John Garrity, his estranged wife, and their young son embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. Amid terrifying accounts of cities getting leveled, the Garrity’s experience the best and worst in humanity. As the countdown to the global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.
I am a sucker for end-of-the-world movies. I loved “Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Knowing,” and “2012,” to name but a few. I think it has to do with the overall spectacle of our planet being torn apart, whether by a meteor, a comet, the rapture, or even a virus, watching everyone on earth trying to either work together or kill each other really shows humanity’s true intentions, either compassion or cruelty. Throughout America in 2020, with riots erupting everywhere, we saw both sides of the equation, we saw people causing harm, even death to some, while others went out of their way to protect and help those in need. It just goes to show that we don’t need our entire planet threatened by an alien race, killer dragons, or end-of-the-world prophecies, to show our true selves.
John Garrity (Gerard Butler) is a structural engineer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, along with his estranged wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd). With news of a recently-discovered interstellar comet named Clarke, expected to pass close by the earth, he leaves work early and heads home to be with his family to host a party with some neighbors in celebration of the comet’s proximate trajectory. While at the store with Nathan, buying groceries for the party, he receives an automated phone call from the U.S. government, stating that he and his family have been pre-selected for emergency sheltering. Then the call ends. He quickly makes his way home to inform Allison and just as he arrives, she and their neighbors are watching the TV where a small fragment of the comet is expected to hit Tampa, Florida, and just as it lands, the TV goes off and the house shakes and rattles violently. Moments later, the electricity comes back on and the emergency message John received at the store makes its way across their TV screen as the news announces that Tampa has been completely decimated. The neighbors quickly make their way back to their homes and John and Allison pack some bags in preparation for their departure. Told to make their way to Robins Air Force Base, they leave their home and must pass by some of their neighbors, who beg them to take their children with them. Allison demands that John take them but he knows they would be turned away at the base because they are not a part of their family.
Once at the base, they check in and all three are given security clearance wristbands but Allison suddenly realizes that she forgot Nathan’s diabetic insulin back in the car. John tells her to wait while he runs back to get it but a military officer informs Allison that her son cannot get on the plane because of his pre-existing medical condition. Just as John returns, he gets separated from Allison and Nathan when crowds of people breach the perimeter, inadvertently causing a fuel spill which causes a massive series of explosions to the waiting planes set to take off for an undisclosed destination. John makes his way back to their SUV and finds a note from Allison stating that she is heading to her father’s place in Lexington, Kentucky. On the road, a couple, Ralph and Judy Vento (David Denman and Hope Davis), picks up Allison and Nathan and offers to take them as close to Kentucky as possible but when the driver notices Allison’s wristband, he inquires about it. She tells him that they were denied access because of his diabetes. Shortly thereafter, he stops the car, pulls Allison out, tears her wristband off, and leaves her stranded on the side of the road. He tells Nathan that everything is going to be okay and that he is to pretend to be their son when they try to board a military plane at an approaching FEMA camp with hopes of guaranteeing their safety.
John, meanwhile, manages to hitch a ride in the back of a truck with other survivors that are heading to Canada with plans of hopping out in Kentucky. Seated next to a young man named Colin (Andrew Bachelor), he tells John that the undisclosed destination where the military is flying refugees is Greenland. He also tells him that regular pilots are flying out of Canada and taking as many people with them as possible to Greenland and that he is more than welcome to join them. John states that he has to find his family first. When another man notices John’s wristband, he demands that he give it to him but John declines, and a fight breaks out, causing the truck to crash. In the ensuing chaos, Colin dies from injuries sustained in the crash and John ends up defending himself against the man who wants his wristband by killing him. Allison is picked up by a family who offers to take her to the FEMA camp nearby and there, she is finally reunited with Nathan, who told the military officers that he had been kidnapped from his mother. John breaks into an abandoned house and with the TV still on, learns that the biggest fragment of the comet is expected to hit Europe the next day and that its impact will be an extinction-level event. He takes the car and heads for Kentucky while Allison and Nathan are given a lift to Kentucky aboard a military bus. Eventually, the family is reunited at her father Dale’s (Scott Glenn) place.
While there, everyone is trying to come to terms with the fact that this will be their last day on earth but John informs them about the pilots flying out of Canada for Greenland and if they leave immediately, they might stand a chance. Allison agrees but Dale insists on staying. As an old man, he is ready to die to be with his late wife but tells Allison that they should leave. Reluctantly, she agrees and they head out. Along the way, they encounter molten debris, small fireballs that rain down on them and cause more delays. After seeking refuge beneath an underpass, they finally get back on the road but with time running out, will they make it to Canada in time?
I think the marketing department at STX Films has done a great disservice in the way they promoted this film. The trailer gives the impression that it is yet another end-of-the-world, CGI-laden blockbuster but in reality, it is a personal drama that just happens to transpire during said event. Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin are excellent in their respective roles, not just as protective parents and spouses but also as two people going through a life-changing crisis, and this is before the comet is even introduced. As they are on the road to reconciliation, the approaching comet and its destructive power helps them to reconnect and become stronger than ever. Roger Dale Floyd, who plays their son Nathan, never comes across as precocious or insolent, character traits that seem to be a prerequisite for films of this ilk, instead, he is just a regular kid who has to deal with the possibility that there may not be a tomorrow, and he does so effortlessly. The drama is front and center, with the comet and its catastrophic annihilation merely the background but it also serves as the catalyst that keeps the story moving forward. They merge perfectly together, with director Ric Roman Waugh wisely choosing to keep the special effects to a minimum, allowing us to care more for Butler and his family so by the time we reach the finale, we actually give a damn about them.
The film showcases mankind at their worst but also their best, and it all feels authentic. When the couple ejects Allison from their car and pretends that Nathan is their son, they are doing so from a place of fear and despair, they don’t want to die and refuse to see their actions as inhumane, rather, self-preservation. When the man in the truck attacks John for his wristband, it is coming from the same place, someone who has no choice but to come to terms with his own mortality and doesn’t like what he sees. We observe passing references to the obligatory looting and killing that would accompany an event such as this but thankfully, the main focus is on John and his family and those who surround them throughout the story. We also witness the kindness of compassionate and sympathetic characters and this balances out the movie’s equilibrium, allowing us to see both the good and the bad in people, and that we are all capable of the same behavior. “Greenland” is yet another entry in the end-of-the-world genre but thanks to commendable performances by all involved, and deft direction, it rises above so many of its counterparts, thanks to its concentration on the human element, instead of buildings and entire cities being blown off the face of the earth.
Available On-Demand Friday, December 18th
