Film 2012 by Columbia Pictures

Film 2012

 

2012 is a 2009 film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Woody Harrelson. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver.

The film briefly references Mayanism, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and the 2012 phenomenon in its portrayal of cataclysmic events unfolding in the year 2012. Because of solar flare bombardment the Earth's core begins heating up at an unprecedented rate, eventually causing crustal displacement. This results in an onslaught of Doomsday event scenarios plunging the world into chaos, ranging from California falling into the Pacific Ocean, the eruption of the Yellowstone National Park caldera, massive earthquakes, and Megatsunami impacts along every coast line on the Earth. The film centers around an ensemble cast of characters as they narrowly escape multiple catastrophes in an effort to reach ships in the Himalayas, along with scientists and governments of the world who are attempting to save as many lives as they can before the disasters ensue. The plot draws mythological motifs from both the story of Noah's Ark and legends of Atlantis, including the conflation of the two as derived from Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) by Ignatius Donnelly (itself, in turn, a significant influence on Graham Hancock's writings).

 

Reviews of the film have been mixed, with critics pointing out the impossibility of the Apocalyptic scenarios depicted in the film. The film ran a much criticized viral marketing campaign in the form of the fictional organization Institute for Human Continuity, a fictitious book written by Jackson Curtis entitled Farewell Atlantis, and streaming media, blog updates and radio broadcasts from the apocalyptic zealot Charlie Frost at his website entitled This Is The End.