around about 350 times so far in the earths life it has nothing to do will the end of the world .

  Author: Miles | Permalink

• Do your homework on the mayans Wed Nov 19 at 13:56 EST

  They are the intellegent astronomers who came up with a calendar more precise than ours. The date their calendar ends does mean something, but the end of the world? It could be anything rare, like something that happens out in space that hardly has an effect on Earth. This movie is going to ruin it for the Mayans and they'd be disappointed.

  Author: Stefan | Permalink

• Dear god this is retarded.... Wed Nov 19 at 01:04 EST

  To anyone thinking the events in this could happen? no. just. No. It's impossible. Even if the ocean beds inverted and every drop of moisture went liquid from the air and turned to rain this could NOT happen. There is simply not enough water on the planet to cover every bit of land end of story. You could destroy every coast line in existence maybe but this movie could NOT occur and I find it insulting the writers thought this was feasible.

  Permalink

• 2038 Tue Nov 18 at 22:27 EST

  Don't worry, in 2035 our children will have to suffer through "2038 - When Time Ends" or somesuch bullshit when the UNIX 32-bit clock rolls over from FFFF FFFF (January 19, 2038 - 3:14:07am) to 0000 0000 (January 1, 1970 - 12:00am). What nobody will bother to mention is that all the most important machines will have switched to a 64-bit number by then.

  Author: TeslaNick | Permalink

• The end isnt here yet? Tue Nov 18 at 18:16 EST

  Waitaminute! Obama is elected. Why isn't the end of the world 2009?!?

  Author: dave | Permalink

• End of world....eventually Mon Nov 17 at 21:25 EST

  If WE don't kill each other first, scientists accurately speculate the end of the world will be caused by an unstable nuclei in the sun causing it to explode engulf the surrounding planets over time, including Earth.

  Author: J | Permalink

• smith is an idiot Mon Nov 17 at 20:36 EST

  Hey smith, Believe in more BS. thanks. bass

  Author: bass | Permalink

• Smith Mon Nov 17 at 19:56 EST

  This is real, this will happen, The demise of the world has already started. Look at all the recent weather destructions, massive hurricanes in the last 2 years, tornados happening all over the U.S. ei. Wisconsin, the earthquakes that have killed so many, but then have also caused the largest tsunamis to ever hit. And now look at the issues that we are facing in the Middle East with Iraq, and not to mention the new issue with Russia and Georgia, with the threat of a nuclear war. How long would countries last when they have been hit by numerous nuclear bombs? And not to mention the large issue yet, voting a incompetent black man into the White House!

  Author: Nick | Permalink

• 2012 Mon Nov 17 at 19:56 EST

  This is real, this will happen, The demise of the world has already started. Look at all the recent weather destructions, massive hurricanes in the last 2 years, tornados happening all over the U.S. ei. Wisconsin, the earthquakes that have killed so many, but then have also caused the largest tsunamis to ever hit. And now look at the issues that we are facing in the Middle East with Iraq, and not to mention the new issue with Russia and Georgia, with the threat of a nuclear war. How long would countries last when they have been hit by numerous nuclear bombs? And not to mention the large issue yet, voting a incompetent black man into the White House!

  Author: Nick | Permalink

• Mon Nov 17 at 13:26 EST

  no one knows the day or time of when armageddon will happen.... only god knows that, it will come when we least expect it. When we are busy with our everyday lives and take no notice of the warning signs around us that is when it will come. Armegeddon is the end of wicked people of this earth, not of everything living thing on this earth. It will be selective. Our earth will stay, but the evil people of this earth will be gone.....

  Author: g.h | Permalink

• This is the wrong poster!! Mon Nov 17 at 09:52 EST

  it belongs to another movie called "2012 - Doomsday".

  Author: avi | Permalink

• aliens Sun Nov 16 at 17:13 EST

  why dont they ever make end of the world movies with aliens?

  Author: bob | Permalink

• 2012 Sat Nov 15 at 01:24 EST

  is a hoax people... nothing will happen, and this movie is just like all the other nuts out there who want to cash in on the paranoia it causes... the LHC wont blow up the Earth, poles wont shift, Niburu is not real, and I will be getting sh1t faced drunk on New Years Eve that year. I do however see a catastrophic political event taking place though... The start of another world war or political chaos.

  Author: JCon | Permalink

• Spoon fed cattle Fri Nov 14 at 22:07 EST

  The studios won;t make an accurate movie, because it represents risk, and movie executives would rather lose 20 million on a sure stinker(Bewitched)(!?) than spend 5 million on a risk. Or anything different. People have demonstrated that they are willing to pay for this tired formula before, so it stands to reason that they will do it again. And the really sad part is-they will...

  Author: Mark | Permalink

• wth Fri Nov 14 at 12:19 EST

  cmon guys just face it. we all have to die at some point of time. no matter what the gov does like building underground tunnels/bases, we still die in the end. we cant escape it. its just a matter of time.

