The Day After Tomorrow

:The Day After Tomorrow is an alternate title for the Robert Heinlein novel Sixth Column, as well as the title of a novel by Allan Folsom. It also is the name of a Japanese band.

Plot

The movie is based on the idea that the Gulf Stream (or North Atlantic drift), an ocean current which circulates warm water from the tropics to the Northern Hemisphere, is disrupted by the melting of the polar ice caps.

Related Topics:
Gulf Stream - North Atlantic drift - Ocean current - Tropics - Northern Hemisphere - Polar ice cap

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This leads to catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate, as the temperature of the atmosphere stabilises into a new pattern. The changes manifest as three interconnected hurricane-shaped storms spread across the entire northern hemisphere. Although not believed at first, the initial predictions are that this will take some six to eight weeks to take effect. However, these combine over the space of a week to form a huge planet-wide storm system. The eye of the three cells sucks supercooled air from the upper atmosphere, leading to anyone caught outside flash frozen.

Related Topics:
Earth - Climate - Temperature - Atmosphere

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The story follows Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist, who has forecasted such an event, though he expects it to happen much more slowly (on the order of 100 or 1,000 years).

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The movie opens with Jack, in Antarctica, with two colleagues, Frank & Jason, drilling for ice core samples for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Related Topics:
Antarctica - Ice core - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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The concentration of "greenhouse gases" (e.g., carbon dioxide) contained in the cores is used in a presentation he makes to a United Nations conference held in New Delhi on global warming. In that scene, snow is falling on New Delhi, where it rarely, if ever, snows.

Related Topics:
Carbon dioxide - United Nations - New Delhi - Global warming

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Present at this conference is Dr. Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland.

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After the conference, Jack and Dr. Rapson meet for a cup of tea to discuss Jack's findings, which establishes a relationship between the two that will be needed later.

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Shortly after Dr. Rapson arrives back in Scotland from the conference two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a large drop in water temperature. Other buoys soon begin showing the same.

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Dr. Rapson concludes that the melting of the polar ice has begun to disrupt the North Atlantic current and calls Jack to see if his paleoclimatological weather model could be used to predict what will happen.

Related Topics:
North Atlantic current - Paleoclimatological

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In Tokyo and Los Angeles, the beginnings of the superstorm begin to show. Right outside the conference, it is snowing in New Delhi, as the coldest weather on record hits the region. Later, large hailstones fall on Tokyo, causing massive damage and fatalities. In Los Angeles, numerous tornadoes devastate the city (and the Hollywood sign). Jack approaches his boss, Tom, at NOAA for time on the mainframe to run his paleoclimatological weather model with Dr. Rapson's data.

Related Topics:
Tokyo - Los Angeles - Hollywood sign - Mainframe - Paleoclimatological

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The results show the global climate will change in 6-8 weeks.

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Sam, Jack's son, with his friends Laura Chapman and Brian Parks are attending an academic decathlon in Manhattan.

Related Topics:
Academic decathlon - Manhattan

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After severe weather also hits Manhattan, Sam calls his father.

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(According to the DVD commentary, the woman on the other side of Sam from the phone is Kirsten Dunst.)

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Jack convinces Sam to head back to Washington, D.C. via train the following morning.

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In the meantime, Sam, Laura and Brian stay at J.D.'s, a fellow decathlete's, apartment in Manhattan.

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While they are in the apartment, the rain continues and they see on TV that the train terminal has been flooded and service suspended on all trains; this changes their plans to driving.

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Their plans change once again when flooding continues and car transportion is no longer an option. On their way outside of the apartment, electricity goes out in the entire area.

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Stranded in Manhattan, and with a waist-high level of water, the group seeks a higher location: the New York Public Library.

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The impending storm over North America drastically raises the water level in the Atlantic Ocean, which then floods Manhattan.

Related Topics:
North America - Atlantic Ocean

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(Although the height of the water is shown to be up to the armpit of the Statue of Liberty, which is approximately 225 feet (69 meters), the height of the water in the city appears to be substantially less.)

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In their race to the library, Laura cuts her leg, which will result in blood poisoning later.

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Trapped in the library (with many others) with no power, Sam manages to call his father on a payphone about what to do.

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Jack tells Sam about the superstorm and its flash freezing; tells Sam to stay in the library and burn anything to stay warm; and wait for Jack to come to Sam.

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While waiting, a Russian ship floats down the street and stops just past the library.

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Prior to Jack leaving for Manhattan, he advises the President to evacuate the southern half of the country to Mexico, which he does (while saying that it is too late for people in the north due to the proximity of the storm). Jack's wife, Lucy, however, stays behind to care for a boy with cancer that she is treating until an ambulance arrives. It later does, after everyone leaves, and Lucy and the boy make it to Mexico.

Related Topics:
President - Mexico - Cancer - Ambulance

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As the superstorm approaches, the rain turns to snow and the water freezes.

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Most of the people in the library leave as they see hundreds of others in Manhattan heading south despite Sam telling them of the dangers.

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The only people left in the library are Sam, Laura, Brian, J.D., Judith the librarian, African woman Jama and her daughter, neither of whom speak English, a man named Jeremy, a woman named Elsa, and homeless man Luther with his dog Buddha.

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In order for this group to survive, Sam successfully convinces them to burn books.

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Sam (with Brian and J.D.) ventures out to the Russian ship to get Penicillin for Laura's blood poisoning. While they do so, the eye of the storm begins to develop above the city, leading to a race against time to avoid a somewhat incongruous wolfpack and return to the warmth of the fire in the library, in order to survive the flash freezing effects of the descending cold air.

Related Topics:
Penicillin - Wolf

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Meanwhile, Jack Hall and his buddy Jason Evans come to grief with their truck just north of Philadelphia as the ice and snow become too deep. They resort to walking from there, and as they do they face brutal hardships from the arctic conditions, and at one point one of their comrades falls into a deserted shopping mall, leading to his death. Eventually, they reach a frozen suburban Wendy's restaurant at the time the eye of the storm passes, leading them to hurriedly get inside and light stoves and fires as the supercooled air descends. Afterwards, near the end (Staten Island, New York) they discover the dead bodies of those who ignored Sam's plea to stay in the library.

Related Topics:
Wendy's - Staten Island, New York

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The mass evacuation of the southern half to Mexico results in a political drama after Mexico closes the border.

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In order to get Mexico to open the border, the President agrees to forgive all Latin American debt.

Related Topics:
President - Latin America

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Hall finally reaches New York and finds that his son and the rest of their group have survived. The movie ends with people emerging onto the roofs of skyscrapers to be rescued and Jack (with the library group) being picked up by a helicopter.

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