  Author: Hazwan | Permalink

• Norwegian bases are real Thu Nov 13 at 17:27 EST

  It seems that they are preparing the sheep for something big to come , they lay hidden codes in them films all the time . I think there will be sunburst for real in 2012 . The economy is falling , wheater has been bad for some years now etc , earthquakes and so on . Most goverments know of this but are silent , I think that there was a norwegian politician who told about the elites plan for 2012 and the noah 12 underground bases they built in norway . hmmm !

  Author: erik | Permalink

• this sucks Thu Nov 13 at 16:32 EST

  marshal ravell, your excactly right, i have no clue why they dont throw the annunaki in there! it would be such a cool concept to see on the big screen, rather than in real life. its lack of acurate research that leads to this stupid commercialized bullshit. yes, okay the government is supposobly not telling us about this whole 2012 nibiru thing...if it exists. but i mean micheal bay, steven speilburg, all those guys would jump on the idea of having super intelligent alien gods from some wacky planet comming to kill us or save us. but if people want to shove bullshit down eachothers throughts and laugh at eachother after wards, let them, we all have our immaginations

  Author: Jordan | Permalink

• this sucks Thu Nov 13 at 16:26 EST

  why cant anybody make a 2012 movie that is actually acurate. in the fucking myan temples it states that at the end of the myan calender, a planet named nibiru, which scientists have already found, will come into our solar systm and shift our poles due to its mass. not a black hole, or some gay develpoment on the sun. its this fucking planet that many people already know about. people are so stupid somethimes....

  Author: kelly maken | Permalink

• goldenkiwi Thu Nov 13 at 13:15 EST

  Bugger! And just as london has spent a similar budget on the olympics, that kid tom daley just launches into a gold medal winning dive when he gets swept away by a tsunami!

  Author: david riddington | Permalink

• This review is incomplete at best... Thu Oct 23 at 17:36 EST

  I just saw a trailer for this movie that said something about the "Shining People" coming back to Earth to save us all???? Aliens, of course. Are the "ARKS" the alien spacecraft? I'm disappointed that there has been no mention of the "I Ching Pattern", the oracles, Merlin, Revelations, the Web-Bot project, or anything else that points to Dec 21, 2012. How about we do juuuust a little more research before we fire up the cameras? Isn't the world supposed to end in fire this time, not water? I think the reviewer found the characters on IMDb and made up his own storyline. There's got to be more to it than that.

  Author: Cash | Permalink

• doesn't reach the bar Sun Oct 19 at 15:00 EST

  come on, really? this is 2012 we're talking about. mayan calender ending, Ananuki, Niberu, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc. there is so much potential here that it's rather disapointing how little thought was put into the story. i say either the entire script is re-written and made substantially more realistic and related to actually doomsday theories, or they scrap the entire film and make one based on Whitley Strieber's novel of the same title

  Author: Marshall Revell | Permalink

• 2012 Comet Fri Oct 17 at 07:51 EST

  Maybe they should mention the 2012 Comet that is supposed to hit earth? www.2012-comet.com

  Author: Steve | Permalink

• Hmmm...Intresting Wed Aug 27 at 20:17 EST

  Having red the 'Spoiler', what we have to remember is that the movie is only a month or two into production and scripts/ plots are changed all the time. Yeah from what I read it sounds like something we have all seen before but does it say how it ends in the 'spoiler'? It may sound bloodthirsty but it would make a great difference and change if this movie had an ending where the entire human race was wiped out, now that would be unique!!! (Thats if it dosnt put the kiss of death on us all lol) and everyone, including myself, is intregued about how the would could end so lets stop the negative forecast on a movie that has only just started in terms of production and wait in anticpation when the movie gets released in july 09.

  Author: Mark | Permalink

• Yea...not so much Sun Aug 24 at 20:28 EST

  so here's the thing...why can't they write something that hasn't been done? Why not look at the logistical side of what they are actually trying to do...if it was the end of the world, think of the chaos and foreward that to the screen...this is 1 demensional character BS...i want to see a character that we can all relate to.... if they jump around like that, then it won't be enjoyable...we need to focus on one character and still be able to see world issues...also, i think that the day after tomorrow did a good job of some of these things...i guess we'll just have to see how it pans out, but from the sound of it I really don't know if I will want to see it...even if i go anyways...

  Author: andrew butler | Permalink

• Sounds good to me! Fri Aug 15 at 17:13 EST

  I think ur right the movie sounds like a basic disaster movie with an allstar cast and a not so hard to figure out ending but remmember it's not finished yet and could still have some hope of atleast begin a visual masterpiece... My fingers are crossed and thanks for the spoiler... : )

  Author: John | Permalink

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Submit Your Comments

Title

Comment

Your Name

Your Email